130 years ago, in 1896, the American Mutoscope Company produced Trilby and the Little Billee, a 45-second short that depicts a scene from George du Maurier‘s Victorian novel “Trilby.” This achievement is widely considered the first-ever film adaptation of a novel. Suffice to say, books have been a powerful inspiration for filmmakers since the very earliest days of cinema. Adapting a single novel well is one thing, but to bring an entire franchise to the screen while staying true to the source material and maintaining consistent perfection is another thing entirely.
To illustrate just how almighty a feat it is to accomplish, it is worth noting that The Godfather, Jurassic Park, Shrek, and the James Bond franchise are just some of the pop-culture-defining film franchises based on novels that don’t deliver perfection across the entirety of their runs. The film series do range from blockbuster fantasy epics to animated classics, sci-fi spectaculars, and even superhero sensations.
‘The Dark Knight’ Trilogy (2005-2012)
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The superhero genre has dominated the 21st century so far, with modern technology allowing for such stories to be brought to life on the big screen with a gravitas and high-octane entertainment befitting of the comic books that established the genre. Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight trilogy still stands as the pinnacle of this monumental pop-culture movement some 14 years on from its conclusion in 2012. Its thematic depth, astonishing practical action sequences, mesmerizing performances, and pervasive sense of grounded grit all work beautifully in tandem across the three films.
Based on characters created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger for DC Comics, the trilogy follows Gotham billionaire Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) as he becomes Batman, a crime-fighting vigilante determined to decimate the influence of the city’s criminal infrastructure and protect citizens. Among his main enemies are the anarchistic terrorist known as The Joker (Heath Ledger) and the destructive mercenary Bane (Tom Hardy). While 2008’s The Dark Knight is an obvious standout, as well as one of the defining films of the century so far, the whole trilogy is a treat of blockbuster spectacle. It combines the genre’s penchant for thrilling action set pieces with compelling explorations of such ideas as fear, chaos, resilience, and the importance of symbols of strength and humanity in society.
The ‘Blade Runner’ Series (1982-2017)
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It may be debatable if two feature films constitute a cinematic franchise, but with three short films and an anime miniseries bolstering its stocks, as well as a live-action miniseries arriving on Amazon Prime Video in November, it is hard to knock Blade Runner‘s pedigree as a multiplatform saga. Despite its variety, there is no doubt the two full-length movies stand as the defining pillars of the franchise. Ridley Scott‘s classic is one of the greatest sci-fi movies of all time, and Denis Villeneuve‘s bold legacy sequel stands tall among the best movies of the 21st century thus far.
Based on Philip K. Dick‘s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, the original Blade Runner excels at combining Dick’s thought-provoking story of humanity with a stunning visual aesthetic of stark shadows, neon glow, and dystopian industry. For its part, Blade Runner 2049 expands the story world brilliantly, cleverly twisting the exploration of human nature and android morality while recapturing and reinventing its predecessor’s breathtaking display. The two films as a whole serve as a faultless feat of science-fiction cinema, genre-defining classics that exemplify dystopian drama at its most enthralling.
The ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ Trilogy
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Based on Cressida Cowell‘s children’s book series, the DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon movies mark a joyous highlight of family animated cinema in the 2010s. Set in a Viking realm where the village of Berk is frequently attacked by dragons, the first film revolves around the unlikely friendship that blooms between the young prince Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and Toothless, a rare Night Fury dragon. The next two films follow the duo’s efforts to defend both Berk and the dragon race from their fierce and powerful adversaries.
The three acclaimed animated films don’t strive to adapt the narrative of Cowell’s books. Still, they excel at bringing the author’s characters and story world to life with the same infectious charm that underlines Cowell’s 12-part series while shifting the tone from delightfully wacky satire to epic, cinematic grandiosity. The result isn’t only a dazzling animated adventure, but a modern gem of fantasy fun as well, especially as all three movies work so perfectly in tandem while delivering important and evocative messages of emotional growth, self-belief, and empathy.
Four worlds and four completely different ideas of what a good life
looks like. This is where you belong, what it would ask of you, and what you would get back in
return.
You belong somewhere old enough that the mountains have names and
somebody can still tell you who gave them. Middle-earth is for people who think the right
thing is worth doing even when it will not be finished in their lifetime.
- This is the only world on the list where doing good is understood as a very long defeat,
fought anyway, by people who will never see how it ends. - You are drawn to grandeur, to white cities and deep forges and the sense that almost
everything you touch is older than your entire family line. - The Rings of Power is set in the last good age before it all goes wrong, which gives
every quiet scene in it a slightly unbearable weight. - You would take the hard road, and you would take it on foot.
You want the sea, a crew, and absolutely nobody telling you where
you are allowed to go. The Grand Line is the world for people whose main ambition in life is
finding out what is over there.
- One Piece has run for decades on one very simple engine, which is a group of people who
each want something impossible and have decided to go and get it together. - You collect people. Your ideal crew is a set of misfits who were each written off
somewhere else before you turned up and offered them a better idea. - The world is enormous and deliberately ridiculous, and the emotional gut punches land
harder because of that rather than in spite of it. - You would set sail knowing the map runs out, which is more or less the entire point of
it.
You would rather be feared and useful than liked and useless. The
Continent is a world where the monsters are the straightforward part of the job and the
people are where it all gets complicated.
- Witchers get paid to do what nobody else will and resented for existing at all, which is
a trade most people would refuse and you would probably accept. - You have no real illusions about which side is the good one, largely because on the
Continent that question tends to have a disappointing answer. - The best of these stories are not about the fighting. They are about somebody with a
rigid code being repeatedly cornered into caring about people. - You would take the coin, finish the job properly, and be out of town before the story
got told wrong.
You want the myths to be real and loose in the actual world, and
you want to find out at about thirteen that you were never anywhere near as ordinary as
everybody kept telling you.
- Percy Jackson takes the oldest stories we have and drops them into car parks and diners,
which makes the gods considerably funnier and a great deal worse. - You would be the kid every school gave up on, who turns out to have been built for
something nobody thought to test for. - The series is genuinely about friendship rather than destiny, and it says so out loud
every time a prophecy tries to get in the way. - Camp Half-Blood is the real fantasy here: a place where the thing that made you
difficult everywhere else is the thing that makes you belong.
‘The Hunger Games’ Franchise (2012-Present)
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While young adult fiction had been a staple of modern literature prior to its release, Suzanne Collins‘ bestselling novel series was something of a pioneer in establishing the genre in widespread pop culture. The film adaptations only heightened this interest in the form. With Collins herself co-writing the screenplay for three of the four initial films, The Hunger Games franchise at large stands as one of the best and most culturally impactful of the 21st century thus far.
Set in a dystopian future where a region of North America has become Panem, it revolves around The Hunger Games, an annual event in which two child champions from each of the 12 districts compete in a fight-to-the-death tournament at the behest of The Capitol. The original four-part film series—following Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) as she participates in the games before igniting a rebellion against The Capitol—is a masterful mix of social commentary, escapist adventure, teen drama, and bleak action. The 2023 spin-off, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, is a brilliant expansion on the story world, while the soon-to-be-released The Hunger Games: Sunrise of the Reaping is an eagerly anticipated exploration of the 50th Hunger Games.
The ‘Harry Potter’ Franchise (2001-2011)
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Image via Warner Bros. PicturesBased on J. K. Rowling‘s “Harry Potter” novels—which remain the bestselling book series of all time—the Harry Potter movies are outstanding at bringing the wonder and magic of the wizarding world to the screen. What is so brilliant about them is how they evolve with the audience, with the earlier movies exhibiting a sense of adventurous awe and childlike charm as Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) begins his education in magic at Hogwarts. Then, the series grows gradually darker as the evil Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) returns hell-bent on killing Potter and establishing the supremacy of pure-blood wizards over the rest of the world.
All elements of the movies are handled magnificently. Indeed, the franchise flaunts everything from immersive visuals and worldbuilding to John Williams‘ mesmerizing score, marvelous practical filmmaking, and a litany of iconic performances from emerging young stars and Hollywood legends alike. The Harry Potter movies are a quintessential pillar of fantasy blockbuster cinema. The Fantastic Beasts spin-off films expand the “Potterverse,” particularly pertaining to the world’s many magical creatures and the exploration of the global wizarding world in a 1920s setting, but they’re not half as good as the core series.
‘The Lord of the Rings’ Trilogy (2001-2003)
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As the greatest movie trilogy of all time, the defining triumph of fantasy cinema, and a masterclass in adaptation, The Lord of the Rings is the epitome of cinematic perfection. Based on J. R. R. Tolkien‘s books, it follows Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood) as he journeys across Middle-earth to destroy a ring of terrible power in the fires of Mount Doom. Meanwhile, other members of the Fellowship of the Ring rally the forces of Middle-earth to stand against the forces of Mordor.
It is impossible to find a single aspect of the movies that isn’t utterly perfect. Practical filmmaking and astonishing cinematography work with New Zealand’s natural beauty to bring Middle-earth to the screen in spellbinding fashion. Howard Shore‘s sweeping score brings depth and tonal precision to every kingdom and character, while every single actor plays their part to perfection. If one watches the extended editions of the films, The Lord of the Rings trilogy delivers over 11 hours of astounding cinematic mastery and absorbing, rousing, and emotionally overwhelming storytelling that balances triumph and tragedy with impeccable skill.
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