The essence of a page, is that, in itself, holds sacred words. When put together in a bound novel, those sacred words come together to tell stories unique in themselves. Although one can duplicate the sacred words of The Secret Garden or The Hunger Games on a cinema screen, the world is subsided next to the image of the world you create in your mind. Even a special effects connoisseur cannot take the image of the world you have created in your head and display it on screen to meet your expectations. The truth of a movie is that the world created on screen is a product of the mind of the director, and none other. So the main question is, why are fans either disappointed or joyous after they come out of the movie theatre at 2:00 am in the morning after the midnight premiere?
The hard truth for the avid reader is that no matter how good the book was when you read it during the night, and unto the wee hours of the morning, the images on screen will never match the world created in your head; but they may come close. So I should not have been dismayed when I came out of Regal Cinemas, disappointed in the world that became of Divergent written by Veronica Roth on screen. I had first read this book in the back of a vehicle, on a bumpy, sweltering hot, eight-hour drive to Lake Tahoe in the summer of 2012. To all those who have read this book, it should not come as a surprise that I finished it an hour after I had arrived in Lake Tahoe. As excited as I was about the four distinct worlds of Divergent, and the heroine Tris’ love interest, Four, I am sad to say the movie failed to meet the high expectations I had set for it. When I came out of the movie, I was disappointed to see that the director had failed to put in the details which kept readers on the edge of their seats, no matter where they were reading. While I don’t want to dissuade anyone from seeing the movie, I just need to reiterate the point that the essence of a book is the world you create when you read it. And despite some popular beliefs, movies rarely come close to giving you the same emotional ties to the characters on screen, nor the story they tell.
There are so many movies that have not met my expectations! The worst part is when they leave out important scenes, chapters, or characters from the novel. In Percy Jackson series the Lighting Thief was a total let down they did not put important scenes from the book. Put more articles like this up!
Kennedy,
I completely agree that reading a novel is an unparalleled experience. The different voices, appearances, and personalities of each actor often fail to address the specific nuances you enjoyed so much in a character. Because I have not read the book, I was very entertained with the movie Divergent, but I am sure that if I had read the book myself I would have also been disappointed in some capacity, as I have been with other movies.