Hey! Welcome to Thursday Movie Picks where you get to share your movie picks for each topic presented every Thursday! Based on the theme presented each week, you can pick up to 3 to 5 movies and explain why you picked those movies! This meme is being hosted by Wandering through the Shelves!
This week's theme is: Worst Book to Movie Adaptations!
So usually, when it comes to movies adapting a book to the big screen, either the adaptation is much better than the original source material or they end up being worse than the source material. In this case, we are focusing on the worst book to movie adaptations and man, did these adaptations give me a headache...
Two bored children have their lives turned upside down when a talking cat comes to visit them.
So, when I first heard that this movie was being announced, I was actually excited for it. All that excitement died the moment I saw this horrific adaptation of one of the most beloved children's books. I mean, "The Cat in the Hat" was one of my all-time favorite children's books and this movie pretty much bombed it to death.
Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, half human-half vampire, a guardian of the Moroi, peaceful, mortal vampires living discreetly within our world. Her calling is to protect the Moroi from bloodthirsty, immortal Vampires, the Strigoi.
Did anyone remember that Richelle Mead's "Vampire Academy" book had a movie adaptation? Yeah, I didn't remember it either (until now). "Vampire Academy" was one of my all-time favorite paranormal romance novels that I have ever read and after I saw this movie, I was like "What have you done to one of my favorite paranormal romance books?" It's like this movie had absolutely nothing to do with the book and it made me so mad, especially since I really loved the book this was based on.
The human government develops a cure for mutations, and Jean Grey becomes a darker uncontrollable persona called the Phoenix who allies with Magneto, causing escalation into an all-out battle for the X-Men.
So, do comic book adaptations count? Because if they do, I have to put this movie as one of the worst adaptations I have ever seen. It was an adaptation of "The Dark Phoenix Saga" from the X-Men comics and not only did it have too many plot lines going through it that I got so confused by the story, but they also changed everything about the Dark Phoenix herself from the comics that I could barely recognize the Dark Phoenix in this movie.
We match on the atrocity that is Cat in the Hat!
ReplyDeleteAgree!
DeleteI've only seen The Last Stand from your picks. I'm not a huge X-Men fan anyway but yikes, that movie was bad!
ReplyDeleteI agree! Don't know why that movie existed!
DeleteI was enjoying the X-Men series so much but then they were like "let's ruin this" and did just that with The Last Stand. What a dreadful movie.
ReplyDeleteAgree! I really enjoyed the second movie and then they had to mess it up with the Last Stand!
DeleteI had loved the first couple of X-Men movies, I think not being a reader of them helped since the friend I went with to see them kept saying how they had changed this and that. Being unaware none of that bothered me but then they just went on and on and on and I lost interest. I have heard terrible things about The Last Stand but for me they petered out quite some time ago.
ReplyDeleteA live action version of a Dr. Seuss book always struck me as addle-brained so I never considered watching to begin with but even my nieces and nephews commented on how dreadful this was and they're the target audience!
Vampire Academy isn't my cup of tea either on film or print so it wouldn't be something I'd seek out but knowing that its terrible makes it even less appealing.
There are many good adaptations of books out there but probably more poor ones on average which simplified finding three.
The Scarlet Letter (1995)-In a 17th century Massachusetts Puritan settlement Hester Prynne has a secret adulterous affair with the local minister Arthur Dimmesdale while her husband is in Europe resulting in the birth of a child-Pearl. Condemned by the townspeople she is forced to wear a scarlet A in perpetuity to atone for her sin. Such is the meat of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s moralistic novel, but you will find extraordinarily little of any message, or anything else, in this sexed up hash that stars Demi Moore and Gary Oldman. When it’s not vulgar it’s stupid.
All the King’s Men (2006)-Southerner Willie Stark is a simple man who once he is elected to office slides wholly into corruption stepping on anyone in his way and crushing enemies and friends alike in his insatiable quest for power until a reckoning befalls him. Author Robert Penn Warren’s roman a clef novel of the rise and fall of politician Huey Long won the Pulitzer Prize and was made into an Oscar winning film (Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress) in the 50’s. All that is thrown away in this cinematic dog where the director managed to attract an amazing cast (including Sean Penn, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law and Mark Ruffalo) and guided them all to giving some of their worst performances in a film that is both overblown and boring.
Romeo & Juliet (1936)-The tragic story of impulsive teenagers who because of their families enmity feel compelled to take drastic measures rather than be parted. More a stage text than a book but either way this stiff and clunky adaptation shots itself in the foot coming out of the starting gate by having 34-year-old Norma Shearer playing the 13-year-old Juliet and even worse Leslie Howard aged 43! cast as her 16-year-old swain!
Hmmm...I never seen the 1930s version of Romeo and Juliet, but it does sound horrible.
DeleteThese were definitely all terrible. Perfect picks!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
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