Have you ever anticipated a film adaption to your favorite book, only for it to misrepresent the story or fail miserably in capturing its essence? You’re not alone. A Redditor recently asked, “What is the most disappointing book-to-movie adaptation?” Redditors responded to deliver this list of terrible movies that were great books.
10. World War Z (2013)
Redditor qquila89 said, “Max Brooks liked the movie because it had so little to do with his book that he could enjoy it as its own thing. And he quoted Brooks, “I didn’t watch my characters and my story get mangled…So I was just watching somebody else’s zombie movie, which was fun and intense.”
Another user said, “Yeah, this is where I am it. I love the book, liked the movie, and consider them two different things. WWZ needs to be a mini-series.”
9. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013)
Another user, bchmermaid, nominated “The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones.” SageThistle agreed and added, “And the TV series is even worse. I enjoy the books, but they can’t seem to get them right. They’re paying to use the loosest summary of the books and the character names, and that’s it.
8. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (2016)
Kooky_Ad_5139 answered, “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. I will die mad about this! I don’t know why so many kids were suddenly teens or Olive and Emma switched abilities. I just wrote a whole thing raging on this!” Redditor knight_ofdoriath added, “I was really disappointed with that one. It’s such a weird, fun little book and the movie was so bland.”
7. A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
Aggressive_Neat7366 admitted, “I loved that book so much growing up, and I feel like the movie just severely missed the point. BitOBear stated, “Every version has been terrible in its own way. Otherworldliness, the core of A Wrinkle in Time, does not play well when you take it off the page.”
They continued, “Neither does inner struggle. Similarly, the latest Dune movie attempts did reasonably well, but they had to cut hundreds of pages of internal thought and intention. Some things are best left on the page and in the reader’s visualization.”
6. The Golden Compass (2007)
ImportantTrain3651 stated, “The Golden Compass. Atrocious adaptation, but the series His Dark Materials is fantastic. ProbablyASithLord added, “The movie suffered from not wanting to say the enemy was God and the church. I hadn’t read the books and left the film without understanding who the bad guys were and what the protagonists were fighting.”
5. The Hobbit Trilogy (2012, 2013, and 2014)
JustAnotherAviatrix nominated, “The Hobbit Trilogy. I’ve grown to like some parts, but it didn’t need to be stretched out like butter scraped over too much bread.”
Another user, stanfan114, replied, “It was a complete nightmare production (shooting it made Ian McKellen break down in tears), and by all rights, it should have been much, much worse than what we got.”
4. The Dark Tower (2017)
Quijanoth volunteered, “I’m here to lend my voice to this being the worst book to the movie adaptation of all time. Talk about totally dropping the ball. I still hope that somewhere down the road, Amazon Prime, HBO, or whoever will get the balls to make it an entire series and NOT try to rewrite the story or reinvent the characters. Dark Tower deserves the tightest possible hold on the source material.”
3. Artemis Fowl (2020)
Redditor Deadchap answered, “Artemis Fowl’s book was great, as was the entire series. But the movie was an abomination. So someone should take another go at it.” Another user, Hercarmstrong, confessed, “I haven’t even read the book, and I know that it’s the worst. It’s a crime against cinema.”
Sventhetidar admitted, “I waited 20 years for this adaptation only for it to be straight garbage. Eragon was bad, but Artemis Fowl was insulting.
2. Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters (2013)
Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters. Lightning Thief is bad, but Sea of Monsters defecates anything and everything good about the book. All of the characters are completely mangled beyond recognition, and the plot is completely butchered.”
They continued, “What they did to Tyson was unforgivable.” Another user admitted, “I read the book after seeing the movie, and the whole time I was like “why didn’t they make this!?!?!?”
1. Eragon (2006)
Deisma stated, “I believe the Eragon movie was so bad the author refused to let his other books be made into movies.” Ragnarok-On-Substack added, “They COULDN’T make any of the sequels based on how badly they messed up the story in the movie. They ruined so many subplots I’ve no idea where they could have gone with it after that.”
Designer_Safe584 informed, “He recently optioned it for a television series, though- so I have some hope because he sounds excited about it! The author is working with the show producer. So he should have a lot of say in it.”
Did Reddit get this right, or are there worse adaptions missing from this list? Check out these other books to movie adaptions to see if they are even worth your time.
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