When in Manila, it isn’t hard to find cinemas that show the latest movies, what with malls existent in almost every corner of the metro. Since I’m a movie buff by day and a bookworm by night, it only makes sense that books-turned-movies matter a lot to me.
So, in case you missed them, here are my top 3 books-turned-movies of 2012 (there were surprisingly a lot this year!):
My Top 3 Books-Turned-Movies of 2012
Books-Turned-Movies: The Hunger Games
Photo taken from Eat Your Serial.
To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t sure about reading The Hunger Games book because it sounded like a rip-off of Battle Royale to me. When I heard that the movie was coming, though, the bookworm in me ran to the nearest bookstore to get a copy, so as not to be left out of the new books-turned-movies hype.
The movie was going to show in 4 days and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to finish it on time. …I finished it in 26 hours. Basically, I fell in love with it. Which brought a new problem to light: the books-turned-movies of years past were downright disappointing. Would The Hunger Games movie ruin The Hunger Games book?
Clearly, it didn’t. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be on my top 3 books-turned-movies list. To be honest, there is absolutely nothing wrong with The Hunger Games movie – at least from the perspective of someone who absolutely loved the book. And, although I consider most books-turned-movies horrible because they do not stay true to the books, the fact that The Hunger Games doesn’t stay 100% true to its book version actually made it better.
I can’t explain it. It just… worked. I didn’t even mind the sappy love triangle story in it. Yes, it was that good.
Books-Turned-Movies: The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Photo taken from Graffiti with Punctuation.
The Perks of Being a Wallflower is one of the few books that I can read and highlight over and over again without getting sick of it. As such, I was dreading the day that it would turn into one of those horrible books-turned-movies that I hated. When I saw that the cast included Logan Lerman and Emma Watson, though, I became more intrigued than apprehensive.
As an addition to books-turned-movies, Perks did a great job in making an impact on me. This can probably be attributed to the fact that Stephen Chbosky, the author of the book, is also the one who wrote the screenplay of the movie. Some changes were made in terms of the script and the music, but the change in the ending really won me over. Again, despite the changes, the movie worked!
Books-Turned-Movies: The Hobbit
Photo taken from Return to Fleet.
I’m not gonna lie. I’m probably biased because I lived in Middle Earth in a past life (I have an Elvish tattoo on my wrist, for crying out loud!), but I thought The Hobbit was brilliant – especially in terms of books-turned-movies. While I had a lot of complaints about The Lord of the Rings trilogy, there is nothing about The Hobbit that I would change. Sure, it was a bit too long, but the Gollum-riddle scene made the IMAX 3D money all worth it.
In terms of books-turned-movies, The Hobbit doesn’t follow the book too closely, either. In fact, there are entire story lines and characters that were given more emphasis in the movie than they were given in the book, but again: it works. J.R.R. Tolkien would have been so proud!
I think Hollywood has started to learn its lesson when it comes to books-turned-movies. They seem to know their audiences much better now and cater to their needs more than to following the books. This is a good thing, seeing as I can actually tolerate books-turned-movies much better now.
Other books-turned-movies of 2012 that I loved were Rise of the Guardians and Breaking Dawn: Part 2. However, I haven’t read the books, so I don’t think I’m allowed to critique them just yet. It has to be said that I used to hate Twilight with a passion before Breaking Dawn: Part 2 came out, though, and now I’m starting to read the Twilight books. So go see that one, too! 🙂
When in Manila, what kind of movies do you prefer to see? Are you a bookworm, too? Do you agree with my list of top 3 books-turned-movies of 2012? Sound off in the comments section! 🙂
For more of my movie reviews, please visit my personal blog at https://wonderwomanrises.blogspot.com 🙂
