Top Ten Best/Worst Movie Adaptations (Top 10 Tuesday)

For more Top Ten Tuesday, check out the blog at The Broke and the Bookish.

For whatever reason, the list of adaptations that I could come up with was pretty short.  I eliminated Harry Potter, because I try very hard not to include Harry Potter or books by John Green (or really, anything I have evangelical zeal about at this point) in my top 10 lists in order to give other books a chance.

So I have three categories. A: The Movie Was Better; B: The Book Was Better; and, C: I Like them Both

The Movie Was Better

  • Scott Pilgrim – I don’t know what my problem with the graphic novels was, but I enjoyed the movie a lot more. 
  • Kick Ass – See Scott Pilgrim
  • Beautiful CreaturesMy problem with the book was it was a lots of tell and not a lot of show. And the lemons. Good lord, the lemons. The movie wasn’t great for me, and it was definitely a movie for those who have read the book, but at least it didn’t go on and on about the bloody lemons.
  • World War Z – Because the book is written like non-fiction, and I’m not a big fan of non-fiction, I got bored about halfway through. That’s really more about me as a reader than it is about the quality of the book. 

The Book Was Better

  • Hitchhiker’s Guide – Oh, this one is so complicated I should do a video about how understanding the universe of the Hitchhiker’s Guide must be akin to the effects of a Pan-Galactic Gargleblaster. 
  • The Lightning Thief – Tell me this: how much more interesting is the story when the trio can’t DRIVE across the country? I’ll give you an answer: infinitely.
  • Flowers for Algernon – This made-for-TV movie was just terrible. But it’s still a fantastic story.

I Like Them Both Equally

  • Perks of Being a Wallflower – You can’t miss when the author writes the movie. Sure scenes were left out and things changed a little, but how hard is it to take an epistolary novel and turn it into a movie, anyway? Very different formats, very different media. 
  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory / Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl FTW. That’s all I need to say abou that.
  • Matilda – My only question is this: Why is the Trunchbull the only person in the movie who is English? Just curious.
  • Fight Club – When I saw this movie, I didn’t know it was a book. When I found out it was a book, I immediately went out and purchased it. Both are amazing. This is probably my favorite novel that is not YA.

4 comments

  1. I totally agree that the HHGTTG works soooo much better as a book than as a film. Although I do quite like the radio play adaptation… I also agree about Matilda, an awesome film and book. Brilliant picks, I enjoyed hearing your reasons for choosing them.

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    • Actually, the radio play came first, so the book is the adaptation, which is one of the things I talked about in the six minutes I cut. There’s a whole long explanation about how the programme got put together at the end of the Audible file. It’s fantastic.

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  2. Yes, the Lightning Thief book was SO much better than the movie! As for Beautiful Creatures, I didn’t like the book, but I haven’t had a chance to see the movie yet – hopefully I’ll like it better than the book. Thanks for stopping by my TTT!

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