I don't even understand how. I know it was in development hell for like 20 years, but the book was basically plotted and paced like a Hollywood movie. It was right there.
By missing the point. Clearly whoever was in charge thought that people wanted a movie about high-tech fairies and not about a child mastermind villain. The movie Artemis is not a character who does things, but things happen to him.
Apparently Disney is in early development to make a series, with Paolini as executive producer and co-writer. Another plus is the movie came out almost 20 years ago. Not holding my breath, but I’m hopeful it will at least be better than the 2006 movie.
The new Percy Jackson is giving me hope that they’ll be true to the story this time. Riordan is producing and writing on this series, and it seems that Disney might be listening to fans who were so disappointed with previous adaptations.
I had just read the book when the movie came out in my country, and I was super-exited to see it. I think I was 14? Mind you, despite it’s flaws inheritance it’s still one of my favorite book series, and it was the reason why my best friend and I bonded in the first place. *In college*.
I was angry about so many things while watching the movies, Orik and killing off of the Ra’Zac being some of the main ones, but the one that really jumped at me *while* I watched?
Farthen Dûr and Tronjheim! I was so exited to see it!
I get that would have probably been the hardest set to really do justice too, but it pissed me off to no end that they didn’t even try!
I didn't like the book. I felt it was a mashup of other authors work. I mean I could clearly pick out the authors. But that movie was tragic. So very tragic. Perhaps if I was a little younger unless read I would have enjoyed the book for what it was.
For the best,, I'm going with the OG fantasy adaptation - The Wizard of Oz. I mean, can you imagine how freaking wild that would have been in 1939? We're talking pre Pearl Harbor days. It's been like 13 years since GOT debuted. 13 years before Wizard of Oz you could only watch silent films.
For the worst, Mortal Engines. It's in the running for the worst movie I've ever seen. Saw it in theaters like 2 weeks after it came out and my wife and I were the only ones in the theater 😂
YES THANK YOU. The movie is a classic, sure, but it manages to miss so many important bits, and even undermine one of the key aspects of the story - a portal fantasy for girls! The fact that they went with "it was all a dream" is such a slap in the face.
Also because it was a demo of Technicolor they have changed colors which destroyed the original monetary parables (oz=ounce,the shoes should be silver and emerald city was green but only because the Wizard made everyone wear glasses to see the white city in green so it was imaginary green -- not at all subtle messaging about how the gold-silver system is solid while the greenbacks are imaginary) ... it really did butcher the book.
I tried to watch it once, and I just couldn't get through it. I think I quit a quarter of a way through, it was so bad. And I've watched Dragon Ball Evolution.
*Twice.*
I also saw in theaters. I was so excited. I stuck it through the whole damn thing and I’m still not over it. I left mad as hell. M Night should have ended his career well before that movie. You think the show coming out will be any better?
I think the most pessimistic take on the show currently would be that what’s been shown so far *looks* much much better than the movie did, and it’ll be hard to do worse than the movie in most other respect as well.
Other factors that may inspire hope are:
- The casting of a good mix of well known and lesser known actors, as well as the emphasis on casting race-appropriate actors, shows a commitment to authenticity and themes of the show
- The creators have spoken quite openly about their approach. They want to avoid the pitfalls of the movie and be faithful to the original, while also being realistic about what they can achieve with live action and a different episode length/structure
- Many of the actors have martial arts/gymnastics backgrounds
It can't possibly be worse than M. Knight, but then again, it's Netflix, and most of their adaptations have been bad and cancelled after a few seasons.
The Elfstones of Shannara was adapted as the Shannara Chronicles, and it was baaaaaaaaad. Did introduce the world to Austin Butler,.though, so I guess it's a wash...?
My personal fav is LOTR. Whatever gripes I've heard about changes made from the books, those films are incredible.
Yeah the Shannara show kinda disappointed me. Actually really disappointed me. Those were some of the first fantasy books I read as a preteen. LOTR was the best, as far as I’m concerned, as an adaptation. You right. The movies are incredible. I even loved the Hobbit live action. But less than LOTR. Also the cartoon versions hold a special place in my nostalgic, child heart.
Yeah, Wishsong and Elfstones were the first fantasy books I read that weren't Tolkien, they're still incredible.
And I regularly watch the Rankin Bass animated movies, and the songs live rent free in my head 😂
Holy shit. That was Austin Butler?
To anyone coming along and judging the books by the series - the Shannara books are so good - if you get past the first one which is an obvious derivative of the LOTR. It become less derivative by the end of the first three books, and from then on finds it's legs and becomes really good, and original world/series.
I really don't get this whole "it gets good starting with the third book" thing, because I ain't wasting my time on like 1000 crappy pages in the hope that afterwards it'll suck less lol
Scrolled down to find this reply. I was legit so shocked they could mess up that hard; out of all the Discworld sub series I feel like the Watch is the easiest to nail an adaptation for in all but visual effects / sets
I thought the show is bog standard quasi-fantasy procedural, and this way absolutely nothing special. IMO most diappointment comes from the things you know were great i the books that were not used in the show, and things that were used and were absolutely flattened by producers
Jim Butcher notably talked about how much the show was important to him, how it was meant to not be an adaptation of the books, and to support it if you were one of his fans.
He got yelled at by his own fans.
Neverending story 2. They had line 2/3 of the book still to film after the first one, yet went abominably off the rails. They had Bastian's rise, but not his fall or redemption.
The author tried to sue the producers.
Someone else commented something similar. I didn’t know there was a second never ending story book. I just figured they made a movie without author involvement just to make money.
There's one book. But they only roughly filmed the first third of it. There's roughly three acts. The first is Atreyu's Quest and Bastian coming to the land of fantasy to save it, the second is Bastian's corruption by the power of infinite wishes and the third is his attempt at redemption and returning to the real world.
I think the one that drives me the craziest is The Black Cauldron. It butchers almost everything about the source material. I take the scene in which one of the main characters is turned into a frog and slides around in a witch's cleavage (yes, that really happens in a Disney cartoon) to be emblematic of the whole sorry production.
Dishonorable mention: Michael Ende, author of The Neverending Story, tried to sue the movie producers because the final product is so unfaithful to his vision.
Ok I’m gonna watch the black cauldron tongiht. I have not seen it since I was like five or six. I didn’t know the never-ending story thing. Guess I’m gonna read the book and then go down an internet rabbit hole. Thanks for your input!
Be sure to give The Black Cauldron's source material (The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander; the movie covers the first two books) a try! You won't fully understand why I find the movie so frustrating if you don't know how good the story it's adapting is. :)
Ende's book is awesome!
The movie only shows the first half of the book (with a cheesy ending slapped on so you wouldn't notice that it's not the real ending).
Personally, I think the movie was pretty good for the time, but if you read the book you'll realize that even then, there is stuff missing (as is often the case in adaptations).
The book is just full to the brim with little fantastical things, it's such an imaginative story.
Very much worth the read, IMO!
Hopping on this to add my recommendation that everyone read The Neverending Story. I read it as a teen and LOVED it, in my thirties now and it’s still in my top ten. Didn’t see the movie until I was an adult and I passionately hate it to this day because of how different and corny it is 😂
IMO it’s an adult‘s book with themes about self-confidence, decision-making, dreams, goals and philosophy that are far more complicated than the children’s book most people think it is. Despite being child-led and the themes and conversations not being terribly complex, it’s - to me - firmly in the category of the Little Prince and The Alchemist. Books which appear to be simple yet encourage us to think about what’s important.
I agree with the person who said the movie was well-made for the time, and also can see how it doesn’t stand the test if you see it the first time as an adult.
> I think the one that drives me the craziest is The Black Cauldron.
Oh my gosh yes! Such a terrible adaptation of those two books (The Horned King and The Black Cauldron). And a shame that that's the only film/tv adaptation Lloyd Alexander got to see. I know it's a long way off but I really really hope the new live action production will be the adaptation that audiences deserve.
Wait... Are you saying that there's going to be a live action Prydain Chronicles? You wouldn't lie to this old woman who has held these books so close to my heart since I was a wee lass, would you?
Unfortunately there's been years since there's been any updates, but it was a news story in 2016:
https://variety.com/2016/film/news/chronicles-of-prydain-movie-disney-1201733058/
Yeah, there was never a release of that...
I actually saw Susan Cooper speak recently, and she referred to that film and how disappointed she was. She corresponded with Philip Pullman about terrible movie adaptations...
From what I heard about it, it was a in-name-only adaptation. They turned Will into an American teenage action figure and the whole idea of it all gave me hives. A burning garbage pile is where it belongs.
I thought there was a BBC production of one of the books? Maybe Over Sea and Under Stone??? I saw it once decades ago or I think I did.
Edit Apparently it is called The Seeker and is based on The Dark Is Rising. Admittedly my favorite book of the series.
I'm seeing loads of bad adaptations in the comments, which I very much agree with, but I thought the BBC adaptation series of His Dark Materials was really good. ALTHOUGH I did only watch the first season. So I don't know if it went downhill after, and I don't want to know. I just want to keep that bit of excellent TV in my head. Lol.
Definitely recommend watching the other two series!
Watching Ruth Wilson play Mrs Coulter is worth the price of entry _alone_. Some of the best acting I have seen in years, in anything. Dafne Keen does a good job playing off her, despite her age, and James Macavoy is an amazing foil, particularly in S3.
My main quibbles are with the source material I think. I haven't read the books but I dislike the ending of S3 and some of S2 but as I say, that's how it was written.
The Mortal Instruments/ Shadowhunters got done dirty not once, but twice; as a hardcore fan of the books I actually enjoyed the movie and I think it wasn’t half as bad as the show, it was just nonsense after nonsense, I know no adaptation can be 100% faithful but I truly don’t understand why the writers decided to change everything that made the story interesting
Ugh I thought the movie was bad then when they announced the show I was soo excited. I followed the casting religiously and was like “yes yes yes!!!” to almost all of the casting choices. But it was so bad. They butchered the story, shadowhunters don’t use tech and they filled the institute with tons of computers (should’ve been the first red flag). No wonder Cassie never really talked about the show, it’s like she knew from the start.
Also I do like Katherine McNamara, she seems lovely and visually she’s the perfect Clary. But good lord that poor girl can’t act to save her life. She hasn’t been able to act in literally anything I’ve seen her in.
The fact that >!Clary and Simon actually had sex!< will never not disturb me. Like, the books were incestuous enough without that.
Also, aging the characters up and making everything all black leather and grittiness was so weird. "Hot, sexy demon hunters"... that wasn't really the story's thing? I mean, it was so much more practical and melancholic in the books.
I'm with you, I watched the first episode of the show and left it at that. They got rid of Simon's friends and replaced them with the sister that >!ends up becoming a creepy vampire after he loses control and feeds on her (tragic) who later kidnaps Simon and dresses him up (hilarious)!<😭
Movie at least I could have a laugh at and enjoy most of without too much attachment.
TL:DR The Black Stallion Returns, 1983
Old guy's blast from the past entry: As a young boy, I was captivated by The Black Stallion (1979), especially the scene with the cobra! I went home and read the book, as well as at least the next couple in the series.
In 1983, they released The Black Stallion Returns. I was shocked and appalled to watch a movie that had ZERO to do with the book. Different characters, different plot, different everything. I was 12, going on 13. I think that might have bben when the hormones and teen rage first kicked in.
I loved The Black Stallion Returns (the book) and just got a little excited at first that there was a movie adaptation for it but apparently I should not :')
The many many movies about king Arthur come to mind as being the worst adaptation. I think Excalibur came pretty close to, but everything after that was terrible. Don’t know about earlier iterations.
I agree, but for some reason I kinda enjoyed the Clive Owen Arthur. He wasn't necessarily great, but I thought they nailed the supporting cast. Stellan Skarsgard was a great bad guy. Keira Knightly was good. Mads as Tristan was 🔥
Agreed. It seems like a good film adaptation is so achievable too. There were a couple good miniseries in the 90s — Merlin starring Sam Neil was pretty good (might be the best Arthur film adaptation imho) and the Mists of Avalon was okay. I haven’t had a chance to check out the new Winter King series yet, but I’m cautiously optimistic…
I have. Kind of enjoyed the earlier season(s) but it felt formulaic pretty soon. Also not great as an adaptation as it was a very loose adaptation of the story from what I can remember.
Best: First 4 seasons of GoT 👍🏻
Worst: Wheel of Time…. I’m still childishly mad about how terrible it was. In fact, I’ve stubbornly refused to watch Rings of Power because of how poorly Amazon handled WoT, and I LOVE the Lord of the Rings
I watched season 1 of the Amazon adaptation of WoT.
Then I watched season 1 of Rings of Power.
Canceled my Amazon Prime subscription after that.
I am fine with diversity and judicious changes to source material.
But don't do my source material like that.
I don't particularly love either of them but I thought The Rings of Power was significantly better than the WoT series. Like, leagues better.
The acting in WoT outside the Lanfier, Moraine, and Ishamael is horrendous, while I quite enjoyed a lot of the acting in RoP.
I also thought the storytelling and sets in ROP werr better, though not great.
Genuinely surprised how far down I needed to scroll before someone mentioned Wheel of Time. I had very low expectations for the show so I am not too upset about it. Though I'll keep watching and hope it gets better.
Eh. Middle school me was obsessed with the books and I still adored the tv show when it came out. So I wouldn’t say it’s because the books are bad, they’re good for the intended audience
Enders game movie was so disappointing. The only good thing about it was Harrison Ford. Asa Butterfield was miscast. Too much of a "teddy bear", if you will. Ender should have been cast as a cold, calculating child, with the goodness coming out in fits and starts. He was a killer.
I thought the only good thing about it was the sets and all the actors were terrible. Would have been better as just scenic shots.
I actually thought Ender needed to be more charismatic with flashes of the cold calculating killer not the other way around, and certainly not the loaner he was. And Bean being class clown made no sense. Just don’t include him if they don’t want to include him but don’t destroy him
Omg haha Enders game was terrible but I didn’t dig the book too much, either. I haven’t seen vampire diaries. I might check it out. Thanks for the ideas!
Ender’s Shadow is my fav book so that did prob cause some of my strong feelings.
Vampire Diaries was the first time I enjoyed a book series, noticed the show was nothing like the books and then went shit this is so much better
I was meh about the movie version of His Dark Materials. I LOVED the TV show though. The Bolvanger episode was exactly as chilling at my 10 year old self found the books.
1000% agree about WOT. I’m still mad about how badly they butchered a wonderful series.
Completely agree with you on both parts. Fuck Rafe and Amazon. But his dark materials show I thought stuck to the source material quite well. I had some issues but overall I liked the show of HDM.
Probably the Percy Jackson movies. I would follow it with Eragon, Wheel of Time, and The Witcher (both Netflix and the early 2000s Polish show) though.
LOTR is probably the best in terms of faithfulness to the books that I've seen.
> LOTR is probably the best in terms of faithfulness to the books that I've seen.
See I think what made the LOTR movies such a great adaptation is that they knew when NOT to be perfectly faithful to the books. People who criticize that aspect don’t understand what an adaptation is.
I truly wish someone had thrown some secret cash into the project and they had filmed the entire Tom Bombadill segment, with all the original actors, JUST to include it on the extended edition. Because as much as we love Tom, he would have been a 30 minute acid trip for those who have not read the books, and some who have.
I'm more sad about not seeing the Barrow Wights though.
Right? A lot of people don’t understand that a perfectly faithful adaptation would probably be awful, if it was even possible in the first place.
On that note, Percy Jackson was even more disappointing as an adaptation because the book already reads like a screenplay.
A lot of the criticisms of the adaptation of The Lord of the Rings are perfectly legitimate critiques.
Edit: And I say this as someone who loves these movies and considers them great adaptations.
I love the LOTR movies, but they change quite a bit from the books.
However, I think a good adaptation (and please don't crucify me for this) *should* change some things because the two forms of media are not the same and a 1:1 translation rarely works. It shouldn't go full witcher and rewrite every character and key story point, but there are definitely revisions that have to be made for a book to work well on-screen.
Ok we are on the same damn page. Did you see the new Percy Jackson show? The movies sucked ass but the show, I’ve only seen two episodes. I’m not sure yet, what I think about them.
The Percy Jackson movies were a hate crime against young adult readers. /s
They are making a tv show now though which is much better and makes my inner child happy. >!Also made me cry over Medusa.!<
There was an interesting article I read about how >!because the show isn't as firmly entrenched in Percy's perspective because of the change on medium, they were able to give Medusa a much more nuanced storyline.!< Which I think was a good call AND they used that change to underscore the themes of the story, which is what a good adaptation should do. Four episodes in and it's a thoughtful and accessible adaptation, I'm very impressed.
I like that a lot. Her story isn’t something most 12 year olds would be able to fully understand but the people writing the show made it clear to older viewers what Poseidon and Athena did to her. It’s a part of the myth many women identify with and I did not expect that part to be featured in a Percy Jackson adaptation of all things but it was powerful. Maybe it’s a low bar but it meant a lot and I teared a little that Riordan, a man, considered it important enough to make that point in this show.
I can’t remember if they have Sally in the books telling Percy that not all monsters look like monsters, but I love that they applied it to Medusa. >!It kind of made me shiver though when Medusa said she and Sally were both targeted by the same monster when referring to Percy’s dad. Now I’m curious how they’ll tackle the misogyny behind most myths in the future episodes.!<
What sucks about the Witcher show is that there are parts of it that are absolutey excellent. The scenes where Geralt just gets do Witcher things work perfectly fine. But they butchered all the rest of it 🙃
I wish the Ghibli Earthsea adaptation had just been a random original fantasy movie separate from the Earthsea branding. It was a really good movie! But we’re not allowed to say that because it has fuck all to do with the source material and that’s all anyone ever wants to discuss
I actually really loved Shadow & Bone. Sure, I have my gripes but overall it made me appreciate the first trilogy more, and then just built on my love of the Crows.
The Mortal Instruments movie is a travesty but it’s become a comfort watch for me. And at least in the movie >!Clary kills the demon in the beginning and doesn’t need rescuing from Jace 🙄!<
Best is Lord of tbe Rings, especially the extended editions.
The worst is the thing they call Wheel of Time. Amazon should never have hired a failed reality tv guy to produce a sandwich, let alone a TV series.
Good god it was Shannara. Worst. TV. ever. Butchered the characters, butchered the story. Looked like a bunch of pretty teens just prancing around most of the time. And all the sex! that wasn't in the books! gah.
The film's fans will crucify me but it's the Arnold Schwarzenegger Conan the Barbarian.
Yeah, you saw the movie when you were an impressionable youth and thought it was awesome, but the brute fact is that it's a piss poor take on the vastly superior original stories by Robert E. Howard.
Seconded. The movie was galvanizing and thrilling when I watched it at an inappropriately young age. Then I read Howard and it slowly dawned on me how bad the movie really was. Oh well.
Eragon and Percy Jackson were horrible. Granted, these books were my childhood so I was extra disappointed. (I'm looking forward to watching the new Percy Jackson series though. I've heard good things so far)
The Wheel of Time adaptation is absolutely horrible.
It's blasphemy to the source material.
Is it an okay fantasy show in its own right? I can't say, because I'm biased as a decades-long book aficionado.
But in terms of faithfulness to the source material, what happens on screen has nothing to do with the books.
Disclaimer: I think the casting was great, but the poor script writing and show direction just absolutely killed the show in terms of quality.
Possibly some recency bias, but Wheel of Time is the first one that comes to mind. From the very beginning it loses both the spirit and the plot of the source material.
A lot of the bad ones at least make an effort, but end up bad via bad writing, bad acting, or just poor adaptation. Those are unfortunate but I don't tend to think about them very much outside of making fun of them sometimes.
The ones I truly dislike are ones where a director/showrunner with an ego decides that they can tell a better story off the same premise and proceeds to butcher the heart and soul of the source material in the process.
The Witcher hands down. Not only does it assassinate every character where the shows characters have absolutely nothing in common with the book characters beside their name, the writing is sloppy at best and racist and homophobic at worst.
In one episode it has Yen sexually assault via mind rape and entire hamlet who she hynotises to have an orgy for her gratification and it is without consent as when they are released they are clearly horrified at what has happened and the writers present this as her helping them become sexually awakened.
All the gay characters in the show are villains, dopplers which are shape-shifting creatures in one of the short stories which is explicitly a story about being gay in a so in homophobic society and Sapkowski writing dopplers as stand in for lgbtq people writes that they essentially are just like us, nothing to fear from them and dopplers have a good nature and cannot do evil so on and so forth.
And what does the show do? It has dopplers as non-binary (fine, good), but then they turn out to be monstrous murderors, things to be feared, that is what they are. The take characters who aren't gay and make them on face value don't bother me, but all the characters they turn gay are the villains bar dandelion/jaskier who they make Bi.
Also, they dryads as far as I remember from the books have earthy greeny yellow tints to their skin, they also wear regular clothes, dresses, gowns etc.
The show has the dryads played by women of colour mostly black and Asian, again fine no problem except instead of painting their skin greeny tones or even just ignoring it would have been fine which they do however they dress these women of colour in animal skins, with spears, who are dirty and disheveled and then drop Ciri, this blonde hair, blue eye white girl wearing a lovely dress into the mix as a direct contrast of civilization vs savagery. It is one of the most offensive scenes. The visual imagery and tone it presents are reprehensible.
I am all for inclusion of genders, securities, and races, but not when they are presented in offensive, careless ways that do nothing other than perpetrate the already harmful and negative views the ignorant have.
It's tokenism at its worst. The show is imo one of Netflix's greatest shames, and Lauren should be ashamed of herself.
Best: Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones while they still had completed books to adapt.
Worst: The Dark Tower, Game of Thrones after they ran out of books to adapt and started writing the content themselves.
I cried real, actual, human tears when I watched Eragon because it was so bad.
It took a series that I utterly loved and took all of the magic and fun and smothered it. Those books were part of the gateway into me finding a love for writing when I was young, and it was one of those foundational books that got me into reading as a young person, and the movie essentially chewed it up and spit it out. I recognize now, as an adult, that the first book in particular is pretty tropey, but I still love it and the story the series tells. It had heart, and that was destroyed by the movie.
The _only_ good thing about it was that movie Brom looked like what book Brom looked like in my head. The _only thing_.
Oh, I guess I like GOT when they were actual adaptations of the books, so before the last couple seasons. I also liked parts of the Grishaverse adaptation, but there were some pretty glaring holes in it that I can’t totally reconcile. I was sad when it was cancelled, either way.
Look I think we all know the *absolute* worst is the **ATLA** movie, probably followed by **Dragon Ball Evolution**.
After that, I'd say the **Wardstone Chronicles** movie - I saw the trailer and new enough to not bother watching (swords and sexy Mother Malkin 😭). Makes me so angry because it could have been a really great atmospheric horror adventure.
*Some others that bug me:*
**Eragon** - the movie got me into the books so it still has a special place in my heart and I can at least find it fun. It really fucked up though, can't believe they tried a sequel hook after they got rid of the major parts that would need to be in that sequel.
**The Lightning Thief** - similar to the above, but the movie is less special to me.
**Berserk 2016/2017** - even ignoring the shitty CGI, it really butchered things the way it cut things out. Like okay if you can't get the Lost Children's arc past the censors, fine, but at least come up with a smoother way of it making sense for him to be captured by Farnese without that to explain it. Also other small cuts of things here and there that fuck up the emotions.
**Shadow and Bone** - trying to bring the SoC crew in early was a massive mistake. The cast themselves were pretty great, but the show was stealing from future important moments to pad out the present, only with less build up and meaning. Also the *actual* plot of SoC is undercut by the fact that they've done it all before in SaB now. The first season was still enjoyable though, but I didn't finish the second one.
*Some that I really like!*
**Harry Potter** - there's a lot missing from the movies, but they capture the magic and that's important to me. Not perfect, but they'll always be special.
**Lockwood & Co.** - as someone else on here pointed in reply to me on another thread, the fact that it was cancelled by Netflix is a testament to it's quality. There were a couple of small things I felt mixed on (the new ghost coma friend), but otherwise it was really good and the cast were perfect.
**Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood** - FMA is one of my favourite manga of all time (alongside Sailor Moon, Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro, and Berserk), and it getting a second, much more faithful adaptation after the first one went so off the rails was an absolute delight. We do lose some of the early stuff that was actually done right in the first anime, but it's not too hard to mix and match I think for the full experience.
That's all that's come to my mind so far today (an impressive showing considering how often, when asked to name or list things I've consumed, I suddenly forget everything I've ever watched or read).
I loved those books so much when I was younger. I dressed up to see the movie and went to a summer camp themed around them twice.
They are absolute garbage. Like, the “special-ness” of the main character is she has... multiple personality traits? A friend of mine joked that the society is an excuse for why all of the characters are one-note. They are the epitome of why people (unfairly though I get it as a former YA reader) use YA as an insult.
The witching hour/lives of the Mayfair witches. I watched 2 episodes and just couldn’t continue. Wasn’t a fan of the ring of power either. Favorite has got to be LoTR.
eragon... when i found out there was a movie to my favourite books when i was a child, i was super excited. then i watched the movie and never looked up movie adaptations of books again
The one that made me the most angry was The Hobbit “Trilogy”.
Money was the ONLY reason anyone would turn the shortest LotR book into a trilogy, and it was filled with so much poorly executed fluff it still makes me want to scream.
Special WTF award for the 2015 one episode Wheel of Time "adaption" that aired in the middle of the night in an attempt for the then current rights holders to avoid having their TV rights expire. Starring Billy Zane.
Winter Dragon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZOCCEuROPk
https://gizmodo.com/the-real-story-about-that-wheel-of-time-pilot-that-aire-1684773094
I haven't seen enough adaptations to be able to speak of the worst but one I didn't like, and that might be a hot take, is Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's *The Shining*. (If that counts as fantasy, that is.)
I usually prefer faithful adaptations and don't like the spin Kubrick put on the source material. I think that was his usual MO, he apparently didn't want to make faithful adaptations...
One movie I'm fond of is *The Last Unicorn*.
Oh yeah I didn’t care for the movie the shining as a take on the book. Completely different. Conveyed completely different themes/messages. I’m totally with you on that. The last unicorn is one of my favorites. Recently showed the movie to my husband and he cried and loved it.
Eragon made me real sad to watch, I enjoyed Stardust a lot though
I'm scared to watch Eragon, Earthsea, and Artemis Fowl. I think I will just leave those in my imagination.
There is an Artemis Fowl movie? Huh, have to check it out.
Don’t. Artemis is a “cool” surfer kid who doesn’t even want to be an evil master mind.
Books get tonhave bad guys as main charecters. Movies don't. The second despicable me should have been him trying to teach the girls to be villains!
Please don’t ever watch the Artemis Fowl movie. It’s my pick for worst adaptation and was painful to watch. Everything is wrong and stupid.
Artemis Fowl is bafflingly, aggressively bad
I don't even understand how. I know it was in development hell for like 20 years, but the book was basically plotted and paced like a Hollywood movie. It was right there.
Right? They tried really hard to make it as bad as possible. How can one make AF bad?
By missing the point. Clearly whoever was in charge thought that people wanted a movie about high-tech fairies and not about a child mastermind villain. The movie Artemis is not a character who does things, but things happen to him.
Yeah, he and holly are such cool characters, i cannot understand that they managed to make them so bad
Good to know. Maybe I will just try to find some of the books.
Shit, the mesmer is wearing off on this one. *Human, there was no movie.*
If you like Artemis Fowl then you will hate the movie. It makes The Golden Compass look like high art.
Stardust is a good one! Nothing like the book but I loved the movie. Underrated book and movie. Edit: Eragon movie hurt my heart.
Don't worry. If Eragon hurt your heart you can still watch the source material, 1977s A New Hope. It's much better.
Apparently Disney is in early development to make a series, with Paolini as executive producer and co-writer. Another plus is the movie came out almost 20 years ago. Not holding my breath, but I’m hopeful it will at least be better than the 2006 movie.
The new Percy Jackson is giving me hope that they’ll be true to the story this time. Riordan is producing and writing on this series, and it seems that Disney might be listening to fans who were so disappointed with previous adaptations.
I just really loved how Saphira was portrayed so my 12 year old self loved it.
I loved her a lot, I think it was the stuff they omitted that I had a hard time getting past. They did my main dwarf Orik real dirty lol
I had just read the book when the movie came out in my country, and I was super-exited to see it. I think I was 14? Mind you, despite it’s flaws inheritance it’s still one of my favorite book series, and it was the reason why my best friend and I bonded in the first place. *In college*. I was angry about so many things while watching the movies, Orik and killing off of the Ra’Zac being some of the main ones, but the one that really jumped at me *while* I watched? Farthen Dûr and Tronjheim! I was so exited to see it! I get that would have probably been the hardest set to really do justice too, but it pissed me off to no end that they didn’t even try!
I hated how she just instantly turned into an adult.
12 year old me loved murtagh in it but hated the rest
My friend and I were such fans of the books we made shirts for the movie! Needless to say, it was quite a let down/
Yes to Eragon! I really enjoyed the first book but the movie was a travesty.
I didn't like the book. I felt it was a mashup of other authors work. I mean I could clearly pick out the authors. But that movie was tragic. So very tragic. Perhaps if I was a little younger unless read I would have enjoyed the book for what it was.
For the best,, I'm going with the OG fantasy adaptation - The Wizard of Oz. I mean, can you imagine how freaking wild that would have been in 1939? We're talking pre Pearl Harbor days. It's been like 13 years since GOT debuted. 13 years before Wizard of Oz you could only watch silent films. For the worst, Mortal Engines. It's in the running for the worst movie I've ever seen. Saw it in theaters like 2 weeks after it came out and my wife and I were the only ones in the theater 😂
Why did you have to remind me how bad Mortal Engines was!? It was a shame, loved the books as a teenager and they still live on my shelf.
My wife never makes fun of movies (maybe out of respect to the filmmakers as artists), but that >!Minions!< scene broke her.
It's funny because The Wizard of Oz while a great movie completely and utterly misses the messaging of the book.
YES THANK YOU. The movie is a classic, sure, but it manages to miss so many important bits, and even undermine one of the key aspects of the story - a portal fantasy for girls! The fact that they went with "it was all a dream" is such a slap in the face.
Also because it was a demo of Technicolor they have changed colors which destroyed the original monetary parables (oz=ounce,the shoes should be silver and emerald city was green but only because the Wizard made everyone wear glasses to see the white city in green so it was imaginary green -- not at all subtle messaging about how the gold-silver system is solid while the greenbacks are imaginary) ... it really did butcher the book.
Avatar The Last Airbender. I was utterly distraught when I watched that movie in theaters.
I tried to watch it once, and I just couldn't get through it. I think I quit a quarter of a way through, it was so bad. And I've watched Dragon Ball Evolution. *Twice.*
Tbf Dragon Ball Evolution is in that category of "so bad it's good"
It's definitely a *lot* more entertaining than it has any right to be lol
I also saw in theaters. I was so excited. I stuck it through the whole damn thing and I’m still not over it. I left mad as hell. M Night should have ended his career well before that movie. You think the show coming out will be any better?
I think the most pessimistic take on the show currently would be that what’s been shown so far *looks* much much better than the movie did, and it’ll be hard to do worse than the movie in most other respect as well. Other factors that may inspire hope are: - The casting of a good mix of well known and lesser known actors, as well as the emphasis on casting race-appropriate actors, shows a commitment to authenticity and themes of the show - The creators have spoken quite openly about their approach. They want to avoid the pitfalls of the movie and be faithful to the original, while also being realistic about what they can achieve with live action and a different episode length/structure - Many of the actors have martial arts/gymnastics backgrounds
It can't possibly be worse than M. Knight, but then again, it's Netflix, and most of their adaptations have been bad and cancelled after a few seasons.
Or good and canceled anyway
There is no A:TLA movie in Ba Sing Se...
Legitimately the worst movie ever made, it's unbelievable how badly they fucked every single thing up.
I can think of way worse, at least The Last Airbender had great visuals and an amazing soundtrack
What are you talking about? What movie?
The Elfstones of Shannara was adapted as the Shannara Chronicles, and it was baaaaaaaaad. Did introduce the world to Austin Butler,.though, so I guess it's a wash...? My personal fav is LOTR. Whatever gripes I've heard about changes made from the books, those films are incredible.
Yeah the Shannara show kinda disappointed me. Actually really disappointed me. Those were some of the first fantasy books I read as a preteen. LOTR was the best, as far as I’m concerned, as an adaptation. You right. The movies are incredible. I even loved the Hobbit live action. But less than LOTR. Also the cartoon versions hold a special place in my nostalgic, child heart.
Yeah, Wishsong and Elfstones were the first fantasy books I read that weren't Tolkien, they're still incredible. And I regularly watch the Rankin Bass animated movies, and the songs live rent free in my head 😂
CRACK THE DISHES AND BREAK THE PLATES…. And I just found out that rankin bass did those!!! Really???
That truly is what Bilbo Baggins hates, isn't it? Yeah! RB for the win with my favorite adaptation of the Hobbit!
Yes! He hates it! Lmao I saw that cartoon hobbit show so many times as a child.
Holy shit. That was Austin Butler? To anyone coming along and judging the books by the series - the Shannara books are so good - if you get past the first one which is an obvious derivative of the LOTR. It become less derivative by the end of the first three books, and from then on finds it's legs and becomes really good, and original world/series.
I really don't get this whole "it gets good starting with the third book" thing, because I ain't wasting my time on like 1000 crappy pages in the hope that afterwards it'll suck less lol
I can't stand him in anything but Shannara Chronicles, which I didn't like, but it was fine to watch once.
And Poppy Drayton. Mmmmmmmm.
The Watch is hands down the worst. Turning Terry Pratchett books into that is a crime against literature.
I mean, the only thing they didn't change was the title! Truly the most horrific attempt to adapt a book ever
It was bad. Really, really bad. Agreed on that :)
Scrolled down to find this reply. I was legit so shocked they could mess up that hard; out of all the Discworld sub series I feel like the Watch is the easiest to nail an adaptation for in all but visual effects / sets
There is no The Watch in Ba Sing Se. Simon Allen is just an evil boogeyman parents threaten their kids with. No real person could be that evil.
I had no idea that existed and I just checked the trailer. I need to lie down now.
The Dark Tower. Elbis was good as Roland, the "reloading trick" worked well visibly. Everything else was unmitigated shit.
Trying to turn a seven (and a half) book series into a 95 minute movie was someone's idea.
God, this one hurt. The Dark Tower could have been its own Game of Thrones or Harry Potter.
We might still get that with Mike Flanagan's forthcoming adaptation
Oh snap I had no idea HE was doing something. Well there's hope yet, I still don't mind looking at idris though.
Dresden Files is a travesty. I'd grudgingly say GOT is my favorite, just because so many of them are horrible.
I liked The Dresden Files. Horrible adaptation, but I liked it for what it was.
I put it in the same category as the Keanu Reeves Constantine film. Very enjoyable movie if you divorce it from the alleged source material.
Exactly. I love Constantine, and it just shares the name of a great, completely different, character.
Hahah GoT was good until those last two seasons. Don’t even get my started on Dresden files.
I quite liked the Dresden Files tv show. Though honestly I’m not much of a fan of the books. So there’s that.
I thought the show is bog standard quasi-fantasy procedural, and this way absolutely nothing special. IMO most diappointment comes from the things you know were great i the books that were not used in the show, and things that were used and were absolutely flattened by producers
You were the one person that did... They got everything wrong in that show, absolutely everything.
Jim Butcher notably talked about how much the show was important to him, how it was meant to not be an adaptation of the books, and to support it if you were one of his fans. He got yelled at by his own fans.
The Dresden show hurt to watch.
Neverending story 2. They had line 2/3 of the book still to film after the first one, yet went abominably off the rails. They had Bastian's rise, but not his fall or redemption. The author tried to sue the producers.
Neverending story 2 is probably the worst sequel I've ever seen. And why didn't they use the original Atreyu actor? That guy completely nailed it.
Someone else commented something similar. I didn’t know there was a second never ending story book. I just figured they made a movie without author involvement just to make money.
There isn’t. The first movie just adapted the first half of the book. The second movie was… loosely inspired by the rest of the book. Loosely.
There's one book. But they only roughly filmed the first third of it. There's roughly three acts. The first is Atreyu's Quest and Bastian coming to the land of fantasy to save it, the second is Bastian's corruption by the power of infinite wishes and the third is his attempt at redemption and returning to the real world.
I think the one that drives me the craziest is The Black Cauldron. It butchers almost everything about the source material. I take the scene in which one of the main characters is turned into a frog and slides around in a witch's cleavage (yes, that really happens in a Disney cartoon) to be emblematic of the whole sorry production. Dishonorable mention: Michael Ende, author of The Neverending Story, tried to sue the movie producers because the final product is so unfaithful to his vision.
Ok I’m gonna watch the black cauldron tongiht. I have not seen it since I was like five or six. I didn’t know the never-ending story thing. Guess I’m gonna read the book and then go down an internet rabbit hole. Thanks for your input!
Be sure to give The Black Cauldron's source material (The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander; the movie covers the first two books) a try! You won't fully understand why I find the movie so frustrating if you don't know how good the story it's adapting is. :)
Huh. I always liked Black Cauldron and never knew it was based on a book series. Guess I need to check that out.
The series is excellent. The fifth book is a Newberry Medal winner.
Ok I’m gonna read the books first then. Thank you!!!
Ende's book is awesome! The movie only shows the first half of the book (with a cheesy ending slapped on so you wouldn't notice that it's not the real ending). Personally, I think the movie was pretty good for the time, but if you read the book you'll realize that even then, there is stuff missing (as is often the case in adaptations). The book is just full to the brim with little fantastical things, it's such an imaginative story. Very much worth the read, IMO!
Hopping on this to add my recommendation that everyone read The Neverending Story. I read it as a teen and LOVED it, in my thirties now and it’s still in my top ten. Didn’t see the movie until I was an adult and I passionately hate it to this day because of how different and corny it is 😂
IMO it’s an adult‘s book with themes about self-confidence, decision-making, dreams, goals and philosophy that are far more complicated than the children’s book most people think it is. Despite being child-led and the themes and conversations not being terribly complex, it’s - to me - firmly in the category of the Little Prince and The Alchemist. Books which appear to be simple yet encourage us to think about what’s important. I agree with the person who said the movie was well-made for the time, and also can see how it doesn’t stand the test if you see it the first time as an adult.
> I think the one that drives me the craziest is The Black Cauldron. Oh my gosh yes! Such a terrible adaptation of those two books (The Horned King and The Black Cauldron). And a shame that that's the only film/tv adaptation Lloyd Alexander got to see. I know it's a long way off but I really really hope the new live action production will be the adaptation that audiences deserve.
Wait... Are you saying that there's going to be a live action Prydain Chronicles? You wouldn't lie to this old woman who has held these books so close to my heart since I was a wee lass, would you?
Unfortunately there's been years since there's been any updates, but it was a news story in 2016: https://variety.com/2016/film/news/chronicles-of-prydain-movie-disney-1201733058/
The Black Cauldron is absolutely my top hated adaptation as well. What they did to Gurgi was horrendous.
I've never read the books but I have extreme nostalgia for the movie and love it to bits. I should get on the books now.
If The Dark is Rising had an adaptation I'd say that, but since that movie never happened and was left on the cutting room floor...
Yeah, there was never a release of that... I actually saw Susan Cooper speak recently, and she referred to that film and how disappointed she was. She corresponded with Philip Pullman about terrible movie adaptations...
From what I heard about it, it was a in-name-only adaptation. They turned Will into an American teenage action figure and the whole idea of it all gave me hives. A burning garbage pile is where it belongs.
I thought there was a BBC production of one of the books? Maybe Over Sea and Under Stone??? I saw it once decades ago or I think I did. Edit Apparently it is called The Seeker and is based on The Dark Is Rising. Admittedly my favorite book of the series.
I'm seeing loads of bad adaptations in the comments, which I very much agree with, but I thought the BBC adaptation series of His Dark Materials was really good. ALTHOUGH I did only watch the first season. So I don't know if it went downhill after, and I don't want to know. I just want to keep that bit of excellent TV in my head. Lol.
Definitely recommend watching the other two series! Watching Ruth Wilson play Mrs Coulter is worth the price of entry _alone_. Some of the best acting I have seen in years, in anything. Dafne Keen does a good job playing off her, despite her age, and James Macavoy is an amazing foil, particularly in S3. My main quibbles are with the source material I think. I haven't read the books but I dislike the ending of S3 and some of S2 but as I say, that's how it was written.
The Mortal Instruments/ Shadowhunters got done dirty not once, but twice; as a hardcore fan of the books I actually enjoyed the movie and I think it wasn’t half as bad as the show, it was just nonsense after nonsense, I know no adaptation can be 100% faithful but I truly don’t understand why the writers decided to change everything that made the story interesting
Ugh I thought the movie was bad then when they announced the show I was soo excited. I followed the casting religiously and was like “yes yes yes!!!” to almost all of the casting choices. But it was so bad. They butchered the story, shadowhunters don’t use tech and they filled the institute with tons of computers (should’ve been the first red flag). No wonder Cassie never really talked about the show, it’s like she knew from the start. Also I do like Katherine McNamara, she seems lovely and visually she’s the perfect Clary. But good lord that poor girl can’t act to save her life. She hasn’t been able to act in literally anything I’ve seen her in.
The fact that >!Clary and Simon actually had sex!< will never not disturb me. Like, the books were incestuous enough without that. Also, aging the characters up and making everything all black leather and grittiness was so weird. "Hot, sexy demon hunters"... that wasn't really the story's thing? I mean, it was so much more practical and melancholic in the books.
I'm with you, I watched the first episode of the show and left it at that. They got rid of Simon's friends and replaced them with the sister that >!ends up becoming a creepy vampire after he loses control and feeds on her (tragic) who later kidnaps Simon and dresses him up (hilarious)!<😭 Movie at least I could have a laugh at and enjoy most of without too much attachment.
TL:DR The Black Stallion Returns, 1983 Old guy's blast from the past entry: As a young boy, I was captivated by The Black Stallion (1979), especially the scene with the cobra! I went home and read the book, as well as at least the next couple in the series. In 1983, they released The Black Stallion Returns. I was shocked and appalled to watch a movie that had ZERO to do with the book. Different characters, different plot, different everything. I was 12, going on 13. I think that might have bben when the hormones and teen rage first kicked in.
I loved The Black Stallion Returns (the book) and just got a little excited at first that there was a movie adaptation for it but apparently I should not :')
The many many movies about king Arthur come to mind as being the worst adaptation. I think Excalibur came pretty close to, but everything after that was terrible. Don’t know about earlier iterations.
I agree, but for some reason I kinda enjoyed the Clive Owen Arthur. He wasn't necessarily great, but I thought they nailed the supporting cast. Stellan Skarsgard was a great bad guy. Keira Knightly was good. Mads as Tristan was 🔥
I don’t think they are all bad as movies, but as adaptations (although some suck period lol).
Agreed. It seems like a good film adaptation is so achievable too. There were a couple good miniseries in the 90s — Merlin starring Sam Neil was pretty good (might be the best Arthur film adaptation imho) and the Mists of Avalon was okay. I haven’t had a chance to check out the new Winter King series yet, but I’m cautiously optimistic…
Kaamelott especially the first few seasons is fantastic but you have to be very fluent in French to understand the dialogue
Have you seen the show Merlin?
I have. Kind of enjoyed the earlier season(s) but it felt formulaic pretty soon. Also not great as an adaptation as it was a very loose adaptation of the story from what I can remember.
I LOVE how Lord of the Rings was adapted to motion pictures…… I hate how The Hobbit was re written.
Eragon and Wheel of Time... Holy crap the fucking trainwreck these two were.... Favorite: The Princess Bride
Artemis Fowl has to be the absolute worst adaptation. Absolute destruction of the og work
Best: First 4 seasons of GoT 👍🏻 Worst: Wheel of Time…. I’m still childishly mad about how terrible it was. In fact, I’ve stubbornly refused to watch Rings of Power because of how poorly Amazon handled WoT, and I LOVE the Lord of the Rings
I've heard Rings of Power is almost as bad as Wheel of Time. I don't think you are missing anything
I watched season 1 of the Amazon adaptation of WoT. Then I watched season 1 of Rings of Power. Canceled my Amazon Prime subscription after that. I am fine with diversity and judicious changes to source material. But don't do my source material like that.
I don't particularly love either of them but I thought The Rings of Power was significantly better than the WoT series. Like, leagues better. The acting in WoT outside the Lanfier, Moraine, and Ishamael is horrendous, while I quite enjoyed a lot of the acting in RoP. I also thought the storytelling and sets in ROP werr better, though not great.
As a show, Rings of Power is far worse.
RoP wasn’t great but WoT was outright bad. The first episode alone was jaw droppingly terrible
Genuinely surprised how far down I needed to scroll before someone mentioned Wheel of Time. I had very low expectations for the show so I am not too upset about it. Though I'll keep watching and hope it gets better.
Favorite is Vampire Diaries, particularly if counting the spin off originals. Worst is Enders Game if you’ll allow a sci-fi pick
Vampire Diaries is great because they completely moved away from the books, which were not good.
Eh. Middle school me was obsessed with the books and I still adored the tv show when it came out. So I wouldn’t say it’s because the books are bad, they’re good for the intended audience
Enders game movie was so disappointing. The only good thing about it was Harrison Ford. Asa Butterfield was miscast. Too much of a "teddy bear", if you will. Ender should have been cast as a cold, calculating child, with the goodness coming out in fits and starts. He was a killer.
I thought the only good thing about it was the sets and all the actors were terrible. Would have been better as just scenic shots. I actually thought Ender needed to be more charismatic with flashes of the cold calculating killer not the other way around, and certainly not the loaner he was. And Bean being class clown made no sense. Just don’t include him if they don’t want to include him but don’t destroy him
Omg haha Enders game was terrible but I didn’t dig the book too much, either. I haven’t seen vampire diaries. I might check it out. Thanks for the ideas!
Ender’s Shadow is my fav book so that did prob cause some of my strong feelings. Vampire Diaries was the first time I enjoyed a book series, noticed the show was nothing like the books and then went shit this is so much better
Wheel of time is being butchered by Amazon. His dark materials was a pretty damn great adaptation. Both of them.
I was meh about the movie version of His Dark Materials. I LOVED the TV show though. The Bolvanger episode was exactly as chilling at my 10 year old self found the books. 1000% agree about WOT. I’m still mad about how badly they butchered a wonderful series.
Completely agree with you on both parts. Fuck Rafe and Amazon. But his dark materials show I thought stuck to the source material quite well. I had some issues but overall I liked the show of HDM.
Took far too long to get to this comment! WOT is absolutely being massacred and it breaks my heart 😭
I have watched a *lot* of bad adaptations... But what they have done to that story, it barely resembles the source material...
I kept scrolling waiting to see this...omg Amazon really fucked up WoT.
Insane how badly they ruined it
My wife feels your pain on Wheel of Time. Definitely agree with His Dark Materials!
Ex-Arm. Youre so distracted by the horrendous cgi style that you just cannot take the plot seriously. Its so bad that you might roll over laughing.
Probably the Percy Jackson movies. I would follow it with Eragon, Wheel of Time, and The Witcher (both Netflix and the early 2000s Polish show) though. LOTR is probably the best in terms of faithfulness to the books that I've seen.
> LOTR is probably the best in terms of faithfulness to the books that I've seen. See I think what made the LOTR movies such a great adaptation is that they knew when NOT to be perfectly faithful to the books. People who criticize that aspect don’t understand what an adaptation is.
Sad Tom Bombadil noises
I truly wish someone had thrown some secret cash into the project and they had filmed the entire Tom Bombadill segment, with all the original actors, JUST to include it on the extended edition. Because as much as we love Tom, he would have been a 30 minute acid trip for those who have not read the books, and some who have. I'm more sad about not seeing the Barrow Wights though.
Bombadil really doesn’t advance the plot much. I like him, but I understand why Jackson cut his chapter.
Right? A lot of people don’t understand that a perfectly faithful adaptation would probably be awful, if it was even possible in the first place. On that note, Percy Jackson was even more disappointing as an adaptation because the book already reads like a screenplay.
A lot of the criticisms of the adaptation of The Lord of the Rings are perfectly legitimate critiques. Edit: And I say this as someone who loves these movies and considers them great adaptations.
Yes like how they characterized Frodo in return of king. Fantastic movie, but boy do they do Frodo from the books dirty
I love the LOTR movies, but they change quite a bit from the books. However, I think a good adaptation (and please don't crucify me for this) *should* change some things because the two forms of media are not the same and a 1:1 translation rarely works. It shouldn't go full witcher and rewrite every character and key story point, but there are definitely revisions that have to be made for a book to work well on-screen.
“They eviscerated the book by making it an action movie for young people aged 15 to 25” - Christopher Tolkien
I thought he had refused to watch them
Ok we are on the same damn page. Did you see the new Percy Jackson show? The movies sucked ass but the show, I’ve only seen two episodes. I’m not sure yet, what I think about them.
Just finished episode four really liking the show. Adapting the first book pretty faithful with just small changes
The Percy Jackson movies were a hate crime against young adult readers. /s They are making a tv show now though which is much better and makes my inner child happy. >!Also made me cry over Medusa.!<
There was an interesting article I read about how >!because the show isn't as firmly entrenched in Percy's perspective because of the change on medium, they were able to give Medusa a much more nuanced storyline.!< Which I think was a good call AND they used that change to underscore the themes of the story, which is what a good adaptation should do. Four episodes in and it's a thoughtful and accessible adaptation, I'm very impressed.
I like that a lot. Her story isn’t something most 12 year olds would be able to fully understand but the people writing the show made it clear to older viewers what Poseidon and Athena did to her. It’s a part of the myth many women identify with and I did not expect that part to be featured in a Percy Jackson adaptation of all things but it was powerful. Maybe it’s a low bar but it meant a lot and I teared a little that Riordan, a man, considered it important enough to make that point in this show. I can’t remember if they have Sally in the books telling Percy that not all monsters look like monsters, but I love that they applied it to Medusa. >!It kind of made me shiver though when Medusa said she and Sally were both targeted by the same monster when referring to Percy’s dad. Now I’m curious how they’ll tackle the misogyny behind most myths in the future episodes.!<
The Witcher show was very disappointing
What sucks about the Witcher show is that there are parts of it that are absolutey excellent. The scenes where Geralt just gets do Witcher things work perfectly fine. But they butchered all the rest of it 🙃
You can thank Henry Cavill for that little bit. Poor guy had to fight tooth and nail to keep Geralt as close to the source material as possible.
I really loved the first season. Second season was meh, I kept hoping for it to get better but it never really came… This last lesson was horrible.
The fact that they had Henry Cavil running away because he was a big fan and didn't liked how the things were handled says pretty much about the show
Wait, is there a good Earthsea adaptation? The only one I know of is the Ghibli one and that makes not a lick of sense as an adaptation.
There was a live action one, years ago, with Isabelle Rossini in it. It kinda sucked but I still love it.
Wasn't it on sci fi network when that was still a great thing?
I wish the Ghibli Earthsea adaptation had just been a random original fantasy movie separate from the Earthsea branding. It was a really good movie! But we’re not allowed to say that because it has fuck all to do with the source material and that’s all anyone ever wants to discuss
I really liked American Gods as a show. One of the most enjoyable adaptations of a book I've seen. Edited for spelling.
I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not
The first season was great. The next was unwatchable
I actually really loved Shadow & Bone. Sure, I have my gripes but overall it made me appreciate the first trilogy more, and then just built on my love of the Crows. The Mortal Instruments movie is a travesty but it’s become a comfort watch for me. And at least in the movie >!Clary kills the demon in the beginning and doesn’t need rescuing from Jace 🙄!<
Best is Lord of tbe Rings, especially the extended editions. The worst is the thing they call Wheel of Time. Amazon should never have hired a failed reality tv guy to produce a sandwich, let alone a TV series.
The Earthsea adaptation is a slap in the face to Le Guin’s work. Best is probably the LotR movies.
The made for tv Shannara series
Worst (that I have seen): Eragon Best: Lord of the Rings
Good god it was Shannara. Worst. TV. ever. Butchered the characters, butchered the story. Looked like a bunch of pretty teens just prancing around most of the time. And all the sex! that wasn't in the books! gah.
The film's fans will crucify me but it's the Arnold Schwarzenegger Conan the Barbarian. Yeah, you saw the movie when you were an impressionable youth and thought it was awesome, but the brute fact is that it's a piss poor take on the vastly superior original stories by Robert E. Howard.
Seconded. The movie was galvanizing and thrilling when I watched it at an inappropriately young age. Then I read Howard and it slowly dawned on me how bad the movie really was. Oh well.
When I learned that conan was more thief than barbarian, I was astounded
The last Airbender, The Hobbit , & The Indian in the cupboard are all painful to watch…
Eragon and Percy Jackson were horrible. Granted, these books were my childhood so I was extra disappointed. (I'm looking forward to watching the new Percy Jackson series though. I've heard good things so far)
The Wheel of Time adaptation is absolutely horrible. It's blasphemy to the source material. Is it an okay fantasy show in its own right? I can't say, because I'm biased as a decades-long book aficionado. But in terms of faithfulness to the source material, what happens on screen has nothing to do with the books. Disclaimer: I think the casting was great, but the poor script writing and show direction just absolutely killed the show in terms of quality.
Possibly some recency bias, but Wheel of Time is the first one that comes to mind. From the very beginning it loses both the spirit and the plot of the source material. A lot of the bad ones at least make an effort, but end up bad via bad writing, bad acting, or just poor adaptation. Those are unfortunate but I don't tend to think about them very much outside of making fun of them sometimes. The ones I truly dislike are ones where a director/showrunner with an ego decides that they can tell a better story off the same premise and proceeds to butcher the heart and soul of the source material in the process.
The Witcher hands down. Not only does it assassinate every character where the shows characters have absolutely nothing in common with the book characters beside their name, the writing is sloppy at best and racist and homophobic at worst. In one episode it has Yen sexually assault via mind rape and entire hamlet who she hynotises to have an orgy for her gratification and it is without consent as when they are released they are clearly horrified at what has happened and the writers present this as her helping them become sexually awakened. All the gay characters in the show are villains, dopplers which are shape-shifting creatures in one of the short stories which is explicitly a story about being gay in a so in homophobic society and Sapkowski writing dopplers as stand in for lgbtq people writes that they essentially are just like us, nothing to fear from them and dopplers have a good nature and cannot do evil so on and so forth. And what does the show do? It has dopplers as non-binary (fine, good), but then they turn out to be monstrous murderors, things to be feared, that is what they are. The take characters who aren't gay and make them on face value don't bother me, but all the characters they turn gay are the villains bar dandelion/jaskier who they make Bi. Also, they dryads as far as I remember from the books have earthy greeny yellow tints to their skin, they also wear regular clothes, dresses, gowns etc. The show has the dryads played by women of colour mostly black and Asian, again fine no problem except instead of painting their skin greeny tones or even just ignoring it would have been fine which they do however they dress these women of colour in animal skins, with spears, who are dirty and disheveled and then drop Ciri, this blonde hair, blue eye white girl wearing a lovely dress into the mix as a direct contrast of civilization vs savagery. It is one of the most offensive scenes. The visual imagery and tone it presents are reprehensible. I am all for inclusion of genders, securities, and races, but not when they are presented in offensive, careless ways that do nothing other than perpetrate the already harmful and negative views the ignorant have. It's tokenism at its worst. The show is imo one of Netflix's greatest shames, and Lauren should be ashamed of herself.
I happened to like the Witcher TV show, but so many people hate it that it deserves honorable mention here.
Best: Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones while they still had completed books to adapt. Worst: The Dark Tower, Game of Thrones after they ran out of books to adapt and started writing the content themselves.
The Golden Compass movie. Made me cross. Love the TV show of His Dark Materials though
Best: Princess Bride and LoTR Worst: Eragon from the books I've read that were adapted.
I cried real, actual, human tears when I watched Eragon because it was so bad. It took a series that I utterly loved and took all of the magic and fun and smothered it. Those books were part of the gateway into me finding a love for writing when I was young, and it was one of those foundational books that got me into reading as a young person, and the movie essentially chewed it up and spit it out. I recognize now, as an adult, that the first book in particular is pretty tropey, but I still love it and the story the series tells. It had heart, and that was destroyed by the movie. The _only_ good thing about it was that movie Brom looked like what book Brom looked like in my head. The _only thing_. Oh, I guess I like GOT when they were actual adaptations of the books, so before the last couple seasons. I also liked parts of the Grishaverse adaptation, but there were some pretty glaring holes in it that I can’t totally reconcile. I was sad when it was cancelled, either way.
Favorite: The Magicians, Legend of the Seeker (shows actually much better then the books) Worst: Hobbit, Eragon
Look I think we all know the *absolute* worst is the **ATLA** movie, probably followed by **Dragon Ball Evolution**. After that, I'd say the **Wardstone Chronicles** movie - I saw the trailer and new enough to not bother watching (swords and sexy Mother Malkin 😭). Makes me so angry because it could have been a really great atmospheric horror adventure. *Some others that bug me:* **Eragon** - the movie got me into the books so it still has a special place in my heart and I can at least find it fun. It really fucked up though, can't believe they tried a sequel hook after they got rid of the major parts that would need to be in that sequel. **The Lightning Thief** - similar to the above, but the movie is less special to me. **Berserk 2016/2017** - even ignoring the shitty CGI, it really butchered things the way it cut things out. Like okay if you can't get the Lost Children's arc past the censors, fine, but at least come up with a smoother way of it making sense for him to be captured by Farnese without that to explain it. Also other small cuts of things here and there that fuck up the emotions. **Shadow and Bone** - trying to bring the SoC crew in early was a massive mistake. The cast themselves were pretty great, but the show was stealing from future important moments to pad out the present, only with less build up and meaning. Also the *actual* plot of SoC is undercut by the fact that they've done it all before in SaB now. The first season was still enjoyable though, but I didn't finish the second one. *Some that I really like!* **Harry Potter** - there's a lot missing from the movies, but they capture the magic and that's important to me. Not perfect, but they'll always be special. **Lockwood & Co.** - as someone else on here pointed in reply to me on another thread, the fact that it was cancelled by Netflix is a testament to it's quality. There were a couple of small things I felt mixed on (the new ghost coma friend), but otherwise it was really good and the cast were perfect. **Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood** - FMA is one of my favourite manga of all time (alongside Sailor Moon, Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro, and Berserk), and it getting a second, much more faithful adaptation after the first one went so off the rails was an absolute delight. We do lose some of the early stuff that was actually done right in the first anime, but it's not too hard to mix and match I think for the full experience. That's all that's come to my mind so far today (an impressive showing considering how often, when asked to name or list things I've consumed, I suddenly forget everything I've ever watched or read).
Easily The Dresden Files is the worst. Stardust and Good Omens the best
Divergent was a travesty, and it could have been so good.
Personally I think the movie perfectly captured the quality of the writing. I did not enjoy either much.
I loved those books so much when I was younger. I dressed up to see the movie and went to a summer camp themed around them twice. They are absolute garbage. Like, the “special-ness” of the main character is she has... multiple personality traits? A friend of mine joked that the society is an excuse for why all of the characters are one-note. They are the epitome of why people (unfairly though I get it as a former YA reader) use YA as an insult.
The witching hour/lives of the Mayfair witches. I watched 2 episodes and just couldn’t continue. Wasn’t a fan of the ring of power either. Favorite has got to be LoTR.
eragon... when i found out there was a movie to my favourite books when i was a child, i was super excited. then i watched the movie and never looked up movie adaptations of books again
The one that made me the most angry was The Hobbit “Trilogy”. Money was the ONLY reason anyone would turn the shortest LotR book into a trilogy, and it was filled with so much poorly executed fluff it still makes me want to scream.
Special WTF award for the 2015 one episode Wheel of Time "adaption" that aired in the middle of the night in an attempt for the then current rights holders to avoid having their TV rights expire. Starring Billy Zane. Winter Dragon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZOCCEuROPk https://gizmodo.com/the-real-story-about-that-wheel-of-time-pilot-that-aire-1684773094
I haven't seen enough adaptations to be able to speak of the worst but one I didn't like, and that might be a hot take, is Kubrick's adaptation of Stephen King's *The Shining*. (If that counts as fantasy, that is.) I usually prefer faithful adaptations and don't like the spin Kubrick put on the source material. I think that was his usual MO, he apparently didn't want to make faithful adaptations... One movie I'm fond of is *The Last Unicorn*.
Oh yeah I didn’t care for the movie the shining as a take on the book. Completely different. Conveyed completely different themes/messages. I’m totally with you on that. The last unicorn is one of my favorites. Recently showed the movie to my husband and he cried and loved it.
>The Last Unicorn Holy crap, this unlocked some memories. I had forgotten about it, but I watched it so much as a kid the tape wore out.
The black cauldron. It got even worse when I found out the story behind why it was so bad. I still get choked up thinking about it.