The Best and The Worst Book to Film Adaptations

The Best: The Lord of The Rings Trilogy

The Lord of The Rings trilogy ended up with 11 Oscars, a bomb soundtrack, and a faithful adaptation of the books. I love this series! Peter Jackson, the director, absolutely nailed these films. The casting is perfect, the use of practical effects is pure magic, and the source material is utilized expertly. I feel like J.R.R. Tolkien would be absolutely astonished and happy with what was produced. This film series led me to the books, then led me to the fantasy genre as a whole. I owe a lot of my passion to Jackson and Tolkien.

The only parts that really stood out to me that I wish were shown was the bit about Tom Bombadil, because he’s such a mystery and a parallel to what is happening, and the love story between Éowyn and Faramir. But, with each movie being as long as they already are we’d need at least another half hour of run time to cover these two areas. I’m not genuinely complaining though because this adaptation is absolutely faithful and these two pieces aren’t entirely necessary for the story, just more depth to the world.

The Worst: Percy Jackson

I LOVE the Percy Jackson series. I gobbled them up when they came out and I was SO excited for a film adaptation. I left the theater absolutely gutted. The source material meant nothing and the casting was horrible. Grover’s character was not accurate in personality and they didn’t even make Annabeth blond! How hard is to dye hair or put on a freaking wig?! Not to mention the effects were horrendous.

The biggest travesty here is the complete butchering of an already excellent storyline. How do you have a plot already made out into a proven successful series and decide, ya know what? I’m gonna change it completely. They had success served to them on a silver platter and they slaughtered it.

Clarisse and Aries aren’t even in the dang movie. How do you leave out the main antagonist of the movie? Aries is literally the bad guy that Percy fights. Like what?! My mind was blown in the worst possible way. I hope in the future we can get a faithful Percy Jackson adaptation. I feel like Rick Riordan is an all-star and he deserves to see a good adaptation of his books.

What adaptation is your fave? And which one do you absolutely loathe? Let me know in the comments.