Movie Adaptations

This week's Top 5 Wednesday post is about film adaptations which I am sure many of us love but some of us may not. Sometimes the movie adaptations are great and better than the book but at other times the book was much better than the movie. There are lots of factors that make a good and bad movie adaptation. The one thing I hate about these adaptations is that the film seems to miss half the detail and plot of the story which I dislike and so out of the few books I have read which have been adapted to movies, I prefer the books. But anyway, let's begin with the Top 5 Movie Adaptations!

1. The Fault in Our Stars

This is an absolutely lovely book and film written by John Green which I am actually thinking about reading again soon as I cannot really remember reading this book. I do however remember the movie adaptation and I do not know if that was because I watched the movie countless times before I read the book. As we all know, this is bad as you should always read the book first. I remember much more from the movie than the book and so I would say this is one of the better movie adaptations that I have watched and read. It is such an emotional story but also a beautiful story that helps you be thankful for your own life.

2. War Horse

This is a book from one of my favourite authors Michael Morpurgo and both the movie and book are great. I like both but I think I prefer the book version of this book. It is written in the classic Morpurgo way which effectively draws the reader in and helps the reader emphasise with the characters and their troubles. I think the main reason I prefer the book is that from what I remember it is more about the family who sold the horse than the horse who went to war. But as I said, it is another great movie and book.

3. To Kill a Mockingbird

This is a rather beautiful book written by Harper Lee which I love. This is a book where I have not seen the movie but have been needing to and have watched a few clips of the movie to help me with this post. I love the book and the symbols and themes along with the social-historical context which is probably my favourite part of a classical book but the language used in this book is very hard to read and understand. I, therefore, would say that the movie is better than the book when it comes to understanding and comprehension of the story. The movie seems to bring the book to life helping you understand what is going on and why; it is just a little bit of a shame that the movie is dated and in black and white. 

4. Of Mice and Men

This is one of the first classic books I ever read and the first novella from American Literature which I read as part of my required reading in Secondary school. John Steinbeck wrote this book superbly highlighting key themes of racism, slavery and friendship. I loved reading this book before watching the movie after reading. I must say though that the book was better than the movie. Both were very good but I personally preferred reading the book to watching the movie. The movie however once again brings the whole plot to life which is great and lets you see the plot of the book in a different format.

5. The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Finally, on this list, I have The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson which is another great classic this time looking at the themes of science, duality and psychology which made it kind of the perfect book for me and one I was highly looking forward to reading. The book was great despite the very long chapters which I disliked but the movie versions sadly were nowhere as good. I think this is because the movies when they were made, were not able to realistically replicate the plot and so it was best for the descriptions so the reader could build their own images based on their own terrors. Similarly, the movie instantly ruins the mental pictures you made when reading the book and kind of ruin the whole experience and so I am definitely for the book on this one.

That is all for this weeks Top 5 Wednesday post and so I hope you enjoyed it. What is your favourite or least favourite movie adaptation? Please let me know in the comments below and it would be great if you could share this post with your friends. Also, please check out the other posts that are published on the Book Portal website and if you have why not comment on some post suggestions. Thank you for your support and I will look forward to publishing the next post!

 

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