Investigated – I don’t like book to movie adaptations

If I’m being honest, I don’t like book to movie adaptations. At least, not as much as other people seem to. I’m just, I don’t know, so over them. It feels like every time I go to the movies, there’s a different book movie playing. Yes, it can be exciting when a book you love is being turned into a movie. But I am often also filled with dread and nerves. I’ve seem too many movies based on books that were messed up. (The Mortal Instruments: The City of Bones anyone?) And I’m tired of seeing my favorite books be ruined on screen.

I feel as if I never can properly enjoy a movie based on a book I’ve read. I’m always looking for other things. I’m always comparing the movie in my head to the one playing on the screen and guess what? The one playing in my head from reading the book is usually better. Between how the characters match up (how they act and look) to the lines to the props. I never can say “the movie was better than the book”. And that makes me feel as if I’m wasting time watching the movie, when in that same time, I could have been reading.

There’s also the fact that the movies are almost never completely true to the book. I get that some things have be changed around since certain elements (like Thomas and Teresa’s telepathy in The Maze Runner) just don’t translate well on screen. But other than that there are little things that bother me. Maybe not eye color, but hair color (cough, Annabeth from Percy Jackson) and height, especially when they are significant to the characters and their personalities.

Another thing that bothers me about book movies is the fact that certain parts of the book have to be cut in order to fit everything “important” within 2-3 hours. Who decides what is important and what can be cut? I cannot tell you how many times I’ve watched an adaptation of a book, just sitting there, waiting for my favorite scene or my favorite line, only to miss it. Then I become mad at myself for missing it only to find out later that I didn’t miss it – it was cut from the movie altogether.

Part of me still likes book to movie adaptions. But until Hollywood’s track record with them improves, I don’t think I will be particularly excited or happy when it is announced that a book I loved reading is going to become a movie.

How do you feel about book to movie adaptations?
Love them, hate them? Why?

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