Often a book is popular enough to compel producers and writers to invest in an adaptation for the silver screen. Adaptation doesn’t always work out, however, and even if the source material is great, the transition to live-action or animation can turn out to be underwhelming. Sometimes the execution and interpretation itself are fine, but other important factors like marketing and budget are sorely lacking.
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All the following movies were based on some great science fiction novels but weren’t very impressive or impactful interpretations, getting mixed or poor reviews from both critics and fans. Considering how good the books are, some of which have spawned a whole galaxy of merchandise and have a dedicated fan following, it’s universally accepted that an adaptation based on them can be a lot better than what the public has seen up to now.
6A Wrinkle In Time, By Madeleine L’Engle
It’s been a popular book for years and required reading for most high school English classes. There have been two attempts at an adaptation for Madeleine L’Engle’s science fiction-fantasy young adult novel, and neither of them has been very impressive. The 2003 version was decent as far as plot and certain visual interpretations but had a low budget and not a lot of special effects.
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The 2018 version, starring big names like Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon, seemed to have the opposite problem. It had the budget and the special effects but went so far in that direction that it lacked any depth or realism. Considering what a great character Meg Murry is, she deserves a better chance to tell her story.
5Ready Player One, By Ernest Cline
Reviews on the 2018 adaptation are mixed, but the consensus is that it looks great but lacks the soul, character development, and coherent storyline of the original novel. It also relies too much on nostalgia for the audience feels as opposed to an authentic emotional experience, which makes the movie a satire of itself.
The big issue here is over-enthusiastic marketing.Ready Player Onechecked off all the right boxes when it came to demographics; young adults, MMORPGs,1980s memorabilia, and big-budget blockbusters. Warner Bros. bought the rights a year before the book was published by Random House just to get their hands on the IP as soon as possible. The result was a visually impressive Spielberg movie but an underwhelming version of the Ernest Cline novel.
4Fahrenheit 451, By Ray Bradbury
There have been two attempts to bring Ray Bradbury’s vision of a dystopian future, with the first being in 1966 and the most recent in 2018. The earlier one was hampered by puzzling changes to the story and bad pacing, along with the challenges of early special effects and science-fiction aesthetic in general. It gotlost in the sea of horror and dystopian-themedmovies that seemed to be popular in the late 1960s.
The more recent interpretation wasn’t received well by fans or critics either, plus it was stifled by a limited release directly to HBO. It’s not such a complicated story, so, weirdly, nobody has been able to get it right as a movie, at least not yet.
3Contact, By Carl Sagan
The one attempt to bring this Carl Sagan novel to the silver screen in 1997 started out great: a skeptical main character with an emotionally charged backstory and a strong affiliation to hard science, which is the point of this novel. The cast also included some talented names to back it up, with Jodie Foster andMatthew McConaughey playing the main roles.
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However, this adaptation decided to widen its target audience considerably by linking Sagan’s ideas about transcendentalism with more conventional ideas of religious faith versus science. It’s not a message without merit, but it dumbs down the original philosophical questions the novel was trying to ask. Now that it’s 25 years later, maybe a more faithful adaptation is possible.
2Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, By Douglas Adams
Most people understand the infamous “42” reference even if they don’t know exactly what it means.The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxytook the known universe by storm when it was released in 1978, spawning an impressive franchise that included a radio series, a couple of TV shows, stage plays, video games, comic books, and even vinyl LPs.
Consideringthe value of this intellectual property, it’s amazing the only feature film to come out of this universe was a single low-budget movie that had a very limited release in 2005. That’s the only attempt that’s been made, and if this story got a decent budget and Hollywood backing, it could be something great.
1Tales From Earthsea, By Ursula Le Guin
When Hayao Miyazakiof Studio Ghiblifirst approached Ursula Le Guin about an adaptation ofTales From Earthsea,she declined, but then changed her mind when she sawMy Neighbor Totoro.
Although she appreciated the general aesthetic of the finished product, she was dissatisfied with how the movie handled the issue of evil, and how it should be defeated, among other issues. She thought a better version was possible and she was right.
Tales from Earthseamight not be an adaptation at all, since it changes the plot and characters so much it’s almost a totally different story. This seems to be the general complaint of most fans and viewers. People who knew the books were confused as to what had been changed, added, or edited, and those who didn’t have little or no frame of reference as to the setting or characters.
