Should the trend on making movie adaptations of books continue? Why do you say so?

Many people who may have not read the “Harry Potter” series, the “Twilight” saga and “The Lord of the Rings” books rush to the theaters to watch the premier of the movie adaptations of these famous novels. As for me, I see to it that I have read the book before watching the movie adaptation and whenever I watch such films, I end up saying, “The book is better.” I have many reasons for saying so, and these reasons may also explain why I think the trend on making movie adaptations of books should stop.

Books and films both provide visual stimuli but in different forms. Books present stories through words. They allow the readers to create their own mental picture of the plot, characters, and how the whole story will play out. However, for movies, the whole picture is already presented to the viewer. Actors are chosen to play different roles, dialogues are delivered, and the scenery may have been set according to a director’s desires. A person who reads the book after watching the movie will most likely imagine scenes and actors from the movie, which means he or she has been robbed of the opportunity to create his or her own imagination of what transpires in the book.

I have nothing against movies. In fact, watching movies is among my favorite pastimes. However, using previously published text as a basis for a film’s storyline is the one that I am not in favor of. It is like movie producers just recycle best-selling books that already earned a lot of money from the public and make more money out of them. What’s worse is that full-length films do not feature every single detail mentioned in the book. They only show tidbits of the book so basically, movie adaptations are just like summaries or synopses of the real publication.

Ultimately, I think movie adaptations of books are only made for money. It may be true that great amounts of artistry, efforts, and investments are put into the production of these films but, the main motive behind everything is profit. I think this is very unfair to authors, publishers, and readers because it is natural that movies will be favored over books, especially with the fast-paced lifestyles that people have these days. After the movie adaptations are released, who else would be willing to read the books? With all these said, I think books should remain as books and movies should have their own original storylines.