When a book is turned into a film nowadays, it’s either a hit or miss. The Mortal Instruments released into theaters August 21st and reviews have been made by websites such as Rotten Tomatoes and IMBD, giving it a 12% and a 6.6/10. This is just another movie based on a novel that has not done that well, like Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief and Twilight, scoring a 5.8/10 and 5.2/10 on IMBD respectively, which are failing scores. Should we be excited from our favorite books being turned into huge blockbusters, or should we just realize movie adaptations are a lost dream?
I don’t believe in film adaptations because the books are being poorly translated onto the big screen. The most notable films of this subject that pleased critics were The Harry Potter series and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, which usually scored above 8/10’s or higher from movie review sites. Out of many films that are based from a novel or a series of novels, these films do justice for the book.
It’s a pattern that every year, a certain film studio tries to pull off a Harry Potter or Hunger Games effect by finding an amazingly reviewed novel with a huge dedicated fan base and try put out a film that will be expected to be loved, no matter how rushed production was, and expecting fans to want a sequel every year.
“I really kind of get tired of books being turned into wannabe blockbusters,” said Sebastian Trenco, a junior. “They’re so lazily made now. For example, the Percy Jackson movie is practically almost nothing like the book plot wise, changed the characters so much, and cut the movie so short it’s like they made the movie in a week.”
It comes down to a question if we should even trust Hollywood with our beloved novels anymore, but it all depends if they’ll ever listen.
