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

[confuseddave.livejournal.com]

I think it probably depends on how well you can detatch yourself from the book. Obviously it's unrealistic to expect a film to capture every nuance of a book; but it's possible for some people to get het up about deviations which aren't necessarily bad per se, but absence of something expected is inescapably disappointing.

The example I'll quote is Everything is Illuminated. It was a pretty good film in it's own right, although an awareness of how much they'd changed from the book (out of necessity - it was a bit of a concept-driven book) did threaten to spoil it a little.

So basically, if you can let yourself be flexible, and appreciate how the director/actors/screenplay writers have interpreted source material that you've already interpreted (easy enough for me, because in a few months whatever I read becomes a bit hazy anyway - those with better memories might find it harder), there's no reason why films can be just as worthwhile as the book.

Sorry, long rambling answer... it's that time of night I think. :/

Everything Is Illuminated

[otter-girl.livejournal.com]

I saw that film because of Eugene Hutz and then read the book :D The book was really quite different...I didn't get why they made Alex's Grandfather's story so different in the film. It had a good soundtrack though, which you don't get in books :)

Re: Everything Is Illuminated

[confuseddave.livejournal.com]

As I say, I don't remember how different it was mostly because my memory of the book has gone hazy, but I do remember it being really different.

[rich-jacko.livejournal.com]

I think it depends to a large extent on how attached I am to the book. I tend to be much happier about watching films of books I liked or thought were okay than I am about watching films of books I love.

Hence I was quite happy to watch film versions of Jurassic Park and The Lord of the Rings, but will be avoiding the films of The Time Traveller's Wife, Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and His Dark Materials like the plague.

[confuseddave.livejournal.com]

Fair call.

I often find that films are improved by having very low expectations... don't know if that'd work in this case, but if you know there's a risk it'll be bad and you prepare yourself for it to be really really awful you can only be pleasantly surprised.