Top Ten Tuesday : Worst Movie Adaptations

This past weekend I had the pleasure of seeing The Hunger Games and I was pleasantly surprised by how closely the film followed the book that I love so much. Since not too many film adaptations of books turn out as well as The Hunger Games, I give you my top ten worst movie adaptations.

10. Message in a Bottle

Story lines are changed, characters are played very one-dimensionally and this movie is an all-around bust. With the exception of my undying love for Paul Newman this movie was a severe disappointment in relation to the wonderful book it stems from.

9. Lolita (1962)

I adore this book and I also adore its 1997 film adaptation.Plenty of people enjoy Stanley Kubrick’s take and many would argue that since Nabokov helped write the screenplay, he liked it as well. It is my personal opinion that this movie does the book no justice and misses the mark completely.

8. The Scarlet Letter (1995)

I’ll steal a fitting line from one of my favorite movies Easy A, “To say this one is freely adapted is a bit of an understatement Govna!”And it’s true. To take a classic and ruin it like this is a tragedy.

7. My Sister’s Keeper

If you haven’t read the book then you might’ve liked the movie. If you did read the book then you probably wanted to throw your popcorn at the screen by the end. Changing endings is a bad idea Hollywood! Especially when the book has very loyal followers.

6. Something Borrowed

John Krasinski, thank you for slightly saving this movie.The weight of the story line never comes across in the film. I didn’t have the same sympathy I had for Rachel and Dex while reading the book. Darcy should be a brunette (just saying). Though minor plot points were changed (irritatingly so) this movie just didn’t do right by the book. I kind of hope they don’t make Something Blue.

5. Twelve

Maybe it’s pretty boy Chace Crawford or maybe it’s the fact that the entire film just seems like it’s trying too hard but I can’t say this is even a halfway decent adaptation. The book is raw and engaging and the movie is…not.

4. Watchmen

Once again I was told to read this by my comic-obsessed husband and was thrilled by it. The movie was undeniably gorgeous and used notonly amazing technology and effects but great actors as well. Unfortunately the film doesn’t nearly begin to cover the heady story and I was sorely disappointed by the changed ended.

3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas

You’ve got to be fricking kidding me with this movie. How a children’s book can be so horribly botched is baffling to me.

2. White Oleander

I read this book in high school and devoured it! It had richly depicted characters and a gripping plot following a young girl whose mother goes to prison for murder. The movie was packed with star power and a great up and coming actress but it fell so flat. Characters got merged and left out. The entire movie felt so surface compared to the book.

1. Twilight

We are all thinking it. Kristen Stewart can’t smile, can’t deliver a line without huffing and acts like a robot. I never once during the movie felt like Bella and Edward were in love. And I found it somewhat off-putting when the movie tried to force us to believe that these two awkward people were star-crossed lovers. There are a handful of scenes that seem close enough to what I imagined when I was reading but mostly I consider this movie a companion piece rather than an adaptation. It's sequels aren't much better. But seriously, flying from tree to tree? Spider monkey?! WTF.