Are books better than the movie?

Eleven year and seven months bump.

Impressive...

[rogerdraig]

i expect it is whether you read a lot or not . I with very few exceptions would always go with the book. 007 being my main exception and that only on they are really two different story lines with the films loosely based on the fantastic books). Followed lately by the series ( yep not really a film though they could rival many on content and effects ) Game of thrones where again i love the books but the adaptation is also great but different.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Eleven year and seven months bump.

Impressive...

It's nice to be reminded of some of the old members who no longer visit for whatever reason every now and then, makes me remember how good it once was here!

Nothing like a slightly rose tinted view of the past.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Paul M

Nothing like a slightly rose tinted view of the past.

Well it wasn't me that had to deal with them

[tweetiepooh]

Just read through this and mostly books are better than the films. I found the films of LOTR and The Hobbit far inferior to the books and they changed too much or tried to fit in too much to stretch the films out. This was especially true of The Hobbit.

Books do have to spend lots of time in description because on film you can show fairly quickly what may take paragraphs or even pages to describe. Sometimes the description is important other times it is just padding. Often though it fits in to the literature of the author. You are meant to appreciate the skill of the writing not just the content.

Another thing that may need to be taken into account is the original readership. This is important for more classical or ancient works. The Bible was written to an oral society (though many could and did read) so it uses literary devices that to modern eyes can be quite dull, long lists of the form; and a was the father of b, and b was the father or c; where we as modern readers would prefer a form like; and here is the list of people father to son a,b,c... I use The Bible as an example because it's the one I know best but I am sure other works have other "non-modern" devices.

[ThunderPants73]

I picture everything I read in such great detail, sometimes I don't remember if it's a film I saw, or a book I read (and saw, in my mind, in HD, sometimes with CGI and subtitles). Actually I picture everything someone tells me too, which can be quite disturbing if they told me they had diarrhoea, or had sex, or showered, or indeed, all three. These are usually rated 18 and can be quite distressing if it's a colleague at work, who I don't really know all that well, but I kinda know them REALLY well, if you catch my drift.

[Uncle Peter]

Tinker Tailor Solider Spy is a strange one. The book demands absolute concentration and focus to properly digest the complexity of the plot and you could be excused for giving up and putting it down. The original TV mini series on the other hand was infinitely more accessible without sacrificing any essential detail. It was no less than a triumph and a masterpiece, possibly the finest drama the BBC have ever made imho.

In a way that became the benchmark for what the big screen remake should have been. In comparison however, it fell way short of the mark despite the quality of the cast. There's far too much emphasis on fluffing up the story than building around the characters.

[rogerdraig]

Originally Posted by Uncle Peter

Tinker Tailor Solider Spy is a strange one. The book demands absolute concentration and focus to properly digest the complexity of the plot and you could be excused for giving up and putting it down. The original TV mini series on the other hand was infinitely more accessible without sacrificing any essential detail. It was no less than a triumph and a masterpiece, possibly the finest drama the BBC have ever made imho.

In a way that became the benchmark for what the big screen remake should have been. In comparison however, it fell way short of the mark despite the quality of the cast. There's far too much emphasis on fluffing up the story than building around the characters.

I agree a hard read ( though worth it ) and and excellent series

[Hom3r]

I read the book Total Recall (Arnie version) after seeing the film.

The film was novelized by Piers Anthony. The novel and film correspond fairly well, although Anthony was evidently working from an earlier script than the one used for the film, and was criticized for the ending of his book which removed the ambiguity whether the events of Total Recall are real or a dream. In addition, the novel had a subplot wherein the aliens planted a fail-safe device within their Mars technology, so that if it were misused or destroyed, the local star would go nova and therefore prevent the species from entering the galactic community. It coincided with a comment earlier in the novel that astronomers were noticing an abnormal number of recent supernovae, giving an indication that the aliens seeded their tech as part of a galactic experiment in technological maturity. Instead of mentioning that he dreamt of her earlier in the film, Melina mentions she was once a model, explaining how Quaid could have seen her on the screen at Rekall.

having seen the film I could picture the book better.