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Yes you should read the book. Many times the movies change a character's personality for the movie. In books characters are mentally set for a reason. You may think one way about a person in a book and then the movie may completely change your view and vise versa. One book that I cannot stand that was made into a movie is Jurassic Park. I simply do not like the idea of what they did to Allan Grant.

Today I read the book Phantom of the Opera...and then saw the new moive. I liked it. I liked the transition from written word to silver screen. True I had seen the old movies but I have never read the book. I believe that is one of the only books turned movies that I like.

Whalerider. That was one of the best movies I've ever seen. I also read the book..The only case I've ever seen where the movie won.

As for worst, Ella Enchanted. That was a good book. They ruined it with a mixture of Disney Comedy and talking snakes.

It's not wise to judge a book by its movie adaptation, apart from that it's a whole different medium there are usually significant changes. But then again there are movie adaptation who follows the book very closely. For example "A Clockwork Orange" and "Fight Club".

My favourite author Robert A. Heinlein have had very bad luck when it comes to movie adaptations. The two movies that were done in the 90's, "Starship Troopers" and "The Puppet Master" completely slaughtered the books that they're based on.

There are however a couple of books that I think turned out better as movies but that is because changes that I though were for the better were done.

"Bram Stoker's Dracula" by Coppola makes Dracula more sympathic by giving him motives that you can understand instead of simply being a bloodthirsty beast that wants to destroy everthing.

I prefer Cronenberg's movie adaptation of "Naked Lunch" simply because it actually has something that resembles a plotline that you can follow.

"The Ninth Gate" follows the book "El Club Dumas" up to a point and it's this change that I prefer.

While "Fight Club" follows the book closely there are a couple of changes that I prefer. The biggest change is probably how he meets Tyler Durden and it's still true to the book because the content of their dialogue exist in the book as well.

I think one of the worst books into movies was Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice. The only part that they followed the plot with was the concert. However, what happened to Louis? Is Armand the blonde? *ect, ect, ect* It was jsut a horrible movie, simply put. Has anyone else read the book & seen teh movie?

Always read the book. I saw Phantom of the Opera before reading the book, and had no idea what a truly terrible movie for sticking to the plot it is. I have never read Hitchiker's guide to the galaxy, but that's about what I expected. Honestly, even the Star Wars books are cooler than the movies. (The original ones by George Lucas, not the stupid people who just put Star Wars on a book to sell it)

One example of a movie being better than a book, the only one that I've ever run across:
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, with Gene Wilder. That is the coolest movie, and the book was pretty awful (to me). The dark undertones to the movie are so cool; Willy Wonka is human, but somehow fey and strange. I even liked the title change, because the movie was about Willy Wonka more than Charlie.



See, I thought just the opposite; even in the books I don't like Frodo's story after he splits with the Fellowship, and in the movies he was such a whiny little boy that I didn't even want to see him.

I also think that one of the many points of the trilogy was that the greatest glory does not always go to those who are doing the most important work. The greatest things are done with the least fanfare.

Douglas Adams once spoke of his movie version as yet another development in the storyline of the book. If you've seen the mini-series and/or heard the radio play, they're all a bit different.
You can here most of the radio play if you Click here. Make sure you check out the link to H2g2 as well, which is another idea of Adams. If you poke around the above link, and elsewhere on the internet, you can find articles on Adams involvement in the movie and how he felt about it, you can also find lots and lots of articles with people ranting and raving about how much they hate it.

I should talk though, after my first viewing of the movie I hated it. But I calmed myself down and read/remember Adams and his view points on life, the universe and everythng (heh heh).

OK. I'm going to shut up now...mid rant. I'm sorry.