Book or movie: the epic battle

I heard a lot of negative things about “World War Z” before I actually saw it. My zombie obsessed friend said she was disappointed in the book to movie transition. It only showed the story of one character in the book.

Now, being disappointed in a book to movie transition isn’t unusual, and more and more books are being changed to movies every year. In 2013 alone, there have been 26 different books adapted into movies, including books by anyone from Stephanie Meyer to F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Movie adaptations of books seem to have taken this hit or miss turn. Either the movie takes this surprisingly spectacular turn and turns out to be amazing (“The Hunger Games”) or the movie adaptation is such a huge disappointment that you mourn for the $8 you spent to get into the theater (“Percy Jackson and the Olympians”).

The thing to remember about movie adaptations is that sometimes 500 pages won’t fit into an hour-and-a-half slot. I will admit that I am one of the most critical people when it comes to movie adaptations. I like it when the tiniest possible details are crammed into the movie. Thank God for three parts of “The Hobbit.”

I remember practically screaming when the third Harry Potter movie came out. This happened instead of that; that was left out in favor of this.

This was the first time I felt betrayed by a movie adaptation. My favorite book became my least favorite movie just by the writers and directors changing a few things around.

I’ve grown a bit since then, and am now more forgiving of slight changes when it comes to movie adaptations. After reading “Warm Bodies” by Issac Marion, I thought for sure I would dislike the movie. I didn’t. In fact, I enjoyed the movie immensely. The movie did lose a bit of the original appeal of the book, as one of my favorite parts of the book is

the main character’s internal thoughts, which are surprisingly philosophical for a zombie.

That doesn’t mean that the movie wasn’t good. It was just different.

Currently, one of my all time favorite books, “The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green is in movie transition stage.  Filming began very recently. When Green was asked by a fan to make sure that the movie didn’t mess up the book, Green himself said that movie adaptations will always be different from the book.

I often have to put myself in a different mind set when I watch something that’s been adapted from a book. The book and the movie are two separate entities.  The book’s good? Cool. The movie’s good? Cooler. By thinking this way, I can enjoy both the book and the movie.

Unless it’s “Percy Jackson.” That movie was just unforgivable.