Books Are (Almost) Always Better Than The Movie
56If you really liked the book then the movie will almost always fall flat. If you like the movie then reading the book may seem a tedious affair. The book may lose suspense or go off on (what you may find) annoying, irrelevant tangents. Movies focus on plot and only elements which drive the plot forward are included in the movie. This means that in some movies entire characters are missing, scenes are missing and the scenery itself may seem small compared to what your mind had envisioned. There are usually more characters in books, the plot is layered and you may find yourself totally immersed. This makes reading a book a much more intimate experience than watching a movie. You are able to think with the character and in essence become that person for a time. In a movie you watch the main character, but rarely are you in his/her head.
Movie going is a passive experience. People may be too tired to read but I have never encountered anyone too tired to watch a movie. However, if you have drowsed during the film you may want to pick up the book. A public library in Missouri has an entire catalogue (link below) which provides a comprehensive list of books that were made into movies. I had no idea there were so many. Here’s a sampling:
Total Recall was based on a book by Philip K. Dick called We can Remember It For You Wholesale.
At times the book’s title alone is better than the movie. We Only Kill Each Other: The Life and Bad Times of Bugsy Seigel became, in 1991, the movie Bugsy.
Maybe movie producers have learned their lessons. The ho-hum Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family transformed into the memorable Goodfellas.
Some titles remain consistently good : The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (movie and book title), although, fitting all that on a marquee must be daunting.
The Neverending Story was based on a German book called Die Unendliche Geschichte. Even Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was based on a book. Probably the best books- turned- movie are the more dreamy and fantastical ones. The Polar Express is magical, both in film and text. I believe it is the musical score in combination with the effects which make this magic possible.
If this is true, that dreamlike and fantastical books make for the best based-on-the-book movies, then movies based on graphic novels, comic books and video games should exceed the expectations of fans. I would be interested in knowing if the movies live up to these other genres. Or, like the desire to sit alone with a book and become a another peson, is the action of playing a video game far superior to the passive act of watching images in the dark?
Mid-Continent Public Library Based on the Book List
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That is very true. I would have to say I would rather read a book for ten hours than watch a movie for ten hours.
Probably the strangest movie (and I didn't particularly like it) about movie adaptation is the movie Adaptation (go figure). Kind of shows the struggle to adequately transform a piece of literature into a visual/cinematic format.
I think it depends on how much the medium used is exploited. Jaws the movie is better. Jurassic Park: both equal in different ways.
Lord of the rings, and Harry Potter:
the films are good but did not do justice even when they tried their best.
Great hub, should have read this before writing mine!
I thought your hub was informative and provided a different perspective. I think, like you said, that a movie is about action. I suppose that is why an active book like Jurassic Park makes for a good movie but a slow-paced more internal tale like say, Brokeback Mountain, didn't really make for a good movie. Although, the cinematogrpaher made great use of his/her medium of exploiting the beauty of the mountains for the sake of the film.
Denmarkguy 4 years ago
I think it's just very difficult for movie makers to adapt most books as screen plays. Even if we disregard the particular imagery people develop for a story when they read a book, most books contain enough material to warrant a 10-hour miniseries, if one were to be true to the original story.