So far in this series, I’ve talked about adaptations that I really like and that have been really successful. In this post, I’m going to explore a few adaptations that didn’t really shine and are just…not that good. Please note that these are in no particular order and that there will be some pretty big spoilers. You have been warned.
Twilight series
Courtesy of twilightguide.com
I wanted to talk about this one first just to get it out of the way. The Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer took terrible books and turned them into terrible movies. The writing in the book is terrible, but then again, does it really need to be good if the main target is the teenage girls that are craving for this type of a story? Probably not. The dialogue and interactions in the movie are terrible, if not borderline offensive. There’s a YouTube channel that compiled an uncut video of just all of the staring sequences in the series, and the video amounted to 26 minutes. In the second movie, 90 percent of it has Bella being depressed the whole time, and then she saves Edward from flashing a crowd of people. Seriously, that’s pretty much the entire movie, and it’s such a complete waste of time. They also decided to follow Harry Potter’s lead and split their final movie into 2 grueling movies, each 2 hours apiece. The last movie introduces so many people that it’s difficult to keep track of any of them. Plus, Bella names her child Renesmee…seriously, if I ever run into a child with that name, I’ll probably die a little bit inside. Although, I guess it is better than Apple or Blanket, but still. One of the biggest problems that I have with this series is the ending of the last movie. Making the entire battle just conveniently be a vision? NO! If you’re going to kill the vampire government, at least have the guts to do it, don’t make it into one of the most overused and disappointing scenarios ever. The last thing that really bothers me is that when they introduce all of these people that are actually interesting, you don’t get any character development or backstory whatsoever. I would really have loved to know more about Alice or Emmett, or even the other 20 vampires that they decided to introduce in the last movie. Overall, the books and the movies are extreme disappointments, and I’m glad the series is over.
The Last Airbender
Courtesy of en.wikipedia.org
If none of you know about this movie, it’s most likely because of the name. Avatar: The Last Airbender is a book turned Nickelodeon cartoon turned to massively bad movie. M. Night Shyamalan directs this movie, and unfortunately, it seems like he just used the Spark Notes version when he was researching it. They changed many of the pronunciations of the character’s names; I mean, how hard is it to get their own names right?! It wasn’t even the side characters either, it was the main cast! The effects were terrible. Earth-bending a rock into the air made it seem like a styrofoam prop on strings. Anything that would even be remotely cool about this movie tends to be dulled down by the bad acting and the poor effects. Also, where is Momo? The crazy flying lemur buddy barely makes any sort of appearance in the movie, when he’s probably one of the most likeable characters. While it had been planned to make more movies after this one, The Last Airbender flopped so badly that it doesn’t seem likely to advance.
The Green Lantern
Courtesy of en.wikipedia.com
When I saw Green Lantern was getting his own movie, I was excited. Ryan Reynolds was cast as the lead, and he’s pretty decent. But the movie was terrible. I think one of the biggest things that killed it was the CGI effects. The suit pictured onto his body, the evil particle villain, the green energy creations…it all just kind of looked substandard. I feel like this was due to some budgeting issues. There is a LOT of CGI in this movie, and it doesn’t come cheap, but if you have too much of it in places where it’s not needed, then it just looks cheap. The Green Lantern really does look cheap. Even the guy with the big head (his name is escaping me) could have been done up a lot better than how he looks. The acting also could have been a little bit better, but I feel like even if it was, it still would have been overshadowed by the terrible effects and the other flaws in the movie.
What are some adaptations that you hate? Leave a comment and let us know what you think!
-Lauren Pirc, Assistant Blog Editor
