Brittany
We all have our pet peeves and some people really dislike when they see a terrible adaptation of a book into a movie. Some movies do a great job, or rather, the director, producer, writer, actors and everybody else involved. Some projects are made just to milk money and they tend to be horrible.
Following are some movies that were based on books, which should never have been made.
Dune 1984
David Lynch is a genius and the 1984 version of Dune is spectacular, but not for the right reasons. It has left its mark on movie history and is the only movie that the director himself is far from proud of. It has quite an interesting cast, from Sting to Francesca Annis and Sir Patrick Stewart himself. It is a shame that the cast was sort of wasted on a movie which could have, under different circumstances, have been a much better adaptation.
The Scarlet Letter – 1995
This is a classic from Nathaniel Hawthorne, but the 1995 movie would have had Hawthorne mouth wide open had he been alive at the time. It is much more of a throwaway romance movie, far from the actual novel, so far that it might have been in the next galaxy. The characters’ names were similar, but that is about it.
The Hobbit Trilogy 2012-2014
The Lord of the Rings was not only a success in terms of box office and number of Academy Awards, but was also successful in the eyes of the fans and critics. Fast forward ten years and the short, but amazing Hobbit, gets its own adaptation, to be turned into an adventure-action movie, with plenty of interesting scenes, but none of the camaraderie and chemistry seen in the LotR trilogy.
It was a huge success money-wise, but fans and critics tore it apart.
Cloud Atlas – 2012
Cloud Atlas was wonderfully received, yet it still does not do the book justice. The book is a collection of short stories which are interwoven to make a very interesting story altogether. There are a lot of conversations and thoughts there, not to mention ideas which are very difficult to portray in a single movie. A VERY good TV show might have done it, but this movie failed, while still being a good movie.
Troy – 2004
It is not only Troy, but all other Iliad movies which often fail to portray same sex relationships, not to mention all the intricacies of the Iliad. It often turns into a swords and spears battle, including lots of heterosexual relationships. Brad Pitt is awesome, but he alone cannot carry a movie, when everything else is collapsing.
There can be so many more movies on this list, which fail to do the books justice, or whichever form of writing they were in prior to being turned into a blockbuster. If you view some of these movies in a vacuum, most of them could be entertaining and interesting, but compared to the books, they do not deliver.