Why Aren't Movies Like Their Books?

                 I’ve been an active reader for as long as I can remember. I grew up reading Junie B. Jones and the Magic Tree House and now I read a variety of genres amongst YA and Adult fiction. The first movie to book adaptation I can remember watching is Charlotte’s Web. For a long time I never knew that it was based off a book and just thought that it was only a movie. When I discovered that it was a book I begged my dad to buy it for me and then never read it… Even though it had been a movie aimed towards little kids I never really got into the book, partly because I knew what was going to happen.

                Since then I have seen many book to movie adaptations and they’ve all been… mostly horrible. There are a few expectations to this that I will talk about later, but for the most part books to movies are very inaccurate. They either completely change the plot, don’t have the same tone as the book, cast actors much older than their character, cast actors of the entirely wrong race, and try to make the movie more “relatable” for those who don’t read and are more interested in social media. These are just a few problems with book to movie adaptations.

                The most well know book to movie ultimate failure is Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. If you say that you like that movie I will probably want to kill you (Along with one of my friends who wrote a list of over 300 things that the movie messed up from the book). This movie both messed up the plot completely and tried to make the movie more relatable. They played Lady Gaga instead of Hilary Duff so they could try to connect with viewers and tried to make that characters act more like twenty years unlike that teenagers they are actually playing. Yes, they had almost thirty years old playing characters in a novel that on the first page states “My name is Percy Jackson and I just turned twelve.” Twelve. This has led to complete hatred for this movie from the book community and is pretty much a joke amongst readers and a fear that their favorite novel with turn into a “Percy Jackson movie” and will completely suck.

                A few books to movies adaptations that earn a gold star from me include the Hunger Games trilogy, The Fault in Our Stars, and Bridge to Terrabethia. The Hunger Games novels had such a large fan base back when they first came out that the directors knew that they couldn’t mess those movies up. They did a great job at casting characters that actually met their book descriptions (In Percy Jackson Annabeth was described as a blonde with gray eyes and was played by a brunette.) The plot of the Hunger Games was almost exactly identical to the novel and has been approved by readers and movie watchers alike. The Fault in Our Stars was also a major book to movie success. Another recent movie that was a breathtaking (anyone see that pun there? No? Ok.) novel that was also very similar to its movie adaptation. Although the movie felt very fast and short compared to the book and left out a side characters and minor scenes it was pretty similar to the movie.   

                So what is the main reason that some movies get so messed up? The writers and directors. People seem to get mad at the authors even though authors sign over all rights to their books at the beginning of the process and have to hope that their novel turns into a good movie. Writer and directors and caster usually try to fit in as much of the novel as they can, but what some readers don’t understand is that even though they would sit through a 10 hour movie with every single line from the book word for word, most normal people would not. They also think that if they are not relatable then people won’t watch it. Directors think that they need to have 20 year olds playing 12 years old or else no one will watch it. There are serious issues in Hollywood.   

  

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