An adaptation completely botches the original theme and message

[u/Morr4Seiya]

Mulan(2020)-They give Mulan superpowers which is not only lame it goes against the message of the original about equality and struggle,plus they removes Shang because apparently having Mulan date her superior was "problematic" even though Shang genuienely respected Mulan and their rank was never brought up

I am Legend(2007)-You know why the story is called "I am legend"? SPOILER ALERT the protagonist is the actual monster,humanity is gone and the vampires have a actual society and the protagonist kills and terrorize them

Animal Farm(2026)-On the very slim chance that Andy Serkis ever sees this,here's the thing Andy,Animal Farm was not a children work it was not supposed to have a happy ending,you never heard of cautionary tales before?

[u/RJSnea]

The "Percy Jackson" movies: you can fuck up the plot all you want but fucking up the literal mythology that's thousands of years old is some BULLSHIT!!!

"The Golden Compass" movie: If you're gonna adapt a young adult series about killing literal God, then fucking COMMIT!

The "Artemis Fowl" movie: The book series is about a teen villain. He may not be evil, but he's still going to steal as much of your shit as he can while being intelligent as fuck about it. Yet the movie somehow made him a damn "hero" while completely ignoring the book plot.

The "Eragon" movie: I have never regretted wasting my time to watch a movie in theaters more.....and we literally saw it for free because I was an employee. 😭😭😭

[u/Arzanyos → u/RJSnea]

How does the Percy Jackson movies miss the themes and message of the books? The plot, sure, but to me they actually hit the themes pretty well

[u/RJSnea → u/Arzanyos]

The "parent/adult jokes" and changes were just......disturbing. We went from tweens learning about themselves and how they fit into the world to horned up teens trying to bang intentionally sexed up, adult goddesses while complaining about being chosen.

Honestly, it was just fucking disgusting and one of the main reason I hate those damn movies.

Edit: I also didn't appreciate how immediate they made the lotus flowers seem to take effect. Not every drug hits like that, some of them are as insidious as described in the books where they didn't even realize they'd been drugged for days. They "magic-ed up" the visuals and character reactions for unnecessary aesthetics and completely changed the meaning of the scene and reveal later when they meet the 1970's guy. It also tarnished the believability of how Nico and his sister were trapped there for so long.

[u/Arzanyos → u/RJSnea]

There was only one case of that, with a character who's always been a teen in the books, and is a flat out adult in the movie. And heck, Percy and Calypso, Luke and Annabeth, it's in the books too

[u/RJSnea → u/Arzanyos]

Sorry for being one of the adults in the world who doesn't think any adult needs to be flirting, let alone fucking, a teenager. Nothing like that should have been added.

[u/Arzanyos → u/RJSnea]

Grover isn't a teen, he's an adult. Judging by the change to the prophecy, Percy is 16, not 12, in the first movie. Grover is maturity wise 2 years older than Percy, thus, he's an adult.

And again, unethical age gaps is entirely in the theming of the books. So where does it botch the themes and messages?