I have made it pretty clear on this blog on how I feel about books and how I feel about reading the book before seeing the movie. And recently I have been thinking that it’s been a while since I have written an ‘opinion’/ rant post on my blog so I thought this was the perfect opportunity to voice my opinion on this matter, perhaps I can shine some light for you if you’re one of these people who disregard the book.
ONE My first point is the most important. PRIMARY INFORMATION would you rather have the information from the main source. I feel as though this is the most important point. Reading the book first is where you get the primary information. Some movies even change endings, characters etc drastically (which is always a bad move) so watching the movie you don’t even get to see the proper story the writer intended for you to see.
If you watched Miss Peregrine’s home for peculiar children (and loved it like me), you will be happy to know that the book doesn’t end that way and three other books follow which allows you to learn even more about the peculiar world.
*2020 edit, there are now two more books which means, even more to learn about the peculiar universe.
TWO The movie may be shit but that doesn’t mean the book is. There are so many examples I could tell you. Sophie Kinsella wrote a series of books (The shopaholic series) and the first book was made into a movie. Now, I don’t want to sound harsh but I can tell you the movie was definitely not good enough to make me want to read the book. As much as I love Isla Fisher, the movie was crap. Anyway, I was adamant that I was not going to read those books, or any Sophie Kinsella for that matter until I sat next to a friend in Science who told me that I needed to read them. I was a little weary but we had a very similar book taste and enjoyed reading the same sort of things. But yes, anyway. I read the book series and became attached to Rebecca Bloom-wood. The movie very nearly made me miss out on reading one of my (now) favourite authors. I think that has made my point…
THREE You make a bigger connection with the characters. When you read the book you get to know the character even more. You learn more about back stories and their appearance is described to you which means you can think for yourself about what this character is like (giving you a more personal experience).
FOUR Reading the book before can make the movie even better. Like I have said before, you get more information so you understand the movie more and can gain a better experience from the movie than people who haven’t read the book. The background information you learn in the book makes the movie better because you know more.
A very good example of major information missed in the movie.
FIVE You miss bits out. The second Divergent film disappointed me in more ways than one. But the thing that grinded my gears the most was the shocking ending. I remember sitting in the cinema in excitement ready for the huge shocking ending, I was waiting for my friends to gasp in surprise and hear the sounds of the story fully clicking and coming together in their heads. But no, to my disappointment they completely ignore the fact that (SPOILER) Tris’ Mum was from the outside and was speaking in the video that revealed everything and used a random person to tell the news. What an awful shame, it really did impact the story and took away something huge from the series.
SIX My final point is a little off topic but I thought I’d just add it anyway. The book can sometimes offer a different perspective to the book. For example, Lewis Carol’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland show Alice is a completely different light to both the Disney films made (the cartoon and live action). Writer’s create amazing worlds, so why wouldn’t you want to explore it even further?
I recently wrote a blog post, again expressing my love for books and how sometimes the film ruins it. If you’re intrigued on what you have missed out on by not reading the book, then check out this blog post when I tell you what films completely mugged off the book.
But yes, thank you for reading, I hope you all enjoyed this post and feel more obliged to READ THE BOOK FIRST!
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