For a long time in Hollywood, movie scripts have been adapted from books. From big-budget franchise films to small independents, books have a long standing as inspiration for big screen material.
Some of the highest-grossing film franchises of all time have been adapted from best-selling book series. “Harry Potter”, “The Hunger Games” and “The Lord of The Rings” series all were immensely successful book series before they became box-office smash hits.
As fantastic as movies can be at their best, a great adaptation does not compare to a great book.
There are a few reasons for this, mainly the inability of film to capture all of the events in a book.
There is a simple reality that putting words down on a page allows creative freedom not afforded to filmmakers with the same material.
Whether it be special effects restrictions, budgeting or lack of time, it can be impossible to depict every scene from a book on the big screen.
This immense creative freedom is the key factor that makes books better than their film counterparts.
Books allow readers to completely immerse themselves into a story that films do not allow. When everything is happening on the page and you are visualizing every scene in your head, everyone’s experience can be unique.
Comparatively, when put on film, there is not much room for interpretation as to how things are being portrayed. What you see is what you get.
Another major reason for my staunch belief that books are better than film adaptations is a book’s ability to develop characters.
Books allow you to dive deeper into characters and settings than is possible in movies. This is not a luxury given to a director with a two-hour run time.
When given hundreds or thousands of pages, the author is free to chronicle a character’s thoughts, actions and motivations. They can spend page after page describing every detail of a person’s appearance or the city streets that they walk down.
They can flashback or jump forward in time with the turn of a page and have no need for actors or filming permits.
A final reason I prefer books to movie adaptations is the ability to pace the telling of the story for yourself.
Movies are almost always viewed from beginning to end-they are designed to be viewed in a single sitting. They do not allow much room to stop and come back to them later.
Books, on the other hand, can be digested at your own pace. You can pause the story at nearly any point, or at the end of a chapter. You can stop for hours, days, weeks or months and return to the story and become just as enthralled within its pages as you were before.
As much as I love movies, especially movies based on books, they never quite compare to the written material they are based on.
But of course, that’s just one man’s opinion.
Categories: Opinion
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