I think Facebook destroyed our poll last week, with 73% of the voters using it and completely blowing away all of the other options. Second place goes to the more professionally oriented LinkedIn at 23%, and the eye-shattering MySpace tied with None of the Above in third place at 19%. I’m actually very surprised that MySpace did not have more of a showing, and I’m wondering if there is a more universal exodus from the service that has happened or if it’s just a factor of our readership not liking their brains fried out by spam and obscenely decorated webpages.
This Friday is the release date for the Watchmen movie, and for me now is a good time to be thankful that the lawsuit involving the movie rights didn’t result in this date being pushed back! With that in mind I’m sure we’ll be talking about the movie a lot over the next week or two, and one big thing that I’ve heard a lot about is how many people will see this movie without ever reading or even seeing the comic book. It brings up the age old debate about whether or not you should read a book before you see the movie adaptation, or vice versa, so that seems like an all too fitting inquisition for this week!
[poll id=”115″]
I didn’t read recreationally until I got into college, so there are a lot of movies I never got the chance to read before seeing them. About a year ago I set out to finally read a book before seeing the movie, and so I picked up a copy of A Scanner Darkly by my favorite author, Philip K. Dick, and read through that before we got the movie from Netflix. I think it was a satisfying experience, and I’m very glad that I read the book but I don’t know that there was a supreme difference between reading it first or if I’d read it second. I did find some things were more easily understood from seeing the movie then they were in the book.
I was in love with the movie 300 when I first saw it, but when I picked up the collected comics and read through them I was thoroughly unimpressed with them. They just didn’t stand up to most comics that I really like, the only thing that was really close was the artwork that had so strongly inspired the movie. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I saw the movie Sin City and loved it, then picked up the comics and loved them just as much. In fact, I’m pretty sure I enjoyed the Sin City comics more because I’d seen the movie first.
The biggest problem with reading the book first is that youcan often end up soundling like every single snob in the world, even when the things you say are true, when you find yourself uttering classic lines like “that happened differently in the book” or “the book was better!” When it takes me several weeks or months to read a book, and only two hours to watch a movie, it might be pure psychosis saying the book is better so that I don’t feel like I’ve wasted massive amounts of my life. That or you just get more out of a prolonged experience, who knows?
I voted to read the book first then the movie, but the sad truth is that I often just end up seeing the movie. Not with Watchmen though!
I don’t intentionally read the book before the movie, nor do I always run out and grab the book afterword. Usually what happens is I read the book long before it gets made into a movie.
Kameron´s last post: Starting a new exercise in discipline
I’ll watch movies whether I’ve read the novel/comic it’s been adapted from or not. By the same token, Just because I’ve read the novel doesn’t mean I MUST go see the film. I thought League of Extraordinary Gentelmen was a very good movie. I was subsequently disappointed by the graphic novel.
I’m cynical enough about adaptations. I realize that even when the director is TRYING to remain faithful, turning a 800 page novel into a 2 hour movie requires some cutting. The ONLY decent adaptations that I’ve both read and seen are the Chronicles of Narnia and The Hunt for Red October.
I have never read LotR. I don’t consider the spate of Super Hero movies to be adaptations. I don’t plan on reading the Harry Potter books.
I began reading Clancy because of the movie Hunt for Red October. I didn’t realize that Sahara was an adaption of Clive Cussler until after I began reading that series.
I’m cautiously optimistic about Watchmen. Everything I’ve seen, heard, and read thus far indicates it’s gonna be a top notch movie. How faithful it is remains to be seen.
Vulcan Stev´s last post: Gaming in the Universe of: Harry Potter
I like experiencing the work in it’s original medium first (whether book or film) so that I can see what happened in the process of the adaptation. I often find what was changed (and contemplating why) to be more interesting than the film itself.
That said, I frequently see movies that I didn’t realize were adaptations (and never have any desire to read the book), or read a book and never care about seeing the film adaptation (usually because I don’t feel it can match the book if I liked it, or don’t care enough if I didn’t).
I don’t really see the big thing about reading the book before the movie…I like to immerse myself as much as I can when I’m watching a film, and reading the book beforehand can sometimes detract from that goal because I find myself picking out the differences between the two mediums…it’s not that big a deal, but bleh…
I can understand why someone would want a greater understanding of a story, but I don’t really have any preference…
Reverend Mike´s last post: Demotivational Monday: OH SHI-, indeed.
If I watch a movie that is based on a book, I will read the book after watching. If they make a movie based on a book I like, I will watch it to both 1) see the characters I like on the big screen and 2) look to see if they completely hose the story or keep it faithful and a good rendering for the screen. It is sometimes hard to stay faithful to a story and still put it on the screen, but when both are done well (LotR comes to mind) the results are spectacular.
This was a recent Irregular Webcomic poll, interestingly enough: http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/polls/poll0429.html
There’s rarely any connection for me between the book and movie. So often there are so many changes from the book to the movie, that I try not to attribute one, the quality of the other.
David´s last post: Steaming Over Age of Steam
When possible I try to read the book first. I find that if I like the look of the trailer and I find out it was based on a book I will pick up the book and read it first. But I visit imdb first to find out who’s been cast in the lead roles. That way I can picture them when I read the book.
Ameron´s last post: Where Are The Familiars?
After hearing lots and lots and lots and then some about Watchmen… I bought the book for a discount a few weeks ago… my brain nearly burst from the awesome… now I’m moaning the fact my local cinema is playing Lesbian Vampire Killers but not Watchmen on the première day…
Alright, I want a review of Lesbian Vampire Killers over Watchmen. I also believe that is literature that should be read before going to see the movie otherwise you will not be able to fully understand all the nuances of the adaptation.
joshx0rfz´s last post: YouTube Tuesday: Singing about Kissing Wookies Edition
To Read Before or Not To Read Before…such is the big dilemna I see, a struggle between immersion and consciousness…probably the best way to solve it would be to watch the movie first, then read the book (if that is what the movie was adapted from), then watch the movie again…you’ll get immersion the first go-around, then a better awareness of the film’s nuances and changes through adaptation for the better understanding…
Blah…
Reverend Mike´s last post: Demotivational Monday: OH SHI-, indeed.
Voted other.
Personally, I have no preference over reading a book first or seeing the movie first. The number of movies I’ve seen far outweighs the number of books I’ve read. I think movies need to be judged on their own merit. They are a completely different medium than books. They require different mechanics to tell compelling stories. The only way I can justify requiring someone to read the book first is if they are deciding on a “Best Screenplay Adaptation” Oscar/award or something. Other than that, I see no harm in it.
I did read Watchmen recently, and the writing in that is extremely awesome. I have no idea how the movie will convey all the psychological nuances of the characters brought to life through the diary entries, newspaper clippings, secret profiles, etc that were present in the novel. I also have no idea how they will be able to handle the Black Freighter “parable” which runs parallel to the Watchmen story.
I do have hope since the movie is almost 3 hours long. Already bought tickets for this Friday (they are on sale in most places now by the way).
*EDIT*
I guess this answers the Black Freighter question:
http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=45439
Sounds like they are leaving it out of the movie completely and just doing a separate animated film for it instead. The news about a “megamovie” which interweaves the two stories is pretty effing cool 🙂
Now I have something weird…
I’ve read Watchem and From Hell within the las month
now I’ve seen both film adaptations… I enjoyed Watchmen, not impressed with From Hell… strange, no?