I Know, But WHY?

I know.  The book is always better than the movie.  I know.  But sometimes, I just can't help but wonder why?  And I don't mean in the literal why-is-the-book-better-than-the-movie kind of way.  I'm an English major, I fully understand why a book is always, without fail, better than the movie.  But I mean "why," in the "why, God, whyyyy" kind of whiney way.

I am, of course, talking about the Hunger Games.

Now, part of my whining is really my own fault.  Usually, I do the whole dress up and see the movie at midnight thing.  It may be nerdy, but it's fun, not only the dress-up part, but the seeing-it-with-a-bunch-of-other-people-who-are-fanatics-just-like-you part, too. I've done it for all my favorite books-turned-movies (e.g. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, etc).
But for some reason, this time around, I just didn't.  Part of it may be the fact that my partner in crime and best friend currently lives in New Jersey and dressing up like Katniss when you're twenty-one years old and surrounded by twelve years just didn't really sound like something I had the willpower to do alone.





But I really blame everyone else for my thorough disappointment with the film.

Everyone promised me it stayed true to the book.  Everyone said it was awesome.  Everyone lied.

I'm an English major.  I read closely.  My favorite parts of books are the smallest details, the great one-liners.  Those are the things that I imagine so awesomely in my mind and pray that whoever decides to make a movie out of my book envisions the same awesomeness that I do.

But obviously, that never happens.

Movies don't just change the way I feel about some of my favorite books but sometimes they literally kill them for me.  And I don't mean just kill, I mean viciously and unforgivingly murder in a blood-splattered-all-around kind of way.

For example, the Seventh Harry Potter.  The end all be all of books.  The final conclusion to my childhood and the era of Hogwarts.  The book was a mindblowing rollercoaster ride of emotions and surprises.  And the movie... changed my favorite line.  In my personal opinion, the best line in the whole book is right before Harry is about to journey back to real life from the limbo within which he has just chatted with Dumbledore.

Harry asks, "Professor, is this real?  Or is it all just happening inside my head?"

To which Dumbledore responds, "Of course this is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on Earth, should that mean that it isn't real?"

Genius.  Sheer genius.  But in the movie, they cut the "why on Earth," and in my humble opinion it completely changes the entire meaning and weight of the line.

I know movies will never be as good as books.  They don't have the time to cram in all the information and no matter what, everyone will always envision it differently.