Movies before books? Books before movies?

[afuna]

[Poll #1155065]

(This comes from a discussion that aveleh and I are having, because I haven't seen/read The Princess Bride, but I have both the movie and the book on hand, but started reading the book first).

Comments

Re: A Long-Winded Comment In Defense of My Vote.

[lady-angelina.livejournal.com]

To my knowledge, no movie-based-on-a-book sucked so bad that it wasn't worth watching.

I beg to differ on this: The sequel to the "Neverending Story" movie was what I thought to be an unwatchable disgrace and discredit to the second half of the original book. ^^;; The first movie did the book justice, though, IMHO.

Re: A Long-Winded Comment In Defense of My Vote.

[habeo.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, in fairness, I meant that in the context that you watched the movie first before reading the book.

Once you read the book (and feel that the book is awesome), you will naturally want the best treatment possible for the book on the silver screen. This will be ultimately based on your perception of what the book meant to you, etc., and this is why I think you feel that way.

That said, my sweeping generalization was unjustified. I never saw the Neverending Story, I'm afraid, and neither have I read the book (on the pre-text that It might never end? XD). If the second part was so unwatchable, then I shall have to take your word for it, lady_angelina

Re: A Long-Winded Comment In Defense of My Vote.

[lady-angelina.livejournal.com]

Actually, I had in fact seen both movies before I even knew the book existed. And even without having read the book, I already thought the second movie was awful. Reading the book itself afterwards kind of confirmed that for me. ;)

And there are a number of books I read for which I saw the movie versions afterwards, that I thought were "eh" compared to the book, but they were at least watchable, or in some cases, very nicely done. But as I meant to point out, there are still some that were very poorly adapted to the screen, that I would actually leave (or shut off the video player) in the midst of it.

If the second part was so unwatchable, then I shall have to take your word for it, lady_angelina

Hence the number of qualified statements I made, saying that it was my opinion alone and that another person might think it was the best movie ever made. It was just a specific example I thought of immediately. *Shrug*

Re: A Long-Winded Comment In Defense of My Vote.

[habeo.livejournal.com]

No worries. I mean, this discussion on "how to go about watching movies and reading books that they are based on" is about matters of personal preferences and opinions. :)

Additionally, you've piqued my curiosity, I think I shall find a copy of that book.

Re: A Long-Winded Comment In Defense of My Vote.

[atomic-clay.livejournal.com]

I've never watched the sequel, but I think that it deviated from the book quite a lot in a bad way?

Although I've never read either the first or the second novel either. :)