Judging a book by the movie cover...

As you flick through the movie listings of the last few years, more and more book to movie adaptations are being created... of course these are bound to happen as some of the best movies ever created were adaptation!

 

But when I talk to the people in my life, comparing the movie to the book I am often met with stares of confusion and annoyance; often coupled with 'why would I read the book when I've already seen the movie?'... and this is beginning to annoy me... a lot!

 

Now its clear that it is easier for a person to sit and watch a one and a half hour movie compared to sitting for several (if not more) hours reading the intricate details of the novel, but there is only so much information they can fit into those precious minutes... whereas a book, the possibilities are endless. A scene that lasts an entire chapter in a novel may only get a two minute (or less) slot in the novel; how could they do that scene justice?

 

Okay, book to movie adaptations are often done after great success of a book; so clearly producers are listening to the demands of the public in the books they are reading and what they want to see in the movie. Buying a book is like voting for what you want to be made into a movie... and that's how a book like 'fifty shades' makes a quick (and may I say shoddily made) movie, whereas books that took longer to create the needed hype (such as Maze Runner) took much longer to grab the attention of the producers, which leads me to another problem....

 

Hypes, movie production follows them as well as readers; following trends in book sales and fandoms. But when the hype gets so great that the movie doesn't do the hype justice problems happen for both the film and the book, pre-readers complain about the movie which makes the non-readers think the movie is rubbish... which lead them to believe that the book is rubbish and they steer clear... nobody wins.

 

A great example of this is the 'Insurgent Movie' (Second Instalment of The Divergent Trilogy), due to the deviation from the original storyline the book-lovers hated it (majority thereof) which made other not want to go near either the book or the movie.

 

So I guess my problem is that they are not giving the books a chance any more, watching a movie before reading the book and literally judging the book by the movie cover.