The Best Movie Adaptations of Fantasy Novels
When I started creating the list of the best movie adaptations of fantasy novels, I honestly didn’t realize it would be this tough.
I can come up with an endless list of the worst movie adaptions quite easily. However, the good ones are so few and far in between that I had to really think hard about this.
So in the end, I decided to just do 5 movies in the list. These are my personal favorites so obviously opinions may differ.
1) Lord of the Rings
I think most of us would agree that The Lord of the Rings trilogy directed by Peter Jackson, based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic novels set a high benchmark when it comes to movie adaptations of fantasy novels.
With 17 Academy Awards, The Lord of the Rings is the most awarded fantasy movie of all times. Both the books and the movies are high on the all time favorite lists of fantasy fans.
The movies were as true to the books as possible. I know some moviegoers who complained about the length of the films. However, the long running time was necessary as the books themselves were just so comprehensive. It is funny that passionate fans of the books felt the movies were not long enough and the director’s cut special editions did some justice to the originals by J.R.R. Tolkien.
2) Princess Bride
When it comes to cult classics of a fantasy novel, not many films can come close to Princess Bride.
Released in 1987, Princess Bride was directed and co-produced by Rob Reiner. It is based on the book with the same name by author William Goldman. The film in fact had a screenplay written by Goldman himself.
This is one of the few movies where some reviewers thought the film version was even better than the book. Of course majority of fans still love the 1973 fantasy novel much more than the movie.
Regardless, The Princess Bride still remains one of the most enjoyable films ever made that was based on a fantasy book.
3) Maze Runner Trilogy
The Maze Runner Trilogy are science fiction fantasy films based on author James Dashner’s novels of the same name.
The three movies named, Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure were released in 2014, 2015 and 2018 respectively.
This was a trilogy where I actually watched the movies before I read the books. The movies were highly enjoyable and I liked the fact that they maintained a similar tempo and action throughout the series.
Hardcore readers will still love the books much more than the films. However, if you watch the movies as a standalone series, you will still enjoy them even if you haven’t read the books.
4) Dune – Original
Author Frank Herbert’s Dune, first published in 1965 is a complicated and complex science fiction fantasy novel.
Therefore, a lot of credit goes to the original Dune movie released in 1984. Written and directed by David Lynch, the film even with the limited technology in movie computer graphics available at the time, tried to do as much justice as possible to the novel with limited resources.
I thoroughly enjoyed the original movie and felt it was way ahead of its time.
5) Harry Potter
Okay, I completely agree that the Harry Potter movies did not come even close to recapturing the magic of the books written by J. K. Rowling. This was especially true for the latter movies that just lost so much of the charm of the initial films.
Yet, I have included Harry Potter in this list due to two reasons. First, as standalone films, even if you had not read the books, they were fun to watch. I keep using the word enjoyable and the first few Harry Potter movies were indeed enjoyable if you didn’t keep comparing them to the books.
The second reason is quite honestly making a list of ‘good’ film adaptations of fantasy novels is just so tough and I just couldn’t think of any other movie I could include in my top 5.
I hope this changes in the future but for now, the Harry Potter movies enters my list.
Final thoughts
I had to really think hard to make this list of 5 best movie adaptations of fantasy novels.
I am quite curious to know what you feel about this list. Which movies would be in your top five? Do let me know and I hope to find a movie I haven’t watched yet.
