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21 March 2012

Book-to-Movie adaptions

Whenever I hear that a book I loved was optioned for film I get incredibly excited but soon after dread sets in because what happens if the movie doesn’t do the book justice or worse ruins it completely?
You might wonder how a movie can ruin a book but it’s happened for me before. I was reading a certain middle grade series (not Harry Potter, btw) and had read the first three books before I watched the movie which I didn’t like at all, especially the actors and suddenly when I tried to read book 4 I had those actors in my head instead of the version of the characters I’d imagined before. It took me almost half of the fourth book to get past that and it frustrated me because I LOVED the books.

So when I heard that The Hunger Games would be a movie I was equal parts excited and worried but after having seen teasers of the movie I’m hopeful that it’ll belong to the good book-to-movie adaptions.

Before I wrote this post I’ve been thinking about movies based on books that I liked and my list is short, mainly because there aren’t many movies I’ve seen that were based on books that I’ve read. But there are three movies that come immediately to my mind when I think about fantastic adaptions.



Harry Potter

I loved the books and the movies. I’ve read and seen both more times than I can count. Of course the movies didn’t reach the brilliance of the books but that’s to be expected.



Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larsson

I’ve read all three books and watched all three movies. I’m talking about the original Swedish version and it was fabulous. Lisbeth Salander almost looked exactly how I’d imagined her. I’m planning to watch the US version of the movie at some point, though I’m worried that I’ll always compare it to the fabulous Swedish version.



The Lord of the Rings

Here I’m cheating a bit because I haven’t read the books (gasp!) but my husband has and he told me that the movies do the books justice. And I absolutely love the Lord of the Rings movies and can’t wait for The Hobbit movie!


What are your favorite book-to-movie adaptions? Are there movies that ruined a book for you?

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4 comments:

  1. Anita SaxenaMarch 21, 2012 at 7:37 AM

    The three you mentioned are my favorite book to movie adaptations as well. I sometimes wish that Peter Jackson would re-do the Eragon series. He did such a great job with Lord of the Rings and I think he could do a fantastic job with Eragon.

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  2. Gabe (Ava Jae)March 21, 2012 at 10:03 AM

    I agree with Anita--I loved the Eragon book but the movie was disappointing, to say the least. I also have to agree that the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings movies were fantastic adaptations.

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  3. AnonymousMarch 21, 2012 at 12:06 PM

    Of course, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings have to be included on my list as well. I can't imagine any better adaptations.

    Gone with the Wind was a pretty good adaptation and so were the Anne of Green Gables films. Not perfect, but then again, I've yet to see an absolutely perfect one (though LOTR does come close for me).

    I'm hoping that Austenland lives up to the book because it's one of my favorites and I'd hate to see it poorly done.

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  4. Susanne WinnackerMarch 21, 2012 at 4:20 PM

    I haven't read Eragon and haven't seen the movie. Maybe I should give the book a try soon!

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