Don't read the book first

(Possible spoilers for TFIOS)

I recently finished reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, and started on Heroes of Olympus. Even before starting the series, I'd heard that the movie The Lightning Thief was terrible. And was curious about it anyway. So when I finished The Last Olympian, I asked my friend for his opinion on the first movie. He told me I should've watched the movie before reading the book.

I have learned that this is very good advice. Because the book is almost always better than the movie.

Movies end up having to simplify the books a lot -- whether it's streamlining the plot lines or cutting out dialogue / entire scenes. In the case of the Percy Jackson movies, they made enough changes that they establish a canon different from the books. I think that's why people didn't like them -- they were expecting to see all of the book's battle scenes, and they didn't get it. They ended up watching someone's creative liberties, when that's not what they wanted to watch. However, I really don't think a more faithful adaptation would've been better. It would have been too long, or possibly more confusing. (Percy's narration was what made the books perfect for me, but I'm not entirely sure you can effectively add that into a movie.) I personally think that The Lightning Thief and Sea of Monsters movies are fine if you see them as removed from the books they were based off of. I'm used to dealing with different established canons, whether it's for the Pokemon series in all its different mediums or Rise of the Guardians and the almost completely different Guardians of Childhood book series.

But, of course, The Lightning Thief is not the only book that got a movie. The Fault in our Stars was super hyped, and it's a fairly simple book, so not much would be cut, right?

Not exactly. Personally, I thought the TFIOS movie did a wonderful job, but by watching it with a friend who absolutely adores the book, she called to attention everything that had been cut between the book and the screen. The movie plays up the "tragic love story" even more than the book does, and while the movie still kept most of the well-known quotes, they apparently changed some of the circumstances in which they were said. (I didn't notice.) Whether these are creative liberties or just to simplify / shorten the movie, I'm not entirely sure. I've only read the book once a few months ago and it wasn't a book that made me pay attention to every single little detail. I mainly went just because I'd promised to go with my friend, not because I necessarily wanted to see the movie.

The main reason we're getting all of these YA movies is because the YA genre is a huge audience that's willing to pay over $10 for each time they see their favorite book on the screen. YA books aren't restricted to just teenagers -- kids younger than us still read the books, and a lot of adults seem to be jumping the bandwagon, either because it's new and interesting to them or to give themselves an added "cool" factor. And I love the fact that suddenly we're getting all of these movies for books I've read, like Divergent and If I Stay and The Maze Runner. However, the people in charge of making these movies don't necessarily care about staying completely faithful to the books. That's not the reason why they decide to adapt them. In some cases, like Divergent and TFIOS, the movie adaptations are great. Depending on who you talk to.

Because if you talk to a die-hard fan, they might be upset about the changes. Which makes the movie seem like a disappointment, when really it was a great movie. The general consensus I've noticed is that "the book is always better".

So the conclusion I've come to is: watch the movie first. The book will always elaborate more than the movie can. Not to say that reading the book first is bad. I just think it'll save some disappointment in the series when you go for the condensed version first. Now, if you read the book before the movie was ever announced, it can't be avoided.

Another alternative is to just set the bar low when you go to the movies. It's easier to be impressed by a movie you don't have extremely high expectations for.