Reaction to films based on levels of fannish-ness - LOTR

[alyeskakc]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "dracos_boyfriend" 
<dracos_boyfriend at y...> wrote:

> Basically, my point is, when it comes to movies adapted from books, 
> will people who have read the books find that their opinions and 
> enjoyment levels of the movies are changed in any way?  I think it 
> may well be the case.  Would be interested to know what you all 
think.
> 
> Al


I think IMO that if you read a book first and then see the movie you 
do go in with certain expectations. I know that when I see a movie, 
that I've read the book first, I'm always slightly disappointed.  As 
I read I set up the scenes in my head and how things should look. 
Some movies come closer to what I thought they should be like and 
others just fail miserably. 

Stephen King novels adapted to film are among the worst offenders in 
my book. They're are a few gems in what is otherwise complete and 
utter rubbish. The Shining and Carrie come to mind. However Pet 
Cemetary and Christine should be banned and all copies of these films 
burned. 

I was pleseantly surprised by Interview with the Vampire, although I 
still believe that Brad Pitt would have made a better Lestat than a 
Louis and Tom Cruise should have been booted entirely. It will be 
interesting to see how Queen of the Damned turns out.

On the other side of the coin seeing a movie before reading the book 
may have more advantages. I don't go into with preconceived ideas and 
I can just enjoy it on it's own merit. If I really like it I'll then 
go buy the book to read. If I don't like I may still go get the book 
to see if they did a hack job on the movie. Most of the time I do end 
up liking the book better than the movie. Others, as in the case of 
Jurrasic Park, it's a draw. Both are equally good.

I guess bottom line, reading a book first does tend to skew my 
perspective when it comes to the movie, and can alter my enjoyment of 
it. Especially if they've totally change the story. 

Just my 2 knuts.

Cheers,
Kristin