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I have seen the movie half a dozen times and consider it one of my favorites, so reading the book was more of a completionist activity than anything. And much like a previous review of "I am Legend", I couldn't help but compare the book to the movie the whole time. Here are the highlights:
1. The basic plot is extremely similar in both versions. If you are reading the book to get the "real" story, you will have very little to hold your interest.
2. A lot of reviewers were saying that there is no love story in the book, but there is. Only the love interest in the book has even less significance. In the movie, Joss turned on Ellie because of what he believed in and it was a big part of the plot. In the book, der Heer just seems to lose interest and fades away. Why bother writing in a love story at all, then?
3. Drumlin had more to him in the movie. In the book he's just a pompous ass. In the movie he was an ass too, but he had an angle that he really thought made him better suited for the mission than Ellie; even if it was a little too similar to Joss' position.
4. The movie was lean. It didn't bother getting into many backstories of extra characters. This is more an effect of the runtime than prudent storytelling, but I still preferred it.
5. I really liked the book's ending message about finding a cosmological meaning in the far reaches of the value of pi. That was a nice tie-in that the movie could have done with 5 extra minutes. They missed out there.
All and all, I'd have to say I liked both really well. However, if push came to shove, I'd chose to re-watch the movie than re-read the book.
1. The basic plot is extremely similar in both versions. If you are reading the book to get the "real" story, you will have very little to hold your interest.
2. A lot of reviewers were saying that there is no love story in the book, but there is. Only the love interest in the book has even less significance. In the movie, Joss turned on Ellie because of what he believed in and it was a big part of the plot. In the book, der Heer just seems to lose interest and fades away. Why bother writing in a love story at all, then?
3. Drumlin had more to him in the movie. In the book he's just a pompous ass. In the movie he was an ass too, but he had an angle that he really thought made him better suited for the mission than Ellie; even if it was a little too similar to Joss' position.
4. The movie was lean. It didn't bother getting into many backstories of extra characters. This is more an effect of the runtime than prudent storytelling, but I still preferred it.
5. I really liked the book's ending message about finding a cosmological meaning in the far reaches of the value of pi. That was a nice tie-in that the movie could have done with 5 extra minutes. They missed out there.
All and all, I'd have to say I liked both really well. However, if push came to shove, I'd chose to re-watch the movie than re-read the book.