10 Near-Perfect Movies That Are Terrible Adaptations

These ten movies are acclaimed, beloved films and standouts in their genres, but that doesn’t mean they’re good adaptations of their source material. Adapting source material is not as simple as taking the words on a book’s page and removing the prose, just keeping the dialogue; it’s a difficult endeavor that requires plenty of editing, judgment, and creative thinking.

There’s a reason there’s a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar. The industry has a lot of respect for the job of turning a book, play, or any other medium into a feature-length film. There are different levels of faithfulness in adaptations, however, and plenty of great films have little to do with their source and are weak adaptations for it, while still being near-perfect movies.

Annihilation (2018)

Adapted From Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation (2014)

Alex Garland’s Annihilation is one of the best science fiction movies of the last two decades and one of Garland’s best movies. The film stars Natalie Portman as a biologist named Lena who is recruited into an all-female scientific expedition to investigate a mysterious, physics-defying zone known as the Shimmer, which resulted when a meteor landed on Earth.

It’s a dark, psychedelic portrait of grief, evolution, and the mysteries of the universe, and Garland balances huge, philosophical ideas with gut-wrenching horror and moving drama. VanderMeer’s novel is even more psychedelic, Lovecraftian in how it describes what Lena (unnamed in the book) experiences, which means major scenes are left out, and Garland adds many of his own, including completely changing the ending.

Blade Runner (1982)

Adapted From Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? (1968)

The original Blade Runner from Ridley Scott is generally ranked among the great science fiction movies of all time, and still holds up over 40 years later. It’s based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep by Philip K. Dick, a science fiction author whose work has been adapted many times over.

The titles of the film and the book are not even close to the only differences between the two. Both Scott’s and Dick’s stories explore similar themes, but their scopes vary wildly. Do Androids has a deeper amount of world-building, which both enriches it and slows it down, while Blade Runner is more streamlined. There are also some big changes in how Deckard is presented in the film versus the book.

Children Of Men (2006)

Adapted From P. D. James’ The Children Of Men (1992)

Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men takes place in the year 2027, where human infertility has led to large-scale wars, global depression, and the near collapse of human society. Theo Farron (Clive Owen) is a former activist who has turned cynical and jaded, but is called back to help smuggle the last pregnant woman on Earth through a war front.

Extremely thematic and frighteningly prescient, Children of Men is a cautionary tale and an ode to human endurance all in one. P. D. James’ novel is very different. The core premise of both is the same, but Cuarón is interested in other aspects of the apocalypse than James, and turns his film basically into an extended road trip, rather than the political thriller that the book is.

Forrest Gump (1994)

Adapted From Winston Groom’s Forrest Gump (1986)

It may surprise people to learn that Forrest Gump is actually based on a novel, and that might be because the two are very different. The Tom Hanks-led film follows a man named Forrest Gump, who, despite a learning disability, finds himself involved with some of the most important events of the 20th century.

The 1986 novel features a much rougher version of Gump, who is described specifically as a “savant” and is unafraid to curse and indulge in more mature activities than his naive film counterpart. In the book, Gump gets involved with NASA, professional wrestling, meets cannibals, and befriends an ape named Sue.

How To Train Your Dragon (2010)

Adapted From Cressida Cowell’s How To Train Your Dragon (2003)

The How to Train Your Dragon franchise began in 2010 with the original How to Train Your Dragon, where a young Viking boy named Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) makes friends with one of the dangerous dragons who harass his village. It’s a fantastic animated film with a sweeping score and visual animation better than most of what has come after it.

The series is based on Cowell’s own series of children’s books, and while the primary target of both is young people, the books are much simpler. In them, every Viking is already responsible for training a dragon, hence the title, whereas in the films, the antagonism between the Viking and dragon communities is a major throughline.

Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)

Adapted From Diana Wynne Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle (1986)

Hayao Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle is one of the indispensable movies in the Miyazaki canon. It tells the story of Sophie (Emily Mortimer and Jean Simmons), a timid hatmaker who has a curse put on her that turns her old. In search of a cure, she befriends Howl (Christian Bale), an inherently good wizard whose life as a bachelor has earned him a self-serving streak.

Jones’ Howl’s Moving Castle is just the first book in the Howl series, which helps explain why, of all Miyazaki’s films, Howl’s feels the most episodic, and if we’re being critical, disjointed. The movie streamlines the book, removing characters and centering the narrative focus on Sophie and Howl, and Miyazaki’s concern with mechanization and warfare are clearly present in the film, but not nearly as prominent in the novel.

Jurassic Park (1993)

Adapted From Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park (1990)

Jurassic Park remains the greatest dinosaur movie ever made, and it was probably helped by the fact that the author of the novel, Michael Crichton, helped with the screenplay. Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park is an adventure ride, a creature feature, and a family drama that excels in every aspect.

While it does borrow substantially from the novel in its setup, a lot is different. Crichton, as he was in most of his novels, is heavily concerned with the science behind the dinosaur park, each chapter offering a visualization of Malcolm’s (Jeff Goldblum) chaos theory. Spielberg trades the corporate espionage and evil corporate overlords for an escape story and lovable characters.

The Hunchback Of Notre Dame (1996)

Adapted From Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback Of Notre-Dame (1833)

Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame is one of the more underrated movies in its canon, a result perhaps of coming in the middle of the Disney Renaissance, where it’s easy to get lost among the incredible animated films of the period. The Hunchback of Notre Dame follows the titular bell-ringer of Notre Dame, Quasimodo (Tom Hulce).

A ward of the evil Judge Frollo (Tony Jay), Quasimodo realizes that there is more outside the cathedral where he’s been sequestered. Brilliantly animated with some fantastic songs, The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a far more kid-friendly retelling of Victor Hugo’s story, which includes, among other things, Quasimodo climbing into Esmerelda’s coffin at the end of the gothic story.

The Shining (1980)

Adapted From Stephen King’s The Shining (1977)

Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining strayed far enough from the book that Stephen King famously and vocally made it known that he disapproved. The book and film are actually quite similar in plot and structure, but it’s the themes that differ, and the themes are major parts of both.

King’s The Shining is a highly personal tale; he was in the throes of alcoholism while he wrote the story, and there are many autobiographical elements within it. Jack Torrance in the novel is an everyman who loses control. Kubrick’s film is much more clinical and sterile, with fewer explanations given about Jack and his family. Both the book and the movie are great for different reasons, but you’ll get two different senses of the story depending on which you consume.

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971)

Adapted From Roald Dahl’s Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (1964)

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s 1964 novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which was also adapted in 2005 by Tim Burton. While the 2005 version is generally considered inferior, it’s also more faithful to the book, beyond using the correct title.

Most of what appears in the 1971 movie was made up for the film, including the golden egg-laying swans, the fake prat fall Wonka (Gene Wilder) does as his entrance, the fifth ticket hoax, and the fizzy lifting drink. The plot beats are similar in the book and movie, but reading Dahl’s story offers a completely different experience.