From paper to the big screen

At least three of this summer’s movie releases — one of which is already in theaters — are based on books: Dan Brown’s “Angels & Demons,” Jodi Picoult’s “My Sister’s Keeper,” and J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”

I saw “Angels” without reading the book first but have long ago read the other two.

Yet, as with any book, I have since forgotten many of the details.

I think that’s for the best.

To me, movies are rarely better than the books because it is difficult to cram every detail into a two-hour film. For example, the Harry Potter film in which Harry & friends learn Ron’s rat is actually a human left out details about Harry’s parents that I believe are necessary to understand the Potters’ history. (Excuse me for not including the title; all the Potter books are mushed in my mind.)

Forgetting exactly what happened in the books is good because it helps me accept the movies on their own merits rather than constantly comparing them to the novels.

So tell me: What are your expectations for movies based on books?

This entry was posted on Friday, June 19th, 2009 at 1:36 pm and is filed under Bookshelf. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.