An Extremely Loose Adaptation of the Book

Rating: 6/10 (18 March 2018)

As a person who had read (and is a big fan of) the book, I felt torn. If you have not read the book, go ahead and see the movie. The production design is remarkable, the actors are truly great, the scores are harrowing and on point; all in all, as a movie alone, it's an excellent movie.
But, if you've read Vandermeer's book, you would probably dislike or even hate the movie (as I do). Alex Garland was one of my favorite directors, and I couldn't wait to see this movie after hearing that he will be making the adaptation of the novel. And now I don't know what to believe anymore.
It's basically him saying to VanderMeer "I love your book and I'm going to make a movie based on it. But let me change this... and this... and this... You know what? Screw the book. I'm going to make my own watered-down version of it. The book is going to be a trilogy? Nah, one is good."
Some movies are loose adaptations of some books. But I've never seen one that is as drastic as this one. Understandably, it's a highly unfilmable book (How? Read it and you'll understand.) But if it's going to be a very loose adaptation, don't use the same title as the book maybe?
On top of that, there's the issue with distributing the movie, with all the Paramount and Netflix things making the movie unavailable in theatres outside of the US.
I'm not really sure how much the rating should be. I wanted to like it, but I couldn't. Not after knowing that the book is so much more enticing, suspenseful, and poetic.