Category Archives: Book vs Movie

Book vs Movie: Gone Girl

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It’s time for another Book vs Movie. Psycho murder conspiracy edition. I just finished Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl after weeks of only being able to read a little bit at a time. I have a confession though: I watched the movie first. I’ve mentioned before that I actually don’t find it horrible to watch the movie before reading the book. There are some cases when reading the book first is better (and that’s most of the time) but there are some books (like The Maze Runner) where you need that little bit of extra assistance to really get into the book. This book and movie combo is the former.

When I watched the movie Gone Girl it was because I really wanted to see it, and didn’t want to wait until I had read the book. I was too antsy. So I made the executive decision to go ahead and watch it… Holy crap. That movie is one plot twist after another. I won’t say anything to ruin the movie (or book) for anyone because honestly it just has to be seen to be believed. But I watched the movie and thought it was one of the craziest movies I’ve ever seen — so I had to read the book.

I borrowed the book from my sister and started reading right away. For me, the story was kind of slow in the beginning simply because it was almost exactly like the beginning of the movie. It was like reading a screenplay rather than a novel. My issue here was that when I was watching the movie, I was completely enthralled within five minutes. And because the first part of the book (it’s written in three parts) was exactly like the movie, I felt like I was just watching the movie. No extra juicy details they had left out, no different plot twists – just a blow-by-blow of the movie (or rather the movie was a blow-by-blow of the book…hmm…) But nonetheless, the story was great to start out with, I just already knew what to expect.

I was starting to really wish I hadn’t seen the movie first only because the writing was so amazing. Flynn is one of those authors that can make even the most unlikable characters likable, but can also take away any shred of decency in that character in an instant. In Flynn’s case it’s really more of liking the character, unliking the character, liking the character, hating both characters, etc. So, because of all this, I was really starting to get down about it. I thought I had ruined the whole book by seeing the movie. Why did I ruin such a good thing?? But then I hit the last few chapters before Part Two, and oh my god was it amazing! I got to a point where I just refused to go to bed. I was like, “Nope. I know it’s 11:30pm and I know I have to get up early tomorrow, but nope. I’m just gonna keep reading. Que sera sera.”

And thus began my absolute love for this novel. I refuse to tell you anything about the actual story of the book, but I will summarize to you what the back cover/back of the dvd allows its audience to know: On the morning of their fifth anniversary, Nick Dunne reports his wife, Amy, missing. He acts very strangely, and even lies to the police, which causes everyone in their small town, including the police, to wonder if he had anything to with her disappearance.

Sounds like a simple whodunnit, right? Nope. Just…no.

This is one of the most interesting and edge-of-your-seat movies I have seen in a really long time. But this is one of those cases where I just wish I had read the book first. The book had so much more detail, and so many more plot twists. And even the characters were slightly different after the first part! Reading the second half of the book was like someone telling you ahead of time, “Dumbledore dies!” But then reading Harry Potter and finding out *SPOILERS* Snape killed him. It’s knowing one thing and reading another.

This book was excellently written, and wonderfully executed. It was a really great book. But don’t get me wrong! The movie was spectacular!! They chose all of the actors perfectly, and they truly did a better job turning a book into a movie than a LOT of other movies based off of books I’ve seen. I would say the movie was 90% accurate to the book, and that’s a big amount of correctness.

So yes, the movie was great. But hands down the book was better. Book: 3 Movie:2.

My sister argued, however, “The book didn’t have Ben Affleck’s penis in it, so the movie automatically wins.”

Valid point.

Until next time!

Rachel

Book vs Movie: The Maze Runner

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For whatever reason, my book vs movie post from February 24th was somehow deleted. So without further ado, here it is again!

About a week ago my dad and I finally saw The Maze Runner movie. This was a big deal for me because I had tried reading the book of the same name, the first of a series by James Dashner, but was having such a hard time with the names and slang in the book that I gave up. I knew that there was going to be a movie when I had attempted reading it, and thought the concept was so unique and different that I had to read it before the movie came out. But when I tried reading it, it was like every other word was “shank,” or “shuck,” or “greenie,” and it was all substituted for actual words in a sentence and I just couldn’t follow it.

So I decided that I would wait until the movie came out in theaters. The plan was that I’d see it on the big screen and then if I liked the movie I’d read the book. My main hope was that after I see the movie I might understand all the slang better, and get a hang of the names and the story line so that when I read it I wasn’t too lost. Well, unfortunately, I never got the chance to see the movie in the theatre so I ended up having to wait until it was available to rent on demand. My dad and I both wanted to see it, so we had waited for a time when we could watch it together. That was a week ago – more than a month after it came out on DVD and on demand.

I have to say, though, that it was worth the wait. I really loved the movie. All I knew going into it was that this guy shows up in a place filled with all these boys (sort of a Lord of the Flies feeling place) and they’ve all had their memories wiped and are trapped in a maze. That was all I knew. I’m so glad that that’s all I knew, because I thought the movie was really good (as long as you like young adult mystery-scifi stories… and weird looking kids. Because there are a lot of weird looking kids in this movie. They obviously didn’t have the budget for Harry Potter-attractive level actors) and decided I should give the story a second chance.

I started reading The Maze Runner less than a week ago, and I was intrigued while I was reading, but I wasn’t hooked even by the quarter way through mark. So I started to think that maybe I should give up on it – it wasn’t as good as the movie, and it just wasn’t drawing me in. It was almost like the book knew what I was thinking because at the end of the chapter I was reading, it left on a cliffhanger that had me thinking, “Oh, shit! This just got real!!” I immediately began falling in love with the book, and by the midway mark I never wanted to put it down (“I’ll only read one more chapter before bed!…. unless it ends on a cliffhanger and then I’ll read one more chapter before bed!…”)

I took the weekend off from reading to attempt my hand at trying a Kindle (you’ll get that story soon enough) and the second I picked up the book again I felt like no one could stop me. I spend a straight 4 hours today reading the entire rest of the book, and then another hour running out to Barnes & Noble to pick up the next two books of the series, The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure. Great book. GREAT book.

But here’s the issue: the movie was awesome – but it was nothing like the book. Granted there was still the same premise, but the entire movie was completely out of order, and glorified, exaggerated, and just different. So from a “book critic’s” point of view, I would have to say that the movie was a poor representation of the book. But as a movie lover, and not thinking about the correlation between the two, I thought the movie was really great! This thought really hinders my book versus movie tally, because as a movie it was freakin’ awesome! But it wasn’t the book.

So for this tally, I’m going to be super lenient and give credit to both. If my main question when figuring out the tally is “was the movie better than the book?” My answer is no, and the book should get the win. But if I think about it, the movie got me interested in the book. I thought the book was boring and hard to follow until I saw the movie. I feel like that in itself should mean something.

So here it is: Second book vs movie tally: Book: 2 Movie:1. You know it’s a weird tally when the movie almost gets the point, and I still absolutely loved the book.

Until next time!

Rachel

Book vs. Movie: Unbroken

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Ah, yes. The age old debate. Which was better? The book or the movie? This is a tough question because in most cases I find that the people who enjoyed the book they read, find it incredibly difficult to keep a truly open mind about the movie. Why? Because we read it first before it was popular! It’s childish — maybe a little bit “hipster” to say we read it first before it was cool, but that’s the way it is. Chronic readers have this shared goal with one another: to read as many books as possible, as quickly as possible. So when we read a book that comes out and then three years later they start advertising the movie, we’re all like, “hey! I read that book!!” and tell everyone we possibly can that we’ve read that book first.

I do this all the time. The most recent case is for the new movie Unbroken. This a very sensitive case for me because a) I truly loved the book; B) I truly loved this man’s story; And c) they changed the name completely!!! The book I read, written by Louis Zamperini and David Rensin, called Devil at My Heels, was Zamperini’s first book about his real life triumphs and tribulations before, during and after World War II. I won’t spoil the movie or book for anyone, but this man endured being in the 1936 Olympics in Germany and meeting Hitler, being lost at sea, and being taken into a Japanese prison camp… And he lived to tell the tale.

The book was spectacular. I thought it had the right amount of conversational tone, without the topics he was discussing being taken lightly, or as something to shrug off your shoulders. It had an important message about forgiveness, but it wasn’t preachy. It was just an all around amazing story and novel. So when I began seeing trailers for the new movie Unbroken that Angelina Jolie had directed, I was thrilled. I figured, ‘hey, they changed the title, but the title of the book is a bit long for a movie, so that’s understandable.’ That was until I went to Barnes and Noble and found the newly published book called Unbroken, rewritten and published to suit the movie! Furious. I was furious. How could they do such a thing? Take this man’s life story and rewrite it to make the movie more money? On a logical, business side I completely understand it. I’m sure a lot of the money the movie and this new book makes is going straight to the recently deceased man’s family, which is admirable. But as a reader, and someone who loved the book, I was disappointed.

That said, my boyfriend and I went to see the movie together when it came out and I was actually really excited. Despite my disappointment of the new book, I still loved Louis’ story and thought anything Angelina Jolie directed must be amazing. So I had a really open mind. To my surprise, it was nearly exact to the book. They left out little pieces, and most of the end when he crusades for religion, but I can understand that – religion is a touchy subject. But it was a great movie.

So, now I have a dilemma. Book versus movie.

The verdict is not surprising: Book! Book! Book! But I have to say, this one gave me a run for my money. Even with my appreciation for the movie – the effects, the way it was shot, and, of course, the actors (who were amazing, by the way) – it still didn’t cut it for me.

First book vs movie tally? Book: 1 Movie: 0

Until next time, read to your hearts content!!!

Rachel