With so many forms of entertainment at our disposal, two seem to dominate this sphere — books, and movies. And if you combine them, you get a lot of book to movie adaptations — the ultimate form of entertainment. However, not every book adaptation becomes successful in the eyes of the audience. A book to movie adaptation can sometimes be a flop, same with a series. The failure is usually the result of the butchering of the original story and bad creative decisions on the filmmaker's side.
It’s no secret that some books are much longer than their adaptations. Some of the best book to movie adaptations (TV show adaptations included) are ones that correctly use the given material, cutting out the boring parts, and leaving only the fun or most important ones. But not everyone can do it. Many bad movies based on books follow the original material letter to letter. An adaptation like this removes the whole creative side of the film, making the final product feel a bit bland.
If you want an adaptation to be a box office smash, you have to understand the deeper context of the book. Books made into movies and shows have to be true to the main idea that the author wrote. If the story is about consumerism, the visual content has to showcase it clearly and loudly. Books being made into movies usually become victims of misunderstanding and incorrect creative decisions. A lot of irrelevant material is added, which can have an adverse impact on the story.
And truth to be told, there have been a lot of books turned into movies and TV shows that aren’t on par with the original material. Since the internet is full of polarizing opinions (looking at you, Twitter), someone asked on AskReddit the question we are all eager to answer — “Which movie or TV adaptation is the biggest letdown for you?” Scroll down and upvote the answer you agree with the most. If you know any more bad TV shows or movies based on books, leave a comment below.
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#41 Persuasion
"Netflix's take on Jane Austen's Persuasion. I endured 10 minutes of it. Then again, it's Netflix's. I did it to myself."
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12points
#42 The Beach
"The Beach. The book is AMAZING but the movie is just horrible. Probably because it entirely omitted one of my favorite characters from the book."
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12points
#43 The Dresden Files
"The Dresden Files TV series. Continuity errors in the story because episodes were broadcast out of order. Trying to crush an entire novel, Storm Front, into a less than one hour (when counting commercials) episode and failing. I will never not be disappointed that Dresden's car in the books, a Volkswagen Beetle named the Blue Beetle in the books (a non-sentient character in its own right), changed to a Jeep for the TV series. I think Paul Blackthorne as Dresden hit it on the nose with his looks and performance. The actors portraying the characters of Lt. Murphy and Warden Morgan did a great job capturing the essence of the books characters. But looked different from the physical descriptions of the characters in the book series. I'm okay with this. For me, the end result was The Dresden Files TV series coming across as being okayed by the powers that be, but without a clear and coherent path for the series."
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11points
#44 Aurora Teagarden Mysteries
"Honestly, it’s prob easier to name one that didn’t disappoint but if I have to pick the one I hated the most, it’s the Aurora Teagarden mysteries. The books are so good and then Hallmark sucked all the quirk out of the characters and plots. The acting is so terrible and bland."
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11points
#45 The Book Thief
"The Book Thief. That book made me sob my heart out, and to have such a poor film adaptation was disappointing."
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10points
#46 Foundation: Death And The Maiden
"Foundation. Loved the books, and had high hopes for the series, especially after the first ep. Then, straight into the toilet. Why film an "adaptation" that has almost nothing to do with the source material? So disappointing."
10points
#47 Annihilation
"Annihilation was a let down for me. They omitted quite a few things that I was looking forward to seeing adapted in the movie. They even omitted the reason why it is called annihilation!"
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10points
#48 A Discovery Of Witches
"A Discovery of Witches. I didn't even make it past the first episode. I had just started re-reading the books when someone mentioned that there was live series that had just released. Didn't even make it past the first episode."
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10points
#49 Inkheart
"Inkheart. I loved the story of a man with such a beautiful, melodic voice that the stories he told came to life. No hate but that is not Brendan Fraser. Not to mention they changed the plot so much that they couldn't have done the sequels if they wanted."
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9points
#50 Altered Carbon
"Altered Carbon. They got the look and atmosphere of the book, but diverged on every other count. The book was built around themes of anti-imperialism and anti-capitalism, the show homogenized everything and stripped out everything contrary to the establishment. Not only that but because they savaged and mashed together 3 books of plots and characters into one season, they kinda shot themselves in the foot for doing any more seasons, as evidenced by the limp second season."
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9points
#51 The Goldfinch
"It made me question if I even read the book or just skimmed it. So, I reread the book and still loved it. The movie was just boring."
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8points
#52 The Tragedy Of Macbeth
"I recently watched Joel Coen’s adaptation of Macbeth and it made me very unhappy. The cinematography was beautiful and I found Kathryn Hunter’s interpretation of the Weird Sisters as a sort of gestalt consciousness inhabiting a single body to be interesting but Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth were just awful."
8points
#53 Sphere
"The book was SO GOOD! I read it as a teenager and when they finally made a movie about it I was so stoked! And wow, what a dog of a film... I refuse to watch it ever again."
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7points
#54 Johnny Mnemonic
"Johnny Mnemonic was so deeply disappointing. What made it worse was that apparently William Gibson was involved in the production."
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7points
#55 No Exit
"I couldn't agree more on No Exit. It's the book that got me into reading. I was so happy when I saw that they did the movie. But it was absolute trash."
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7points
#56 Station Eleven
"There was a lot I liked about the changes to Station Eleven (Jeevan and Kirsten staying together longer was really lovely), but I really hate the changes they made to Tyler’s plot. I didn’t want redemption for him and shoehorning it in didn’t work at all."
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7points
#57 Jurassic Park
"When Jurassic Park came out, I read the book first and the movie didn’t come close. Never did watch the movie all the way through."
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7points
#58 Sum Of All Fears
"Sum of all fears. It is not very complex, not very good but trashy entertainment., and the high power adaptation made it generic and boring."
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6points
#59 Legend Of The Seeker
"Sword of Truth Series, the books were alright up until about book 6, but the TV show, I have NO idea where they were going with it and it was a laughable mess right from the get go."
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5points
#60 Catch-22
"Catch 22. It's my favorite book. The OG movie is okay I guess. Was so stoked for the mini series. George Clooney nailed it in his first episode -he's obviously read and understood the damn thing- but it was like the directors sat him down and said "No George, you can't be over the top. This ain't a comedy" because the rest of his scenes were a bore. They sucked all the dark humor smooth out of it. Again."
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5points
