Top Ten Tuesday #1

I recently discovered something fun called Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish.  I thought it would be cool to give it a try and see how it goes.  Of course the first week I start is a freebie week, meaning I can write any Top Ten topic of my choosing.  I decided to go with Top Ten Worst Film Adaptations. There are so many books that have been made into movies, often several movies, or mini-series, and rarely are those adaptations able to get it perfect.  But they're not usually terrible, or the changes are understandable.  However, there are some that are just so bad or the changes are so drastic, I don't know what they were thinking.

Top Ten Worst Film Adaptations

1. Eragon -  I feel like the screenwriters just threw the book out the window when they made this movie.  They could have done so much better.
2. The Lightning Thief -  I was actually surprised during the first half of the movie at how closely they followed the book.  Sure, the acting was awful, but I could ignore that.  Then towards the end, everything went wrong.  They took a perfectly great ending and changed it horribly.  And now they want to make a sequel?!
3. The Cat in the Hat/How the Grinch Stole Christmas -  Two beloved children's books by Dr. Seuss and two comedians known for raunchy humor.  Put them together and you get two non-family-friendly films.  Jim Carrey's Grinch doesn't annoy me anywhere near as much as Mike Myer's Cat, but I still won't let my little sister watch either.  Maybe I'm being too harsh, but I really think potty humor and sexual innuendos do not belong in the same category as Dr. Seuss.
4. Jane Eyre (2011)-  Ok, so this movie wasn't really that bad... until the end.  Throughout the whole thing, I kept thinking, "This is good so far; sure Mia Wasikowska isn't great, but she's not terrible."  And then the final scene, one of the best scenes in literature... they destroyed it!  Instead of that beautiful moment and the following banter, they abruptly end the movie with one line.  I felt cheated.  If you're going to watch a Jane Eyre adaptation, watch the 2005 BBC mini-series.
5. Twilight -  Somebody please tell Kristen Stewart to give up because she just can't act.  Throughout the movie, she's wooden and monotone.  I'm still not sure if she even realizes that she can't change facial expressions.
6. Alice in Wonderland -  I'm not sure where to begin here.  Mia Wasikowska as a grown-up (boring) Alice?  Johnny Depp as a very strange Mad Hatter?  Anne Hathaway's eyebrows?  I've seen better adaptations than this, and I think I'll stick with them.
7. Dune (1984) - Long.  Drawn out.  Weird.  It also doesn't help that I saw the 2000 miniseries first, which was much better.
8. The Black Cauldron -  I don't know what Disney was thinking when they made this movie.  First off, it's way too dark for a Disney animated movie.  Second, it's based on the second book of the Prydain Chronicles, not the first.  If you're going to adapt a book from a series, it's usually best to start with the first book.
9. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -  I love Freddie Highmore and Johnny Depp, but I really did not love this movie.  The oompa-loompas were creepy; Willie Wonka was creepy; the whole movie just seemed creepy.  Plus the Gene Wilder version was just fantastic, making the newer adaptation entirely unnecessary.
10. The War of the Worlds (2005) -  Tom Cruise.  Enough said.