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The worst book-to-movie adaptations
Sub-par movie releases throughout the years
Natalie Abreu
Issue date: 10/1/08 Section: Focus
"The Seeker: The Dark is Rising" (2007)
The book "The Dark Is Rising" by Susan Cooper was written in the 1970s and was one of the first popular fantasy book series circling around the concepts of good vs. evil. Being a precursor to other fantasy novels, you'd think filmmakers would give the material a little respect. That's not the case at all. The story completely deviates from the book, which was similar to a King Arthur tale, but now ends up as an altogether mess of bad dialogue, acting and special effects that include big action sequences not even hinted upon in the book. This film flew under the radar when it was released and for good reason too.
"Love in the Time of Cholera" (2007)
Based on the 1985 Spanish language novel by the Colombian Nobel Prize winning author Gael García Márquez, the portrayal of the story gets lost in translation from book to film. The film tries to cover such a broad scope of the character's lives that they fail to develop into people we really care about throughout the years.
The book "The Dark Is Rising" by Susan Cooper was written in the 1970s and was one of the first popular fantasy book series circling around the concepts of good vs. evil. Being a precursor to other fantasy novels, you'd think filmmakers would give the material a little respect. That's not the case at all. The story completely deviates from the book, which was similar to a King Arthur tale, but now ends up as an altogether mess of bad dialogue, acting and special effects that include big action sequences not even hinted upon in the book. This film flew under the radar when it was released and for good reason too.
"Love in the Time of Cholera" (2007)
Based on the 1985 Spanish language novel by the Colombian Nobel Prize winning author Gael García Márquez, the portrayal of the story gets lost in translation from book to film. The film tries to cover such a broad scope of the character's lives that they fail to develop into people we really care about throughout the years.
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 3
Kat
posted 10/01/08 @ 8:51 AM EST
I agree completely about "The Dark is Rising." I loved those books as a kid and was so excited when the movie came out and went to see right away - then it completely sucked. (Continued…)
Eric
posted 10/01/09 @ 1:44 AM EST
Even worse than "The Da Vinci Code" was "Angels & Demons." I almost walked out of the theater.
Dheak
posted 10/12/09 @ 5:17 AM EST
Wow, this is a surprisingly short list here considering the level of bile that Hollywood gives us when adapting books to film.
The worst offender that I can think of is Dune. (Continued…)
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