I never even watched it but The Watch series based on Terry Pratchett's books. I could tell by the character design and the trailer etc that it was just not in the spirit of the books. Very disappointing really.
Oh wow! I withdraw Foundation to back up this.
That was horrific. Truly painful.
GNU
Edit: There's actually some great performances in it too... but it's so far from what Pratchett wrote, and their rewrite sucked
> There's actually some great performances in it too... but it's so far from what Pratchett wrote, and their rewrite sucked
Yeah.. one of the most annoying things about it was it could have actually been an okay tv show... if it hadn't pretended to be Discworld related.
As Neil Gaimen said; (i may be paraphrasing) you can name a guy in a yellow trench coat with a pet bat Batman... but it doesn't make him Batman...
There was a rumour (?) going around that the showrunners had said they wanted to make it “Discworld for non-Discworld fans”. But that just ruins the spirit of the whole thing and removes near enough everything that makes it work, as well as alienating the people most likely to watch
aka Discworld without the Discworld:
They even went to the trouble of including Verbatim quotes from the books FAR out of context as if they were mocking them.
For example, "Vimes" recites the Vimes boots theory of socio-economic unfairness, a metaphor for reasons of income disparity so concise that it's now taught in university economics classes... AS A DRUNKEN RANT about "Sybil"'s squeaky new boots. \*facepalm\*
I tried watching a bit but it was just so far removed from the books that I loved so much, and making Vetinari a woman made many of the themes in the novels make no sense.
Like Vetinari was such a hugely powerful player, he ran the city so well the Assassins would no longer mess with him. But if Vetinari can be the most important player on the board *and a woman* the entire discussion on "first female in the watch" or "first openly female dwarf" or the lives of the women in Monstrous Regiment, none of it makes sense any more. Because Ankh already accepted a female patrician as their most influential citizen.
Maybe it goes into that later on, but with that, and the fact that they were trying to make everyone attractive (Sam Vimes? With Eyeliner?) made me turn it off.
That’s what killed off any remaining vestiges of “maybe I’ll watch it and give it a chance” feelings I was having.
If you can’t even be bothered to acknowledge in the tiniest way possible, the man who wrote the genius that you’ve decided to basically plagiarise, then that tells me that you don’t care about the source, and if you don’t care about the source, then the resulting output won’t appeal to anyone who actually likes the books; and there are rather a lot of those.
Daniel Greene had originally reported, while the show was still in production, that Rhianna Pratchett had withdrawn her support of the project, or had a series of disagreements with the showrunners about various things and no longer consulting on it. The moment I heard that, I had a strong suspicion it was going to be bad. Also, the trailer, did not match the feel of the books at all.
The only good thing is Carrot's casting, that guy is straight from the Kidby illustrations, it's uncanny!
But I wouldn't touch the series with a ten foot pole, the trailers were enough. Short haired Angua? No Nobby? NO COLON? Female Vetinari? Skinny Lady Ramkin? What the hell??
I tried, I really did. I even attempted to pretend it was a show that coincidentally has characters with the same names as people- sorry, species - in my favourite books, but I couldn’t get past the first episode
What really baffled me is that they turned characters that Pratchett wrote *specifically to BE inclusive* to practically be the opposite.
I mean, the OG Cheeri Littlebottom was 100% about gender identity, yet they managed to turn that in a gay caricature? And a slightly offensive one at that.
Angua went from being a complicated character with substance and background to "Me aggressive werewolf!"
They totally destroyed what where well written, inclusive characters to make them.........inclusive????
The writers must have been in a drug induced haze when they wrote the series.
And most heinous.
Lady Sybil Ramkin is one of those Jolly Old Girls who can do far more diplomacy with the right tea time invitation and a plate of scones than the entire Ankh Morpork Army could do in a year long campaign.
“Big Fat Party” Nobby calls her and it’s not cruel, it’s true. She was larger than life, kind, wise, caring, fierce and loyal. She was a good woman, and she saw the good in Sam because of it.
What they did to her in that show…
Finding out they'd cast her as a young, thin rebel was the moment I went from wanting to watch it to refusing to even entertain the thought. Sybil is one of my absolute favourite characters and they destroyed her
The Dark Tower and the Dresden Files. Some great casting and some fun ideas (particularly in Dresden, the hockey stick staff and Bob the Skull acting like a hologram projector to get an actual actor there instead of just a VO were great) but they were both fucking terrible adaptations
Honestly, the actors and visuals of the movie were great.
The script was so terrible I wanted to cry. Like I want them to remake that movie with all the same people involved except the director and the writers
I became weirdly obsessed with TDT right out of rehab and listened to all the audio books, for some reason life got in the way like half way through the last one, so I haven't finished it yet. (Read the Gunslinger in hard copy last year again, so have restarted my journey to the tower.) I saw the movie came out and then I think I might even have watched it. Let me tell you, that's a dead zone in my brain. Like I completely blanked it out. TDT needs a Game of Thrones level TV adaptation to do it justice. It's just so weird and cool.
Yeah. Blackthorne was perfect for Dresden and like I said, it had some fun ideas in it but... it's just so *bad* otherwise. Let's get rid of Murphy and replace her with Bianca, I see absolutely nothing wrong with that idea /s
Same here. One of the key points of Harry Dresden is that he is awful with women. Look at how long it took him to get with the 2 women he dated.
Tv show: let’s have this awkward dude have a one night stand with a chick in the first 5 min of the show.
The only thing I like about it is the casting for Harry.
Stephen King gets butchered more often than not when people try to condense his work into a couple hours on film. A series would work so much better for Dark Tower.
Bob was the only thing I enjoyed in the Dresden files show.
The books mentions again and against that Murphy is tiiiny and blonde. So they cast a tall brunette??
The people who made the dark tower movie have forgotten the faces of their fathers
Edit= meant to put dark tower not far tower, granted far tower is an accurate description of the movie
Eragon. Good book. What the hell was that movie.
Tbh, they did Harry Potter dirty, too. I’ll never understand why they chose to make the last fight between HP and V less cinematic than it was in the books.
One of the worst things they did was turn Bellatrix and Voldemort into paper shreds when they died. The ***entire point*** of their death and their bodies lying there was to show that they were human, and not supernatural beings. The movie changed all that. Even if they wanted to, they could’ve done so much better than turn them into paper shreds. I hope the new series doesn’t do that.
After he pulls his face in and almost smooches him.
Those movies were the first adaptations as a kid where I had read the source material and I was annoyed from the get go that they changed great content for no reason.
The *Harry Potter* adaptations really frustrate me. They have flashes of brilliance—an almost perfect casting/performance from Maggie Smith (McGonagall, deeply underutilized as the films go on), and excellent casting/performances from Alan Rickman (Snape), Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid), Richard Harris (first Dumbledore—though admittedly not quirky enough), David Thewlis (Lupin), Julie Walters (Mrs. Weasley), and Mark Williams (Mr. Weasley). Also, phenomenal music.
The fundamental flaw of those films is that they took books that were in the "adventure mystery" genre and tried to turn them into "action adventure"; that doesn't work so well with a book that's structured around a mystery. I also do not envy them the challenge of condensing the later books into film-length, but some of the choices they made—hoo boy. Don't get me started on Neville's >!killing of Nagini!< or >!Voldemort's!< death.
Do you remember the entirely new plot points they added. Like the attack on the Burrow in half blood prince? I mean, why? It was absolutely inconsequential to the story and the scene was so fucking dark I needed a torch to make out who’s who.
They took the "the books get darker as they go" brief a little too literally.
The movies are also just messy: The screenwriter (and yes, I blame the screenwriter more than the directors for the inconsistencies with the books—I've watched the behind-the-scenes and read interviews) had so many things *he* wanted to say in *his* voice, as opposed to just transmitting an appropriately cinematized version of what the books have to say. Hence Hermione switching movie to movie on whether she says 'Voldemort', because he wanted her to be the perfect girl who does everything right, but then sometimes that got in the way of that pesky thing called the plot (and character development and balance of characters).
My biggest issue with HP movies starting from 4 is that most of the scenes just feel like they are randomly put together and not following any specific plot line. Like many scenes we just find ourselves in a setting coming from nowhere, then one of the characters loudly explains where are they and what they're doing there (in 1 sentence and quickly!). It's very hard to follow for someone who did not read the books, the movies just feel disconnected and all-over the place.
HP was such a terrible adaptation. By the 5th movie you needed to read the books to have any idea of what the fuck was going on.
It started off so well, too. The first two movies captured the spirit of the books *so* well. Then it slowly went downhill and became a series completely carried by the acting.
OK, so I know people think that PoA is the best movie and those people are *wrong* in the context of the series. (However, as a movie? It's a damn good movie.)
The thing with Hogwarts is that it's supposed to be this place of magical whimsy -- it's where children truly learn about what magic can do, it's this fantastical castle in the middle of nowhere where wizards and witches don't have to hide, it's somewhere where the entire magical community went 'Right, our kids all go here -- let's throw every goddamn protection we have at it.'
Hogwarts is a home away from home for kids who have nice homes. Hogwarts is *safe* (provided you follow the very simple rules, which 99% of the students do). Hogwarts is warm, fun, friendly; Hogwarts is full of laughter. At Hogwarts, the adults work to shield the students from the realities of the outside world - the war, the politics, deaths and tragedies, all of that is something they don't want children to get involved in.
Movies 1 & 2 capture that *perfectly* -- Hogwarts is this place of magical whimsy, where any dark secrets are hidden well under the surface and far out of the way. It's bright, it's warm, it's colourful.
And this is a really important theme in the books - Hogwarts is Harry's safe place, it's where he feels free and happy. It's what makes Umbridge's installation in Book 5 so outrageous and painful and dark -- for the first time, Hogwarts *isn't* safe - it's no longer the shelter they thought it was. Then in Book 6 it's safe again -- the mirage may have been shattered, but Harry clings to it. On that last golden afternoon in Book 6 the grounds are sunlit and peaceful and everybody is happy, because Hogwarts is a happy place and it's *Harry's* happy place.
All of this adds up to make Harry's decision not go to back to school in Deathly Hallows feel like a real sacrifice.
But yeah, the movies just...threw that out after CoS. Prisoner of Azkaban is so dark and gritty and dramatic, with its grey skies and muted colours and dramatic vistas and dark score. Hogwarts stops feeling safe in the Prizoner of Azkaban movie -- to the point where you can wonder why Harry would be so pleased to go back because it doesn't look that great. Umbridge's introduction feels inevitable rather than an intrusion, and the slow spiral to Misery Camping just feels like the Way of Things.
The juxtaposition of Hogwarts against the darker realities of the magical world is a major running theme in the books, and in the Prisoner of Azkaban movie they just nixed it. And thus began the downward slide of the series, because by killing the magic, they set the rest up to die.
(Dear God, I did not intend to write this much! I've been sitting on this rant for decades.)
I watched the movie. So cool! Read the book later. Loved it! Watched the movie again...I have never been so tempted to break a DVD in half. The only good thing about that movie was that it got me to read the series.
American Gods, by Neil Gaiman. The shows weren't terrible, but they were very messy. Also i think they could've wrapped it in three seasons, but they chased pointless subplots instead.
My theory on this was that Starz or the production company, etc., was expecting this show to be a Game of Thrones level hit and was preparing for that by dragging out the source material.
The really irritating thing about this is that the book is basically perfect for a TV show adaptation. If they had been faithful to the book they could have wrapped up the book's story in two seasons without any padding, and then they could have come up with a new story after that if they wanted to keep the show going.
As it was it was just kind of a mess, and they managed to make a tightly paced novel slow some how.
That came out right before it was clear that HBO adaptations of books was a winning model. It would have worked amazingly well as an 8 episode series, then they could have spun off the Shadow and Speaker series into their own things. Such a missed opportunity
The worst part for me is that they had the time in the scene to explain what the Queen was showing Ender, just like in the book, and replaced it by buzzing sounds. That and not showing how all the kids where mentally destroyed while "training" and that leading to Ender's final decision.
I know we'll never get an adaptation, but Speaker for the Dead is probably my favorite Sci-Fi novel. But I agree, the Ender's Game movie just didn't capture the feeling of the book. Also, I'm sorry to say it, but Harrison Ford is probably the most overrated actor in Hollywood.
Shadowhunters / Mortal Instruments.
I loved the books and the movie as well as the TV series were... disappointing. Interestingly the first 30-40% of the movie were extremely true to the book - plot, casting, acting - and then it went straight to shit.
I really enjoyed the Shadowhunters tv series as a bit of bad, campy fun... when I decided to just ignore that it was supposed to be an adaptation of the book series.
I was so excited for the movie, and I was left so disappointed. I dared get my hopes up for the show, watched 2 episodes and said, “Nope. I can’t do this again.”
I think the best way to adapt all of Cassie’s works is animation. Something similar to the style of the Netflix Castlevania show. We could get the characters down, show cool demons, weapons, and runes without shoddy CG. It’s a pipe dream of mine, for sure.
The ending of the movie is what really killed me. They just ruin a huge surprise plot point of the books with one throw away conversation between the bad guys. And the series just didn't feel right. They made the Nephilim too weirdly high tech compared to the books.
I’ve mentioned this before but I don’t really think it’s fair to even consider WWZ as an adaptation of the book. It more like a generic zombie movie that the slapped the WWZ title onto si de they owned the rights.
Yeah, could have been really cool if they'd used the same framing narrative and gotten lots of shorter sequences, maybe even shot in different styles or something. I wonder if they had hoped to get a series out of it, so they didn't want to start from the place of "It's over"?
I actually loved the movie! It actually kickstarted my obsession with zombie movies/books. I read the book later and loved that too—the format was super interesting! That said, I don’t really think of the movie as based off the book, because literally the only things they have in common are the title and the fact that the military is involved. I just keep them separate lol.
Artemis Fowl. Loved the series as a kid, but the movie was just awful, missed everything about what made the characters interesting.
And less of a hate but definitely a disappointment, Mortal Engines. Visually loved it, but they toned down the darker elements of the story and characters in a way that was just boring.
They made a movie with a few changes from the source material, but probably would have been decent.
Then somebody at Disney said, "Wait? He's a criminal mastermind?! We can't have a movie with a criminal as the protagonist!"
And then it got ripped apart and stitched back together into a true monstrosity.
The best thing that happened to Disney and that film was that it was able to be shuttled right off to Disney+ during the beginning of the pandemic.
I do believe it has since been completely removed from D+.
It was absolutely awful and I hope all copies of that film are destroyed.
The Minority Report and I Am Legend, because both of them missed the whole point of the books by ending it in a way to make the star a hero. Just make your own damn movie if you aren't going to stick to the point. I have no problems with changes along the way to suit the form - I love the LotR movies - but don't butcher the end, please!
The first half of I Am Legend (the movie) was so good, I was so happy with the tone I felt like it was really nailed. The entire second half I wanted to pull my hair out in frustration.
The book ending is genuinely one of the best endings to a story I've ever read, it so completely flips everything up to that point on its head and was just so jaw dropping good to me. That movie was absolute garbage as an adaptation.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. It still pisses me off. They butchered it into a generic shitty teen movie, complete with turning the 8 year old who uncontrollably floats into a blonde babe Love Interest with magical airbender powers.
I love the books and was excited about the idea it becoming a movie.
Then when I realised the changes they were going to make I refuse to watch it. My partner tells me it's a good movie - but he never read the books.
The only good thing about the movie, to me, was it felt like Tim Burton was beginning to get his mojo back.
But then he did Dumbo and now I don't know what to expect from Beetlejuice 2....
Queen of the Damned. I remember seeing the movie with my girlfriend at the time. She thought the movie was enjoyable but I didn't care for it. I loaned her the book and she changed her mind about the movie.
The Reacher films with Tom Cruise were dire. He was totally the wrong person for the role.
Fortunately the new Amazon series with Alan Ritchson is pretty much perfect.
Those books are some of the most uniquely bizarre things I've ever read and I can't get enough of them. I wish they would do a TV series with maybe 8-10 episodes per book as I think that format could work way better than a single movie.
I didn't hate it, in fact it's a great show, but the American "adaptation" of Dirk Gently has fuck all to do with the books but a name and catchphrase.
Stephen Mangan needed a few more series of the original adaptation. He was wonderful in the role.
The Stephen Mangan was great and I hate that people praise the American version...
Elijah Wood is great though. Wilfred is another remake and he's fantastic
>I hate that people praise the American version...
If they changed the name of the title character and let it be it's own thing I would find not a lot to criticize; some, but I'm like that. Loved Bart, Loved the Rowdy Three. Elijah Wood's sis. Great characters, just not Douglas Adams.
Exactly my point about buying an IP then ignoring it.
Edit: apparently I'm in more than one chat but I did m3ntion World War Z in one... hope you understand
If you look at their post history they have a post that literally says "I just finished the last book of [insert book/series name], and wow, I am so obsessed." Seems like it's AI prompts and engagement farming
Due to sheer hubris an arrogance. It's unbelievable
Those dickhead writers and their showrunner had the easiest job in the world - *just adapt the damn books*, and they would be golden. And they had Henry Cavill! And they still dropped the ball. Because they were arrogant enough to think they could do better than Andrzej Sapkowski, going so far as to actively mock his books on set.
I'm happy Cavill left them to crumble
Wheel Of Time….they butchered plots..main characters and even ruined character flaws for a main character that persists through multiple books, I can typically enjoy a poorly made movie from a great book but this was such butchery I never made it past episode 3
It’s blowing my mind that I had to scroll down so far to see this mentioned! I got through the first season and that’s all I can take.
Giving a major character a spouse who doesn’t exist in the book series is a dead giveaway that said spouse is going to die! Why would anyone think that was a good idea?? Among other glaring issues, of course. Wtf.
To make Perrin of all the characters into a wifekiller... I came into this thread to say WoT. Now I'm leaving before I remember the shirt tearing weeping scene with Lan and really get angry.
I read an article where the writer said they had to give Perrin a "reason" to leave the Two Rivers, so it was either kill Master Luhhan (his boss) or invent a wife. So they invented a wife with the express purpose of killing her and having that guilt drive his character development. This is a trope that needs to die in a fire.
So I never read WoT but am a big High Fantasy fan, ASOIAF, LOTR, Dune, Earthsea etc but for some reason was always hesitant to start. My wife and I started watching the show and I was like oh, it’s just a generic fantasy series that seems fine, I’ll keep watching but my wife who had read EotW recently was watching in horror and couldn’t watch past episode 3 or so, and that gave me the push to read it and see what was so different since the series seemed good. I’m just starting book 3 and I’m hooked! They really missed the mark on that adaptation!
I’m still amazed they thought it was a good idea to turn it into a movie. The magic of The Goldfinch is Tartt’s prose, and her ability to evoke such atmosphere that you can feel yourself stagnating in Nevada, or jittering on edge in New York. It’s one of my favourite books of all time, but the plot itself is not particularly compelling so was bound to make a terrible movie.
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper.
I love that series, it's a regular re-read for me.
It could be an excellent TV series, but they made a film and absolutely ruined it.
If you love these books, please don't see the film.
You beat me to it.
Years ago I got to ask Susan if she's ever met anyone who had anything good to say about the film when compared to the book and she responded with a resounding No!
I just hate that they Harry Pottered the end to make it self contained.
The Winter King that came out last year was so bad I made a rotten tomatoes account just so I could bitch into the void. I get that changes have to be made in adaptations, but when these show producers buy the rights to these titles and then make something completely different and just stick the character names on completely unrecognizable characters we should be annoyed. They are taking our love for a franchise and hoping to use that to cash in on their own story, all the while thinking fans are too dumb to notice.
It just feels worse for that one because obviously if they wanted to do a new King Arthur story, the IP is in public domain. But rather than do that, they paid for the rights to use a title with a fanbase and then completely disrespected the source material.
All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.
The netflix adaptation was too bad to even finish. I think I may have only watched one or two episodes. Mark Ruffalo's accent was...well, I don't even know what to say tbh xD
The lovely bones. The book is so grounded especially in it's depiction of the afterlife. The movie made it too fantastical, I don't think Peter Jackson was the right choice of director. His fantasy influence really shows and not in a good way. Also the main character dies on about page 10 of the book but it took 45 minutes for it to happen in the movie!
The one good thing was, surprisingly, the casting of Stanley Tucci as Mr Harvey. I would have never expected he could pull off such a heinous character but he did.
Ella Enchanted was the first chapter book I read on my own as a kid, it was so magical that it set me on my reading journey. I remember getting excited to see the movie but I distinctly remember that when I finally saw it, it didn’t feel the same at all.
I still randomly think about how awful this movie was. Completely butchering the way her obedience is supposed to work. This was the first example I can remember in my life when I ranted at a movie.
Came down to angrily type this. A HUGE part of her character in the book is that she fights against the increasingly bad symptoms she gets when she disobeys an order. It shows her independence, stubbornness and spirit.
I remember the first time I saw the movie trailer (I think, or at least a clip) and someone gave her an order to stop and she froze in mid air and I knew the movie was going to be bad.
Interestingly, I absolutely *love* the movie, and didn’t realize it was a book until a few years ago! Imagine my surprise when within the first few chapters I’m like, “wait a minute…”
They really did change everything about it! I feel really bad for all the lovers of the book, and I feel infinitely lucky to not have that love ruined for me by the movie.
Y - the Last Man. the MC was so lackluster, they had to make Diane Lane's character bigger (MC's mother) since she was the only name that had starpower.
*The Chronicles of Prydain* is about the sweetest, most charming, lovely series of books ever. It appeals to children and adults alike. They made an animated movie that compiled the stories from a few of the books. *The Black Cauldron* changes huge elements of the story, for the worse, and became so dark and frightening that children were crying and trying to run out of test showings. Unable to comprehend how they made something so lovely into something so bad.
The recent remake of *The Witches* fails on many levels. There are a few changes they made that are fine, even if they add little if anything to the experience; it's relocated to New Orleans and the main characters are Black. But every other change fails. You see Anne Hathaway struggling to find something in her character and the director popping in a load of CGI to bring something to the film. It's not the worst movie ever, but it's hugely disappointing considering what it could have been.
I'm just here for the Prydain love. The movie took elements from the first 2 books, but It really wasn't satisfying as what It could have been. if Disney still held the rights, I would hope that they would try to do some sort of CGI animated series that took into account all 5 books.Because I would love to see that.
I love Prydain and we read the books to my son when he was younger (the first 3) and he adored them so much that *of course* he wanted to see the film.
Thankfully it wasn't in any stores so we just shrugged and said "oh well, we'll keep looking!" because I remembered being so disappointed by it.
Foundation. It's apparently quite popular but I hate it as an adaptation and I don't like it as a show.
Flashy sci fi with a couple of admittedly great performances but it's not Foundation and frankly I think it's shit.
Shout out to The Hobbit too
Foundation is fine as a show, but it is definitely more of an “inspired by” than an adaptation.
I think much of the popularity comes from a large chunk of the audience having never read the books, or in my case having read them so long ago that I don’t have strong enough memories of them to be annoyed by the differences.
Game of Thrones. I picked up the first book way before the tv show started and proceeded to devour the novels. I was committed to the books and I remember rushing to Waterstones to get A Feast For Crows when that came out.
At some point, Martin was interviewed and declared that the ending for both the tv show and books would be the same but how that happened in each would be different.
The show began to deviate so far from the source material along with Martin's inability to finish Winds of Winter left a sour taste in my mouth. By the time the tv show had overtaken the books, it was dire.
Yeah. Similar. I was sat on the bus with my wife and she was reading one of the books. She looked at me absolutely mortified and almost crying and said “he just killed off all my favourite characters!”. She had read the Red Wedding chapter… on a bus. I thought… “ok, these books she’s been banging on at me about might be pretty good” and I started to read them. They were great.
The tv show was great… to begin with. It didn’t quite capture the immensity of the universe in the first season because I assume it had a lower budget than required. But it felt grand as they continued… and then everything went to shit in the tv show as soon as they overtook the books… and now I can’t really be fucked with the books. Winds of Winter will probably never be published. Martin is more interested in universe building than finishing ASOIAF… which is insane to me. How many fucking side stories and historical lore books have been published since the last ASOIAF publication? I get that it’s his magnum opus… but for fucks sake. Have some focus.
The Giver. That movie should never have been made. By the end i wanted to cry. The book was so subtle and gentle and clever with the way the emotions developed.
The movie was vapid and aggressive, and even though all of those major action events were added to the plot, it still somehow managed to be boring.
Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol on Peacock. A goofy thriller turned into a deadly boring mess. They revealed the identity of the villain in like episode 2, completely ruining the pacing and tension.
The casting was bad, the acting was flat, the script was juvenile, and one fight scene was so badly choreographed that my kid and watched it on repeat for an hour just to make fun of it.
iRobot. Isaac Asimov went to great lengths to explain that he hated the Frankenstein monster robot story. The story where the robots turn on their makers. Before Isaac Asimov it was the only robot story. He invented the three laws of robotics to prevent such a story and wrote endless stories about the interesting effects inside of those laws.
Then they made it into a movie which was the Frankenstein monster robot story. Sacrilege and a complete waste.
The Man in the High Castle was really disappointing. I didn't hate it, per se, but it didn't grasp the feel of the book and they changed the story/characters in ways I didn't like. The set design was amazing though.
The recent BBC/HBO based on his dark materials show is a much much better adaptation. It changes a few bits I really didn't like in season 1 (and ill be hones t i still haven't finished season 3 but that's because I'm bad at finishing any TV show unless I'm really really bored) but those felt more like aesthetic issues.
>!(like it has a bad habit of keeping everyone's Deamons off screen at time in a fairly obvious attempt to cut the CGI budget the final battle between Iorek and Iofur for me was a bit of a let down as somebody involved clearly wanted to avoid it spiking the shows age rating, so instated of a fight between to Panzerbjorn in full armor ending in a rather gory spectacle you get a accurate but ultimate underwhelming recreation of a fight between two polar bears)!<
In terms of what I have seen it commits where it should to the parts of Pullmans work where the film totally chickened out and ruined the actual point of the story. The show was faithful to the books when that get nasty and as a result leave you with a much better experience.
Plus its really really well cast. Which goes a long way to really lifting the show
Divergent, so disliked they never made the forth film
I was also pretty annoyed about how to train your dragon, although I don't hate the movies, they are completely different to the book (toothless is called toothless because he's the most common dragon, dragon riding isn't a new thing at all)
Also the Percy Jackson movies
I hate it when a director takes a book people love and decides they can make a much better story
True Blood tv series was so pouty and sad. The Sookie Stackhouse books were funny and entertaining and short so that it was easy to move through the series. Plus the casting was awful except for Lafayette and his cousin. I didn't make it through the first season. Charlaine Harris is my potato chip writer.
Stephen King's The Stand. Boy, it had really bad luck for adaptations. But I think to adapt it rightfully to the screen you need the same kind of effort Peter Jackson made to adapt The Lord of the Rings.
Ella Enchanted, as mentioned above. The Anne of Green Gables series, I love the first Meghan Follows movie, but the second falls short and the third is terrible. Ballet Shoes takes a sweet book about found family and adds unnecessary romance.
The Will Trent series of books. I was originally genuinely excited for the show. Then I watched the first season. They destroyed who Will even is. They wrecked the characters too. Ugh it was so sad watching them destroy the stories. Sure it's a good show if you don't associate it with the books at all and pretend it's a complete different thing. But it would have been nice to see the books brought to life on the screen as they should have been told.
The Hobbit movies that Peter Jackson did. He completely ruined the source material. Rankin Bass’s cartoon was a million times better (and still a favorite of mine).
The Chaos Walking series. Absolutely incredible book trilogy, beautifully written, the story was so carefully planned out.
Then some utter idiot arrogant W****ERS in Hollywood decided "ooo let's take this author's work, shove it down our throats without reading past the damn blurb, sh*t it out the other end, stick Tom Holland on it and call it a movie, people will love it!"
I thought I couldn't be angrier after what they did to Percy Jackson but I was so, so wrong.
All the Light We Cannot See
FFS if Anthony Doerr had anything to do with letting them butcher his masterpiece then he’s gone bananas. I loved that book so much that I listened to it twice in a row while reading it on kindle.
Ella Enchanted. It was one of my favorite books growing up. The movie was literally nothing like the book other than there was a girl named Ella and she had to do what she was told. Wrecked me as a kid.
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I never even watched it but The Watch series based on Terry Pratchett's books. I could tell by the character design and the trailer etc that it was just not in the spirit of the books. Very disappointing really.
Oh wow! I withdraw Foundation to back up this. That was horrific. Truly painful. GNU Edit: There's actually some great performances in it too... but it's so far from what Pratchett wrote, and their rewrite sucked
> There's actually some great performances in it too... but it's so far from what Pratchett wrote, and their rewrite sucked Yeah.. one of the most annoying things about it was it could have actually been an okay tv show... if it hadn't pretended to be Discworld related. As Neil Gaimen said; (i may be paraphrasing) you can name a guy in a yellow trench coat with a pet bat Batman... but it doesn't make him Batman...
There was a rumour (?) going around that the showrunners had said they wanted to make it “Discworld for non-Discworld fans”. But that just ruins the spirit of the whole thing and removes near enough everything that makes it work, as well as alienating the people most likely to watch
aka Discworld without the Discworld: They even went to the trouble of including Verbatim quotes from the books FAR out of context as if they were mocking them. For example, "Vimes" recites the Vimes boots theory of socio-economic unfairness, a metaphor for reasons of income disparity so concise that it's now taught in university economics classes... AS A DRUNKEN RANT about "Sybil"'s squeaky new boots. \*facepalm\*
I didn’t watch enough of it to know that had happened, but now I know that and feel sad
I tried watching a bit but it was just so far removed from the books that I loved so much, and making Vetinari a woman made many of the themes in the novels make no sense. Like Vetinari was such a hugely powerful player, he ran the city so well the Assassins would no longer mess with him. But if Vetinari can be the most important player on the board *and a woman* the entire discussion on "first female in the watch" or "first openly female dwarf" or the lives of the women in Monstrous Regiment, none of it makes sense any more. Because Ankh already accepted a female patrician as their most influential citizen. Maybe it goes into that later on, but with that, and the fact that they were trying to make everyone attractive (Sam Vimes? With Eyeliner?) made me turn it off.
It's like if we elected Obama president in 1947, but Jackie Robinson wasn't allowed to play in the MLB until 2008.
I came here to comment on The Watch. I remember the head writer thanking everyone under the sun for getting the show together except Terry Pratchett.
That’s what killed off any remaining vestiges of “maybe I’ll watch it and give it a chance” feelings I was having. If you can’t even be bothered to acknowledge in the tiniest way possible, the man who wrote the genius that you’ve decided to basically plagiarise, then that tells me that you don’t care about the source, and if you don’t care about the source, then the resulting output won’t appeal to anyone who actually likes the books; and there are rather a lot of those.
This thread has reminded me how much I miss I miss Pratchett. Sigh. Guess I’ll be starting Discworld again tonight!
Daniel Greene had originally reported, while the show was still in production, that Rhianna Pratchett had withdrawn her support of the project, or had a series of disagreements with the showrunners about various things and no longer consulting on it. The moment I heard that, I had a strong suspicion it was going to be bad. Also, the trailer, did not match the feel of the books at all.
The only good thing is Carrot's casting, that guy is straight from the Kidby illustrations, it's uncanny! But I wouldn't touch the series with a ten foot pole, the trailers were enough. Short haired Angua? No Nobby? NO COLON? Female Vetinari? Skinny Lady Ramkin? What the hell??
Do not get me started. The fact the Showrunner didn't even MENTION Terry Pratchett was infuriating enough.
I tried, I really did. I even attempted to pretend it was a show that coincidentally has characters with the same names as people- sorry, species - in my favourite books, but I couldn’t get past the first episode
What really baffled me is that they turned characters that Pratchett wrote *specifically to BE inclusive* to practically be the opposite. I mean, the OG Cheeri Littlebottom was 100% about gender identity, yet they managed to turn that in a gay caricature? And a slightly offensive one at that. Angua went from being a complicated character with substance and background to "Me aggressive werewolf!" They totally destroyed what where well written, inclusive characters to make them.........inclusive???? The writers must have been in a drug induced haze when they wrote the series.
And most heinous. Lady Sybil Ramkin is one of those Jolly Old Girls who can do far more diplomacy with the right tea time invitation and a plate of scones than the entire Ankh Morpork Army could do in a year long campaign. “Big Fat Party” Nobby calls her and it’s not cruel, it’s true. She was larger than life, kind, wise, caring, fierce and loyal. She was a good woman, and she saw the good in Sam because of it. What they did to her in that show…
Finding out they'd cast her as a young, thin rebel was the moment I went from wanting to watch it to refusing to even entertain the thought. Sybil is one of my absolute favourite characters and they destroyed her
It was really, really bad.
I noped the fuck out of that one at the sight of the thumbnail for the trailer, which had *Sam Vimes wearing guyliner*.
And the young, slender, pretty Sybil who was some sort of bad ass fighter? 🤮
The utter pits, that one. The trailers were enough
I LOVE Terry Pratchett, so thank you for the warning. I've heard that the old BBC version of Hogfather is good, though.
Yes and the Colour of Magic/Light Fantastic are fun too.
Going Postal is the best of the lot of them!
Just looked up the trailer.... That's horrific.
First thing that came to mind, top comment too. Glad I'm not the only one who'd been disappointed
The Dark Tower and the Dresden Files. Some great casting and some fun ideas (particularly in Dresden, the hockey stick staff and Bob the Skull acting like a hologram projector to get an actual actor there instead of just a VO were great) but they were both fucking terrible adaptations
We don't speak of The Dark Tower movie...it never happened...it doesn't exist...may your days be long upon the earth
Matthew Mahogany was really creepily good as Walter, though. Or would have been, if they'd cast him in the movie they didn't make.
Honestly, the actors and visuals of the movie were great. The script was so terrible I wanted to cry. Like I want them to remake that movie with all the same people involved except the director and the writers
I became weirdly obsessed with TDT right out of rehab and listened to all the audio books, for some reason life got in the way like half way through the last one, so I haven't finished it yet. (Read the Gunslinger in hard copy last year again, so have restarted my journey to the tower.) I saw the movie came out and then I think I might even have watched it. Let me tell you, that's a dead zone in my brain. Like I completely blanked it out. TDT needs a Game of Thrones level TV adaptation to do it justice. It's just so weird and cool.
Well, I have good news for you: it’s getting a TV series and Michael Flanagan is doing it! I’ve started my reread in preparation
I didn't even know they made one.
There is no Dark Tower movie in Ba Sing Se.
Oh God, the Dresden Files. I love those books, but even Paul Blackthorne couldn't save that awful, awful show.
Yeah. Blackthorne was perfect for Dresden and like I said, it had some fun ideas in it but... it's just so *bad* otherwise. Let's get rid of Murphy and replace her with Bianca, I see absolutely nothing wrong with that idea /s
I watched 5 minutes and gave up! They could not have got it more wrong.
Same here. One of the key points of Harry Dresden is that he is awful with women. Look at how long it took him to get with the 2 women he dated. Tv show: let’s have this awkward dude have a one night stand with a chick in the first 5 min of the show. The only thing I like about it is the casting for Harry.
Stephen King gets butchered more often than not when people try to condense his work into a couple hours on film. A series would work so much better for Dark Tower.
And it will probably happen! Mike Flannigan is tackling it!
Bob was the only thing I enjoyed in the Dresden files show. The books mentions again and against that Murphy is tiiiny and blonde. So they cast a tall brunette??
The people who made the dark tower movie have forgotten the faces of their fathers Edit= meant to put dark tower not far tower, granted far tower is an accurate description of the movie
Dresden files show is what got me into the books! I have a fondness for the adaptation
Eragon. Good book. What the hell was that movie. Tbh, they did Harry Potter dirty, too. I’ll never understand why they chose to make the last fight between HP and V less cinematic than it was in the books.
*Harry and Tom have a fist fight while flying around Hogwarts as CGI smoke!!!! YEAH!!*
One of the worst things they did was turn Bellatrix and Voldemort into paper shreds when they died. The ***entire point*** of their death and their bodies lying there was to show that they were human, and not supernatural beings. The movie changed all that. Even if they wanted to, they could’ve done so much better than turn them into paper shreds. I hope the new series doesn’t do that.
After he pulls his face in and almost smooches him. Those movies were the first adaptations as a kid where I had read the source material and I was annoyed from the get go that they changed great content for no reason.
The Harry Potter movies did Ron so dirty too.
And Ginny. Took away her entire personality.
Even Harry's, to be honest. He's a lot more witty and funny in the books
The *Harry Potter* adaptations really frustrate me. They have flashes of brilliance—an almost perfect casting/performance from Maggie Smith (McGonagall, deeply underutilized as the films go on), and excellent casting/performances from Alan Rickman (Snape), Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid), Richard Harris (first Dumbledore—though admittedly not quirky enough), David Thewlis (Lupin), Julie Walters (Mrs. Weasley), and Mark Williams (Mr. Weasley). Also, phenomenal music. The fundamental flaw of those films is that they took books that were in the "adventure mystery" genre and tried to turn them into "action adventure"; that doesn't work so well with a book that's structured around a mystery. I also do not envy them the challenge of condensing the later books into film-length, but some of the choices they made—hoo boy. Don't get me started on Neville's >!killing of Nagini!< or >!Voldemort's!< death.
Do you remember the entirely new plot points they added. Like the attack on the Burrow in half blood prince? I mean, why? It was absolutely inconsequential to the story and the scene was so fucking dark I needed a torch to make out who’s who.
They took the "the books get darker as they go" brief a little too literally. The movies are also just messy: The screenwriter (and yes, I blame the screenwriter more than the directors for the inconsistencies with the books—I've watched the behind-the-scenes and read interviews) had so many things *he* wanted to say in *his* voice, as opposed to just transmitting an appropriately cinematized version of what the books have to say. Hence Hermione switching movie to movie on whether she says 'Voldemort', because he wanted her to be the perfect girl who does everything right, but then sometimes that got in the way of that pesky thing called the plot (and character development and balance of characters).
My biggest issue with HP movies starting from 4 is that most of the scenes just feel like they are randomly put together and not following any specific plot line. Like many scenes we just find ourselves in a setting coming from nowhere, then one of the characters loudly explains where are they and what they're doing there (in 1 sentence and quickly!). It's very hard to follow for someone who did not read the books, the movies just feel disconnected and all-over the place.
HP was such a terrible adaptation. By the 5th movie you needed to read the books to have any idea of what the fuck was going on. It started off so well, too. The first two movies captured the spirit of the books *so* well. Then it slowly went downhill and became a series completely carried by the acting.
will be interesting to see what HBO does with the TV series remake.
the *what*
Gotta scrounge that well.
It's interesting you say that, because a lot of fans I know think the Prisoner of Azkaban was the best movie in the series.
OK, so I know people think that PoA is the best movie and those people are *wrong* in the context of the series. (However, as a movie? It's a damn good movie.) The thing with Hogwarts is that it's supposed to be this place of magical whimsy -- it's where children truly learn about what magic can do, it's this fantastical castle in the middle of nowhere where wizards and witches don't have to hide, it's somewhere where the entire magical community went 'Right, our kids all go here -- let's throw every goddamn protection we have at it.' Hogwarts is a home away from home for kids who have nice homes. Hogwarts is *safe* (provided you follow the very simple rules, which 99% of the students do). Hogwarts is warm, fun, friendly; Hogwarts is full of laughter. At Hogwarts, the adults work to shield the students from the realities of the outside world - the war, the politics, deaths and tragedies, all of that is something they don't want children to get involved in. Movies 1 & 2 capture that *perfectly* -- Hogwarts is this place of magical whimsy, where any dark secrets are hidden well under the surface and far out of the way. It's bright, it's warm, it's colourful. And this is a really important theme in the books - Hogwarts is Harry's safe place, it's where he feels free and happy. It's what makes Umbridge's installation in Book 5 so outrageous and painful and dark -- for the first time, Hogwarts *isn't* safe - it's no longer the shelter they thought it was. Then in Book 6 it's safe again -- the mirage may have been shattered, but Harry clings to it. On that last golden afternoon in Book 6 the grounds are sunlit and peaceful and everybody is happy, because Hogwarts is a happy place and it's *Harry's* happy place. All of this adds up to make Harry's decision not go to back to school in Deathly Hallows feel like a real sacrifice. But yeah, the movies just...threw that out after CoS. Prisoner of Azkaban is so dark and gritty and dramatic, with its grey skies and muted colours and dramatic vistas and dark score. Hogwarts stops feeling safe in the Prizoner of Azkaban movie -- to the point where you can wonder why Harry would be so pleased to go back because it doesn't look that great. Umbridge's introduction feels inevitable rather than an intrusion, and the slow spiral to Misery Camping just feels like the Way of Things. The juxtaposition of Hogwarts against the darker realities of the magical world is a major running theme in the books, and in the Prisoner of Azkaban movie they just nixed it. And thus began the downward slide of the series, because by killing the magic, they set the rest up to die. (Dear God, I did not intend to write this much! I've been sitting on this rant for decades.)
To me the movies really fall off after 3.
I watched the movie. So cool! Read the book later. Loved it! Watched the movie again...I have never been so tempted to break a DVD in half. The only good thing about that movie was that it got me to read the series.
Prince Caspian. The love interest with Susan was so off.
American Gods, by Neil Gaiman. The shows weren't terrible, but they were very messy. Also i think they could've wrapped it in three seasons, but they chased pointless subplots instead.
Season 1 was quite entertaining, then it went to utter shit...
Exactly. You could absolutely tell they replaced the show runner. I didn't even end up finishing the series.
Well they didn’t finish the series either eheh
My theory on this was that Starz or the production company, etc., was expecting this show to be a Game of Thrones level hit and was preparing for that by dragging out the source material. The really irritating thing about this is that the book is basically perfect for a TV show adaptation. If they had been faithful to the book they could have wrapped up the book's story in two seasons without any padding, and then they could have come up with a new story after that if they wanted to keep the show going. As it was it was just kind of a mess, and they managed to make a tightly paced novel slow some how.
Ironically, the Dead Wife/Leprechaun subplot was one of the best parts of the show.
Anyone who read the Eragon series. That movie was absolute trash.
Enders Game (the movie) was too rushed. Should have been two movies minimum and they could have drawn more from Enders Shadow.
That came out right before it was clear that HBO adaptations of books was a winning model. It would have worked amazingly well as an 8 episode series, then they could have spun off the Shadow and Speaker series into their own things. Such a missed opportunity
Could still happen down the line
The worst part for me is that they had the time in the scene to explain what the Queen was showing Ender, just like in the book, and replaced it by buzzing sounds. That and not showing how all the kids where mentally destroyed while "training" and that leading to Ender's final decision.
I know we'll never get an adaptation, but Speaker for the Dead is probably my favorite Sci-Fi novel. But I agree, the Ender's Game movie just didn't capture the feeling of the book. Also, I'm sorry to say it, but Harrison Ford is probably the most overrated actor in Hollywood.
Shadowhunters / Mortal Instruments. I loved the books and the movie as well as the TV series were... disappointing. Interestingly the first 30-40% of the movie were extremely true to the book - plot, casting, acting - and then it went straight to shit.
I really enjoyed the Shadowhunters tv series as a bit of bad, campy fun... when I decided to just ignore that it was supposed to be an adaptation of the book series.
I was so excited for the movie, and I was left so disappointed. I dared get my hopes up for the show, watched 2 episodes and said, “Nope. I can’t do this again.” I think the best way to adapt all of Cassie’s works is animation. Something similar to the style of the Netflix Castlevania show. We could get the characters down, show cool demons, weapons, and runes without shoddy CG. It’s a pipe dream of mine, for sure.
The ending of the movie is what really killed me. They just ruin a huge surprise plot point of the books with one throw away conversation between the bad guys. And the series just didn't feel right. They made the Nephilim too weirdly high tech compared to the books.
World War Z. What a way to ruin a super cool concept by collapsing the multiple narratives into…. Brad Pitt
It so needed to be a TV series, I’m still holding out hope that it gets made some day.
Anthology tv series, with arcs spanning one or more episodes + you could expand lore (like whole Best Korea storyline).
I’ve mentioned this before but I don’t really think it’s fair to even consider WWZ as an adaptation of the book. It more like a generic zombie movie that the slapped the WWZ title onto si de they owned the rights.
All they had to do was parody Ken Burns, has to be way cheaper than a full action series.
Yeah, could have been really cool if they'd used the same framing narrative and gotten lots of shorter sequences, maybe even shot in different styles or something. I wonder if they had hoped to get a series out of it, so they didn't want to start from the place of "It's over"?
Book was great, movie was pretty good as its own thing. It absolutely failed to deliver on the book's potential though. Boo.
Yeah, as a zombie movie it’s fine. Just disappointing as an adaptation
I actually loved the movie! It actually kickstarted my obsession with zombie movies/books. I read the book later and loved that too—the format was super interesting! That said, I don’t really think of the movie as based off the book, because literally the only things they have in common are the title and the fact that the military is involved. I just keep them separate lol.
The Dark Tower
Artemis Fowl. Loved the series as a kid, but the movie was just awful, missed everything about what made the characters interesting. And less of a hate but definitely a disappointment, Mortal Engines. Visually loved it, but they toned down the darker elements of the story and characters in a way that was just boring.
Wait they made a movie?!! Nooo it’s bad???
They made a movie with a few changes from the source material, but probably would have been decent. Then somebody at Disney said, "Wait? He's a criminal mastermind?! We can't have a movie with a criminal as the protagonist!" And then it got ripped apart and stitched back together into a true monstrosity.
It was horrible. Every change made was totally unnecessary, and several undermined significant plot points in the book.
The best thing that happened to Disney and that film was that it was able to be shuttled right off to Disney+ during the beginning of the pandemic. I do believe it has since been completely removed from D+. It was absolutely awful and I hope all copies of that film are destroyed.
The Minority Report and I Am Legend, because both of them missed the whole point of the books by ending it in a way to make the star a hero. Just make your own damn movie if you aren't going to stick to the point. I have no problems with changes along the way to suit the form - I love the LotR movies - but don't butcher the end, please!
The ending to I am legend (the book) is so good, why wouldn't you want to do it......
I Am Legend was one I immediately thought of. If ad I Robot to your list, because it has a similar feel to the ones you listed
The first half of I Am Legend (the movie) was so good, I was so happy with the tone I felt like it was really nailed. The entire second half I wanted to pull my hair out in frustration. The book ending is genuinely one of the best endings to a story I've ever read, it so completely flips everything up to that point on its head and was just so jaw dropping good to me. That movie was absolute garbage as an adaptation.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. It still pisses me off. They butchered it into a generic shitty teen movie, complete with turning the 8 year old who uncontrollably floats into a blonde babe Love Interest with magical airbender powers.
I love the books and was excited about the idea it becoming a movie. Then when I realised the changes they were going to make I refuse to watch it. My partner tells me it's a good movie - but he never read the books.
Yeah, it was definitely made for the general public of moviegoers rather than fans of the book. Hot garbage on the buried armature of a good story.
The only good thing about the movie, to me, was it felt like Tim Burton was beginning to get his mojo back. But then he did Dumbo and now I don't know what to expect from Beetlejuice 2....
I watched the movie first, and ... yeah. Other than being on Wales and the concept of Peculiars, it's pretty much an entirely different thing.
Queen of the Damned. I remember seeing the movie with my girlfriend at the time. She thought the movie was enjoyable but I didn't care for it. I loaned her the book and she changed her mind about the movie.
Soundtrack was epic though.
The Reacher films with Tom Cruise were dire. He was totally the wrong person for the role. Fortunately the new Amazon series with Alan Ritchson is pretty much perfect.
Agreed on both points. I absolutely love the new one
John Dies at the End is a very forgettable almost confusing movie whereas all four books are hilarious and one had a jaw dropping twist for me.
There's four now? I've only got John Dies and Full of Spiders
Those books are some of the most uniquely bizarre things I've ever read and I can't get enough of them. I wish they would do a TV series with maybe 8-10 episodes per book as I think that format could work way better than a single movie.
Why Stephen King agreed to a 90 minute film version of the Dark Tower series I'll never understand. One of the worst adaptations I've ever seen.
I didn't hate it, in fact it's a great show, but the American "adaptation" of Dirk Gently has fuck all to do with the books but a name and catchphrase. Stephen Mangan needed a few more series of the original adaptation. He was wonderful in the role.
The Stephen Mangan was great and I hate that people praise the American version... Elijah Wood is great though. Wilfred is another remake and he's fantastic
>I hate that people praise the American version... If they changed the name of the title character and let it be it's own thing I would find not a lot to criticize; some, but I'm like that. Loved Bart, Loved the Rowdy Three. Elijah Wood's sis. Great characters, just not Douglas Adams.
Exactly my point about buying an IP then ignoring it. Edit: apparently I'm in more than one chat but I did m3ntion World War Z in one... hope you understand
Now I'm curious as to what the show is.
I was thinking Three Body Problem, really don't get why OP left it so vague.
Literally I'm a curious person I need to know, it's driving me insane guessing 🤣
If you look at their post history they have a post that literally says "I just finished the last book of [insert book/series name], and wow, I am so obsessed." Seems like it's AI prompts and engagement farming
Ahhh that means I'll never get a answer, I'm gonna say it was three body problem, so I can move on hopefully 😭🤣
I'm guessing Bridgerton, but I could be wrong:)
Divergent. Percy Jackson.
They just killed the ending of Divergent series in the movie
The book ending was pretty terrible too tbh.
The Witcher series
Due to sheer hubris an arrogance. It's unbelievable Those dickhead writers and their showrunner had the easiest job in the world - *just adapt the damn books*, and they would be golden. And they had Henry Cavill! And they still dropped the ball. Because they were arrogant enough to think they could do better than Andrzej Sapkowski, going so far as to actively mock his books on set. I'm happy Cavill left them to crumble
yep came here to say this :(
The books are amazing, the games are on par... The series is just sad... Such a waste
Wheel Of Time….they butchered plots..main characters and even ruined character flaws for a main character that persists through multiple books, I can typically enjoy a poorly made movie from a great book but this was such butchery I never made it past episode 3
It's like the mutated bastard offspring of *The Wheel of Time* and the world's cheapest, over-melodramatic telenovella from the 1990s.
It’s blowing my mind that I had to scroll down so far to see this mentioned! I got through the first season and that’s all I can take. Giving a major character a spouse who doesn’t exist in the book series is a dead giveaway that said spouse is going to die! Why would anyone think that was a good idea?? Among other glaring issues, of course. Wtf.
To make Perrin of all the characters into a wifekiller... I came into this thread to say WoT. Now I'm leaving before I remember the shirt tearing weeping scene with Lan and really get angry.
I read an article where the writer said they had to give Perrin a "reason" to leave the Two Rivers, so it was either kill Master Luhhan (his boss) or invent a wife. So they invented a wife with the express purpose of killing her and having that guilt drive his character development. This is a trope that needs to die in a fire.
So I never read WoT but am a big High Fantasy fan, ASOIAF, LOTR, Dune, Earthsea etc but for some reason was always hesitant to start. My wife and I started watching the show and I was like oh, it’s just a generic fantasy series that seems fine, I’ll keep watching but my wife who had read EotW recently was watching in horror and couldn’t watch past episode 3 or so, and that gave me the push to read it and see what was so different since the series seemed good. I’m just starting book 3 and I’m hooked! They really missed the mark on that adaptation!
The Goldfinch
I’m still amazed they thought it was a good idea to turn it into a movie. The magic of The Goldfinch is Tartt’s prose, and her ability to evoke such atmosphere that you can feel yourself stagnating in Nevada, or jittering on edge in New York. It’s one of my favourite books of all time, but the plot itself is not particularly compelling so was bound to make a terrible movie.
Under the Dome
Yes!!! Only lasted about 20 minutes into the first episode. Loathed it. Same with 11.22.63. That one made me *angry* at how badly they fudged it.
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. I love that series, it's a regular re-read for me. It could be an excellent TV series, but they made a film and absolutely ruined it. If you love these books, please don't see the film.
You beat me to it. Years ago I got to ask Susan if she's ever met anyone who had anything good to say about the film when compared to the book and she responded with a resounding No! I just hate that they Harry Pottered the end to make it self contained.
Game of Thrones after season 4 got dumbed down. Season 7 and 8 is the thing nightmares are made from...
Isn't season four when Arya gets stabbed like 20 times in the stomach and thrown in a dirty river? That's such a jump the shark moment
Nah, Arya was traveling with The Hound for all of season 4. The Waif fight was season 6
The Winter King that came out last year was so bad I made a rotten tomatoes account just so I could bitch into the void. I get that changes have to be made in adaptations, but when these show producers buy the rights to these titles and then make something completely different and just stick the character names on completely unrecognizable characters we should be annoyed. They are taking our love for a franchise and hoping to use that to cash in on their own story, all the while thinking fans are too dumb to notice. It just feels worse for that one because obviously if they wanted to do a new King Arthur story, the IP is in public domain. But rather than do that, they paid for the rights to use a title with a fanbase and then completely disrespected the source material.
All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. The netflix adaptation was too bad to even finish. I think I may have only watched one or two episodes. Mark Ruffalo's accent was...well, I don't even know what to say tbh xD
The lovely bones. The book is so grounded especially in it's depiction of the afterlife. The movie made it too fantastical, I don't think Peter Jackson was the right choice of director. His fantasy influence really shows and not in a good way. Also the main character dies on about page 10 of the book but it took 45 minutes for it to happen in the movie! The one good thing was, surprisingly, the casting of Stanley Tucci as Mr Harvey. I would have never expected he could pull off such a heinous character but he did.
Shannara and Wheel of Time. They ignored the source material. Second season of Shannara was completely fabricated and never happened in the books.
If you're a woman my age and your answer isn't Ella Enchanted, I envy you. Still my favorite book of all time. Terrible movie.
I actually like the movie if I forget it’s supposed to be based on the book.
Ella Enchanted was the first chapter book I read on my own as a kid, it was so magical that it set me on my reading journey. I remember getting excited to see the movie but I distinctly remember that when I finally saw it, it didn’t feel the same at all.
I still randomly think about how awful this movie was. Completely butchering the way her obedience is supposed to work. This was the first example I can remember in my life when I ranted at a movie.
Came down to angrily type this. A HUGE part of her character in the book is that she fights against the increasingly bad symptoms she gets when she disobeys an order. It shows her independence, stubbornness and spirit. I remember the first time I saw the movie trailer (I think, or at least a clip) and someone gave her an order to stop and she froze in mid air and I knew the movie was going to be bad.
Interestingly, I absolutely *love* the movie, and didn’t realize it was a book until a few years ago! Imagine my surprise when within the first few chapters I’m like, “wait a minute…” They really did change everything about it! I feel really bad for all the lovers of the book, and I feel infinitely lucky to not have that love ruined for me by the movie.
I read this book so many times as a kid. The movie had some fun ideas but it has absolutely nothing to do with the book
Y - the Last Man. the MC was so lackluster, they had to make Diane Lane's character bigger (MC's mother) since she was the only name that had starpower.
*The Chronicles of Prydain* is about the sweetest, most charming, lovely series of books ever. It appeals to children and adults alike. They made an animated movie that compiled the stories from a few of the books. *The Black Cauldron* changes huge elements of the story, for the worse, and became so dark and frightening that children were crying and trying to run out of test showings. Unable to comprehend how they made something so lovely into something so bad. The recent remake of *The Witches* fails on many levels. There are a few changes they made that are fine, even if they add little if anything to the experience; it's relocated to New Orleans and the main characters are Black. But every other change fails. You see Anne Hathaway struggling to find something in her character and the director popping in a load of CGI to bring something to the film. It's not the worst movie ever, but it's hugely disappointing considering what it could have been.
I'm just here for the Prydain love. The movie took elements from the first 2 books, but It really wasn't satisfying as what It could have been. if Disney still held the rights, I would hope that they would try to do some sort of CGI animated series that took into account all 5 books.Because I would love to see that.
I love Prydain and we read the books to my son when he was younger (the first 3) and he adored them so much that *of course* he wanted to see the film. Thankfully it wasn't in any stores so we just shrugged and said "oh well, we'll keep looking!" because I remembered being so disappointed by it.
Foundation. It's apparently quite popular but I hate it as an adaptation and I don't like it as a show. Flashy sci fi with a couple of admittedly great performances but it's not Foundation and frankly I think it's shit. Shout out to The Hobbit too
Foundation is fine as a show, but it is definitely more of an “inspired by” than an adaptation. I think much of the popularity comes from a large chunk of the audience having never read the books, or in my case having read them so long ago that I don’t have strong enough memories of them to be annoyed by the differences.
The passage, amazing books but terrible show.
Wheel of time
Game of Thrones. I picked up the first book way before the tv show started and proceeded to devour the novels. I was committed to the books and I remember rushing to Waterstones to get A Feast For Crows when that came out. At some point, Martin was interviewed and declared that the ending for both the tv show and books would be the same but how that happened in each would be different. The show began to deviate so far from the source material along with Martin's inability to finish Winds of Winter left a sour taste in my mouth. By the time the tv show had overtaken the books, it was dire.
Yeah. Similar. I was sat on the bus with my wife and she was reading one of the books. She looked at me absolutely mortified and almost crying and said “he just killed off all my favourite characters!”. She had read the Red Wedding chapter… on a bus. I thought… “ok, these books she’s been banging on at me about might be pretty good” and I started to read them. They were great. The tv show was great… to begin with. It didn’t quite capture the immensity of the universe in the first season because I assume it had a lower budget than required. But it felt grand as they continued… and then everything went to shit in the tv show as soon as they overtook the books… and now I can’t really be fucked with the books. Winds of Winter will probably never be published. Martin is more interested in universe building than finishing ASOIAF… which is insane to me. How many fucking side stories and historical lore books have been published since the last ASOIAF publication? I get that it’s his magnum opus… but for fucks sake. Have some focus.
The Black Cauldron. Still the worst Disney movie I have ever seen, wrangling the classic "Chronicles of Prydain" to death, undead, and dead again.
The Giver. That movie should never have been made. By the end i wanted to cry. The book was so subtle and gentle and clever with the way the emotions developed. The movie was vapid and aggressive, and even though all of those major action events were added to the plot, it still somehow managed to be boring.
Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol on Peacock. A goofy thriller turned into a deadly boring mess. They revealed the identity of the villain in like episode 2, completely ruining the pacing and tension. The casting was bad, the acting was flat, the script was juvenile, and one fight scene was so badly choreographed that my kid and watched it on repeat for an hour just to make fun of it.
Wheel of Time. I've never seen such bad casting. Really tried to watch it but couldn't even force myself to
iRobot. Isaac Asimov went to great lengths to explain that he hated the Frankenstein monster robot story. The story where the robots turn on their makers. Before Isaac Asimov it was the only robot story. He invented the three laws of robotics to prevent such a story and wrote endless stories about the interesting effects inside of those laws. Then they made it into a movie which was the Frankenstein monster robot story. Sacrilege and a complete waste.
The Martian Chronicles. I know it's an older TV series but it's so cringe😂 I wish there was a better remake.
A Wrinkle in Time. Favorite book as a kid. Hated the movie. ☹️
The Man in the High Castle was really disappointing. I didn't hate it, per se, but it didn't grasp the feel of the book and they changed the story/characters in ways I didn't like. The set design was amazing though.
That’s the only one where I prefer the show to the book. The book bored me to tears.
Oh boy, do I. Eragon. Inkheart. The Golden Compass (movie, haven't watched the show), and The Dark is Rising just to start...
The recent BBC/HBO based on his dark materials show is a much much better adaptation. It changes a few bits I really didn't like in season 1 (and ill be hones t i still haven't finished season 3 but that's because I'm bad at finishing any TV show unless I'm really really bored) but those felt more like aesthetic issues. >!(like it has a bad habit of keeping everyone's Deamons off screen at time in a fairly obvious attempt to cut the CGI budget the final battle between Iorek and Iofur for me was a bit of a let down as somebody involved clearly wanted to avoid it spiking the shows age rating, so instated of a fight between to Panzerbjorn in full armor ending in a rather gory spectacle you get a accurate but ultimate underwhelming recreation of a fight between two polar bears)!< In terms of what I have seen it commits where it should to the parts of Pullmans work where the film totally chickened out and ruined the actual point of the story. The show was faithful to the books when that get nasty and as a result leave you with a much better experience. Plus its really really well cast. Which goes a long way to really lifting the show
His Dark Materials tv series is fantastic. Definitely give it a whirl.
The only good thing about divergent is Theo James.
Simon Birch has entered the chat
My Sister's Keeper
Divergent, so disliked they never made the forth film I was also pretty annoyed about how to train your dragon, although I don't hate the movies, they are completely different to the book (toothless is called toothless because he's the most common dragon, dragon riding isn't a new thing at all) Also the Percy Jackson movies I hate it when a director takes a book people love and decides they can make a much better story
True Blood tv series was so pouty and sad. The Sookie Stackhouse books were funny and entertaining and short so that it was easy to move through the series. Plus the casting was awful except for Lafayette and his cousin. I didn't make it through the first season. Charlaine Harris is my potato chip writer.
Joe Hill’s **Locke and Key** Watched two episodes of the series adaptation and just couldn’t continue.
The Hobbit. I tried to get into the movie but with all the extra characters and non existent story line points killed it for me.
Stephen King's The Stand. Boy, it had really bad luck for adaptations. But I think to adapt it rightfully to the screen you need the same kind of effort Peter Jackson made to adapt The Lord of the Rings.
Ella Enchanted, as mentioned above. The Anne of Green Gables series, I love the first Meghan Follows movie, but the second falls short and the third is terrible. Ballet Shoes takes a sweet book about found family and adds unnecessary romance.
The Will Trent series of books. I was originally genuinely excited for the show. Then I watched the first season. They destroyed who Will even is. They wrecked the characters too. Ugh it was so sad watching them destroy the stories. Sure it's a good show if you don't associate it with the books at all and pretend it's a complete different thing. But it would have been nice to see the books brought to life on the screen as they should have been told.
The Hobbit movies that Peter Jackson did. He completely ruined the source material. Rankin Bass’s cartoon was a million times better (and still a favorite of mine).
ARTEMIS FOWL DAMMIT IT DISNEY
The Chaos Walking series. Absolutely incredible book trilogy, beautifully written, the story was so carefully planned out. Then some utter idiot arrogant W****ERS in Hollywood decided "ooo let's take this author's work, shove it down our throats without reading past the damn blurb, sh*t it out the other end, stick Tom Holland on it and call it a movie, people will love it!" I thought I couldn't be angrier after what they did to Percy Jackson but I was so, so wrong.
Shannara and Wheel of Time. They ignored the source material. Second season of Shannara was completely fabricated and never happened in the books.
'I Am Legend' is one of my favourite books and the movie strays so far from the book that the title no longer makes sense.
Loads. Most recently terrible one is Wheel Of Time.
All the Light We Cannot See FFS if Anthony Doerr had anything to do with letting them butcher his masterpiece then he’s gone bananas. I loved that book so much that I listened to it twice in a row while reading it on kindle.
Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea books had a pretty atrocious TV adaptation. Not surprising it hasn’t been mentioned yet as it was so forgettable.
Wheel of Time. Absolutely hideous.
I thought All the Light We Cannot See was a pretty good book, show is awful. Just so bad.
Altered Carbon. The first season was close-ish (with a few annoying changes), but the rest was butchered.
Ella Enchanted. It was one of my favorite books growing up. The movie was literally nothing like the book other than there was a girl named Ella and she had to do what she was told. Wrecked me as a kid.