I am very passionate about this topic. Sometimes to extremes, just ask Flo. Poor girl has seen far too many movies made from books with me.
I understand if you took a book and truly made it into a movie it would be tons of hours and cost millions to make but haven't you ever seen A Town Like Alice?? It is 301 minutes. But from what I understand it keeps quite close to the book it's made from. Maybe I should read that book, it was a good movie.
Most of the books I've read that I've seen as movies leave lots to be desired. There are a few exceptions like Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 it took books 2,3,&4 and smooshed them into one movie. I liked that they left some of the things out and the things they did change weren't too far from the original story.
Why is this so upfront in my head today?? Twilight. I keep seeing trailers and there are some HUGE glaring differences. Things I'm not sure if I can get past. (Her truck, the school, the ballet studio and meadow scene are all wrong. Besides they have Edward kissing her while she's wearing just her t-shirt and underwear, he is WAY to much of a gentleman for that to happen!) This is why Flo refuses to see it with me the first time. I read an article somewhere that Meyer herself said something to the effect of this ISN'T the book as a movie. This is a movie based off the book. Same basic plot line, same characters names but NOT the EXACT same lines, and EXACT same sequence of events. *sigh*
I guess my book for today will be the Twilight Saga
My sisters-in law started reading these books long before I ever did. I didn't get on board until Eclipse was just about out, or maybe it was... Anyways when I first started seeing them I had picked them up and flipped through them and made fun of my very nice sisters-in-law for reading teenage vampire romance novels, something I would never stoop to do, in my very arrogant opinion. I had to eat a lot of crow when on a visit to St. George I picked Twilight off Flo's shelf and actually started reading it. She was even less happy with me when I was useless the entire trip reading as much as I could.I had MAJOR issues in the beginning. With the way the author describes rain, how she usually includes lighting and thunder with the rain, how she has Bella say she's going to go from Forks to Seattle via Olympia which would add over an hour to a 3 hour trip and well I could go on but you get the idea. The book was written by someone who lives in Phoenix and wrote about Washington without going there or asking my advice about the rain and other key things. Like kids in Washington, at least the greater Tacoma area don't wear rain boots. They might carry umbrellas, they would certainly wear jackets but we learned to live with the weather. She gets slightly better in later books but never gets it quite right.
Obviously the books grew on me and in the last week I read all 4 books in a row, something I hadn't done yet. Why do I like them? I actually can't say precisely. Edward reminds me of my friend Juice from college. He was my hero several times before ElCid showed up. (I don't think of Juice in a romantic way.) The story is highly addictive (once you get past the inconsistencies with real Washington) and draws a reader in amazingly fast. She did make me miss home.
These books taught me in a very real cliche don't judge a book by it's cover, or the last few pages, or the inside flap.
I really liked the books and I am interested in the movie but bracing myself for all the changes. It's just that Meyer is SOOOO descriptive and you get such a clear picture of the places, people, and events that when I see huge changes my head mutinies!
7 comments:
Rain boots... where would you even get those in bigger than like a kid's 3? I read like half the first chapter of the first book. Her writing style just bothered me.
There are movies in the world made precisely "by the book" like Bleak HOuse and Jane Eyre. They are usually done by the British. They are miniseries and 13-20 hours long. You have to make allowances for the book made into a 2 hour movie :)
the word verification right now is sista and last time it was eldsi, which is kind of like a dyslexic elsid-i know it is the wrong spelling
The word verification is oildeb;-} I read almost half of the first book and found it addictive but my health issues interrupted reading anything 'just for amusement'. I don't know how anyone could do the meadow scene right! xoxoxox
so the author will be in my neck of the woods on thursday but once again...i don't read. so she won't see me there!
I had the same reaction to the t-shirt and underwear in the trailer problem. My sister-in-law and many of my students are bothered by how low her voice is. But if you see the actress in earlier movies - she had a low voice even as a kid.
Eclipse was out before you started reading it, because it was the release of Eclipse that led to my sister pressing me to read the first book - and when I started reading it you were still of the opinion that it wasn't worth your time, even tho Flo was reading the first one.
/Cheer for "A Town Like Alice!" Aren't you glad I made you watch the whole thing? lol
I have a whole college textbook on the study of compression in films - how history and books are always compressed when adapted to the big screen. Kind of a yawn, but I would let you borrow it if you wanted ;P History on film - such a good class.
Today in 2nd period - I had to ask a student to put a book away and pay attention. Later in class, I got a look at the book that had been distracting her - it was the official Twilight Movie book. LOL One girl brought it and was passing it around. I didn't realize how many fans there were in that class.
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