Why Bookworms Hate Book to Movie Adaptations

Who loves movies?

Let me tell you, everyone!

 

Whether you are a 70 year old grandma watching an old black and white movie or a 10 year old boy interested in the upcoming action film, everyone loves movies. And what’s not to like?

The visual images and high quality of audios spanning into action, romance and fantasy stories are truly enchanting and manage to captivate everyone, and end up having a profound impact on many. And unless you’re living under a rock you would know that a lot of amazing(more like horrible) movies out there are based on books. You would think bookworms would be stoked that a piece of literature that they’ve given their heart and soul to is transformed into a magical movie but no.

I’ve often found myself wondering whether the director of a film even bothered to read the book or merely skimmed through the first few pages.

 

Many people experience profound happiness upon discovering a movie based off a film because they can easily watch the 3 hour film rather than spending hours struggling to read the book but that is not the case with bookworms.

If you’re wondering why then have some patience, I’m getting there.

Here’s all you need to understand why book-lovers hate book to movie adaptations.

 

The Plot

The plot is what any book or movie is based on- it’s the core of the apple. Nowadays it’s a widely accepted fact that no movie will ever be able to cover every single aspect of the book it is based upon because it’s an impossible and nerve racking process of trying to fit 400 words into 3 hours.

We get that.

We don’t ask the film producers and directors to show every single step the main character took on the balcony- infact deviating from the plot a little can be a pleasant surprise because nobody wants to see the same exact thing that they read.

You won’t want to hear your mother recite the same grocery list that you had just read because you already know it’s contents.

So yeah, it’s nice when the makers of the movie get creative and explore the boundaries except for the times when they cannot even see the boundary because they’ve changed everything to the point that the only thing that the book and movie have in common is the title.

How is a movie based off the book when instead of the main characters of the book being aliens from Mars who come to explore the earth are instead aliens living on earth who fall in love with humans in the movie?

Just stop.

 

Important Details

More than often movies tend to leave out some details of the books that they deem as unimportant but actually affect the whole plot or are an important part of the sub-plot. That pet raven you just cut out was supposed to be the evil spy who thwarted the hero’s rescue plan so now you have major plot-holes.

 

Character Representation

I don’t even mind the odd change of hair color and the disappearance of a character’s glasses and freckles but what I absolutely hate is when a POC(people of color) character is replaced by a white one.

If you don’t see what the problem is here then I’m seriously questioning your ethics.

We talk about equality among people of all races and colors and as time progresses writers are starting to include a variety of ethnicities, cultures and races among their characters and it goes all down the drain if the black best friend is replaced by a white guy.

 

Not only are you dis-regarding a huge part of that character’s personality but you are probably offending a lot of your viewers, just because you didn’t want to or couldn’t bother to get a black actor.

Give us the representation that we deserve.

 

 

Stress on Romance

I feel like banging my head against the wall even as I write about this topic. No matter what genre the movie is or the ratings it has or the fact that the main character is actually on the verge of dying the film makers will push the romance right in.

Was it necessary to show that the main character’s love interest looked really cute while he was sleeping when you could have shown us a clipping which dwelled deeper into the villain’s past and told us why he was bent on killing every child in the town?

I have seen movies based off books that had barely any romance and then the film makers completely turn it over, making the main character’s love life a central plot.

Just because all your characters aren’t making heart eyes at each other during the entirety of the movie does not mean that your viewership will drop. This may come as a surprise but not all of us watch movies for the romance.

 

 

Unnecessary and Useless Changes

I completely understand when some demonic monsters are cut out or the breathtaking fantasy locations are changed because the film makers feel that they won’t be able to do justice to the production or when a situation is slightly maneuvered to avoid explanations that the movie doesn’t have time for.

But sometimes the changes made are completely unnecessary and serve absolutely no purpose. In the movie ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children’ the magical powers of the two characters Emma and Olive were reversed for no apparent reason. Why bother to make an extra effort to deviate from the book and further annoy all the book lovers?

 

 

 

But all of that said book lovers often like watching some book to movie adaptations that turned out right because the visuals and audios piece everything together beautifully and re-introduce them to their favorite characters. It’s also great fun to see if the image you had formed of the bulgy and scowling villain matches that of the actor cast for the role.

Nevertheless, book to movie adaptations have full potential to turn out a complete disaster or an excellent and magical portrayal of their books, depending on the creativity and understanding of the producers and directors. Anything can happen.

 

So now you know why most book worms can be found wailing and screeching after watching their favorite books being converted into movies! Are you also sick of the way book to movie adaptations turn out? Do you think it’s worth all the drama? Let me know in the comments below and follow me to stay updated!

Bye!