Some of the Worst Book-to-film Conversions Rreleased

With the first part of Suzanne Collins’ ‘The Hunger Games’ trilogy out at the cinema right now, fans of these three amazing books are flocking to theatres in the hopes of seeing their favourite storyline on the big screen. Luckily, they’ll be pleasantly surprised by what’s in store, but the same can’t be said for a lot of other book-to-film adaptations.

I’m a huge booklover and I must admit, when it comes to adaptations I tend to break out into a cold sweat. In my opinion you just shouldn’t mess with something that’s already perfect, and you can almost guarantee the film crew are going to bungle it somehow. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule (The Lord of the Rings, Shawshank Redemption, The Silence of the Lambs – the list is actually quite long) but there will always be those few clangers that make you rue the day you thought ‘yeah, I’d like to see that at the cinema’.

Dreamcatcher

I’m a self-confessed Stephen King nut and though ‘Dreamcatcher’ doesn’t even rank in my top 10 favourite books by him, the film made me die a little inside.

The book itself is about four friends that experience an alien invasion while on a hunting trip together. The plot’s actually a lot more in-depth than this, as with most Stephen King books, but if you watched the film you wouldn’t know this, mostly because you’d be staring at the screen just saying ‘what?!’ the entire time. It’s far too confusing and convoluted and is really, really bad. Give the film a miss and read the book instead, it’s much, much better.

The Golden Compass

As the first part in Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy, ‘The Golden Compass’ marks the beginning of something wonderful. I was late in jumping on the bandwagon with this trilogy and only picked them up to keep me going until the next Harry Potter book was released in the early noughties, but I was instantly hooked.

The books have many layers that can be enjoyed by all ages and there are so many twists and turns that you just can’t put them down in case something amazing is about to happen on the next page. As for ‘The Golden Compass’ though (a name that always irked me as the first book ‘Northern Lights’ is only known as this in North America – just a fan’s annoyed side note, sorry), there’s barely anything there to watch. It’s been stripped back and given just one layer (a decidedly boring one) and Nicole Kidman’s emotionless acting is nothing short of horrendous.

Memoirs of a Geisha

Now, I had to really think about whether or not to include this one on the list, since the film isn’t actually that bad. It’s definitely watchable, but it’s also absolutely ridiculous. If you watch it you’ll see Nitta Sayuri’s transformation from a poor fisherman’s daughter to a beautiful, mournful geisha in Kyoto, Japan. My first issue with the film is that Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi was chosen to play the role of a Japanese geisha – why? There are more than enough amazing Japanese actresses to choose from and it seems idiotic to not do so when the film is basically about Japanese culture and history.

My next problem is that the costumes and scenery were all far too over-the-top. I know it won the Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design at the Academy Awards, but none of it was realistic. At all. Japan did not look like that in the 1930s/40s and geisha’s weren’t nearly as elaborately dressed as the film would have you believe. While I did enjoy the film, as a bit of a Japanophile I was quite annoyed by all of the epic errors. I can understand why others look at me strangely when I say that though.

Which book-to-film conversions would you nominate for the worst adaptation then?

Victoria  is a freelance writer with interests in fiction, particularly fantasy fiction.