Nolan Fans

HI all,

I tried to not read The Prestige before I saw the film, but I had a twelve hour plane ride to China so I picked up a copy of the novel. Now, having read both the book and seen the film, I must say this is one of the rare times when I believe the movie supersedes the book. First of all, the film is far more than just a simple adaptation of the book. I did tremendously enjoy the book, but the movie was able to remain complex and twisting while eliminating a great deal of the extra content I felt was packed into the book. Also, I better enjoyed the way in which the film was framed, i.e. the trial of Borden, as opposed to the modern setting used in the book. Any thoughts from those of you have have read the book and seen the film?

I have not read the book, but I have a friend who has read the novel and seen the movie. He talked my ear off about the differences. And he would agree with you, the film is superior to the novel.

Hearing from him, and now you, makes me second guess wanting to read the book. I am intrigued to know the differences first-hand, but am afraid of having a "less-than" experience -- if that makes sense.

I think the book and the film are just too different things that share some similarities. I like both the book and the movie and I think both stand independently. There are creative and clever differences Chris Nolan makes, but I think that simply is because it's a film format versus the book format. There are elements in the book that I think won't translate well on film. The film, conversely, has elements that would not work in page format. Just my opinion.

Well, I haven't read the book but (just spitballing here) that the movie is better

TeddyBlass wrote:I have not read the book, but I have a friend who has read the novel and seen the movie. He talked my ear off about the differences. And he would agree with you, the film is superior to the novel.

Hearing from him, and now you, makes me second guess wanting to read the book. I am intrigued to know the differences first-hand, but am afraid of having a "less-than" experience -- if that makes sense.

I completely disagree. The book and film are completely different. Both are equally brilliant. The film takes many amazing routes that the book stays away from, but at the same time the book throws in a few ridiculously creepy elements that work very well. At the end of the day they are both telling the same story but take it in different directions. It would be a mistake to pass judgement on the book without reading it. You would be missing an excellent read and would also miss something that compliments the film extremely well.

filmfanatic wrote:

TeddyBlass wrote:I have not read the book, but I have a friend who has read the novel and seen the movie. He talked my ear off about the differences. And he would agree with you, the film is superior to the novel.

Hearing from him, and now you, makes me second guess wanting to read the book. I am intrigued to know the differences first-hand, but am afraid of having a "less-than" experience -- if that makes sense.

I completely disagree. The book and film are completely different. Both are equally brilliant. The film takes many amazing routes that the book stays away from, but at the same time the book throws in a few ridiculously creepy elements that work very well. At the end of the day they are both telling the same story but take it in different directions. It would be a mistake to pass judgement on the book without reading it. You would be missing an excellent read and would also miss something that compliments the film extremely well.

Not to mention that the book covers a wider range of characters, stories and timelines. It's equally interesting and I can really connect and understand when Nolan says there was a lot of content that would have been interesting to do on film but all of it cannot fit for a single movie adaptation.

The book was not released in Brazil... Hope to buy an imported version in the near future...

I didn't like the book tbh but loved the film (which are totally diffrent). I also read the Seperation by the same author which I also didn't like.
The thing that annoyed me the most about the book, was that it placed the main twist in the middle of the book, rather than at the end, like in Nolan's film.
I felt the supernatural element of the book was at least intresting, but the film is miles better.

I really want to read the novel. And i'm glad the Nolans didn't keep the present day element from the book.

rbevanx wrote:I didn't like the book tbh but loved the film (which are totally diffrent). I also read the Seperation by the same author which I also didn't like.
The thing that annoyed me the most about the book, was that it placed the main twist in the middle of the book, rather than at the end, like in Nolan's film.
I felt the supernatural element of the book was at least intresting, but the film is miles better.

You didn't like The Seperation? Hmmm, I liked that one quite a bit. It's certainly far more whacked out than The Prestige. I feel that I need to read it again to truly grasp a lot of the head scratching elements.