Book to Movie Adaptions...

With the new Twilight movie just released I thought I’d do a short post on book to movie adaptions (and yes, there will be spoilers)…

Harry Potter by JK Rowling

               I think that Harry Potter is probably the golden standard for book to movie adaptions (at least in more recent times). You have 7 books, 8 movies, and now Pottermore… it is a full blown phenomenon. The movies for the most part followed the plot set forth in the books (yes people could get nitpicky and say they left parts out but I haven’t read all seven books so I can’t really comment on that). The other great part of the Harry Potter movies was that there were only cast changes if they really had to change them… Most of the main cast stayed for all 8 movies. If this didn’t work out then the Harry Potter franchise could have turned out differently (Of course the cornucopia of talented British actors also helped).

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

               Twilight gets a lot of hate (but the most recent movie is also been the #1 movie two weeks in a row). On the front of book to movie adaptions it actual isn’t that horrible. Yes, the sparkle effect is a little cheesy but then you’re trying to make someone sparkle it’s going to be cheesy. The love triangle is a little exaggerated in the movies and the acting is only so-so but they did follow the basic plot line (unlike this next book to movie adaption).

Percy Jackson by Rick Riordan

               First I should start off by saying that I really loved the Percy Jackson series. The movie was decent except for the fact that it didn’t follow the book… at all. First there actors were too old (If you were wondering the main cast is supposed to be 12 in the first book...) Next they left out one of the characters who is pretty important in the second book (Were they even aiming to have a sequel). Finally they didn’t follow the plot. They used 10% of the actual plot, left out some if my favorite scenes, and… Well I’m going to stop here because I could go on and on. If you’re interested the Percy Jackson Wiki lists some differences here…

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

               This is the next “big” teen book trying to break into the movie making business. I’ve been following the hype leading up to its release (March 23, 2012). You can see the full length trailer here. Will this take off like Harry Potter or crash and burn like Percy? My current opinion is that it has all the ingredients to be great… Will it? Well that’s TBD…

So give me your opinion. Do you like me doing reviews and want me to do more? Who knows this could become a regular thing (and feel free to give me ideas on stuff to review)…

I’ll be back sometime later to get you caught up on what’s happening at school (it’s been over a month since I’ve given you an actual update on my life).

So over and out (for now)…

SVAMS

PS. Congrats to everybody who was able to finish Nanowrimo!