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.

[aveleh]

That's pretty much my reasoning too. Books are almost always better and so they should be saved. While there is a disadvantage with watching the movie first because you won't necessarily build the world to the same degree in your mind, you're much less likely to be disappointed by the movie if you watch it first. It also makes me way less mad when they make huge changes to the story to appeal to a movie audience.

Using Harry Potter as an example, there's just no way to fit that many pages into a book. So watching the movies first makes sense, because you can then get awesomely fleshed out by the books. However, I always read the books first, since I could put enough time between me and the books that it was much easier to watch the movies as an interpretation of the book rather than a movie of the book.

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

[habeo.livejournal.com]

...it was much easier to watch the movies as an interpretation of the book rather than a movie of the book.

If you put it that way, then yes, there will be more satisfaction in the end.

At the end of the day, it's always about appreciation of the material, whether it's a movie or the book. It's always hard to compare both as equals, because they aren't really.

But when you place it in that context, the comparison becomes possible and plausible. :)