A few weeks ago, I went to go see The Hunger Games with some friends. At first I was a little reluctant because I did not read the books and I thought it was going to be another one of those mythical romance stories that was virtually impossible in the real world like Twilight (sorry if any of you reading this are Twilightfans).
However, I was quite surprised and delighted by the storyline and the c haracters. S till, t here w as one thing I heard while watching the movie that got me extremely annoyed. As I was sitting there, a fangirl of the books yelled out “The books are so much better!”
The craze of taking book series like Harry Potter, Twilight, Lord of the Rings and recently The Hunger Gameshave created a new form of pop culture for the younger generations.
By turning books into movies, Hollywood takes the stories into different forms of media so that those whom do not read as much or love movies can it enjoy it as well. For those who do read the series, there is something you need to understand, writing a screenplay is completely different from writing a novel.
Screenplays are roughly about 115-120 pages for longer feature films alone, and to adapt a book that i s o ver a h undred p ages, o r in the case of Harry Potter, thousand page books, is a hearty task that takes time and a lot of creativity. It is a lot harder than writing a novel. An author can make a book as long as they desire, because the reader can stop and start reading again whenever they feel like it.
When it comes to a movie, it has to be stimulating visually and there needs to be a storyline that is relevant and makes sense in a shorter amount of time, usually two hours at the most.
When you think about it in, it really isn’t even two hours. Moviemakers know that they only have a few minutes to capture a viewer’s attention.
Another point that is annoying is when people criticize the actors chosen to play the parts. Just because they do not look how “you imagined” does not mean that they are bad actors or that the movie is going to be horrible. Nitpicking everything that is different from the book is not going to make it any better.
It is an adaption, which means it is a recast version of the book. Not everything is going to be the same because it may not work visually on the screen. It does not seem very fair to criticize when someone is trying to create a fictional world and bring it to life; it is not that simple to do.
Still, I understand why a person might be upset if a movie is different from the book they read. There have been times when I have been disappointed when a screenwriter or director left out a favorite part of mine from a book, but if it is not necessarily relevant to the main plot, it is usually taken out. Sometimes this takes away from the book, but for the most part it helps the director focus on what needs to be included to make the film a success.
If you are a fan of a series and you see the movie, remember that there is a reason something is different or taken out. So please think about this and stop shouting out during the movie about the books being better than the movie, it is really annoying. We all know that no matter what, the book series will always be better than the movie adaption. You do not need to announce it.