Books vs. Movies and Series
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*CHANGE IN PROGRAM TODAY*
Sorry guys no Friday Fiction today. Instead, you get my most brilliant post... ; P
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The other day a friend of mine asked me about True Blood. In and of itself not surprising - I'm a definite fan of the show. Obviously I was the person to ask for advice on the matter. But then I told her I loved the books, too, and all I got was a blank look. There's a book?
What??
How could she not know?
Well, lets just say that little piece of ignorance sparked a rather lively discussion between me and my friend (yes, we're still friends) about the merits of books vs. movies (or tv-series, as the case may be). It brought up several questions that I'd like to share with you.
- If you've seen the movie, would you still read the book?
I tend to avoid reading books I've already seen the movie for, unless I hear from a reliable source that it's worth it. Even then I sometimes stop halfway through the book (normally a cardinal sin in our household) and just leave it at that. I'm not sure why, though. I guess that what I really enjoy about reading is imagining things and being surprised by what I find when I turn a page. That gets lost if I already have some actor's face stuck in my head.
- If you've read the book, do you go see the movie?
I tend to form some very firm images in my head when I read. You might say a movie runs through my head as I turn the pages. The actual movie usually pales in comparison, and somehow bleaches out the memory of the reading experience. I invariably end up disappointed when the Hollywood vision doesn't match what's going on behind my eyes.
- What's your take on the whole "based on" this or that book idea?
Can go horribly wrong, can be absolutely brilliant. Impossible to tell beforehand - TV producers are strange (almost as strange as writers, I guess). True Blood, for example, is a stroke of genius if you ask me (dissenting opinions accepted, but only because I'm polite). It doesn't entirely follow the storyline in the books - just touches the general points and adds creative little bits and pieces, so there's no problem with reading the books AND watching the TV series. Neither one ruins the other (that's a personal opinion - sorry if it wasn't true for you).
- What are the attractions of a book over those of a movie?
Well, this is acually more difficult to answer than I thought it would be. I'm a book person - that's the first thing I'd say if you asked me. After some reflection I have to admit, however, that it's not entirely true. It totally depends on the genre for me. I LOVE romance novels, but mostly just cringe my way through romance movies. Why? No clue. I find them, with some notable exceptions, trite, obvious, overly hollywood-ised and just too predictable to be fun.
Horror movies on the other hand... hmmmm I love those. And I'd much rather watch a horror movie than read a horror book. I think the reason behind that little idiosyncracy of mine is my rather overactive imagination. Books freak me out a lot more than movies (all those pictures in my head, I guess).
And here's a really tricky one:
If someone wanted to turn your book into a movie, what would you do? Celebrate because you'll be rich or fight tooth and nail to retain some control over what they do to your story?
My take on the whole book-made-movie/tv show/series is actually quiet divided.
In most cases, if I've seen the movie (etc) first, I have a damn hard time liking the book afterwards.
I watched "Flowers in the Attic" years before I read the book. Since watching the movie, I refused to read the book until one day I had nothing to read but the book. When I finally read it, I was seriously ticked off at the movie. I loved the book (and became a VC Andrews fan until her Ghost Writer started changing up everything).
Twilight: Watched the movie (again) before I read the book. Then my BFF bugged and bugged and bugged me (non-stop, really) to read the books. I tried reading Twilight - but still haven't finished it to this day. Too dull for me. But I did read the other three (just so I could know what was going on). I love the movies, the books - eh.
And then of course there is True Blood. I love, love, love, love the series (as if Eric wasn't yummy enough they had to add Alcide), but I don't see me ever reading the books.
I've often seen a series, most recently a show called Justified, and sought out the book because the story and characters were so compelling.
On the other hand, I don't often see movies for books I've read. I just can't get my mind's eye out of the way and am often dissapointed.
Movies or shows "based on" generally turn out well since they're just running with the concept...but I've seen some that are truly terrible.
Interesting post...never knew there were books for that series.
Edge of Your Seat Romance
They tend to be a mix. There's just not enough time to include everything in the book. LOTR did it very well, though. So did the first Narnia movie. Some are horrible, though. I thought the movie The Relic was decent until I read the book - and realized they'd omitted the main character. What the heck?
I haven't yet seen a movie from a book that I thought was any good. IMHO the book is almost always better...you just can't cram a whole book into 2 hrs. I end up going to see the movie anyway, and I'm invariably disappointed.
btw, I've never seen True Blood nor read the books. I hear they're...um...good? Maybe I should read them.
some films are good adaptations but not very good films, e.g 'Perfume'
Some are good films but bad adaptations- when only the title of the book is retained, e.g 'Blade Runner' from PKD's 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep'?
Yay I found a controversial topic! It's fascinating to read what you guys think about this.
@Margaret: Yep, the books are cool, the first few better than the later ones (stories should end at some point, if you ask me). I like Charlaine Harris' style of writing.
@Jacee ; P Oooooh ERIC!!!! Definately Team Eric, here!!
@Alex: I never realized the Relic had a book! I'll have to check that out...
@eleenlee: I rather liked Perfume - but then we'd covered the book at school and one of the papers I wrote on it was how to adapt if for a movie (so many scent impressions described in the book, how to fit that into a movie and so) and was suprised to see that they had pretty much the same ideas I did way back when!
@Raquel: yep, there's books! The writing is great, the story could do with some finalizing (she's on book 10, I think?) though. The first few are great. So is her Harper Connelly series. Charlaine Harris', that is.