Is the book ALWAYS better than the movie?

When an author writes a few words on a page, he does not expect to make a bestseller. Realistically, writing a bestseller happens to very few people right? Now, out of every bestseller that does exist, how many have been turned into films? Now I am going to have to ask you a question: how many awful books have been made into films?

For a book to become a movie, it has to be of crazy high quality. However, as we have discovered in cases like the Eragon adaptation, the movie does not have to be very good. But the real question is whether or not the age-old adage "the book is always better than the movie" is true. To answer this, we must first define what it means for one piece of media to be "better" than the other.

So what does it mean to be better? Instinctively, I want to say that to be better, it has to be more enjoyable to me. But is that better, or just enjoyable? For it to be better, I think it has to be more fully plotted. Well written, whether in the form of dialogue and actions, or a fictional work. All around just a more complete, well created piece. Entertainment is an important factor, but Frankenstein for example was an awful book to me by entertainment standards, yet it is one of the most well-known and highly renowned books of all time.

Art on the other hand, is easy to be defined. Or nearly impossible, depending on how one looks at it. In one sense, art could be anything creatively designed with a solid goal in mind. However, one could argue that anything is art under those terms. A common debate today is if film, books, and video games are considered to be art. Some, like my own stepfather would say that they are not; art can only be limited to paintings and such. The actual camera work in film can be considered art, as he believes photography to be a form of art, but not the film in its entirety. However I would argue that the editing process in a film is considered art, as is crafting a bestselling novel and programming a popular and renowned video game.

Now, this art definition does in fact relate to my spiel on movies and books earlier. Remember when I was talking about what qualities make one book better than another book? I think that with all of the above factors, for a piece of media to be "better" than another, it should be artfully created as well. I can write a novel this week if I wanted. It would actually be really easy. It would be awfully created and definitely not a work of art. The hard part however, is writing a good book.

So I have defined art, what it means to be better, and linked them both. But to get back to the heart of this blog, is a book always better than a movie? I am kind of torn. I would say no, because I have one example of a book that I disliked even greater than the movie edition. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, is an awful book (in my opinion of course). The movie was pretty bad too, but I would much rather watch Frankenstein than read it. But that is really the only example. Eragon, A Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and countless others all have movie adaptations. None of them have ever been better than the original books. None. The reason I think the movies are always less fantastic, is because oftentimes they take the "creative license" and almost completely rewrite the plot. Examples? Percy Jackson and the Olympians and Eragon. Both of these almost completely rewrote the storyline.

In fact, the best movie adaptations for a book that I have seen still don't come close to the majesty of the books (in my selected genre of reading.) The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien and directed by Peter Jackson is one of the closest adaptations, and probably my absolute favorite film trilogies ever created. A Song of Ice and Fire, better known by the HBO series name of A Game of Thrones is by far the closest film adaptation to the book series. Of course, they have 10 hours of air-time to make it the best adaptation, but even so. The book is still better than the TV series.

So what does all of this mean, and what is the final verdict? While it is possible for a film to be better than a book, the occurrences are few and far between. But that is just my opinion! Comment on here your favorite book that has been made into a movie, and tell me which version of the story is better!