Contrasting- What should be first: book or film?

Hollywood seems to have no more ideas, or at least original ones. That’s why – I think- it has been trendy to produce films based on books. For instance, The Hunger Games, The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit, Twilight and…-ugh- Fifty Shades of Grey. The point is that when they release a film, a major part of the audience starts wondering what to do first: read the book or watch de film? Thus, I have made this comparative post to give an opinion about that.

Generally speaking, people read first the book so they can compare it to the film. That option is great because surely you imagined the characters, the landscapes and all that stuff in a very different way than the director did. But for this same reason, it can also be disappointing. In this way, plenty of book fans are scared when they hear their favourite books it’s going to have a film. Namely, if you really love a book, a cinema adaptation can be awesome or awful.

On the contrary, if you watch first the film and then read the book, you are less likely to be disappointed. In fact, if you liked the film, it’s quite possible that you like the book even more. But watching the movie first removes your ability to imagine things. In other words, you already have a face claim for the characters, and you attach them to the cast in the film. It may be good for some people, but I hate it. I like to have my own vision of the characters and places; it is one of the best things of reading. Another point would be that you already know how the book ends. Some would say that if you read the book first you also know the end… but it is not the same, I believe. You spend more than a couple of hours reading a book, and in my case, I get more involved with the plot, so a spoiled end is worse in a book than in a film.

On balance, reading the book first can be more painful as long as your possibilities of hating the movie increase, but I think it’s the best option. And you are not completely able to judge a film if you haven’t read what it is based on. By contrast, if you are not totally sure about reading the book or not, watching its movie can be a good idea since it allows you to know what it is about and, as I said before, if you like the movie, have for sure that you will love the book. 

Think about it <3