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While I'm definitely a bookworm of the first order, I also have a Cineworld Unlimited card. This is somewhat complicated by the fact that I am one of those people who sees a trailer for a film I want to see, and immediately insists on reading the book first.
This feature will focus on books which have been made into films. I'll offer my opinion on which is better, whether it's an adaptation likely to please fans, how true the film is to the book, and whether it's what I expected having read the book!
I will try and focus on recent films, however I might take a jaunt back if there's one which particularly grabs my attention.
This week's book is The Meg by Steve Alton... which I actually read after seeing the film.
To help you understand the circumstances under which I read the book, I need to first take you back to a conversation I had at the cinema just after seeing The Meg with my partner and two friends of ours; it went something like this:
Me: *sees a poster for Darkest Minds on the wall* Oh! I want to see that, but I need to read the book!
Friend 1: The Meg is a book?!
Me: No! Of course it isn't. I need to read Darkest Minds so we can come see the film!
Friend 2: That makes more sense!
~The next day, in Asda, browsing the book aisle~
Me: *spots The Meg by Steve Alton* No way! *texts both friends the picture of the book*
Them: Seriously?!
Me: There are five! FIVE! How many books about a giant shark does a genre need?! *immediately purchases book*
I want to start off this segment by stating I really enjoyed The Meg - both the book, and the film. I expected both to be the kind of comedy which is meant to be so bad it's good, and sometimes just winds up being bad. The trailer of The Meg certainly gave me that impression; I wasn't looking forward to seeing it, but was pleasantly surprised.
For some reason, even having enjoyed the film, I still didn't expect much of the book. I finished it in two days. I started it in the bath, and was shivering by the time I convinced myself that, yes, I really did need to get out of the water before I succumbed to hypothermia. It's good, guys.
I was intrigued by Jonas' story, and couldn't wait to find out whether they would manage to track down and capture the megalodon. Having read the synopses of the later books which were included in the back of my copy, I suspect that they took aspects of at least the first two books and adapted them into one film; however, as I haven't read the second book, I can't be sure.
Firstly, Jonas' whole backstory has been changed for the film. In the book, he's a navy submersible pilot who is forced to undertake 4 dives into the Challenger Deep far too close together; he spots the megalodon and engages the emergency surface procedure - but not before the Meg takes a chunk out of the submarine and breaks the pressure gauges. During the rapid assent, the two scientists on board with Jonas die/are irreparably injured by the pressure changes. Whereas in the film Jonas is part of a submarine rescue team aboard a nuclear submarine. Whilst himself and his two teammates are evacuating passengers to their craft *something* hits the side of the nuclear submarine hard enough to damage the bulkhead and cause severe damage to the nuclear reactor. Jonas' friends are stuck and ask for more time, but he makes the decision to close the hatch and detach... just in time; seconds later, the nuclear sub explodes. In both scenarios, Jonas is accused of panicking and causing the unnecessary deaths of two men. He is subsequently dishonourably discharged and spends 3 months in a psychiatric ward.
The settings of the book and the film are also very different - the book is set mostly on a ship, whereas the film is based around a state-of-the-art underwater laboratory complex (which is admittedly much more cinematic!)
And, just to round off all the main aspects of the story, the main characters are quite different, too; with the exception of Jonas himself and his psych-ward-buddy, Mac.
Jonas' wife/ex-wife, especially, fills entirely different roles across the two media - she's also far more likeable in the film, whereas in the book she's clearly just an awful human being.
The paperback of The Meg which I bought contains a prequel novella - at the end, which I found a little odd - and honestly, I didn't think it added anything to the story. It was somewhat interesting to see the events which led to that fateful dive, especially because we see for the first time that it absolutely was not Jonas' fault, but the second perspective from a different ship just felt like unnecessary filler.
Also, *spoiler alert* the fact that his commanding officer goes to the trouble of convincing the doctor to blame it all on Jonas so he can keep his career, but then throws the megalodon tooth he finds embedded in the submarine - which would have cleared them all of any wrongdoing since, y'know, who can predict they'll be attacked by a giant shark in the Challenger Deep? - into the ocean? Huh? What is your logic there? Do you just hate Jonas? Do you want a quiet life and to not have to chase giant sharks around the bottom of the Mariana Trench? I guess we'll never know... BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T TELL US.
Overall, The Meg reminds me a bit of Jurassic Park, but with a giant prehistoric shark instead of dinosaurs.
If you enjoy 'far-fetched but fun' then The Meg is both a film and a book you should check out!
Just don't expect the two to resemble each other that much if you decide to experience both.