The first movie based on a book was released in 1896 and was titled “Tilby and Little Billee.” Since then, book movies have been an increasing trend with “Ender’s Game” being one of the most recently released big name book movies. Both books and movies are huge contributors to our modern culture. There has always been the debate if the books are better than their movie counterparts and whether the movies do the books justice. This would be if the movies did more good than harm to the book or series. Movies based on books can either help the author’s book or do harm to it.
A key aspect to a successful book movie would obviously be sticking to the book. A more unsuccessful book movie that strayed from the book too far would be “Eragon.” The book series, known as the Inheritance Series were well received books in the early 2000s during our childhood. The movie version, released in 2006 failed to continue the reputation that the books had created; receiving only a two and a half stars on IMDB and only one start on Rotten Tomatoes. Aspects that contribute to the poor ratings would be that the writers of the movie left out important factors, such as key characters and situations that were required to continue the series successfully. While the movie was only 104 minutes, the book itself was 544 pages. When it comes to the debate of movies doing books justice, does the time length play an important factor of the quality of the movie?
The amount of content that can be packed into books does not have a page limit. So when it comes to book movies, time length is a large factor, because the writers want to get as much stuff from the books into their movies as possible without it being too long. Even then, the better book movies are usually very lengthy, such as “Lord of the Rings.” Each “Lord of the Rings” are roughly three hours. Even with the amount of content they already packed into the movies, they still left several things out because they can only do so much. With the topic of length and quality being out there in the community, we are now starting to see producers take extra care into making good quality book movies. A prime example would be the “Hobbit” since they are splitting a small book, in comparison to the “Lord of the Rings” books, into a three part movie series. Besides the length of the movie contributing or hurting the quality of the reputation of the name, the fact that the name is now being publicized in a medium more widely perceived. Thus reaching to a larger audience and bringing people back to the book.
Publicity can do a lot for a title. For example, I had first heard about “Ender’s Game” when I watched the trailer for the movie about a month ago. The fact that the name is a movie and a book benefits both the movie industry and the author. If I were to enjoy the movie, that would spark my interest to search for a deeper experience through reading the book. If the movie does well, it will benefit the book with a new audience but it can also go reverse. Fans of the book can be pushed away due to the inadequate display of the movie such as the book movie “Eragon.” While people who had never heard of the “Ender’s Game” books would be considered a new audience when the movie was publicized. The publicity of a movie can benefit or harm the reputation of the book.
When people talk about “does the movie do the book justice” there are few aspects that contribute to such a statement. Such aspects would be how well does it stick to the book and keeps it at a reasonable length while maintaining acceptable quality. Movie publicity is also a big factor that will either attract or detour a new audience that will bring them to the other cultural works that are books.
Sources:
- First Book Movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0204000/
- Eragon Ratings--
- IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0449010/
- Rotten Tomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/eragon/
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