"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DIDN'T WATCH!" exclaims a friend while spastically waving his hands in front of my face.
"It was the craziest cliff hanger ever. We have no idea what happens to Jon Snow!" He's in a complete and utter frenzy, so I flash a dry smile to appease him. "I guess you wouldn't understand, you don't watch the show." By this point he's exasperated and I've given up attempting to justify my reasoning. The truth is, I don't have to watch HBO's hit series "Game of Thrones" to appreciate the narrative. I don't need to watch the show to know that Jon Snow is my favorite character or to know that the number of Starks is terrifyingly declining. I don't need to see the plot on TV to understand just how good the storyline is...because I read the books.
I can't count how many books I've read for the sole purpose of watching the TV or movie adaptation, just to end up completely adoring the novel and being utterly disappointed by the movie. The book is always better. This is a truth we all know, no matter how much you may love the movie, the book was better.
Even "Harry Potter" fans, who cherish the movies still stand by the books. I have many theories as to why this is. Perhaps, it's because the movie didn't live up to our expectations. The movie cannot always bring justice to the beautifully written literature. The plot of the books play out in the readers heads uniquely, and when it is put on screen it's never how we pictured it would be.
Maybe the actors don't fit the image you created for a character, or the director and screen writers just had a different perspective on the story. It is also extremely hard to fit an entire novel into an hour and a half long movie. Often, they split longer books into two movies because the book is too detailed, and in order to include it all the movie would end up being four hours long. The worst part about book adaptations is when they cut scenes out, especially important ones that disappear like they never even happened. And nothing makes a book fan angrier than when the directors change the plot and the movie deters from the original storyline. Sure, its supposed to be "based on the novel," but you bet we want it to be exactly like the book.
Sometimes the movies just can't live up to the book to the point where they stop making them. The "Percy Jackson" series is a good example of this. The books were amazing and many fans grew up reading them. The first movie had awful reviews because the plot was nothing like the book and fans were so angry that many didn't even bother watching. They put out one more movie and it did so poorly only 2/5 books ever made it to the big screen. Similarly to "The Mortal Instruments" series, the first book to movie didn't do well enough to even bother converting the second one. So take two, they are attempting to revive it through a TV series on FreeForm which will probably be mediocre anyway, especially if you read the books.
At the end of the day, the book was better. No matter what, it always will be. You can watch the movie and absolutely love it, read the book, then look back and realize the movie just wasn't that great in comparison. I find if I have read the book I never really enjoy the movie. So instead of giving up on the movies maybe we should give them a shot first and read the books second...but who wants to do that?
