Movie adaptation of a book – To watch or not to watch

SPOILER ALERT:This is a rant.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part II releases worldwide tomorrow. Everywhere I look, I see trivia about the movies, the actors, posters of Dan Radcliffe pointing a wand at me. I suppose this is as effective a way as any, to sensationalize an already- huge event, and I admit – I can’t help being a teeny-weeny bit affected by it either, but not fully. That’s because I made a promise to myself, after watching movie Number Five, never to watch a movie adapted from a book ever again.

Okay, now all those of you who love the movies can smoothen those ruffled feathers – I have nothing against the casting, the directors etc. Hell, I don’t even own Harry Potter, JKR does, and she doesn’t have a problem – so it seems valid to ask why I’m so bothered (If you’re asking me that, that is. -_-). It’s just – I’ve always found that, after having read a book so wholeheartedly, after the characters have solidified in one’s mind so much so as to seem real, it’s really hard to accept what’s shown, in good faith. And I totally understand the difficulty of directors – they have to edit scenes, else the movie will go on forever – but when they change parts of the original books, it really bugs me.
(In HP5, remember the last part in Dumbledore’s office? In the movie, Harry and Dumbledore are seated before each other –
Dumbledore: I know how you feel, Harry.
Harry: You have no idea how I feel.
Me: [Clutching my hair and screaming] What are you doing? Where is all the angst? )

But the converse is not true. You watch a movie, and then read the book it’s been adapted from, and you don’t really feel any loss. I watched The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, before I read the book, and I really loved the movie (William Moseley made Peter seem more caring than the books ever showed him to be.). But Prince Caspian (the movie) was disappointing (Caspian and Susan?), and so I didn’t watch The Dawn Treader at all.

Though, sometimes, I guess you can learn totally new things about a favourite book – perused a hundred times – which may have been overlooked before. We imagine the clothing, the surroundings, the situations and so on, but may not even have realised that we may not have got it right( The BBC adaptation of Mansfield Park – I had no idea gowns in the Regency period looked that way – always imagined ball gowns as shown in Disney princess movies -_- )

Never judge a book by its movie (I’m quoting J.W Eagan.). And never read a book and then watch its movie, if you like your imagination better. (I’m not quoting anyone, that I’m aware of -_-).