Lord of the Rings was my first experience with a book I loved turned into a movie. Hard to believe, I know, but I have only recently become a reader. I wanted to know what the story was about before I saw the movie so I picked up the books while on vacation and absolutely fell in love. I mean head over heels in love with these books. I would imagine myself on the journey with Frodo through the dense woods to Tom Bombadil’s house. Meeting Galadriel in her treetop palace in Lothlorien. It was so vivid to me and real. I felt like if I could just go to England I could find these places. Well, turns out you have to go to New Zealand but I’m still willing to make the trip. My point here is, I had everything laid out in my head when the first movie came out. And you know what, when I left the movie theater I was totally mixed. I loved it because it was so beautiful and portrayed so much of the book well, but I was mad because some characters were left out (Tom – but how on Earth are you really going to film him, right?) and some were changed (Arwen had a much bigger part than she did in the book). But, like I always do, I took a few days and let it all sink in and came to LOVE the movies.
Now, my second book to movie was Harry Potter. This has a little different ending because just like LOTR I was head over heels and had the whole book already playing in my head. I knew how Harry acted and talked and exactly what he looked like. I had Hogwarts mapped out in my head and when I went to see the first movie I was really disappointed. It came on the heels of LOTR so I expected it to be the same quality. But it wasn’t. It was definitely lower budget and poor Daniel Radcliff just didn’t pull it off for me. At all. Sure he kind of had the look, but he didn’t act like my Harry. Same with the second film. It was just OK. Fun to see with my kids but not a breathtaking experience. Then the Prisoner of Azkaban came out and I was as giddy as a schoolgirl. That was a great flick. I still Have issues with Mr. Radcliffe so I just ignore him and pay attention to everything else going on on the screen. Harry is still my Harry not his. I think the difference is they didn’t stick as closely to the books and they just made a great movie. They put some money into it and got a great Director and had fun. I think the last two movies have been great but not on the same level as the third. So Harry Potter started off rocky and has really captured my heart since.
I think enjoying a movie that has been adapted from a book you love has a lot to do with expectations. If you go into it expecting it to be like LOTR you’re probably going to be disappointed. If you think to yourself something like, “You know Harry Potter wasn’t that great but they worked the kinks out, and I bet this movie will be like that” you’ll probably be pleasantly surprised when they get even one scene right. Then again, you could hate it all the way through.
I had this happen to me with Dracula. I read it and absolutely loved it. Not head over heels but I did get into it and was really surprised by how tame it was. I wasn’t scared at any point in the book. At all. So then I get the BBC version of the book. I’ve seen their work with Austen. It’s amazing what they do and how much effort they put into capturing the nuances of her books. I love watching them because I feel like they are pulled right from the pages of the books. Not the case with Dracula. Like I said, expectations. They left one key character out completely and totally changed another key relationship just to get more drama. Now if this had been anyone other than BBC I would cut them some slack but this is totally inexcusable. Now, can I detach myself and say it was a good film, I’m not there yet. I just had my expectations set too high and now I can’t see clearly.
That brings us to Twilight. I went into Twilight with even lower than Harry Potter expectations. I thought the movie was going to suck big time. But, I’m a huge Twilight fan so I was always planning on seeing it. As you read in my review I liked it. I can not stand Kristen Stewart as Bella but as long as I ignored her I was generally happy with the movie. Do I think they can improve for the next one? Oh, heck yeah. But I had such low expectations going into it that I came out pleasantly surprised. And this was the first film in the series. They’ve got some kinks to work out before it gets really good. Now, I have friends that hated this movie. With passion and vehemence they hated this movie. So it’s my Dracula for them. What can you do? I’ve seen the movie twice and we’re planning on seeing it again so obviously I’m good with it’s shortcomings.
Bottom line is, the movie is never as good as the book. Never. A movie is never going to perfectly capture what the author penned and what you’ve already envisioned in your head. But, it can be fun sometimes. Whether they hit it almost perfect like LOTR, or get it kind of right like Harry Potter and Twilight, or miserably fail like Dracula, I still like that they’re trying. Here’s to trying!
What have your book to movie experiences been?
Now, we’re not a news site but since we are all really invested in movies I thought I’d pass this along as an interesting bit of information. Redbox are those big red boxes (how ironic) that you can find at your grocery store that rent DVD new releases for cheap. Well it turns out some people in the film industry aren’t happy with Redbox and say they are hurting their bottom line.
