I should probably be publicly shunned for admitting this, especially considering I'm trying to encourage people to read my own work, but there's no way I can deny the fact: on the rare occasion, I have actually enjoyed the movie more than the book. I can hear the screams already, but please hear me out.
First of all, this is VERY rare - so much so that I only have two examples right now. Secondly, in both cases I saw the movie before I read the book, so I already had a vision of how the story should unfold. Things may have turned out differently had I done it the other way around, but we'll never know for sure. My two entries are below and I'll add to it if I run across any others.
Bladerunner
I'm going to go ahead and draw as much scorn as I can on this one because I'm admitting that I like the theatrical version of this film the best. Ok, that's not exactly fair as I haven't even seen the director's cut, but when I read they had cut Deckard's internal monologue I lost all desire to see the other version. I saw the movie when I was a teenager, but read the novel within the past couple of years, and I was disappointed. The world and its inhabitants just didn't come to life for me in the book. Again, I might feel differently if I had read the book first, but I'm not so sure.
Stardust
The movie actually followed the book pretty closely...until the end. That's what ruined it for me. Match the endings and I'm a happy camper, but as is, I'd rather watch the movie again.
Has this happened to anyone else...or am I on my own here?
