I had a bookmark once that said that, and I loved it. You could also say Never Judge a Movie by it's Book. After all, books and movies are completely different storytelling methods and it really isn't fair to expect them to be the same. Still, when it comes to the books we love, we want the movies to be true to them, don't we? And what writer hasn't wished to see their books turned into movies? I know I have.
My favorite book to movie adaptation hands down is The Lord of the Rings. We just had another Lord of the Rings movie marathon to celebrate the end of school, and I fell in love with the movies all over again. Despite the many and often major differences between the movies and the books, I felt that Peter Jackson and gang were true to the heart of the story that I love.
I also really like all the Harry Potter movies. I didn't even start reading the books until the first movie was about to come out. I knew my son loved the books, and would want to see the movie, so I thought I'd better read them. Well, I loved them of course and I like the movies too.
I've never read The Lightning Thief, but I absolutely hated the movie. It was boring, trite and cliched. I'm told the book is better, so I may give it a try, but my experience with the movie makes me reluctant to do so. Sad, huh? Ditto for Eragon.
A couple of movies that I loved, despite bearing almost no resemblance to their books are Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and How to Train Your Dragon. Completely adorable movies, but they almost have nothing in common with the books. That's okay. I love both the movies and the books in different ways.
I could go on, of course, but I won't. What are some of your favorite book to movie adaptations. Which ones did you hate?
