“Should the movies be exact reproductions of books that they are based on?”

Most movies start from with a storyline which is told in a book or is told in a script especially written for the movie. Sometimes the movies are true and accurate reproductions of the book from which the story comes from or they are loosely based on the storyline told in the book.

Most movies are made from popular books, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which in my opinion tends to butcher the book it copies, but I’ve gotten so used to that fact, it’s grown on me. It seems like it would be a very big challenge to tweak a story from a book to fit under a certain budget, or possibilities. Sometimes the storyline is too long to fit in one movie and the movie makers tend to alter the story or make a series of sequels which are becoming quite popular. I find it really nice to have movies made from a series of books. Especially when they start to get so suspenseful, wanting you to know what is going to happen next.

From the people I’ve talked to, most of them agree with me that the movie reproduction of books, tend not to be as good in quality as the books, although, there are some exceptions. The Harry Potter series was not only an amazing series as a book, but it was equally amazing as a movie series. It is also true that sometimes the movie version of a storyline becomes more interesting than the book which it is based on. There is a series of books called “A Series of Unfortunate Events;” I read the first book in that series a long time ago, and I wasn’t that big of a fan. A couple weeks after that, I saw a movie version of the book which caused me to get hooked as soon as my eyes had contact with it. I ended up going back and reading the entire series of the book.

An interesting question comes up when there is a remake of a book as a movie; “should one watch the movie first, or read the book first?” There is no right or wrong answer and people have different preferences over this. Some people get disappointed if the movie is not an exact reproduction of the book so they better see the movie first. Likewise, some might prefer not to take away the surprise element by reading the book first. My preference is to see the movie first and if interested, I will read the book. It also happens that after reading a book that I really love, I anxiously wait for the making of its movie knowing that watching it would remind me of the book that I enjoyed reading.

In conclusion, I believe that one should not expect that the movies be exact reproductions of the books and one should enjoy both forms of arts as they are.


(Sorry Indents Are Not Working)