Can movies ruin a book?

How many times have you read a book, only to find out it was being turned into a movie?

These days it’s not uncommon. In fact, usually the book is hyped up with an alternate cover in hopes of grabbing more fans.

I HATE THESE COVERS! But, that’s irrelevant right now.

I’m the type of person that reads the book and is easily persuaded to watch the movie. There is something about the idea of bringing the characters to life in a way that makes them seem more real (at least in theory).

What I have a hard time doing is watching the movie, and then reading the book. In this situation, I will likely never read the book. I don’t know why. That’s just the way it’s always been for me.

Recently, I read two (now very popular) books in a trilogy series, called Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. I loved the inspiration behind them. Essentially, author, Ransom Riggs was inspired by his frequent visits to thrift stores and pawn shops, where he found himself buying interesting photos. Pictures are a memento of life, and are held in high regard as special (or even normal) moments were captured and can be remembered for a life time. I’m guessing what made him curious was the fact that these pictures had been given up in the first place.

Would you donate your memories, or even sell them (for albeit a very small amount of money), to a stranger?

Anyways, he would rummage through stacks and stacks of discarded photos and buy them in stacks, with change. Why? He’d given himself the task of writing their stories.

This was genius to me. This was something I was already doing. Using pictures as story starters.

Ransom Riggs took it to another level, and turned into a book trilogy.

If I’m being honest, the books were alright. The characters were the best factor, each unique and well thought out. It was the rest of the story that was slightly generic. I ignored this and read the second one, because every story starts from a cliché, and it had piqued my interest. Riggs had created a specifically unique world, in which the misfit children were frozen in a single day of time. A time trap was what kept them from dying, and their “timekeeper,” made sure that each day was reset before the deadly destruction destroyed their world.

This concept (the infinite loop) was the part that fell short for me. I didn’t connect with any of the characters because I never felt a sense of vulnerability. Each and every child seemed perfectly content to live the same day over and over, if it meant they could live forever.

I’m not sure it would be quite so simple for me? Is it really worth it? To exist, but have no real impact on the world?

Around the time I’d finished the second book, I began to hear the whispers of a movie in the making. Of course I knew I would watch it.

In fact, I watched it before I finished the trilogy, even though a tiny voice echoed to me that I shouldn’t do it. You’ll never finish the series now, screamed my brain.

I didn’t. I haven’t.

I didn’t even finish the movie.

The movie was THAT bad. To me, it screamed parody. And I was not interested in something that made fun of the world I’d invested my time in.

The funny thing is: if I’d finished the book series first it probably wouldn’t have fractured my opinion of it. I could have held the two separately.

Maybe my expectations were too high. It was Tim Burton, and that sealed the deal for me. Burton is, if anything, a brilliant creator of worlds.

Trust me, I was fully aware that this was based on a series that houses some pretty extreme characters (ie: a girl that wear weighted boots because she will float into oblivion if she doesn’t, a girl whose mouth in on the back of her head, obscured by piles of hair, and a boy that is essentially a human beehive). But again, Tim Burton. This was right up his alley.

I loved the books for these twisted features.

The movie though, was far too exaggerated. The acting was stiff, and the dialogue monotone. Not to mention the typical movie adaptation in which it flew through the best parts of the book. I felt like I was watching the cliff notes version.  And honestly, had I not read the books, this movie would not have piqued my interest in the world itself.

I’ll give the movie this: the graphics were intense and generally high quality. Though I often sensed the presence of a green screen.

I made it thirty minutes in, and the movie shattered my vision of the world. It was nothing like I’d expected, and was sub-par for the hype that had been built around it.

Since then, I’ve never bothered with buying the last book.

And this is a problem, because it is a disservice to the author.

So, creatives (or even book & movie lovers), can a movie ruin a book for you, or vice versa?

And what is it?

Expectations vs. Reality?

Lack of story in the movie version (exclusion of details)?

Actors/Actresses chosen to portray roles?

(All of these have been factors for me personally in many cases.)

And, although we are told, many times over that the two should not be mutually exclusive: do the creators of the movie have a certain responsibility to uphold the book? Or should they feel free to express it in any way they see fit, since it is in a different media?

At the end of the day, it is my personal opinion that the two should be separated, but I still have trouble setting my mind to it.

We should adapt, and accept, and enjoy one, or the other, or even both.