If you’re a reader, do you tend to imagine the scenes happening inside of the book that you’re reading, or do you simply see the words on paper? When watching a movie, do you admire different scenes? Whenever I read a book I always imagine each character either according to how they’re described, or how I would imagine them, while when I imagine a scene I typically imagine it as it is told. In my opinion reading a book is just like watching a movie, but better. I get to create my own version of the scene in my head. When watching a movie, sometimes scenes can be a bit disappointing while reading never disappoints.Â
Movies/Books that I think have great scenes.Â
I feel like Dune has to be mentioned here. I’ve only watched the first movie so far and I loved the background and props of every single scene. They did an incredible job with costumes, characters, and setting. I didn’t get bored at all throughout the movie. I haven’t read the books, but I have heard people talking about how they were mostly on the right track when being similar to the book. My question is, do people want to create movie adaptations from books to make it identical to the books, or to create their own version of it? I do think it’s nice to watch a movie after reading the book and finding that it’s super accurate, but I also believe that it’s nice to see how other people make their own version.Â
A book that I thought had lovely scenes was The Night Circus by Erin Morganstern. I read this book a while ago. I thought the writing was very magical and it went well with the overall plot. The scenes that were described were like no other book I had ever read and it makes me believe that scenes in books are sometimes better than ones in movies.Â
Book to screen adaptations.
What do people think about book adaptations? Sometimes they go really well and other times not so well. As an example I will use the movie series The Hunger Games. Unfortunately I have not read the book series, but I’ve asked a friend to give me her opinion on the movies. Firstly, she said she read the books a while ago so she doesn’t remember too. But then she explained how it was pretty accurate to the books, although the movies downplayed Katniss’ love for Peeta. She believed that the in the books, Katniss showed more love for Peeta. But in the movie, Katniss seemed more cold and distant.Â
Another example would be the Percy Jackson movies that came out in 2010 and 2013. In my opinion, and keep in mind I was a child when these movies came out, I loved the first movie. Today however, people do not like those movies mostly because they do not correlate with the books at all. Now that I am older, I see why. One major reason is because in the first book, Percy is twelve years old and in the movies he does not look his age at all. Recently, Disney came out with a Percy Jackson series which people loved and I liked it too. The casting is great, Percy actually looks his age and it followed the plot in the books.Â
Movies or books, which is better?
This all may depend on the kind of things you are interested in. I personally love to read more than to watch movies, but I also don’t have much time to read anymore so I lean towards watching movies. When I do have time, mostly over breaks from school, I read more than watching movies. I enjoy reading more because it’s somehow my own thing and it’s all happening inside of my head. I get to think of it the way I want to and I don’t get distracted by things like background characters, props, or costumes.Â