By Jessica Martinez
When I read a novel, I always imagine how it would turn out as a movie. I wonder which actors would play what roles, where the location would be, and if there would be any twists in the movie. That is the general thing many people do when they read.
Directors take the idea a bit further and add more excitement and plots into the movies. Sometimes it makes the movie more interesting, but other times the movie is different.
Movies that are done correctly should make the viewer understand what is going on. This is especially true for the first movie of a series.
Directors tend to put a lot more effort into the first movie to make it more interesting for the fans. They also want to make sure other people that do not read the books know what is going on and who the characters are.
When the other movies come out, there will hopefully be more fans wanting to watch it. For example, the Harry Potter series is a good example of books to movies done right.
According to moviegoers, if you have not read any of the books you can still follow along with the movies. The directors were able to correctly portray major scenes and plots in the movies.
When I watched the first Harry Potter movie, I had never read a book before. Going into the theater, I did not know what would happen or who these characters were. I had asked a few students to give me a general preview of the book, but it did not help as much.
However, when I was watching the movie I understood what was going on and how the characters were connected. It made me excited to watch the next movie and ended up watching all eight movies. It is true that as the next movie was made, smaller storylines had to be cut, but it did not affect the main storyline of the series.
Even though there has been one movie made, The Hunger Games had mixed reaction from audiences. Those that had read the books felt the movie did not follow the book as much. There was much mumbling in the theater during the opening weekend.
This time, I read the entire series before the movie came out and held high expectations for this movie. Since watching the Harry Potter and Twilight series, I knew I would not be disappointed with this series.
However, there were a few parts that were missing from the movie. While talking to other fans of the series, including my boyfriend, they were highly disappointed in the movie.
Even the ending was changed from the book, which upset a lot of people. It was also brought up that the movie focused on the ‘love triangle’ that was mentioned in the book.
The entire series was told in first person, so it made it more interesting to read. However, the same focus would be hard to keep in the movie. Hopefully for the next movie, “Catching Fire” will be different and keep true to the novel.
Either way, the fans of the books are the ultimate judges for how good a movie will be. If the fan feels something is missing or was added incorrectly, they will most likely not see the next movies.
