Category: Everything else

After my list of the best adaptations, let’s talk about the worst ones—again, from my perspective.

Leading by a large margin in my ranking is World War Z. I absolutely love the book. I consider it the best piece I’ve read on the theme of “we’re all going to die.” The book delves into the psychology of people in critical situations. It shows what makes modern society so vulnerable to global threats. Most people are unprepared to live without the comforts of civilization. Some will exploit others for profit until the last moment, while others will cling to false remedies, believing they won’t be affected, that the government will save everyone, or something else. There are heroes and cowards, and being a coward isn’t always bad. In short, the book is very much about people.

The zombies, too, are described in such a way that it becomes clear why humanity nearly fell: they’re slow but tireless, and they summon other zombies with their sounds. The infection didn’t spread immediately, which allowed the disease to reach global proportions.

Today, I’d like to talk about books. But not just books—my husband writes a lot about those, and does so interestingly—but about film adaptations.

Film adaptations are tricky. Translating the content of a book into a screenplay can be difficult, even for the book’s author, as cinema is an art form with its own rules and demands. Another challenge is casting actors that both fit the book’s characters and satisfy the director and fans. In the end, we get what we get.

I’ve compiled my personal ranking of the best and worst film adaptations from those I’ve both watched and read the original books. Today, I’ll share the best ones. And just a heads-up, everything is subjective.