book or movie

[tjshorty]

I have decided that if I have read the book, I don't care to watch the movie as the movie ends up being such a dissappointment to me then.  I have read The Help and Sarah's Key.  The books were great.  Then I watched the movies. Such a let down.
What is your opinion?

[lvstephanie]

Usually that's true. The books tend to expand much more than what can be shown in a movie. The characters are usually deeper, there's more layers to the plot, and you can listen in on what the characters are thinking about in addition to what they say. Just recently I did the opposite of you in that I watched The Hunger Games first and then started reading the books. There was so much hype for the movie that I thought that perhaps the movie could stand up on its own, but as usual I was a little disappointed. After watching the movie there were several things that the movie seemed to gloss over which I felt that the book would have done a better job. For example, the back story wasn't really talked about in the movie and didn't lead to the feeling that I felt should have gone into what the Hunger Games were all about. But after beginning to read the book I noticed how the book fleshed out some of these holes.

Every once in awhile the movie is pretty consistent with the book and can stand up on its own. I thought the most recent Lord of the Rings trilogy was good as a movie (series) without having to read the books. Likewise Harry Potter series was pretty good in the theaters and didn't need a person to read the books, or if they did read the books didn't feel like the movies were a ripoff.

Sometimes the plot in the movie and the book are so different that it is difficult to say whether one is better than the other. The rendition of Steven King's The Running Man in the movie was different than the book such that it was tough to say that the book was better. In the movie the contestant was able to go after the architects of the game show in a satisfactorily manner, whereas in the book it was a darker outcome.

And then there are the times when they make a book based off of the movie. Usually in those cases, the movie is much better than the book. I think the problem with books based off of movies is that they try to stay too true to the movie, but because the movie itself can't go into such detail that books usually are able to, the book based off the movie also feels too simplistic and flat. I thought that the movie The Game was very good but the book felt like someone trying to tell me about what the movie was about. Everything in the book was pretty much in the movie without going into detail that wasn't in the movie that may have helped make it feel more well-rounded.

[brenspencer]

The book can sometimes be better, I watch twilight saga and then read the book it wasnt like the movies in alot of aspects of the book i thought the movie was better some of stephen kings books are better than the movies but alot of the movies are better

[brendy1990]

always the movie for me, for some reason i just cant read a whole book , think i might have a touch of add just cant seem to focus

[kapeh12]

I generally feel the books are better than the movies mostly due to the fact the books allow deeper insight into characters or more elaborate back story that a movie may not be able to effectively portray in the limited time frame they have.  However I'm a very slow reader, so I tend to watch the movie versions prior to reading the book.  I usually go in with low expectations - just looking to be entertained by a good story, and most movies provide that sufficiently.  Then I'll read the book later and have any questions/holes filled in so I can better appreciate the story.

One rare exception that was a pleasant surprise to me was the Bourne series.  I watched the movies first and they were awesome!  Then I read the books and found that the first movie very loosely followed the first book, but took a major departure.  So now I felt like I had a whole new Bourne series to explore with the books.  I got 6 awesome Bourne adventures - 3 in movie form, 3 in book form.  Cases like this are rare, but every so once in a while happen.

[hawkeye3210]

Definitely the book. In a book you can have a lot more detail, and with a movie they end leaving stuff out. Never as a good as I imagined it in my head.

[elysee24]

Movies as it will probably me forever to finish the books!!

[foxylady81]

i am a book lover all the way it makes me feel like i am watching a movie in my head when i read and the smeel of the binding and clue and the pages is like a drug to me