The Plight of the Bookworm

You stand in line, waiting for the movie adaptation premiere of your favorite book series that has taken five years to go into post-production. Stepping into the theater, your heart pounds at the idea of seeing your favorite characters materialized on the screen. As you sit down, a sudden perturbed feeling settles in your stomach. The opening music plays and you stare at the screen in anticipaton.

The stone that has formed at the bottom of your stomach drops. The hydra, fierce and threatening in your imagination, has now become a slimy wailing reptilian…thing. The lighting is fake and fluorescent and the actors’ smiles are plastic and forced. You cannot bear to watch any more of this monstrosity that is supposed to be your dream book come to life. 

Thus is the pain of many book lovers who wait years for a high quality adaptation. Movie companies just can’t seem to get it right; they refuse to stay true to the book’s original plot and often digress into a less than average character arc that leaves fans unsatisfied.

Whether it is the cringy, dark and brooding vampires or the horribly animated characters, you can always count on movie studios to produce something that in no way resembles the original plot line of the book. 

Directors should stay true to the original plot lines of the books they are adapting instead of taking questionable “artistic” liberties. 

Thankfully, there are still some producers that value honoring the author’s words as well as actors who actually read the book and understand the nature of the character they are playing. 

These are the productions that truly keep revitalizing fandoms and bring back fond memories of afternoons spent curled up in bed, lost in a world of dragons, magic, and adventure.