A film can bring a beloved book to life, making visible what’s only on the page or in the imagination. But even with the best of intentions, sometimes filmmakers miss the mark, and they make movie adaptations that are more enjoyable if you read the book.
Like these:
The Golden Compass
Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass (AKA Northern Lights) has been hailed as a modern masterpiece of YA lit. But the 2007 film version misses the mark in some big ways. So significant, in fact, that many devoted fans of the book were left scratching their heads and wondering what happened to the rest of the movie.
Dune
Dune, based on Frank Herbert’s book, requires some exhaustive world-building that was difficult for filmmakers to wrangle into a screenplay. While director David Lynch has always gone for the bizarre over the conventional, Dune is too perplexing and frustrating even by typical Lynch standards. It’s a big, sprawling space opera set in a feudal interstellar society in which various beings are all trying to get their hands on a coveted resource called Spice. Confused yet?
The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby has been filmed twice, once in 1974 and again in 2013, but neither quite captures the spirit of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel. Of the two, the latter, by Baz Luhrmann, is the more puzzling. Like many Luhrmann movies, it’s a glittery spectacle, but his Great Gatsby doesn’t get under the skin of the characters.
The Giver
Starring Meryl Streep, Jeff Bridges, and Taylor Swift, The Giver is a YA dystopian saga that makes sense only when paired with its literary source. The film version of The Giver never really gives viewers a thorough picture of what life is like in this nightmarish society, but Lois Lowry delves into all the messy details in her acclaimed book.
