Butchered by Hollywood: The worst screen adaptations ever made

While most adaptations of beloved books are homages to the source material and a way to bring in a new audience, sometimes Hollywood gets it so wrong that it ends up being an insult instead. Be it a total lack of respect for the original work, a misunderstanding of it, or studio interference, these movie adaptations missed the mark.

So, we take a look at six movies that butchered their source material and angered their fanbase.

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Percy Jackson and The Olympians

The movie is based on the beloved fantasy book series by Rick Riordan and had not one but two terrible big-screen adaptations. The movie failed to understand the tone and message of the books and also decided to age up the characters and turned the movie into another generic teen angst movie.

There is a silver lining, this is the only adaptation on this list with one, Disney decided to make more faithful adaptations as a series, with each season adapting one of the seven books in the series, and it worked. The first season received great reviews from critics, and a second season is in production.

Lois Lowry's 1993 book is a haunting and emotional tale that explored themes of individuality vs. conformity and the connection between pain and pleasure. Unfortunately for its fans and audiences, its 2014 adaptation chose to ignore all this, and instead, we got a generic dystopian Hollywood action movie that put the focus on teenage romance rather than the book’s core themes.

Eragon

Based on the popular fantasy series by Christopher Paolini and set in the fantasy world of Alagaësia, and filled with evil warlords, elves, magic, and dragons, it had all the ingredients to make a great movie adaptation. But what audiences got was a rushed and lifeless adaptation that changed the plot of the original, removed key characters and scenes, and replaced it with badly written dialogue and fantasy clichés.

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Based on the critically acclaimed book that was a unique take on the zombie genre, the book explored the after-effects of a global zombie apocalypse that almost wiped out the human race through a series of interviews.

The film adaptation starring Brad Pitt chose to ignore this, and instead, we got a 2-hour bore-fest filled with every zombie movie cliché you can think of and turned the complex narrative of the original into a movie so unrecognisable from its source material that the only thing they have in common is the title.

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The Mortal Instruments

The books by Cassandra Clare had amazing world-building, complex characters, and forbidden romance that captured the hearts of readers worldwide. But its 2013 adaptation was none of these, and instead glossed over the book’s world-building and lore, turned the characters into caricatures of themselves, and was a poorly made and exposition-heavy snooze fest that should never have been made.

Artemis Fowl

Arguably the biggest offender on this list, writer Eoin Colfer’s Artemis Fowl books are beloved by readers across the world and considered classics. The books blended science fiction and fantasy and created a unique world and introduced the world to Artemis Fowl, a morally grey 12-year-old criminal mastermind. The books are funny, clever, and filled with twists and turns.

But its 2020 adaptation stripped it all away. Artemis Fowl was turned from a complex anti-hero to a generic good guy, the immersive world-building was replaced with exposition dumps, and the main plot was changed, leading many to wonder why adapt something if you want to change everything from the source material, making this adaptation best left forgotten.

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