Adaptation movies are a solid hit or miss within the film or book world. Sometimes moviegoers will like the movie, whereas their reading counterpart will hate it. This can be said oppositely too! These 6 films are in agreement between the movie buffs and book lovers of being some of the worst adaptations of 2022.
1. Blonde
The idea behind Blonde is rather intriguing yet a little confusing. Joyce Carol Oates is a well-renowned writer that writes about exploitative issues especially surrounding sexuality amongst the youth in the short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? and novel, Sexy. Blonde is on the more problematic side of the spectrum of storytelling as it’s about a real-life person around real-life events; however, the actions that take place in the story are fictionalized. A lot of viewers of the movie and readers of the book appear to forget Blonde is not a nonfiction story. Everything that Oates writes in Blonde comes from her creative mind with sprinkles of true aspects of Monroe’s life.
2. The Time Traveler’s Wife
With an interesting premise, you would think this Audrey Niffenegger novel would get a fighting chance. The problem relies on the character’s interactions. Henry was born with the ability to travel forward and backward in time. He is unable to control it. When he meets Clare, he falls in love with her. When Henry travels back to the past, he comes in contact with a younger Clare and helps shape her to be the woman she is in the present day. Many people see this as a form of grooming which is a form of child abuse, and they are not wrong.
3. Devotion
Devotion is a heartfelt story about an unlikely friendship between the first Black aviator and his wingman. With a high rating on rotten tomatoes, you would assume Devotion was a success film in the making, like the true story it’s based on. The box office cannot agree with this. The film took 90 million dollars to make, and it has managed 20 million in revenue. Sometimes a movie can have a great story, acting, and stunt coordination– yet it still misses when it comes to making the money. Top Gun: Maverick– another aviator film (with a much bigger budget and fan base) released earlier this year, and quite possibly took all the heat for Devotion before it could lift off the ground.
4. Morbius
Not every villain needs to be the hero in their story. Jared Leto is always charming on screen, so that is not the problem. What Morbius lacks are purpose and a creative story. This flop of a superhero movie went as far as making memes, for crying out loud! The movie faced many reshoots and pushback impartially from the pandemic. Venom, though at some points, not that strong of a film itself, has flair, and Venom is a popular villain within the Spiderman universe. Morbius is a lesser-known character, and although Leto is an A-lister celebrity, he was unable to save a boring comic book movie that felt like it was made in 2002 rather than 2022.
5. Black Adam
Another villain, another movie in which the villain is portrayed as either the misunderstood good guy or the anti-hero. Dwayne Johnson’s involvement in Black Adam is highly commendable, but with so many new characters introduced in the DCEU, it doesn’t give Black Adam a chance. We are swiftly thrown into action with superhero characters we don’t care about. DCEU tends to do that in the majority of their film team-ups with little background as to why we should care about the said movie in question.
6. Pinocchio
Whether that be the effects of Disney’s iteration of The Adventures of Pinocchio or the fact Guillermo Del Toro’s slightly darker reproach is far more flourishing in telling a classic story while also bringing some new ideas, Pinocchio was a huge mistep. Either way, Pinocchio faces the same struggles as live renditions of classic cartoon movies– they come out bland and boring.
Hopefully, 2023 will have more success stories to tell in adaptations. Care to read about our favorites in 2022? Click here!