Books and Movies

And here I am again, RANTers! I told you I will be doing a few articles for this RANTday (*wink!*).

Anyway, before I start on RANTing on what the title of this blog post suggests, let me start with an anecdote…

For everyone’s knowledge, I just went to the “34^th Manila International Book Fair” last September 13 &14, 2013 and bought just a few books for me to read.

Photo not owned by blogger.

Oh, the bliss I felt when I bought these sweetie pies.

Yep, you did see what I R-E-A-L-L-Y bought.

Anyway, I started reading “The Casual Vacancy” of one of my F-A-V-E authors J.K. Rowling and that took me THREE (3) WHOLE WEEKS. It was an adult kind of book and some of the words used in this book are very hard to decipher (And yes, I used a dictionary for that. Yehey!).

As you may see, I’ve also bought “The Hunger Games Trilogy” of Suzanne Collins. And what made me do that? I was intrigued why the movie made from the book was such a blockbuster.

I mean, come on! I ignored that book for the past three (3) MIBF events and just got interested in it after the first movie was made.

So right after I finished reading “The Casual Vacancy” of J.K. Rowling, I immediately  started on reading “The Hunger Games” of Suzanne Collins.

How long did I read the book? Just three (3) days to be exact (But if you will not count the day I wasn’t able to read it, I would say two [2] days only.).

I've read that much in a matter of less than EIGHT (8) hours.

Then just as I was reading the sequel “Catching Fire”, I said to myself that it was time to watch the movie “The Hunger Games”.

I was so E-C-S-T-A-T-I-C right from the very beginning of the movie. I mean, who wouldn’t? It was the scenes in the book that was being shown to you right in the face (I don’t mean that literally.).

But what was my reaction when the movie ended?

D-I-S-A-P-P-O-I-N-T-E-D.

I was expecting some sweetness between KATNISS EVERDEEN and PEETA MELLARK. I mean, where did these lines went to?...

"Before I can stop myself, I call out Peeta's name."
~Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games

"Getting the broth into Peeta takes an hour of coaxing, begging, and yes, KISSING, but finally, sip by sip, he empties the pot."
~Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games

"No more kisses for you [Peeta] until you've eaten."
~Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games

These are just some of the highlights of Katniss’s and Peeta’s growing bond (And L-O-V-E, of course.) with each other. These are the lines that made me K-I-L-I-G so much that I’m punching everything that was in my sight and made grin like an I-D-I-O-T (Seriously, you guys should have seen my reaction.).

But after elaborating for a little while, I said to myself that the movie made justice to the book itself.

Not like the Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix movie that FRUSTRATED ME the whole time. It was the ONLY HARRY POTTER MOVIE that I didn’t watch in the cinema again and again.

Being such a POTTERHEAD that I am, I was expecting A LOT OF ACTION in that movie. The book already revealed some secrets why the events in Harry’s life happened and the movie did not do that. It was like watching a couple of clips mushed together into one pile of scrap (It was to me.). In other words, it did not do any justice to the book at all.

So anyway, that was all in the past now.

Maybe the reason why I was so disappointed with these movies is that because I was expecting something from them that they did not even dare show (Okay, I’m having a 130/60 mmHg BP right now. Calm down, Raim. Calm down.) all throughout the movie. Geez!

Then again, maybe the other reason why the book is more enjoyable than the movies is that the book is MORE DETAILED in terms of content (It’s a whole bunch of paragraphs, Raim! What do you expect?) and again, I was expecting those to be seen in the scene on the screen (It rhymes!)

But the movie “Catching Fire” had better be good or else (Did that sound just like a threat or what?).

(Insert threatening eyes here.)