New books turned movies hope to have success in theatres

Every so often, a couple brave directors try to convert popular books into movies. This transition from text to big screen almost always proves to be a struggle.

This year, popular titles such as “Divergent,” “The Book Thief” and “Ender’s Game” are making their transition into motion pictures. Some students are guardedly optimistic about these releases.

“I’m especially excited to see how well the ‘Ender’s Game’ movie turns out,” senior Drew Kriens said. “It is one of my top five favorite books.” 

While he is enthusiastic, he recognizes the difficulty of fully capturing the essence of a 300-page novel in a 120-minute movie. 

The problem in transitioning from text to motion picture is all the fine details that often get lost in translation.

“There are so many little nuances in the book that make ‘Ender’s Game’ great. For the movie to be good, it has to do a good job of capturing the literary tone of the book,” Kriens said.

Many popular novels like the Harry Potter series have become motion picture blockbusters but received varied reviews. Many longtime Harry Potter fans believe that the movies can not effectively capture the spirit of the books.

“I definitely enjoyed reading the books more than seeing [‘Harry Potter’] in theatres,” sophomore Tyler Yoshihara said. “I don't know what it was, but something didn’t feel right about the movie.”

Another reason that book fans often dislike movie versions is the portrayal of different characters and ideas.

The visual images one reader creates in his head while reading rarely correspond to the images used in the film. Each reader also has a different interpretation of characters and that is the fun in reading: being able to create a vision that is unique to the reader.

A popular movie that transferred well to the big screen was “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.” The movie was able to capture the strong sentiments in the novel and convert those feelings to the big screen. For many fans, a big reason the movie was so successful was because the director created a vision that many fans felt was true to the novel.

Vision is everything for fans of literature. Nobody likes being told what to think and that is exactly what movies do. They give you a certain picture, the director’s interpretation, that sticks with you. Because the image is on screen, it’s much stronger than the imagined one, essentially overriding the self-made portrait.

 Even though the movie is just trying to portray the director’s perspective, sometimes, the director’s and a person’s perspective are so drastically different that it makes the movie tough to watch. 

Another popular movie that has its fans split is Suzanne Collins’ “Catching Fire,” part of the Hunger Games trilogy. 

“Catching Fire” is the second part to the Hunger Games trilogy and it will be entertaining to see how the movie compares to the book and if director does a good job connecting the first movie and this one.

A difficult part of making sequels to movies is making sure that the nuances in the book are included in the first movie and continued in the sequel.

“If ‘Catching Fire’ does a good job serving as a bridge between ‘Hunger Games’ and ‘Mockingjay,’ the trilogy will have a chance to be really successful,” Yoshihara said.

But for many books turned movies, there is usually something a little off in the movie that does not completely win over all its potential fans.