Book-Based Movies

I went into the city to watch "Perks of Being a Wallflower" because the theatre here only plays one show for the week. I've read the book, which I thought was decent. It's an easy read with a pretty big message, although I can't relate to it much since I'm not the type to get into drugs or anything crazy like that. Overall, the movie was great. Usually what happens after I watch a movie after I've read the book first is this: I get extremely excited for the movie, decorating walls, lockers, screensavers or just my brain in general in preparation. I stalk the actors to see if they're up to par, and well, I just set the standards high. For this movie, it didn't even matter that I'd read the book first. They did a fantastic job with everything from the cast to the portraying the story properly, and I really have no complaints. I've been through quite a few of these movie-book pairing situation before, so I'm going to tell you exactly how each of them went.

Twilight:
I was a HUGE fan of the books and decorated my locker and everything (I even bookmarked my favourite parts in the book; I know, lame). I pumped myself up so much and fell in love with the movie. I'm not sure how much time went by before I realized that it was a terrible movie and I hated what they did with it.

Hunger Games:
I love these books so much. I got pumped up for this movie too, so much that I even bought cheap fake nails and drew a flame pattern on them, bought a leather jacket, and got my friend to braid my hair like Katniss' for the movie. Yeah, maybe a little too far for a 16 year old. I watched it and was pretty disappointed afterwards. I was even more disappointed and bored after the 4th viewing.

Jane Eyre:
I watched the movie before reading the book, which I think is the best way to go if you don't mind being the only one who hasn't read the book yet. I loved the movie - mainly because Michael Fassbender is in it - but nonetheless, I liked it. Also (this might sound like I'm trying too hard to be a smarty-farty) I really did like the book. Overall, it was a win-win situation.

And lasty, Abraham Vampire Hunter:
I'm actually only half way through the book after I've already seen the movie. This situation actually worked out pretty well too. Most of what I've read so far isn't in the movie, which tells me that they wanted to go in a different direction for the movie, which worked out fine. If they had actually stuck to the book, it would have been extremely long and not as exciting. The book has a lot of "facts" and is basically a timeline, which would have made for a dull movie, which I can assure you, it is NOT.

All in all, movies based on books can be tricky. Some succeed, and some... just don't. At all. If you can, watch the movie first, it's just better that way. Anticlimactic, but less disappointing.