As a general rule...

[rich_jacko]

...I don't do memes. This is mainly to do with trying to stick to my New Year's Resolution of wasting less time on t'interwebs, and only partly to do with expecting no responses to the current craze other than soul_rider being envious of my GameCube.

So instead I'll ask something entirely different (Woo! Rebellious!): Is it really worth seeing film versions of books you've already read?

Vice-versa I can understand. The film can give you a taste for wanting to read the "proper" story. But to me, reading the book first and then watching the film is akin to enjoying a many-course meal at a fantastic restaurant and then going to McDonalds.

The upcoming film versions of His Dark Materials and The Time Traveller's Wife give me The Fear. I'm already avoiding the Harry Potter films and I'll probably do the same for these.

Comments

[rich-jacko.livejournal.com]

Jurassic Park and The Princess Bride are the two exceptions I've thought of so far where I enjoyed the books and the films equally (or maybe even the films slightly better). In both cases, I saw the film first.

I've seen the first two Harry Potter films. The main problem I had with them is that the books are extremely episodic storytelling set over the course of a whole year. That doesn't really lend itself to a 2-hour film. You get the good vs. evil battles, but you don't get the sense of everyday life at Hogwarts that makes the books such a success. A TV series would have been a far better way to bring them to the screen IMHO.

[silverixnay.livejournal.com]

The films really get better as they go so I would strongly encourage you to watch 3 + 4 which we own if you want to borrow, or maybe arrange a time to watch at ours?

[rich-jacko.livejournal.com]

So I've heard, but I didn't particularly like the first two. Thank you for the offer, but I think I'll have to decline. I have to fight hard enough to keep the films out of my head when I'm re-reading the books as it is. I have a bit of a problem keeping film and book versions separate.