Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Book to Movie Adaptations

A weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish

I know as members of this bookish corner of the internet we like to complain about terrible movie adaptations, you know the ones that don't pay much attention to the source material or cast things in a weird way, or are just generally bad. But I think we all need a little positivity in our lives so instead, here are my favorite book to movie adaptations.

1.) Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
I am a Little Women superfan. It's maybe my all-time favorite book. I loved it as a kid and I still love it today. Every reread I love it more. And honestly, to me the movie is perfect. Winona Ryder is the perfect Jo and Claire Danes, and Kirsten Dunst. It's everything. *weeps*

2.) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
I was suspicious by the casting at first but I have to say, I kind of love all these movies. But honestly, the first one is really good, weird camera movements aside. I think it kept really closely to the source material and the new stuff it added made it better.

3.) Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
I loved Gone Girl, the movie and the book. This is another case where I was worried about the casting but it worked well for me. And that's huge for Gone Girl because a lot of the big reveals depend on your feelings for the characters,

4.) Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
This is my favorite Jane Austen novel and probably my favorite of all her movies, even though I think many of them are very good. I thought they did a great job with the spirit of the book and it's another case where the casting was so perfect. RIP Alan Rickman!

5.) The Martian by Andy Weir
This movie is far from perfect for big fans of the book, for which I count myself. It really did need more humor but the science stuff was really good and it was super entertaining. And even though they make changes, it still kind of worked.

6.) The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants by Ann Brashares
I absolutely loved this series. It has a special place in my heart. I thought the movie did a fantastic job with the source material, even the second one was pretty despite it being basically a combination of 3 books.


7.) Stardust by Neil Gaiman

Unpopular opinion time: I didn't like this book. But I did really like the movie. The book is weird and confusing. The movie is also weird and confusing but for some reason it just made more sense to me and worked in a more entertaining way.

8.) The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein
Unpopular opinion time part 2: I don't like Tolkein. He needed an editor who was liberal with their red pen and to stop using eagles to solve all his problems. But seriously, those movies are super engaging. The action and adventure is amazing.

9.) Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton
Okay so this one, and honestly a few books on this list, I watched before reading the book. But this is another case where a much more complicated book because more simple and therefore interesting in a movie format. Also, the dinosaurs!

10.) The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
I really liked this book, but I think I may have liked the movie better. It had Ann Hathaway at her best plus Meryl Streep as the bitchy head of a fashion magazine. Who would have thoughts that she would be so good at that. Plus that fashion montage? So good.

11.) The Maze Runner by James Dashner
I have to admit, I haven't seen the second movie yet. But I did really like the first one. I thought it did a good job with the original series, capturing the mystery and uncertainty of the book even with someone who has already read the book.

12.) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
The Harry Potter movies aren't perfect. Some of them have weird additions and remove things that actually impact the plot later on (I'm looking at you PoA and HPB) but Deathly Hallows was great. Even part 1 made a pretty good travel monologue.

There you have it, ten of my favorite book to movie adaptations. What ones are your favorite? Leave me a comment with your thoughts. Thanks for stopping by and HAPPY READING!

10 comments:

  1. Awesome list! I've got just about all of these on my to be watched list either for my first time or as a favorite that I want to see again. I am in agreement with Jurassic Park. I also watched it before I read the book and it's one of the few times I prefer the movie. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Great list! I agree with you about HP and their selection about what to add/take away. I always wished they had mentioned "The Locket" and Regulus Black in Order of the Phoenix, but I guess you can;t win them all.

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  3. The Devil Wears Prada was a great movie. I haven't read the book, but I can watch the movie over and over again! Great Top Ten :D My Top Ten Tuesday!

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  4. AMAZING list! You had some of my favorites up here! I love Jurassic Park. I feel like that was as big of a part of my childhood as Harry Potter was lol! My TTT

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  5. Great pick for this freebie topic. Out of all of these I have seen 9 of them and I loved them all, definitely think they are brilliant adaptations. I especially loved The Martian, Gone Girl, Lord of the Rings and The Devil Wears Prada. I picked to do my favourite movies for this movie freebie week, you can check out my post here if you like.

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  6. Nice picks!! Have to agree on the Harry Potter ones of course! I didn't care for some of the changes and leave outs that happened, but yeah, still great movies! The Maze Runner was another good one! I kind of binged that series, so a lot has been forgotten after time. And I still need to see the second movies as well! It's even in my TBW pile...to be watched! LOL!

    Here's my Tuesday Post

    Have a GREAT day!

    Old Follower :)

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  7. Some great movies on this list!
    My TTT: https://jjbookblog.wordpress.com/2016/11/15/top-ten-tuesday-83/

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  8. I agree with you about The Hunger Games! Great choices. :)

    Lauren @ Always Me

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  9. STARDUST is one of my all-time favourites, I want to watch it again right now!

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  10. I absolutely love the Little Women movie. Such a great soundtrack, too! Somehow, I haven't read the book yet though, gotta fix that asap!

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