I approach book to movie adaptations with a heavy sense of apprehension. A movie nearly always fails to reach the splendor of a book that I love. I'm sure most of you feel the same.
Even worse than the movie oftentimes is the movie book cover adaptation. You take a perfectly good book cover and ruin it by sticking a sappy photo of the stars on the front cover. But it's not always bad. Sometimes a movie cover captures the spirit of the book. Or the original cover is so bad that the movie version is equivalent or better.
This topic came to my mind today when I when into Barnes & Noble and saw the new movie tie-in cover for
Divergent:
I hate this. I really, really hate this.
The giant photo of Tris on the cover makes her look like a typical, weak YA protagonist. Her suffering is emphasized instead of her strength. Plus, what are those birds for? I loved the original cover with the bold loop of fire.
Here are some other comparisons from the original cover to the movie tie-in:
Vampire Academy
I don't love the original cover for Vampire Academy, but the movie cover is bad on so many levels. The short skirts and poses sexes up the girls. The actress playing Lissa looks completely wrong to me. And there's zero reflection of the kick-ass personality that defines Rose.
Twilight
I actually like the Twilight movie tie-in cover. I love the simplicity of the original cover. It was different from any YA cover at the time. I like the movie cover as well, because it captures the attitude and romantic tension of the book.
City of Bones
This isn't too bad actually. Mostly because I dislike the original cover so much. I like that there's a ruin on it. Is that big building on the cover the Institute? I'm not sure.
The Hunger Games
This is perfect. One of the only movie tie-in covers that captures the spirit of the book and actually looks better than the original cover.
Catching Fire
This isn't too bad. It emphasizes Katniss's strength and the bleakness of her world. But it looks really photo-shopped.
Beautiful Creatures
It's all right. Similar enough to the original cover and it basically honors the characters and spirit of the book.
The Book Thief
I like the movie version. The actress Sophie Nelisse looks haunting. But I still like the original better, given the great symbolism of dominoes about the follow.
I generally hate all the movie poster book covers. The only one I've ever really liked is the Hunger Games one, with the flames.
ReplyDeleteGlad you're back! Sounds like you had an amazing time!!
You know what one really bugs me?? The Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood covers.
ReplyDeleteThe originals have very unique artwork and I had been collecting them for years. Now they all have a big True Blood sticker looking thingy on the cover. I stopped buying the books because of it. Why bother?
I don't like how they removed the line "One choice can transform you" from the Divergent cover. "Now a major motion picture" doesn't have the same impact lol
I don't know...I kind of like to stick to the original cover..movie covers are for dvds not the books.
ReplyDeleteThe birds on Tris are her tatoo that she gets in the book.
For the most part, I tend to prefer the book covers, especially when they're symbolic in some way like with Divergent and The Book Thief. I also like the original book covers for Beautiful Creatures. The movie tie-in covers really like to feature the lead stars, and it doesn't feel like as much thought is put into them as the original book covers. Mostly, they want you to recognize it from the movies.
ReplyDeleteI think the cover for Divergent is horrible and so is the one for VA. Do not like them at all.
ReplyDeleteI hate hate when they redo them for movies..Granted I did buy them before blogging the movie covers. I don't like any of them at all.
ReplyDeleteAh I so don't care either for the Tie-in Covers. Basically they are just for the people who only heard about the book because of the movie. Not for those people who read first, watch later. Makes total sense from a promotional POV but for us Book Lovers? Don't care:)
ReplyDelete(But, I actually love The Hunger Games !!)
Great post! I love the movie tie-in cover of Tomorrow when the war began :)
ReplyDeleteI generally dislike movie tie-in covers. Not because they don't portray the book very well (which happens a lot anyways) but they always look SO extremely tacky. The Mortal Instruments cover is just ... blah, but I do think the Hunger Games one is okay.
ReplyDeleteI hope you had an awesome time here in Australia :) I usually prefer the original covers to the movie versions
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, I walked in to B&N the other day and saw many of these covers! And my reaction to the Divergent cover....NOOOOOOO!! it is weird and awkward and....sigh. Yeah. No.
ReplyDeleteI think in general, the Nicholas Sparks movie covers work. Especially since in general his covers are so calm, and don't really capture the story. But there's always so much more romance on the movie adaption covers. But other than his covers, I'm not normally a fan of the movie adaption ones.
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