This is part two of my Books and Films feature, I'll be sharing with you the film adaptations that just don't hit the spot. Everyone knows of films that just don't compare to the book, that you actually end up really disliking because the director crucified such a brilliant novel. Here are my picks of the worst film adaptations!
I absolutely adore the
Bridget Jones novels, though I am yet to read the third one purely as Helen Fielding killed off Mark Darcy, which in my opinion is sacrilege. The books are hysterical, Bridget is a great character and I loved following her through her life and journey to find love. The first film was so good, it stuck to the book and the actors were incredible. But oh the second film. I was utterly disappointed when I first watched it. It deviates from the plot SO much! The book was really good, so why ruin it? I still liked the actors and the characters, but the complete change in plot from the book to the film really annoyed me.
Kristen Stewart. Have I said enough?
Okay, I don't like the
Twilight books, but at the time of reading them when the film came out, I did (or maybe I was just caught up in the craze). I think the books are bad, and the films are even worse. Kristen Stewart's face barely changes throughout all of the films. There is like zero emotion being portrayed. Also, her eyebrows were wonky in the first film and they really bugged me. I dislike the characters Edward and Bella. My favourite part of all five films is when Taylor Laughtner says '
What a marshmallow' in
New Moon. Yup, one teeny tiny line. The rest of the films are so ridiculously boring! There's a huge build up and then nothing ends up happening. Where's the fun in that? I don't like the
Twilght films or books, they definitely have a firm position on this list.
The book really got to me, I've read it about four times now, and without fail I cry at the end. The film didn't have this effect on me. I actually got pretty bored while watching it. For me that's unusual, I'll always cry when I watch
Moulin Rouge!, or even
Brother Bear. Hell, I cried when I watched the
Captain America film. So to not cry at the film of
The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas actually shocked me a little. It's not that it's a bad film, simply that it does not come close to being as emotional or moving as the book.
Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009)
This isn't a bad film, it's just SO different from the books. In fact, it's like all of the books squashed into 104 minutes. I ADORE the books (a new one has just been released!) so I was really excited when the film was announced. The film is good, but not as an adaptation of a book. They've turned Becky, a very British girl, into a ditzy American! Quite a big change from Sophie Kinsella's plot.
Pride and Prejudice (2005)
In my previous post
Pride and Prejudice was listed as one of my favourite film adaptations. But that was the
BBC Colin Firth adaptation. The Keira Knightly version, in my opinion, is pretty rubbish. Firth
is Darcy, he's been quoted as saying,
"I'm fully aware," Firth told a reporter for the English magazine Now, "that if I were to change professions tomorrow, become an astronaut and be the first man to land on Mars, the headlines in the newspapers would read: 'Mr Darcy lands on Mars." And that pretty much sums it up.
I'm not so shortsighted as to dislike a film purely because I don't agree with the choice of Darcy, the rest of the cast are also a disappointment. The mother was missing something, she was not the embarrassing character depicted by Austen. In my opinion Keira Knightly was a poor Elizabeth. I didn't like the cast of this film adaptation, and I really didn't like the film.
I actually found it more difficult than I expected to find bad film adaptations! Lots of the films that I thought of weren't adaptations, they were just bad! What film adaptations do you think miss the mark? Let me know in the comments! If you're new to the blog then I'd love you to follow me on
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