Sunday, March 1, 2009

Movies vs books

Right now I have the last movie in the Lord of the Rings series on. I really like these movies and think they did an incredible job making them. The special effects are awesome! Now why the heck couldn't they do what they did here for Eragon? I'm still pissed off about the mess they made of that movie. I read the book about four or five times and was sooo excited to see the film. Sadly, I was disappointed. The guy who played Eragon was great and Saphira was pretty darn good too but the special effects were lacking in places. My greatest sadness was in the lack of similarity in the settings. Where were the mountains so high you couldnt see the tops? I missed a lot of what was so freaking cool in the book.

It makes me wonder about my work. If my dreams come true and my work is published, what if it they made it into a movie? Would I like what they did? Can an author have enough say to ensure their vision is brought to live correctly? Hmmm. So many movies seem to be based on books and almost all of them fail to live up to their inspiration. In my opinion books are better than movies. Period. Of course I'm partial to the written word, though I do love movies. There's something about seeing the worlds and characters in your mind. The way we all start from the same description yet see them in our own way. I don't know what science says on this subject but reading has got to be more beneficial overall for your mind. It requires more of us it would seem. Don't get me wrong I'm not bad mouthing movies or anything but if I had to choose I'd take a book anyday. Let me correct myself - a GOOD book!

What about you...any disappointments in books brought to life?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well its funny you mention Lord of the Rings because I was watching that too today lol! I know it is amazing. As for Eragon they could have done much better.
The one bummer I had recently was Twilight, not so much with effects but I felt Edward was not as sweet as he was in the book, I mean besides him saying so the lion fell in love with the lamb-did he ever just say Bella I love you? I do not recall! The best recreation is the HP movies-I am NEVER dissapointed with anything!

amanda31 said...

I can't even get into the disappoint of Twilight the movie in comparison to the book (and no, Edward never said "I love you" in the movie, but I think it's supposed to be one of the deleted scenes on the DVD).

Most recently, I watched "Nights in Rodanthe." The book was fabulous and I cried more than once. The movie however was horrific. The characters were completely wrong and the entire context of the book was lost. I stopped watching half way through.

JennM said...

Well since someone else brought up Twilight, i am happy to talk about it!
How about the Meadow Scene! SM's dream that started the whole thing! I can't even go there...there is no way that the movie did that any type of justice. I agree about Edward as well, so much of the "Edward" the movie showed was internalized in the book, so it was kind of hard to see him that way. I really missed the dynamic, the 'love' between Edward & Bella, the touching, the talking, the electricity. BUT that said - i love the movie in spite of itself.

I think that as writer all you can do is tell the best story possible. Enable your reader to 'see' it, to visualize and watch the scenes play out in their minds like a movie. Then if you are lucky enough to have it made into a movie make sure you get artisitic control in the contract LOL.