Which Is Better?

Which is better the movie or the book? This question always comes up when a movie based on a book comes to the big screen or to television. With this in mind, I have characterized this situation in three categories: The movie is better, the book is better, and the movie and the book were basically the same. Let me explain how this works.

The movie is better. I read The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham and although the book is great and I highly recommend reading it, the movie seemed much deeper. The cinematography was fabulous. The thought that must have gone into making this movie was immense. The acting was great, but the music and scenes were so vivid until I could almost get lost in the scene.

Sometimes the movie is better since it finds ways to better connect the characters. In the movie, The Count of Monte Cristo, the characters are connected through a child they had which made the characters' love more real. The book was more elaborate and is an attention keeper, but I couldn't see the movie being realistic if it kept with the book.

The book is better. I have seen several movies where the book is so extraordinary until the movie no matter how good never seems to do the book justice. The Harry Potter series is a perfect example of this and The Series of Unfortunate Events books fall under this category too. Did I love the Harry Potter Movies--YES! and did I enjoy The Series of Unfortunate Events movie--YES!, but would I trade reading the books for just watching the movie--NO!

The last category is where the book and the movie are basically the same. Holes the book and Holes the movie were almost verbatim. That was good since it reinforced what was read. I enjoyed both.

If you have a book or a movie that you would like to comment about feel free to post.