Book or film

It makes you wonder, how it is possible that men can take a perfectly good book and turn it into a very lousy movie. Just think of most of the Steven King adaptations for the screen: most of the thriller/horror-films based on his books suck. The best adaptations based on his books is “The green mile” and that isn’t even horror or thriller. Of course there are instances where the book is as bad as the film (or vice versa). For me “Twilight” is a very good example of that. The book was whining and the film as well. Very impressive.

Sometimes they adapt a whole trilogy: do you remember the Jason Bourne films with Matt Damon? The first film was pretty much like the book, the second had several deviations of which the death of Marie was the biggest. And the third – alas – only had the title in common with the book. The films were fun, believe me I liked them. But true adaptions of the books, no, not really.

And yes, sometimes a adaptations turns out good, with some (major or minor) errors. Maybe I’m performing sacrilege, but I likes “The lord of the rings”-films. I’m a huge fan of Tolkien. His books were my first encounter with fantasy. And although Peter Jackson made some directorial decisions, over all the films are not bad. The one thing that bothered me most was the battle at Helmsdeep. In the book it were not the elves, but the Ents who destroy the army of Sauruman. And I understand that the books offer little or no roles for women. But the way Arwen was constantly put in the spotlight was more irritating. But as always choices has to be made and you can’t adapt every line of a book. Especially if that book is 1200 pages.

The same with the Harry Potter adaptations: some films are better than the others But even – let’s be honest – some books are better than the others. For some reason though, I did not like what they have done with book nr. 7. The book was okay, the midsection being a bit slow and boring, the end being exiting. And I don’t know how they done it, but the film did not live up to my expectations. I was really looking forward to the final movie: the battle of Hogwarts. But somehow the magic of the book wasn’t transferred to the film. If I remember correctly dear hubby even fell asleep. And that means a lot. It’s not that I’m a huge critic, but it just didn’t work for me.

Last year dear hubby and I saw “I am number four”, a light, but very funny film. It turned out it was based on a novel by an author name Pittacus Lore, a synonym of course. As I liked the movie, I purchased the book. And it turned out quite nice. It had a nice pace, a good story and the main character was likable enough. I even read the sequel “The power of Six” which was alright as well. Huge difference with the first book however, was that in the first book the whole story evolved around John. In the second book, there were two stages of action: one around John and one around Six (on the other side of the world). In a way more interesting, but in a way also some what distracting.

And in a rare occasions, the film is better than the book. I’ve tried to read some of the books by John le Carré. After not being able to finish “The tailor of Panama” dear hubby and I saw the film. And somehow that was much better than the book. Maybe it’s Le Carré way of writing.

This weekend, due to the beautiful weather (finally!), I finished “The hunger games” by Suzanne Collins. The first book of a trilogy set in a rather bleak future. The book is writing in nice, clean sentences. Nothing too fanciful. You can see that it was writing for young adults. The heroine of the story is 16 years old, but already very skilled in hunting and taking care of herself. This due to the fact that she lives in the poorest district of a bleak futuristic USA. All the skills she uses at home to put food on the table for her mother, her sister and herself are needed when she has to participate in the Hunger Games. A kind of punishment by the Capitol (the head district) for a rebellion 74 years ago. She has to fight for her life. And of course she wins. From the beginning that was out of the question. Of course she would win (otherwise our trilogy wouldn’t be a trilogy). But before she wins, she will lose some and win some. In the end, she walks out of there alive, but in doing so she make the Capitol look bad. And is there is one thing that the PTB don’t like, it is looking bad. I just have to start the second book, but I’m curious as to how things work out. Of course there will be an uprising against Capitol, and most likely the rebels will win. But in the meantime, people could get killed etc. I’ll let you know after I finished the remaining two books.

One things leaves me curious though: what it is with teenage books-adaptations lately: we had Harry, Twilight, Kattnis, Percy… And I guess there are some more. As soon as a book sells enough copies it is turned into a film. Don’t we have enough imagination any more that seeing a film is much easier than reading a book? And if the book is turned into a film, why than deviate so much from the story? I guess that’s why they always say ‘based on’. And I will admit, I’ve read some very nice books because I saw the film first. And I’ve also seen some very crappy films because I read the books first.