I'm a bookworm who happens to love TV and movies just as much as I love books. So movies or TV shows that started as books?! I'm so game.
Usually, if there's a movie coming out that is based off of a book, I'll make sure I read the book first. TV shows based on books are a little different, they're usually based on a book series and sometimes I don't read those books. Movies, almost always yes, I've read the book.
This tends to create a problem. In my experience, 98% of the time the book is better than the movie. It's just fact. The book wins 98% of the time. I say 98% because I actually know of one movie/book that I preferred the movie. I know, I was as shocked as you are.
But sometimes the movies fall short.
And sometimes I get really frustrated.
And sometimes I walk out of the theater wanting to injure someone for screwing up a great book.
I know, I KNOW that to make a movie exactly like a book, the movie would have to be 6 hours+ long. Books can hold more content, so to make the movie, I know things need cut. I also know that movies flow differently than books, so sometimes things need rearranged or changed entirely. I know, okay? I really pride myself on being able to separate a book and a movie and thinking of them as 2 different things. This usually allows me to love a movie just as much as I love a book, even when they're different. But sometimes this doesn't work.
So today, here's a small sampling of books turned movies/TV shows and I'm asking YOU which you preferred..
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo book vs. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo movie
The Help book vs. The Help movie
My Sister's Keeper book vs. My Sister's Keeper movie
The Hunger Games book vs. The Hunger Games movie
Something Borrowed book vs. Something Borrowed movie
The Sookie Stackhouse series vs. True Blood tv series
P.S. I Love You book vs. P.S. I Love You movie
The Notebook book vs. The Notebook movie
Pretty Little Liars book series vs. Pretty Little Liars tv series
The Twilight Saga books vs. The Twilight Saga movies
The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud book vs. Charlie St. Cloud movie
Harry Potter book series vs. Harry Potter movies
The Mortal Instruments City of Bones book vs. The Mortal Instruments City of Bones movie
Just curious what everyone thinks.
Also for a really good list of books turned into movies, check this out.
AND a super awesome list of books that are about to turn into movies! I'll be using this list to add books to my "Need to Read" list!
Some of these I've never read the book, but I love P.S. I Love You the movie and Something Borrowed the movie. I've never read those books.
ReplyDeleteThe Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was an AMAZING book, and I think they did a really good job with the movie. There were some parts of the movie I didn't like, but overall I think they did a good job.
Don't even get me started on how they RUINED My Sisters Keeper. I'm still mad about that...
ReplyDeletePLL is so much better as a tv show than as books, I couldn't even finish the first book but LOVE the show.
And The Notebook is so true to the book.I usually hate when books turn into movies because they RUIN it for me (see My Sisters Keeper lol) but The Notebook was just as good as a movie!
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo's Swedish version was AWESOME. I didn't like the American version as much. Mainly due to casting, I think.
ReplyDeleteI'm still mad with some stuff that was left out of the Hunger Games movie, but over all I liked it.
True Blood and PLL books are SO MUCH better than the tv shows. The shows got so cheesy.
The biggest book to movie disappointment to me is The Other Boleyn Girl, worst casting ever. Except Batman might get that credit in a year or so, we'll see.
The 1 where I liked the movie more was my sisters keeper! Mostly because I liked the way they changed the ending.
ReplyDeleteI love this post because I too pride myself on distancing movies from books. It's an important skill.
I preferred the book to almost all of these except I loved PS I Love You and The Notebook movies more. I didn't read True Blood or PLL.
ReplyDeleteI was actually pretty impressed with how well The Hunger Games movie turned out. I was expecting disappointment, but damnit JLaw can do no wrong. Speaking of disappointment: I just saw the trailer for the Divergent movie (have you read that series?!), and am fully expecting it to come up short. Shailene Woodly as Tris just doesn't do it for me (I was expecting/hoping for Dakota Fanning), and so I anticipate my dreams to be crushed my the movie. BUT WHATEVER IT'S FINE KEEP CALM IT'S JUST Y.A. DYSTOPIAN FICTION.
ReplyDeleteAnother book/movie debate: "Into the Wild." It's one of the rare rare cases where I would say the movie was better. The caveat, though, is that I think the movie humanized the main character more than the book, thus making him more likable/relatable, thus resulting in me liking it more. So, there's that. Either way, I highly recommend both the movie (because Emile Hirsch... drool) and the book!
maybe i am wrong for thinking this, but i hated ps. i love you. never read the book, but i hated the idea of the whole letter thing. how does she move on when she keeps getting letters!
ReplyDeleteThe only one of those that I've read the book and watched the movie is the Hunger Games. I definitely preferred the book over the movie. I mean, I liked the movie, but I think it left a lot out. I think that I was able to understand the movie better than my husband because I had read the book and knew about all of the little stuff they left out.
ReplyDeleteHunger Games movie version SUCKED. I didn't realize it when I first saw it because I hadn't read the book(s). But when I re-wateched it after finishing the trilogy, I couldn't believe that I liked the movie.
ReplyDeleteFor the ones I've seen, books are always better, like you said. The Harry Potter movies aren't bad on their own accord in many cases, but they just pack so much into the books! I wasn't a Dragon Tattoo movie fan at all. And The Hunger Games was way better in my head.
ReplyDeleteI've read/seen a good portion of these and I agree that books are simply better. I'm a die-hard Harry Potter fan and when someone tells me they "like HP" and I say, "Which was your favorite book?" and they reply with "Man, that 5th movie was sick..." I pretty much just write them off. The movies are great, but a true Potterhead knows the ENTIRE story because they read the books!
ReplyDelete-Kate
www.theflorkens.com
Can we please bring up beautiful creatures? They totally changed HALF of the book including the ending. so sad. I actually liked city of bones movie better than the book, I have no idea why since that is NOT how its supposed to go. It is so hard to compare PLL the books and PLL the show. The story line is just all kinds of different. I mean a main character in that show died in like the first four books, just saying. Its apples and oranges now. They are both good on their own but not comparable. And true blood show is way better. I could never get into those books, I had to skim the first one and I was still super bored..
ReplyDeleteI too pride myself on being able to separate the book from the movie for all of those reasons that you listed about why the movie cannot be the same as the book. I really enjoyed both versions of Something Borrowed. I hoped they would continue the story with Something Blue but that didn't happen. Charlie St. Cloud was another book turned movie that I really enjoyed both versions.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently reading Beautiful Creatures which was recently made into a movie and I'm loving the book so far! I also have The Mortal Instruments on my list to read before seeing the movie.
I haven't read The Help, and I only watched the movie for the Oscars, but I have massive issues with the white savior narrative and I'll give the movie extra points for actually employing people of color, even if it's still the way that it is. Moving on.
ReplyDeleteHunger Games book vs movie: actually I think the movie was pretty good. The book wasn't bad, either. I have hopes that the second and third movies will be better than THOSE books, but I'm not holding my breath. (I really hated Mockingjay in particular, but the movie won't be restrained to Katniss's POV, so... maybe). The only thing that bothered me about the movie was the bits they changed around Thresh's death, and I can't even fully tell you why.
Pretty Little Liars the TV show: super fun and engaging! Pretty Little Liars the books: hella boring. Obvious winner here. Plus, in the books Emily's a white redhead with racist parents, so... I think our Emily is a huge improvement.
The Notebook the movie is lovely, actually, for a Nicholas Sparks-based movie, but the book is atrocious. The writing is atrocious. Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams totally make up for that.
I think the PS I Love You book and movie are about on the same level. It's been ages since I read the book, though.
Harry Potter is a long complicated topic, haha, but I think the movies generally do a decent job. Good casting, good atmosphere. I hate Goblet of Fire the movie and I haven't watched SS or CoS in ages but other than that they're all right.
(Here from Be So Happy blog!)