Book/Film - Film/Book

C

coolblue

New member
I generally like to watch a movie and then read the book so that the characters come to life. I prefer this because if I read the book first, the film is generally a disappointment with bits missed out and others added. I've just bought 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' - is the film true to the book?

Do you ever bother reading books of films at all?
 
I prefer to read a book before seeing the film - agreed that often the film is a disappointment (2 notable exceptions being "Kiss the Girls" and "Fatherland") but I couldn't read a book after watching a film as it takes me a couple of weeks to read a book and I couldn't do that already knowing what was going to happen!

Also I prefer to use my own imagination as to what the characters look like rather than seeing the actor who played the part. When I read early James Patterson books ("Along Came a Spider", "Kiss The Girls") I had a Denzil Washington type for the role od Alex Cross, they made a bug mistake not having him and using Morgan Freeman instead who I feel is too old for the role (given the info you get about the character in the book)
 
I don't read novelisations of films as I consider them pretty pointless - the thing was meant to be a movie, not a darn book. As for movies based on books, they tend to disappoint. While I appreciate there are time constraints they all seem to miss out scenes that I either like or think are important. I've learned never to voice these as I come off as a sad and pathetic geek, which perhaps I am - I walked out of The Lord Of The Rings as it was bugging the hell out of me. Perhaps books should stay books and films should stay films.
 
I generally prefer to read the book after having seen the movie for similar reasons to you.
As for ' Captain Corelli ' the film is a complete waste of time compared to the book which is simply superb - enjoy !
:)
 
I prefer to read the book - then see the film.

Often however the film is disappointing because I have my own idea of what the characters should look like and act like. Too often they don't come up to my expectations.
 
And that is surely how it should be. If the movie was made of a book, it is the person who made its vision of the book, so therefore its going to be different to your vision. Each person gets there own vision of what something should look like from a book, and the imagination lets you create a world.

If the book is a film adaption, watch the film first
If the film is a book adaption, read the book first.

I did that with Harry Potter and was pleasantly suprised how Colombus managed to get it close to how I imagined it, as did Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

I didn't however do that with American Psycho and it dissapointed me that the film was so poor compared to the book.
 
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