I’m stealing from Dave, but it’s a good sentiment. While I love writing and reading, I also love movies. I don’t mind watching them at home, but there’s something extra, awfully good about sitting in a theater and fighting over popcorn (despite the cost), and I enjoy movies for different reasons than I enjoy books.
Movies (I’m stealing from you again Dave—sorry, but technically I said it first—or at least theoretically) are basically condensed versions of books. Having said that, don’t get all mad comparing the two, because as we all know, once Hollywood gets its hand on any novel, they usually bend them to the point it’s almost a new story with the same characters.
Definitely true of the Harry Potter story line. I know a lot of people who were miffed at how the movies missed a lot of things, and important things from the books. All true statements. However, once I made the mental shift and took them as two different tellings, I was fine with it.
Same for a horror story called the Shining. Stephen King’s story was a WHOLE lot different than Stanley Kubrick’s movie. I saw the movie after reading the book (thankfully or I might never have read the book thinking it was the same), and was pretty ticked about the movie. I won’t get into it here or you’ll be listening to me for a looong time.
However, there have been a few movies I actually thought were better than the books, though I will say that it is 1% at best. Most times the books are so much better it’s not even a contest. A horror movie called the Relic I preferred the movie to the book—the book was good, but the movie condensed down the characters and delivered that “horror” feel well. I still like the book, I just really liked the direction the movie took.
I’ll get killed for saying it (I do love to go where angels fear to tread)….I prefer the movie V for Vendetta over the graphic novel. Eh, sue me. The movie took a slightly different direction with the characters which I liked. Evey was a much stronger person in the movie and less at the whim of her circumstances, and I liked the police officer in the movie version better.
Either way, movies hit you in different ways than books. With books, you more often get the slow build, the growing crescendo, while movies have only got one and a half to two hours to hit you in the gut (unless you’re a superhero movie which can go on for hours…I need a refill on my popcorn, please).
Movies have to get going on the story telling and can’t have too many side avenues unless they really affect the plot.
I love books, don’t get me wrong. On the other hand, I love movies too—it just depends on what I’m in the mood for . . .
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