My Top 5 YA Film Adaptations
- Caitlin Willis
- Mar 11, 2021
- 6 min read
After a few months hiatus I am back and ready to spew my opinions on all you people.
So, this post is going to be dedicated to something a bit more personal that dominated my life from the 2009 until like 2016 maybe, I think it was when the second Divergent adaptation came out.
So, in the next few paragraphs I will be ranking my top 5 YA fiction film adaptations, yes I am sticking to films here. When I was a teenager young adult fiction was really in its prime, and I was obsessed with reading, so I used to burn through all these different stories about young men and women who had to save the world. Twilight was my gateway, as I’m sure many people will relate, then came The Hunger Games, The Vampire Diaries (imagine 11-year-old me finding the TV show while I was making a lil fancast), The Maze Runner, The Mortal Instruments, I want to continue but I’ll put a list at the bottom of my old favourites.
These were all books before they were films which I read religiously or touched once and walked away.
I wanted to do a (personal) ranking of my top 5 film adaptations and of course how could Twilight not be at the top of this list. Seriously.
1. Twilight (2008)
Released in 2008 and directed by Catherine Hardwicke (I didn’t realise it was directed by a woman until about 3 years ago and now I like it even more) was the BIGGEST cultural moment of the 2000s, or at least to me it was. And several other people as well. It made well over 400 million dollars in the box office and the soundtrack was, and still is, one of the best in cinema history (fight me it has Muse).
I think the reason this is my number one was because it was kind if the blueprint for supernatural romance, The Shape of Water could never. Everyone knows Twilight, and the actors, at least the leading 3; R-Patz, Kristen Stewart, and Shark Boy are instantly recognisable. The 5 films fluctuation on Netflix caused a storm on Tik Tok and Jasper flipping his baseball bat or saying ‘battle scars’ will be forever imprinted on my brain.
I think there is also a level of nostalgia as I loved Meyers books so much, my Breaking Dawn book is held together with tape and wedged firmly between Eclipse and LOTR on my shelf. Millennials and Gen Z alike grew up with the franchise and it will forever hold the same cultural impact of Revenge of The Sith; dearly beloved through memes and an attractive cast.
2. The Hunger Games (2012)
Y'know, I nearly had Divergent in second because the first book and film HAD me. Yet of course The Huger Games is will come second. The film will never be forgotten as a staple of pop culture. Launching Jennifer Lawrence’s career, introducing me to Chris via Liam, the fashion, Stanley Tucci, the fact that the evil guy looks like Santa.
Strangely I had a difficult relationship with the books, they perhaps exposed to much to me when I was a little too young to appreciate the cultivation of that kind of world building. I read the book when I was 11 before the first film came out, and I hated the end of Mockingjay, part of me still does (the kids in the meadow like idk man).
The books were so influential to me and my future reading lists, I think I read more challenging narratives after this because I wanted to understand the themes more and feel less out of my depth. This is number two because the film was so big. It was huge. I didn’t really understand with Twilight because I read the books after the film came out, but with The Hunger Games everyone in my class buzzing about something that was kind of old news to me. I guess I was introduced to gatekeeping in fandoms through The Hunger Games.
Either way it hits my number 2 spot because of how big it was, and still is I guess. The cast was insane, and the narrative was so close to society and realism that it still catches my breath a bit. This is really a classic dystopian young adult novel that dominated the next few years.
3. Divergent (2014)
My third choice is Divergent, wait, wait hear me out on this. I felt like I had a personal connection to Tris. I also hated the second and third books.
Anyways, as someone who has always doubted my own opinion I really looked up to Tris, in the fact that she made a huge choice when she was like 16 and made it work for her. Everything was against her and she managed to literally face her fears and come out stronger. As a thirteen-year-old I loved it, and when the first film came out, I loved that too. I saw it like three times in the cinema.
Divergent struggles with its world-building, perhaps taking too much inspiration from too many places to really pin an individual twist. This became more apparent in the second and third book which reflected on the poorly received sequel films. This film is going against popular opinion because it’s like a comfort blanket to me.
4. The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013)
Hahahahah
I remember pre-ordering City of Heavenly Fire (the last book) and wowzas the book was big but SO WORTH IT. Although the incest bit was not for me. At all. Perhaps that plot point was not one that needed to be revisited. The film adaptation starring Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower was everything I wanted it to be and at the same time so terribly wrong. I had a love/ hate relationship with it.
Some parts good, some parts bad, the films plot was tropey and kinda predictable which was only highlighted by the fact it was a book adaptation. I know no adaptation is exact but damn. Then they had to butcher it further with Shadowhunters (I know a lot of people like this bc of Malec but personally for me it’s a no).
I’m surprised this film didn’t make more in the box office, released in 2013 it was right at the prime time before YA novel adaptation came to a trundling halt. I also had like 3 posters from this. I wanted it to be like the beginning of a bigger budget, second film but my teen dreams were crushed when a sequel was never picked up.
5. The Maze Runner (2014)
LOVED the film. The book was an easy read too. But I felt like the premise was kinda lazy in the first one (before you all come at me bc Twilight was number one), I think that setting that world was really well done and important but having that one entire film set inside a specific location and not getting a lot of information until the last 5 minutes was hard. The big death at the end also spoiled this as you were traumatised and then barraged with all this information.
I really loved the truth they kept to the book, I just found it hard to watch a film with a bunch of teenage boys and one girl trundling about in a maze. I think the deciding factor for this was like TMI it was released at the end of the boom, and I was just moving on from this kind of media text as the sequel came out.
It’s a shame because the acting was phenomenal, I just think that the world was constricted and because of this so was the boundaries of the narrative.
So, there are my personal top 5, I know that a lot of people have their favourites and enjoy different stories so I thought I would share my favourites. I also think that Gen Z and people my age grew up with these dystopian novels and it’s hard because we don’t see many being adapted anymore (unless its tacked to the Harry Potter label), we coveted this boom of films tailored to us.
Some of my old book favourites:
- Anything by Josephine Angelini: Trial by Fire and Starcrossed were undoubtedly my favourite
- Cate Tiernan: Sweep and Balefire (witchy voodoo)
- The Vampire Diaries by L J Smith; perhaps not for lovers of the TV show my favourites will always be when the gang went into the dark dimension. Amazing
- Fallen by Lauren Kate; oh my lord how I wanted my very own Miles, Torment got me through some stuff
- Hush, Hush…. Perhaps not a favourite but if you like angels
- For a slightly older audience then I’d say the Southern Vampire Mysteries
Comments