This is a classic statement said by everyone at one point in time, "The book is way better than the movies". That may be true, but is it true for all the movies based off a book?
First off, I'm going to say that 90% of the movies that come out based off the bible are going to be wrong. I've said it in past blogs and that's something that won't ever change. Now that I've said that, lets move on. Let's look at The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings.
The series is by author J.R.R. Tolkien. I'm sure when he wrote the book, he never would have imagined that his work would play such an important role in the lives of countless fans. There are tons of people that are on both sides of the fence about how it doesn't follow everything in the book and they left out key plots and characters in the movies. Some people even let that prevent them from ever watching the movie. This is where that classic statement becomes a problem.
When you let parts of a book decide whether or not you stay a fan of the franchise, then you aren't really a fan of the franchise. When you are a fan of the franchise, you are a fan of what that franchise produces, not just parts of it. So let's bring another franchise in this part of the example. Tons of people love Dragon Ball Z but hate the Dragon Ball Super series. The best way to put it is how I've seen other people say it, "If your a fan of DBZ, you're a fan of all of it." Same rule applies to other works like Lord of the Rings. It's like saying, "I'm only a fan of parts of the bible, not anything past when Jesus died." That's not how it works. When you say your a fan, be a fan of what the franchise has, not a percentage of it.
So when movies take out parts of the story, does it make it right? Well no, it doesn't. The way we all need to see this is, if the movie is good enough to make you want to read the book to see what they got right, then the movie did it's job. Sometimes these guys want to bring attention to the original author but are only allowed so much screen time to tell you the entire story. That's just how screenwriting works. You have to tell the story in a certain amount of time while still maintaining the integrity of the original work. Some movies don't do that, but that's where you come in.
It's up to us whether a movie did it's best to tell the story on the big screen. Most of us "Die Hard Fans" would argue that everything I just said is nonsense and I don't understand what it means to be a fan of a book. That may be their opinion, but I like to take movies like that with a grain of salt. If it's a great movie, then my money was well spent. If it was bad, then oh well, I can make fun of the movie for the next few years.
Speaking of which, We will be giving away some bookmarks at the Hub City Comic-Con this year at our booth. Come hang out with us and let me know what you think about this subject!
Adam
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