When the LOTR movies came out, I had read the books (and loved them), but Carl had not. He watched, and thought they were the best movies ever. I watched, and couldn't get past the character alterations (NO Boromir was not meant to be more noble than his brother, Jackson, THAT'S THE POINT, and Elrond wasn't angry all the time, and Sam would NEVER EVER have left Frodo, not that Frodo would have asked him to, and by cutting out the Scouring of the Shire you lost all the pathos and the motivation for Frodo to leave for the Grey Havens at the end ...). Afterward, Carl read the books, and while he could then completely sympathize with my frustrations (and even came up with a few more of his own), he is still, to this day, better able to enjoy the movies than I am. So yes, there are some times when it is definitely better to watch the movie first - ALTHOUGH not, I think, for kids, because then every time they read the book they see and hear the movie characters in their head instead of getting a chance to develop their own idea of the book characters.
I think a lot of it has to do with expectations, too. I went into The Hobbit deliberately expecting nothing, and was therefore able to enjoy it much more than Carl, who went in with unformed expectations and was really disappointed. Even more than just not having high expectations, I think it's sometimes helpful to have low expectations - because then, if anything, you get pleasantly surprised by some things being better. That sounds pessimistic, but it WORKS for movies-made-from-books, at least.
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chiming
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Date: 2013-05-25 11:23 am (UTC)From:I think a lot of it has to do with expectations, too. I went into The Hobbit deliberately expecting nothing, and was therefore able to enjoy it much more than Carl, who went in with unformed expectations and was really disappointed. Even more than just not having high expectations, I think it's sometimes helpful to have low expectations - because then, if anything, you get pleasantly surprised by some things being better. That sounds pessimistic, but it WORKS for movies-made-from-books, at least.