E.M. Lockard
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Books & Movies - Adaptations Pt. 1

1/24/2014

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Tonight, I'm one of those crazy people who will be going to see the final installment of the Twilight saga, "Breaking Dawn Part II" in theaters. Yes, it's opening night. Yes, it will be nuts. No, that doesn't deter me. Why? Well, partially because my sister invited me to a friend's super awesome private theater showing. And partially because I have a thing for book adaptations.
It's interesting to see why an adaptation works or - more often than not - why it fails to live up to the standards of book fanatics everywhere. It's great to listen in on the debates between book fans and folks who didn't ever read the book. I love it.

I also have a theory about what's necessary for a book adaptation to work on the big screen. When I see a movie that's based on a book, I don't expect to watch the book unfold before me; after all, they are very different media. But I have two things I look for, and if I don't see them, I'm perturbed... intensely perturbed.

In my ever-so-humble opinion, the film should retain the intention of the story and the integrity of the characters. The story itself may change, but the intent - the theme/arc/lesson - should remain. Some characters may be melded together, and a character may be a different gender than what was in the book, but that character should reflect the same virtues, strengths, weaknesses and flaws of the book character.

So this is my theory about what makes an adaptation work. It will be put to the test tonight. (Hence this being Pt. I. I'll comment on Breaking Dawn Pt. II tomorrow.)

What do you look for in a film adaptation? Are my two little expectations too little? Should there be higher expectations for adaptations? Or should there be no expectations?

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    Called "The Semi-Sane Writer", this  blog used to have its own home.  However, it felt lonely and decided to join the rest of the author's information on this site.  The author took pity on the poor, lonely blog and very nicely relocated it. 

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