Adaptations are always a risky decision in the cinematic world, often getting a bad reputation by readers and literary critics. However, when done right they have the ability to connect a far wider audience into a cultural phenomenon. More often than not, the enjoyment of an adaptation is depended on having read the book first or not; however, some adaptations are so good we forget there is even a book at all.
In my opinion, one of the best movie adaptations of all time has to be the ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy originally written by J.R.R. Tolkien and directed by Peter Jackson. The movies erase some key aspects of the novel such as Faramir’s temptation or Frodo choosing Gollum over Sam. While these changes did aggravate original readers, there is also a general consensus that the movies did an incredible job at capturing Tolkien’s creation of Middle-Earth.
By removing the complexities of the novels, Middle-Earth became much more accessible to non-fantasy readers and expanded the viewership extensively. Fantasy novels can be incredibly difficult to comprehend as a non-fantasy reader with complex names and immense world building, I believe the ‘LOTR’ adaptation is one of the best ever made due to its majoritively book accurate plot and influence in wider adaptations.
Whilst book to movie adaptations can never be a perfect transference of plot, adaptations appear to fail when they stray too far from original characters or author intention.
Not all adaptations have to be textually accurate to be generationally cinematic masterpieces. Shakespearean adaptations have been hooking in generations for years since the original plays and I believe they truly do stand the test of time.
The movies ‘She’s The Man’, ‘10 Things I Hate About You’ and ‘Anyone but You’ are just a few examples of hit adaptations taking reference from Shakespeare’s plays such as ‘Twelfth Night’, ‘Taming of the Shrew’ and ‘Much Ado About Nothing’. Adaptations don’t need to be modern to be good!
Whilst book to movie adaptations can never be a perfect transference of plot, adaptations appear to fail when they stray too far from original characters or author intention. The movie ‘Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief’ is the perfect example of a great book whose movie missed the mark.
The aging of the characters in collection with the change in ending and villain made the movie far to contrasted from the book to allow for success. However, whilst the movie was an awful adaptation, the more recent Disney+ series ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ is a much better adaptation in both casting and plot accuracy.
With plenty more book to movie adaptations in the works, we can expect to see many more novels reaching our screens. There may be focus on adaptations of ‘Verity’ by Colleen Hoover, ‘The Housemaid’ by Frieda McFadden and other ‘BookTok’ texts, but we are missing out on our excitement for the new ‘The Magic Faraway Tree’ adaptation written by Simon Farnaby based on the Enid Blyton novel. ‘The Magic Faraway Tree’ was, for some, a pivotal childhood novel and with its incredible star-studded cast and excellent writer, I believe this movie adaptation will be a must see!
