From Page to Screen

Movie/music Monday

Today is more of a “Movie Version of Books Monday”. I seem to be on a kick of reading books that are about to be turned into movies. Actually, they already have and are about to be released.

First I read Remain by Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan.

Before I was finished with it, I wrote about it here: Kind of a Let Down. I did go ahead and finish it, and I will probably see the movie when it comes to streaming and doesn’t cost $20 just to rent it. I was not all that impressed with it. I mean, it was an interesting enough story, and I don’t really know what I expected with a description that called it “a supernatural love story”. Man meets woman. Man and woman fall in love. Man realizes woman is a ghost. Woman doesn’t realize she’s a ghost. Man tries to solve her murder. Man solves her murder. Man and woman both move on in more ways than one. Maybe predictable is a good word for it?

After I finished that book, I picked up Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins.

My secretary talked about wanting to read it before the movie comes out later this year. She had seen the movie version of the book just before this one: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes. She didn’t like the end of that movie and wondered how it ended in the book. I had read the book before seeing the movie and absolutely thought the movie was trash compared to how good the book is. Based in the Hunger Games universe, that book tells the origin story of President Snow. He falls in love with the tribute he is mentoring for the Hunger Games that year, when he was a teenager by the way. What happens to his love at the end of the movie is very ambiguous. According to my secretary, she was confused about what happened to her. Having read the book, I know exactly what happened to her. It wasn’t explicitly stated, but it was heavily implied so that the reader knew what happened without it needing to be spelled out. The movie missed the mark on that.

After that experience, my secretary decided to read this new book which is the origin story of Haymitch Abernathy—Woody Harrelson’s character in the movies if you’re familiar (or not). I finished this book yesterday. My dear secretary hasn’t started. She told me it’s hard for her to get started because she knows she has until November when the movie comes out. I have never been disappointed in any book in the Hunger Games series. Even my husband read the original three books, even though I’m not supposed to tell anybody. After all, they’re technically books for the young adult crowd. I stayed up pretty late last night to finish it. It was very good. Not a good ending though. It was, but just not a happy ending. Very upsetting. Knowing what we know about adult Haymitch…always angry, an alcoholic, mean to everybody…the book definitely ends by giving us a very clear understanding of why he’s like that. And I don’t blame him. I appreciated that the epilogue of the book fast forwarded from teenage Haymitch all the way to adult Haymitch who is recounting his story after the events of Mockingjay. Katniss and Peeta are even briefly mentioned. I really enjoyed it. I will definitely watch this movie and maybe pay the double digit price to rent it when it first comes to streaming. I have to wonder if this is it for Hunger Games prequels. In this particular book, several characters that we know from the Hunger Games trilogy are present, so we get a glimpse of how they got started. I don’t know that there’s another good character that a whole book could be written about.

So I finished that book last night, and now I have picked up Project Hail Mary. The third book in a row that I’m reading that is about to be a movie. This one sooner than the others as it comes out this month.

I’m a big fan of the movie “The Martian”. It’s one of my favorite movies. It’s a Sunday afternoon movie. It used to always come on cable on Sunday afternoons so that’s when I got used to watching it. This week I think it was on twice in the evening on separate days. I never read the book it was based on though. Having seen the previews for the “Project Hail Mary” movie and knowing the book version is written by the same author as The Martian, I’m going for it. From what I’ve read in the comments of random posts on social media, the book is really good. Some comments even reference the movie trailer and that a big piece of the story is spoiled by the trailer. Apparently that involves Ryan Gosling’s character meeting an alien. If I can finish the book while the movie is still in theaters, I think I’d like to see it in the theater. This seems like one of those movies that’s best seen on the really big screen. And you know how I feel about Ryan Gosling. I’d watch pretty much any movie he’s in. I’m a fan. I’ll report back on the book. I’ll see if I agree with the people commenting online about it.

Question for you…what was the last book you read that was turned into a movie? Has there ever been a book/movie combo where the movie was actually better? Or maybe where the movie was just as good as the book?

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