Novels vs Movies

As we all know it, there are many adaptations between novels & movies. Such as the popular series of The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Twilight, the Lord of the Ring, Holes & so on!

So I may not be a huge novel reader, but I have seen from many saying they like the novels better because of this & that. Which do you prefer? Why? How does one get more attention viewers/readers than the other?

Well, in general I like the books better than the movies. The only movie that I liked better than the book was The Lord of the Rings. I loved the books, don't get me wrong but the movies were so much better for me.

The books are always better than the movies. I think that comes by definition because you'll never be able to top the source material from which you created the movie. This is especially true if you read the book before seeing the movie, because people are so precious about the way things happen in the book so if the movie deviates from that even a little bit the fans are not happy campers lol.

Personally though, I like the movies and novels equally when the movies are done right. The Harry Potter movies for example (and the first Bridget Jones movie) were done so masterfully that I love them equally to the books. The books are of course objectively better and I recognise that, but I find that books and films are two different media that are so different that comparisons of 'better and worse' can't exactly be made.

I like what I'm exposed to first, usually. I'm very pro-book, but even I admit I sometimes like a movie better than the book it's based on if I see the movie first.

Then there are some movies which are just better regardless. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (original Swedish version - didn't like the English version as much) was great, but I couldn't get into the book at all. Then there are some movies which expand a lot of what's not in the book, or take the book from a different angle, like The Prestige, and those ones I generally like in different enough ways to say I like the movie as much or more just because there are things you can do with movies you can't do with novels.

For me, an adaptation of a novel is only going to eclipse the source material if it puts a new spin on it and makes it more cinematic, as opposed to novelistic. Out of my favourite films, most of them are original creations, and the ones that aren't have often substantially altered the books they were based on. For example, Stephen King famously hates the film version of The Shining as it stripped away a lot of the psychological subtext he put in the novel. But what's lost from the page comes alive on the screen, as the imagery there is something that King would never be able to come up with in his wildest, most ball-tripping dreams. And Adaptation. is just that, with regards to the book The Orchid Thief. The stuff that goes on in THAT film would never be able to be accomplished in a book.

In some movies based on novels, there are times when things are different from the original novel, and that slightly bugs me, so I prefer the novels. But I also like the movies so I can actually see what's going on in the book on the big screen.

Novels! As a novel reader I've read many that are turned into movies (Jurassic Park, A Walk to Remember, Harry Potter) and I prefer the book versions more because they are more detailed, plus you can let your imagination depict the looks of the characters/locations.
Plus some movies change the plot of the book altogether. See Michael Crichton's the Lost World for an example.
Although I may be biased-my sister told me, when she read a walk to remember and then watched the movie she liked it but was a bit disappointed because there where scenes that were not in the movie.

In general, I prefer the books more than the movies. The movies movie doesn't usually cover the entire book so I can't get the entire story. They sometimes cut out parts that are important to the plot.

I generally like novels a lot better. I like being able to visualize, for myself, the people and the worlds in the story. I like to take my own pacing for novels, too.

I prefer to read novels and books rather than movies. When I read the book, I understand it much better. It seems so clearer than the movies. For instance, when I watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I didn't quite understand it. When I finally read the book, I got it. The film adaptions also show some scenes that aren't really in the book, therefore it actually ruins the reader's perception of the plot. Like in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, I don't remember reading a part where Harry and Lord Voldemort fall into this weird cliff thing. That just proves my point.

I usually prefer the books cos like AWsquared said, movies sometimes don't cover the whole book.

Also, the book gives a better understanding of the story.

I am a reader, so naturally I prefer reading. If there is a movie that is made after a novel, I will try to watch the movie first, and then read the novel. This way, I can get to understand much more about the movie and get to know the characters more in depth. For example, I found the Hunger Games novels much better than the movie. They have so much more description and kinda misses out important scenes in the novel. After reading the novel, everything became so much clearer.

Books, books, books, all the way books. I can't remember ever seeing a movie based on a book that I actually liked. Howl's Moving Castle? Ella Enchanted? Coraline? City of Ember? Harry Potter? The Hunger Games? Loved all the books. Hated all the movies. The movies always seem to just miss the point of the books and suck all the magic right out of it for me.

Definitely movies for me hahaha. I'm not an avid reader, but even for the books that I do read, I still find the movies to be very enjoyable. My aversion to reading probably has something to do with it, but I do prefer the movies.

Books go in to richer detail and character development, making them a more thorough, invigorating experience.

Movies are enough to get through in one sitting and are much easier to take in and enjoy for what they are, without necessity for interpretation of occurrence.

Thus, I prefer each for certain reasons. I like books for complexity, but I like movies for simplicity. And sometimes, the movies are worlds better than the books on which they're based - especially if they're modernizations. There are a lot of factors here...