Turning a beloved book series into the right movie is always complicated. It is difficult for filmmakers to get every little thing that sticks with the fans of an original novel. Occasionally changes are necessary to make a 2-hour movie out of all that material, but sometimes filmmakers just screw up. The characters get re-written, major plot points are skipped over or the original tone is lost. For fans, it can seem as though the magic that made the books so special fades away when they are brought to life on film.
Let’s take a look at 8 fantasy films that completely ruined their beloved book series.
Featured Image Credit: Ashutosh Sonwani /Pexels.com.
Eragon (2006)
Written by Christopher Paolini, the first book in The Inheritance Cycle, reveals the story of a young farm boy who discovers a dragon egg, hatches the dragon, and becomes the last remaining Dragon Rider on Earth.
When you watch the movie adaptation of this story, you miss a lot of key characters (like Solembum) and major events from the books – this led to it feeling like just one long sprint from start to finish, as opposed to an actual story. Those fans who loved the books were really disappointed with the content of the movie – The movie failed at theaters everywhere & the rest of the book series was never again put on film.
The Golden Compass (2007)
Based on Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, The Golden Compass follows Lyra, a young girl living in an alternate world where every human has a daemon – an animal representation of their soul. She discovers the incredibly deadly secret of Dust, a weird substance that connects other worlds and undermines the church’s authority.
However, the critique of organized religion – one of the more complex ideas presented in the book – was poorly presented in the movie. Plus, the movie did not serve the emotional complexity of its characters.
Like our content? Be sure to follow us.
The Hobbit Trilogy (2012-2014)
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit follows the journey of Bilbo Baggins—a mild-mannered hobbit who is recruited by a group of dwarves on an adventure. Bilbo Baggins and the 13 dwarves – led by Thorin Oakenshield – join up to retrieve a treasure guarded by the dragon “Smaug”.
Peter Jackson’s decision to turn this (300-page) book into a three-part epic movie – filled with new characters like Tauriel that are not found in the books – was not a successful one. The overuse of CGI (especially, in creating Smaug and the orc armies), and long scenes in the film made it look bloated, making the fans feel disappointed.
Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)
In Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson series, we meet a boy who learns that he is a demigod — son of Poseidon. The Lightning Thief unveils the story of young Percy who gets accused of stealing Zeus’ lightning bolt – hunted by mythical creatures bent on destroying him, he seeks to clear his name and stop the war between gods.
Watching the movie adaptation of this story, the fans argue that the movie makers have modified or omitted key points from the book, and most of it does not fit with the sort of characters they had in mind. The film was even criticized by the original author because it strayed so far from his story.
The Dark Tower (2017)
The Dark Tower is a series of books written by the famous author Stephen King, who explores its main character Roland and his journey to reach The Dark Tower – in order to try and save his world. This is an amalgam of fantasy, horror, and western genres that touches multiple worlds and quite a few books.
However, this movie attempted to cram what is a very long and intricate series into one film — in doing so it missed out on some important plot lines which left viewers confused. It failed to hit the scale and depth of the books, which is why long-time fans had little positive feedback.
The Seeker: The Dark is Rising (2007)
Inspired by Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising book series, this story follows young Will Stanton – who learns he is one of the “Old Ones,” a group of immortal warriors who become involved in the struggle to combat evil. The film reimagined and adapted many plot points of this book itself, but seemed to have lost that air of mystique and magic that made the book so special.
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013)
The recently concluded TV show Shadowhunters was based on bestselling author Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments series, which follows teenager Clary Fray — she comes to realize that her bloodline is from a bunch of humans with angelic heritage who kill demons. Clary learns her family is hiding an extraordinary past when they are beset by supernatural forces.
This film struggled with pacing, moving extremely quickly to hit every story beat and had awkward dialogue. Plus, crucial plot components in the story were changed. The film did not resonate with fans, causing all but one sequel to be canceled.
A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
In A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, Meg, her mad mathematically genius baby brother Charles Wallace, and their high school friend Calvin are traveling through space-time to save her dad from a sinister dark force. As they go on, they discover that love is a four-letter word, and so is fear. When this story was adapted into a movie, it looked great, but didn’t delve into any of the emotional levels you get to read about in the book at all; as for the spiritual slant, it completely missed that.
Disclaimer: This list is solely the author’s opinion based on research and publicly available information.
Like our content? Be sure to follow us.
