Is it a blessing or a curse when your favourite books are adapted into movies?
I am a lover of stories. Be they in written or visual form, so long as they engage my imagination, I will likely enjoy them. As a writer and self-proclaimed bookworm however, I do occasionally feel a slight pang of guilt when watching movies adapted from books that perhaps I should remain loyal to the original text. While I feel this worry is unnecessary on the whole, it did get me thinking about the long debated argument over which is best; books or movies.
Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, Silver Linings Playbook, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Life of Pi, The Hunger Games and The Great Gatsby are all examples of recent book to movie adaptations that I personally enjoyed but the important thing to note is that in all cases, I read the book before I watched the movie and I realised this alone gave me the answer I needed. I wanted to have my own views and opinions on the original text as a basis to compare the big screen versions to, as when we read the book, our brains interpret the story in our own way but when we watch the movie, we are not seeing our own versions displayed but rather a diluted version that has already been interpreted by a scriptwriter, a director, actors and an editor, often distorting the plot and certain central themes that the author originally set out to portray.
This is why however much I openly admit to being a very big film fan; I know it is the humble book that holds the biggest place in my heart. What about you? Do you enjoy the big screen versions of your favourite stories or do you remain strictly loyal to the book that started it all?
