this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2023

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Which books have the worst video adaptation? (lemm.ee)

submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/asklemmy

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For me it's definitely the Dark Tower, but the Golden Compas was also a huge letdown.

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[–] 7fb2adfb45bafcc01c80 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Battlefield Earth was my favorite book as a young teenager. Ignoring everything else about the author (which I didn't know at the time), I thought the book was brilliant (especially the first half). It touched my imagination in a way no other book had before, and I must have read it about a dozen times.

I seem to recall the book cover saying that a major motion picture was coming out soon, but I guess time is relative. For me it was about eighteen years (which was more than half my life at the time) before the movie actually came out, and that seemed like an eternity.

I wish I could say it was worth the wait. The movie was horrible -- it had bad acting, a bad script, and couldn't carry the book in only two hours.

It currently has a 3% tomatometer score at Rotten Tomatoes and a 2.5/10 at IMDB. The movie also won Worst Picture of the Decade at the 2010 Razzie Awards.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Put a list of Ursula Le Guin works on a wall and throw a dart at one of them. Don't know which one you threw a dart at? That's okay, because absolutely none of them have gotten good adaptations.

The only exception, extremely ironically given I'm saying this, is Tales of Earthsea. The first half is alright but I guess they lost their train of thought during the second act (their words not mine) and it became a Legend of Zelda story. Still not terrible though, I can't understand why people hate on it when the same people love Ponyo.

[–] morphballganon 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Tales From Earthsea is the 2nd worst Ghibli film after Ocean Waves (of the ones I've seen, which is more than half)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

What was that bad about it? Most of the movies don't even have plots.

[–] morphballganon 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

What Ghibli films don't have plots? Ponyo, Totoro, Arrietty, Poppy Hill and Marnie have plots. Whisper of the Heart? I don't remember the plot of that one.

Tales From Earthsea's problem was the predictability. The course of the story was formulaic. Ooh there's this evil wizard who must be defeated, big deal. Ghibli characters are usually more complex. Villains should have something noble or beautiful about them to get some of the viewer's sympathy. When the protagonist was imprisoned and then the friend came and saved him, it was just too predictable. The rescue could have been done artfully but it was not.

The villain of Castle in the Sky was similarly boring, but the colorful supporting cast made up for it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

By a plot, I mean a structural one. None of the ones you mentioned except for the last two had plots. The studio is famous for going on record saying they go out of their way to make their movies scriptless, instead preferring pure improv, though it kind of shows in how freeform and non-rule-based it feels. To be fair though, it does help to have read the book it was based on, you get the context of where exactly the movie begins to lose its identity (and appreciate it was trying to have one).

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

The Wrinkle in Time movie, think Oprah was in it. Haven't seen it, heard it's horrendous.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

American Gods

I am legend

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

The Firm

Misery

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

American Gods

The first season of the TV series is a banger, but the subsequent seasons suffer from a decline in quality. Also, the series finale is just so disappointing compared to the ending of Gaiman's novel.

[–] ook_the_librarian 3 points 11 months ago

That's sad. I liked the TV version of Good Omens better than the book, and I was hoping American Gods would be similarly good.

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[–] TheNeoStormZ 2 points 11 months ago

I don't know if it's the worst, but I am very disappointed with the movie adaptation of Mortal Engines. The series has such a rich world to explore and very good plot points that would have been amazing to see on the big screen.

The movie ruined any possibility to see a sequel or even a reboot in a very long time (similar to what happened with His Dark Materials), although the fandom now prefers that if there is another attempt at an adaptation it has to be a TV series and animated.

[–] Ragrets 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Are you referring to the Golden Compass movie or series? The movie was trash, but I thought the TV series they've been doing has been pretty good.

For me Ender's game was a massive disappointment. I also didn't like the hobbit trilogy. Huge fan of LOTR, but the hobbit movies just didn't do it for me.

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