Nowadays it is pretty common to see fiction movies which stun us with hi-tech special effects that keep us at the edge of our seats till the very end of a highly detailed and expensive story in a new world.
But all of these new stories have the origins inside the pages of a book. In more cases than we think, tons of details and important parts are cropped by Hollywood directors who have merely two hours to introduce the viewers to a whole new world. So in the end, which road best leads us to these new worlds; the actual book or the new feature film?
A book may seem like a lifeless piece of hard covers and pages with endless and senseless words but with a bit of imagination this book becomes a portal which transports us to new lands and new people with new problems we hope to solve. From the epilogue to the prologue, we keep on learning about these new worlds and as there isn’t a single detail left out, we become some kind of expert or specialist in this world and its story, something a movie due to its short and limited time cannot hope to do.
Movies have become a blast of adrenaline with new technology resources science has brought. Explosives, flashing lights, 3D and HD digitally created images take us to a world of excitement and thrill. In a brief 2 hours every single viewer learns the base of a new world by visiting a magical kingdom or by sailing a sea of stars in a spaceship. We leave the room with a feeling of fulfillment, recreating the images we have once read.
Bear in mind that readers with little imagination combined with a not very expressive writer will result in endless hours of seemingless reading. At the same time, a not very tolerant viewer combined with a director who is fan of explosions will most possibly end with that
viewer leaving the room and reclaiming the
money he considers wasted.
So, in the end, which is better? This humble writer thinks that both and none at the same time. A way-too-difficult plot of a book might turn into an action film thrilling-to-the-very-end movie and maybe an unexplained movie could be a very extensive yet attractive book. So, at the end of the day, the decision is up to us as we hope to find the perfect balance between the book and the movie which has placed us to the world we have grown to love.
Reading fiction such as novels and short stories is more enjoyable than watching movies
Martin Ru.