“Teen” or “Young Adult” novels have recently been being adapted into movies left and right.

Their quality ranges anywhere from terrible to great like all genres of movies. After watching and analyzing a few of these films I’ve come up with a couple of conclusions. One being that they far too often stay on a certain template and don’t really try anything unique.

For example let’s take some from recent memory like Hunger Games, Maze Runner, and Divergent. The first movies in some of these series actually start out pretty creatively. I especially liked the concept of the Maze Runner. Then by the second movie you’re watching some civil war with a bunch of teenagers vs the government, which wouldn’t be a problem if we didn’t see it every time we walked into one of these movies. The second book in the Maze Runner series had some really cool ideas but when adapted to film they strip away all of the uniqueness and give you the generic rebel story.

I almost feel like I’m re watching the same movie over and over again with the same cast and some moderately different plot points. You’ve got person X who’s thrown into some ludicrous situation that is always linked to some evil corporation, then person X and whoever happened to be around at the time just start a resistance and go after the corporation. If Harry Potter had never been adapted into film and came out this year it wouldn’t surprise me if they mad Voldemort some government official who created magic to control people.

Of course J.K. Rowling would never let that happen, I’m just making a point.

What it really comes down to is whether or not the director wants the most financially successful movie or the most unique and well made one. Not that every director for the movies I talked about are just in it for the money, but some of them certainly are. You can be financially successful and stay creative. In fact some of the most popular movies are so successful because of their creativity.

I understand that there are always going to be similarities between genres, and that’s okay, but changes can definitely be made to make them diverse. Overall I think that teen novel adaptations should try to be more unique and stray off the usual path even if it’s unusual or not the best money making technique.

Thanks for reading.