Movie V. Book - Warm Bodies

Follow the link for the IMDB page.

After R (a highly unusual zombie) saves Julie from an attack, the two form a relationship that sets in motion a sequence of events that might transform the entire lifeless world.

Director: Jonathan Levine

Writers: Jonathan Levine (screenplay), Isaac Marion(novel)

Stars: Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, Analeigh Tipton
I had been interested in the movie before I found out it was based on a novel, but I read the novel first.

Book or Movie: Movie, but the book is good too.

Spoilers after the jump:

Movie V. Book - Speak

Follow the link for the IMDB page.

After a blurred trauma over the summer, Melinda enters high school a selective mute. Struggling with school, friends, and family, she tells the dark tale of her experiences, and why she has chosen not to speak.

Director: Jessica Sharzer

Writers: Laurie Halse Anderson (novel), Jessica Sharzer(screenplay)

Stars: Kristen Stewart, Michael Angarano, Robert John Burke

I will admit that the only reason why I watched this was because of Kristen Stewart was in it - I didn't know it was a book until much later. Kristen does a great job in this pre-Twilight made-for-TV movie.

Book or Movie: Book, but by a nose

Spoilers after the jump:

Movie v. Book - Beautiful Creatures

Ethan longs to escape his small Southern town. He meets a mysterious new girl, Lena. Together, they uncover dark secrets about their respective families, their history and their town.

Director: Richard LaGravenese

Writers: Richard LaGravenese (screenplay), Kami Garcia(based on the novel "Beautiful Creatures" by)

Stars: Alden Ehrenreich, Alice Englert, Viola Davis

I had heard that this was the next Twilight, which interested me, so I read the book only to discover that it was a series of books, and got completely absorbed by the story so much that I almost forgot what the first book was about by the time I got around to seeing the movie!

Book or Movie: The movie is not terrible, I vote book on this one - but by a nose.

Spoilers after the jump:

Movie Vs. Book

I'm big on reading the book before seeing the movie. I like to have my own version of the story in my head before the look is dictated to me by a movie. Unfortunately, I end up spending the entire time watching the movie grousing about how they changed it and that's not how it was in the book. Usually the book is better, but sometimes I'm surprised and the movie has been as good if not better than the book.

Often times, I've read a book just because I heard that they're going to make a movie out of it.

Other times, I see a movie and hear that it was a book first, so I read that book and try to block out what I saw in the movie, so I can form my own vision. It doesn't always work that way, but I try.

I read the Harry Potter books before I saw the movies, but the movies had already been released, so I already had a vision of what Hermione and Ron looked like, even though they're described differently in the book, so now I have two versions of what the Harry Potter kids look like in my head.

I'm such a visual person, that when I read a book, I always let the story flow in my head like a movie. When I see the movie, I expected that same movie to play out, but that is not always the case. I have had to come to the mindset that movies are merely adaptations and can only be a synopsis of the book, and sometimes they have to add in things in order to make the story flow better as a movie. It drives me crazy, but I have to talk myself down; telling myself that this is only an interpretation of the book, another version. I still yell in my head "That's not how they did it in the book!" The funny thing is, if I see the movie first and read the book second, I never yell in my head "That's not how they did it in the movie!" I think well, they sure got that part wrong in the movie! I always blame the movie.