The Movies of Books

Chances are the movie you watched in the cinema recently is inspired by a novel or a magazine. Needless to say, it's becoming more and more the mainstream. This trend has upped tremendously the past few months even the local movie industry is also beginning to do the same thing. I'm talking about the upcoming movie starring the two more popular teens in the country today, Kathryn Bernardo and Daniel Padilla. They're doing a movie version of a Filipino-authored book, She's Dating The Gangster. I may read this book one of these days. Another Filipino book-inspired movie actually came out first earlier this year, Diary ng Panget (The Diary of an Ugly). It was considered a hit and sold well. I watched the movie but did not read the book. It was fun and it made me laugh but the movie was obviously low on production money because most scenes seemed cut short and were hurried. 

With great perseverance, I have successfully gotten my hands on some addition to some books which have been made into films, but with all these books, i.e, The Fault in our Stars, Divergent, Hunger Games) coming like fires of machine guns, it's only gonna get tricky. They don't really come cheap, you know. 

Most of the time, book versions are better for me.  I don't exactly know why movies don't get to the same level as the book but one very strong example I can think of of books-made-into-movies gone wrong is Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. I will be biased with this observation because the book happens to be my favorite of all time, which is also maybe the reason I am slightly critical of the movie. I have read this book twice and the effect it had on me the second time was even greater than the first. I am, unfortunately, a deeply emotional person. For this reason, I do not intend to touch the book once more in the near future for I am afraid I may not be able to handle how it affects me next time. Nicholas Sparks is not new to giving his readers something to cry about. But Dear John affected me in so many ways other books, including his other tearjerkers, have not. The book is just so beautiful the movie (could) did not live up to its standard. Not even close, nah. I tell you, not even Channing Tatum could change my opinion of the movie. To be fair, they did a good job getting close to the book in most parts of the movie but then they did the ending and the word I am about to say sums it up: ruined. In the book, how it ended is the point of everything that came before it. Any other book, the ending is pretty much obvious and predicted but that is not the case in Dear John. It is love at its most unconditional kind of ending. I don't think any other versions could level the book, though and if it wasn't a book first, Channing and Amanda Seyfried should have made a great film. Plus they were really great together on-screen. 

I've thought of another example. The Harry Potter movies. Well, J.K. Rowling is a pure genius. Who could top a pure genius? At least, there was Emma Watson in it. I'm not really that impressed with the movie versions of the series. I couldn't even understand why it was such a hit the world over. Thankfully, I watched the movies (all 8 of them) before I decided to read the book. I may not have watched the movies otherwise. Again, it would have been a very, very good movie series without the book version. But with it, -shake head no-

There is one I can think of that did something different, breakthrough even, The Twilight movie series. The movie creators did what nobody seems have done, which is to completely follow the book. Completely. I never read any reviews of either the book or (especially) the movie, but I do know the actors received some criticisms on their acting, however, the actors' acting is not the issue here, therefore irrelevant. The point is how they successfully stuck to the book. I am not sure how that does for the movie industry but the movie series was widely considered a huge success so I wonder why most movie creators do not follow suit.

I've thought of another breakthrough, The Perks of Being a Wallflower. In terms of how it followed the book, it was perfectly done. Another favorite, this is one of those few reads I had digitally and when an opportunity came, also bought a real copy. This, I will never understand why, wasn't so big in the cinemas. As that English Professor said, "We accept the love we think we deserve". And I guess that's it. Most people could not accept the kind of love this wonderful, wonderful story can give. Again, at least there was Emma Watson in it.

As someone who loves books, the evidence of how seriously the international movie makers are taking the world of book publishing is a great thing to know. Because this trend happening gives many people a good impression of the books and their value, which, in effect, can encourage a lot more people to read. A lot more people who read means a lot more books for grabs. And that is great. So many times, I discover a book online, try to find it, only to learn it is not available anywhere. It is maddeningly frustrating. That will change once the population of book readers improve. There is, after all,  that law of supply and demand I heard from a class. Do not ask me.

Note: I do not own the pictures in this entry.