Unsuccessful film adaptations

Many books have been transferred to the screen, but not all of them have been successful for a variety of reasons. 

Divergent Series

One of the worst rated book adaptation comes from the Divergent trilogy by Veronica Roth. She released her series of 3 books between 2011 and 2013, but the first was not taken to the screen until 2014. 

The first book and film was called Divergent and it scored a 41% rating from reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes. Whilst this already sounds low, it is the highest rated film of the three. However, the book itself received an average rating of 4.17 stars on good read which converts to 83%. This is double the rating the film received, proving that it was not the story which was poor, it was the way it was conveyed onscreen. 

The second book is called Insurgent and it received a lower rating of 23% on rotten tomatoes. One top critic, Chris Stuckmann commented 'There are some thrilling scenes here and there, but mostly, Insurgent is an aggressively familiar experience'. There was a general consensus amongst the top critics that although Shailene Woodley gave it her all, the film lacked a sense of excitement and blended in blandly with other stories of the same genre. This suggests that in order to create a successful film adaptation, something within the plot must be completely new or revived to impress an audience, not just something that has been seen in movies prior to its release. Insurgent as a novel received a rating of 4 stars from 1.3 million readers, giving it a percentage of 80%. This makes the rating of the novel almost four times better than the film, proving that not all movie adaptations are successful. 

The third book is called Allegiant and received a disastrously low rating of 11% from top critics. Top critic, Roxana Hadadi said 'Allegiant manages to be profoundly confusing and almost entirely inert. The film's strong action sequences can't redeem a conflicting, irritating plot.' Once again, whilst the actors gave a good performance and there were some good action scenes, generally it was a confusing plot which didn't flow. Meanwhile, Allegiant as a novel got 3.61 stars which equates to 72%, proving that the book was once again better than the film. 

The Mortal Instruments

The Mortal Instruments series is a set of six young adult fantasy novels by Cassandra Clare. Although all of her six novels received a 4+ star rating on Goodreads - proving to be a successful written franchise - only one of the novels was ever turned into a movie. The first novel, The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones was turned into a movie adaptation by Constantin Film International in 2013. Whilst it was well awaited by book fans, it unfortunately fell short of expectations. 

Rotten Tomatoes top reviewers gave an overall average of 13%. Francesca Steele from The Guardian described it as, 'film-making at its most cynical. But none of it actually makes much sense.' The general consensus amongst top critics is that the adaptation was overly long, complicated and cliche. However, even though a very low rating was given by the professionals, the audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes was a more respectable 58%. 

Whilst many of the reviews did show negative opinions on the movie, one comment really stood out explaining why a film adaptation can be loved by some, but disregarded by others. 'As someone who read the books and had a look at the reviews of people who didn't read them there's a clear divide here. I honestly thought it was absolutely spectacular but I suppose I already understand the whole concept of the movie before diving in.'

Many people who have gone to watch the movie have never picked up a Mortal Instruments book, meaning they have absolutely no knowledge of the story before they see it on the screen. With a complicated story being transferred to the screen, it is arguably unfair for movie goers to turn up without prior knowledge and expect the film to cater to them. The films may have been created on the basis to deliver to the pre-existing fanbase who already have an understanding of the plot and characters. Trying to condense such an intense story into a two hour film will inevitably cause some confusion to those unprepared for such a layered tale. 

There is a fine line that film companies have to tread in order to create a successful adaptation. They need to make it close enough to the books so that the people who have read the franchise enjoy it and feel it hasn't been ruined when taken to the screen. However, they also need to cater to a wider audience who haven't read the books in order to generate enough profit to make the movie worth while.