Adapting a book into a movie can be a tricky process, the challenge of staying true to source material whilst also trying to fit several hours of content into a two-hour film. There have been many filmmakers who have struck that balance beautifully over the years and as such we have no small amount of successful adaptations. On the other side of that there too have been filmmakers who clumsily toe this line and this inability shows leaving an entire fanbase disappointed and mourning their favorite novel's chance of becoming blockbusters like Harry Potter or The Hunger Games. Throughout this article we will be exploring some of the times those filmmakers have struggled to walk that line and inevitably miss the mark.
“The Darkest Minds”
“The Darkest Minds” by Alexandra Bracken is a novel that takes place in the future where more than half the population of children have died off from a mysterious disease and those who survived have abilities. These abilities are ranked by colors from most to least dangerous. Camps are erected across America that house children in order to stifle their abilities. The story follows a character named Ruby who is considered the most dangerous but is able to sneak into a camp under a different color. One day her cover is blown, and she’s broken out of the camp and must navigate this world hostile to her.
This book was hands down one of the best young adult sci-fi books I have ever read. This is the first book in a trilogy, and I loved every single one. The books even recently had a spin-off about one of the side characters in the books. Every character is so well thought out and nuanced. I truly loved every moment of these books and they had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. Imagine my excitement when I heard the novel was getting a movie adaptation. Well, no sooner was it misplaced. The movie changed some vital aspects of the novels. A few main things stuck out to me that kind of set the movie up for ruin. One was the plot line of Ruby and Clancy being the only Oranges left. It makes no sense and it kind of downplays the versatility of these abilities and this world. Sam, also felt like a major plot hole, as she served to set up Ruby’s genuine fear of herself and her abilities. One minor change that kind of irritated me was the fact that they didn’t play into the opportunity to have a very unique soundtrack in this film as was set up by Alexandra Bracken in the books. They could have had a musical score similar to Guardians of the Galaxy which leans on the classics and is a staple in the MCU because of it.
“Percy Jackson”
The “Percy Jackson” series by Rick Riordan follows a young boy who learns he is a demigod and the son of Poseidon. In the first book, we follow Percy on an adventure to save his mother and find the person who stole the lightning bolt of Zeus. He goes through many trials and tribulations throughout this time, making friends, and facing monsters that he’d never seen in his wildest dreams.
This book has stolen the hearts of children across the globe. Selling over 180 million copies across 35 countries and is available in 37 languages. It has also been praised for teaching mythology to kids in a receptive fun way. It’s one of the only children's fantasy books I can think of that is second to Harry Potter in success. That means a book-to-movie adaptation should have been worth its weight in gold. A blockbuster poised to strike the box offices. But alas, it fell short. I don’t think in my experience watching these adaptations that I have ever encountered a novel that has fallen quite as short as this one did. For one, the book is meant to follow a child, a twelve-year-old child. A twenty-something-year-old plays him. The nuances of this fantasy world are further skewed. Things like ‘the mist’ which is a natural thing meant to cloak their magical world from the eyes of regular people are instead projected as something tangible. Something in a can that must be sprayed into the atmosphere for people’s perception to alter, and this alone creates so many plot holes for the future it’s hard to see how movies can continue with this handicap present. Even the relationships are heavily altered for the screens and in the end, this concoction of changes spells the downfall of the film franchise.
"Allegiant"
“Allegiant” by Veronica Roth is the third movie in the “Divergent” trilogy. “Divergent” is a dystopian novel that takes place in this futuristic world split into these things called factions. Everyone must belong to a faction; it is the way of the world. When a person comes of age, they take a test that determines their compatibility with each faction. Our story follows Tris who learns she is Divergent and does not belong to any single faction but instead belongs to them all. This goes against the world that has been built and she must navigate this world where people are willing to kill to keep her status a secret.
“Divergent” was a pretty successful adaptation from the beginning. It was very successful when it first hit box offices around the world and showed signs of being as successful as “The Hunger Games” which had taken the box office by storm a few years prior. The final book deviated from the source material in the last movie and the deviation cost the franchise quite a bit. The major change is that the story is mostly told by Tris instead of swapping as was intended. Tris and Four don’t break up as they do in the book, and Tris never dies at the end of the movie like in the novel. In the end, these changes don’t work in the favor of the franchise.
