It occurred to me some time ago that I prefer to watch the movie then read the book.
I believe this is due to the fact that more often than not, the book far outranks the movie and if I see the movie second I am thoroughly disappointed. I’m usually left feeling as though this piece of literary genius that I love so much has been poorly represented.
One example of this is “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott. I was three-quarters through the book and saw the 1994 film-adaptation with Claire Danes, Kirsten Dunst and Winona Ryder (among others) while shopping and thought ‘Oooo! This should be good!’ NO! This is not a review of the movie, so I’m not going to go into it, though I’ll just say it fell short of the mark for me and actually turned me off reading the rest of the novel. I don’t know why, it just did. I’ll have to finish it one of these days...
Another example of the book out-weighing the movie is Twilight. Now, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the movie, but I saw the movie first and THEN read the book and fell even MORE in love with the books.
It was soon after the Twilight experience, and several others, that I vowed to always watch the movie then read the book. It’s my way. I feel if I like the movie I will love the book even more. As if the book is an extension or encore. The bonus round. Or more accurately- the full story.
I have found this 99% effective. The one percent would be in the case of “Bridget Jones Diary”. The movie would have to be in my top five of all time, whereas the book... just didn’t do it for me.
SO! For you, what comes first? The Book or the Movie?
Why do you feel this way? Favourite book/movie combo?
As always, thanks for stopping by and I love hearing your thoughts :)
By the way, look out for a post I will be doing in a few days time about the "I live here" projects- a non-profit organisation working at a grass-roots level to make the world a better place. Don't worry, no donating necessary, just wanting to share a nice story. Hope you drop by!
Lol I almost always say book (The Brigit Jones' Diary book just wasn't for me either) and with Whip It, I said that the book is a good choice to read first BUT the movie is amazing too. I suppose that it could go either way - book or movie - first, though.
ReplyDeleteThis is an interesting question, especially when you factor in the 'novelizations of the movie' that come out like X-Men (which I read from the library... yeah...) which add more to the plot and factor in the deleted scenes that didn't make the cut. Usually those come out after the movie, but I'm not completely sure.
But for me it's almost always book before movie. Almost.
I must say, I am firmly in the opposite camp--if I think I have any chance of ever reading the book, I go ahead and read it before seeing the movie. Yes, many times the movie is not a good as the book, but I've had a 100% fail rate of getting through the book after seeing the movie.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I like to be able to imagine how the characters/world look like for myself before having them set for me on the big screen :) But I get where you're coming from with your movie-first-then-book preference, too!
I watch the movie then the book. One of the worst adaptions ever in my opinion was 'The Other Bolyen Girl'
ReplyDeleteSeriously it's written in black and white people WTF went wrong??
I always read the book first because I feel like my imagination can take things a different way. I had a friend(not me) who read all the Harry Potter books before seeing the movie, and in her eyes Draco had always had black hair.... needless to say she took things differently. But, I do agree that when you see the movie first you can enjoy it more instead of muttering curse words under your breath about how bad it was.... but that is my opinion
ReplyDeleteexcellent thought! thanks for the comments guys!! @nicole- haha you crack me up! I have see the movie but not read the book and now I can't wait!!! x
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