Which is Better - Books or Movies? - CLOSED

I'll sign up for Gryffindor :D

For Ravenclaw! Woooooo!!!

I guess I'll have a go... For Hufflepuff!

This will be my first debate.. so I would love to join in the fun, and help my fellow house, Ravenclaw!!

Me for Gryffindor please!

Debating is fun...

I'll sign up for Slytherin!

Hey I'll do it for Slytherin so sign me up

I've got Hufflepuff's back :D

Against: Anti Movies aka For Books



*steps up first and looks around*

Now, as you can see I'm representing the books. There are many reasons why the books are better then those movies.

First off I'd like to say without the books their wouldn't be any movies. Come on thats kinda common sense there.

Secondly, The books allow you to pick them up any place any time and read. You don't need an outlet all you need is a light.

Thrid, proven fact here reading books make you smarter. They are much better for your mind then sitting around staring into a T.V. screen.

Fourth, With the books everyone has their own views on things , you use your imagination to think about what you want. Everyone can see things differently.

And the final reason, for now, that books are better then the movies is that in the books you can't miss anything. We all argee that sometimes some of the BEST parts are left out of the movies.

*gets up and claps*

Very good Amber, very good indeed. I would also like to add something more to her excellent point.

Thoughts. Harry has them in the book, but we rarely get to hear them. And some of Harry's thoughts are the most important things to know. What is he thinking when this happened? How did he feel? Although an actor may portray a characters emotions well, there are a certain limit to how well we can feel what they're feeling, know what we're knowing.

Speaking of the actors, you must admit, some of them don't portray their characters very well. Whereas in the book, what a character does is done the way the author wanted them to do it. The book is far more authentic than the movies we see on the big screen.

~For the Movies~

(this is my first debate, I hope I did it right....)

Good points, Ginny and Amber. But there are good points about the movies, too.

Many people who are into Harry Potter got into it not because of the books, but from watching the movies. Lets face it, the books are less than light reading- they range from about 100 pages to more than 700. Many people just don't have time to read the books.

Reading is a solitary thing. Grab a book, sit in the corner, and read. But watching the movies can be a great thing to do with friends and family. Many love to go out on opening night with a big group of friends and have fun watching the movie. With books, you can't really share the fun with others, unless they also read the same book right next to you and the two of you are reading at the same pace.

Movies are different from the books. Some in bad ways, but there are some good ways they are different. If you go to the movies and see a movie that is EXACTLY like the book, it would be boring to watch, right? There are often more funny lines and more inspirational lines and such in the movie versions of HP. Sure, its not exactly how YOU wanted it, but it would be a miracle if every person that saw the movie loved everything about how it was written and who the characters were played by.

Movies give young actors a chance to break into the big time. SOme of the young main actors were unkowns before the HP movies started. Now they are famous. Sure, some don't play their parts exactly right, but you have to remember that they are both teenagers and humans. They are still getting used to it.

(For The Movies)

Wonderful points everyone, and I'm happy to say I have some more to add.

*ahems* Many of my friends had never heard of Harry Potter before the movies came out. I started loving the books when I was about eight, and then only one of my friends had read them and loved them. (But she has never become as obsessed as I and now doesn't really like them.) As I grew up, more Harry Potter books and movies came out, and at the moment there is still one more book and a few more movies. Naturally, I've wanted to go to every single midnight release, wether it be book or movie. When PoA came out, I convinced a few of my friends to come to it with me. They loved it, and it made them really want to read the books. Now, many of them love it nearly as much as I do, and when they see something HP related, they want it (as do I, I have to admit). So you see, the movies have really helped the books and espically HP merchandise become even more popular.

Sometimes when you're reading a novel, no matter how detailed something is explained it is hard to picture. That's happened to me while reading the HP books, and it's nice to see it in the movies. Action is so much more real on the screen, more comedy can be put in, drama unfolds in front of your eyes much faster than reading it in a book (which is nice for people that don't like to read much) and many more things make movies better.

(Gosh, that was difficult, seeing that I love the books more than anything.)

(Against: Anti Movies aka For Books)

*steps up again*

Why i accept that what you say is true, about being able to watch movies with friends and family. I'd like to point that you could just as easily sit down and read the books together. Make a family night out of reading the books that we all so dearly love. Plus, as I said before it will help you mentally, you'll have a better imagination and a good reading level, plus as many scientist have proven reading makes you more intelligant.

Also, many of the movies give false ideas, and they put in fanon materials, and atlough some of us prefer fanon (:D), it isn't accurate. If you wanted to present a case why you should be allowed to have your class reading assignment to be Harry Potter you wouldn't watch the movies and point out the good things about them, you'd skim through the books and present your case to your teacher.

Which brings me to point C.The books can be used in school. Think about it, we all do it. We all bring in the same Harry Potter books we know and love as silent reading books you've got to have. Also, they are GREAT for doing book reports on, you can read a book you actually enjoy that is a good decent sized chapter book that your teachers will love you for reading.

*returns to my games*

(For the Movies)

Quote :

Also, many of the movies give false ideas, and they put in fanon materials

Now Amber, you of all people should know that you can find Fanon hints and clues inside the books as well. You yourself have posted about several things in the books that point to ships such as Harmony. So you cannot blame the movies for planting false ideas, when most of those false ideas come from what people think they see in the books.

And yes, I guess you could have a family reading night. But most families are too busy to take that kind of time. The books would require a few nights to read the whole thing. But parents have jobs to do, meals to prepare, and younger siblings to take care of. I, for one, know that my sisters could never have the patience to read the books. Whenever I ask them why, their answer is always the same. "Because I can just watch the movies."

The movies are greatly entertaining. The books are entertaining, but as I have said before, not many people have the patience to read the HP books, as they are very large. The movies are fun to watch, as they are action-packed with real-looking duels and battles. Honestly, what was more fun- reading about Harry's pretend Quidditch game with the dragon in GoF, or watching him almost get barbequed by the dragon in the movie?

(For the books)

cookiemonster wrote:

Now Amber, you of all people should know that you can find Fanon hints and clues inside the books as well. You yourself have posted about several things in the books that point to ships such as Harmony. So you cannot blame the movies for planting false ideas, when most of those false ideas come from what people think they see in the books.

*gets up again*

Hey could we leave my shipping preferences out of this? I mean come on that was a different debate. What I meant by that was that people like my mom who don't WANT to read the books and prefer to watch the movies, might get fanon ideas. Like for example my mom likes Harry/Hermione over Ron/Hermione, because of how the actors play the parts.

Also its not lack of time that people have instead many people are just to lazy to read the books they'd rather watch Charmed or get on The Hogwarts Experince or something else like that (lmao sorry I couldn't resist).

Also can I point out about the dragon thing....It was a completely different senrio in the book, then in the movie. Also, MANY MANY people like the book of Goblet of Fire WAY better then the movie, I know I did. To me personally GoF dragged on and got boring, when we put it in for the first time at my house everyone, including me, got up and walked around not paying attention to the movie because it got boring! That is not the case for the books.

(FOr the Movies)

Quote :

Hey could we leave my shipping preferences out of this? I mean come on that was a different debate

Now now, Amber, I wasn't really bringing in your own shipping. I was simply pointing out that people think that they find Fanon materials in the books. I just happened to choose you for the example, as you are part of this debate.

Quote :

To me personally GoF dragged on and got boring, when we put it in for the first time at my house everyone, including me, got up and walked around not paying attention to the movie because it got boring! That is not the case for the books

GoF was a long book. I think we can all agree on that. And much of that was simply filler! You could have cut away half of the book and it would still make sense. Its hard to transfer filler to the big screen, so the movie people must improvise. Sure, it might seem boring, but it is plot development. And what would a movie be without a plot?

The books can also drag on. For me, the first chapter of HBP was hard to get through, because it was so different and I felt it was not important at all.

(side note: i typed this all out TWICE and both times my compy deleted it :()

(For the Books)

As for the fanonness what i meant by this was the following: my mom likes harry/hermione better then ron/hermione because of teh way the ACTORS play the parts.

Also, when going on long car trips of, a plane ride the perfect thing that many people brign with them are thier books, not their movies. Because most people don't have portable dvd players, so they bring their books are read along the way.

Which brings me to my next point money. Lets see the adverage person (in america) who goes to a movie theater with another person spends around a total of $20 to see the movie once, including pop (soda) and popcorn. However you could buy 2 of the paperback books for that price, plus tax.

I know what your saying many people just buy the dvds and watch them again and again. However one book could be bought and still have left over moeny from the price of one dvd. Also, the books you can read in school, BUT you can't watch the movies, not in most schools anyway.

*gets back down*

For Movies

The movies allow us to see what we always wanted to see! They take the books and bring them to life on the big screen.
We now can have an idea of who the characters are, see how they move, watch them breath and be in awe of them.
We got to see Fluffy in the first movie. The basilisk and Dobby in the 2nd. Buckbeak! We got to actually see a hippogriff and a dementor plus we got to see Sirius Black in the 3rd PoA!
In GoF We got to see the yule ball, and watch Voldemort return right before our eyes!!
We saw the TWT and sadly saw Cedric die.
And now we're about to see OoTP come to life on the big screen! How can you not love that? We are able to see a lot of things that couldn't be described in the books.

both are great, books allow us to use our imagination to see what the author has made up in their minds, but movies allow us to see the same story but from someone else's point of view, aka themovie director

[er, UK, are you in this debate? your name isnt on the list ]

(For Movies)

Quote :

Also, when going on long car trips of, a plane ride the perfect thing that many people brign with them are thier books, not their movies

Have you ever tried reading in a car when its moving? It gives me the biggest headache trying to focus on the little letters in the book. However, when I am going on a long car ride, you know what I do bring? My laptop, which conveniently plays movies. You see, you don't need a portable DVD player to play DVDs, a laptop does the same thing. Whenever I go on a plane or car ride, I almost never bring a book, but I do bring about ten movies along.

Quote :

I know what your saying many people just buy the dvds and watch them again and again. However one book could be bought and still have left over moeny from the price of one dvd

When I bought OotP, it cost me about 30 dollars. I think we can agree that that is a lot of money for one book. But most DVDs, and probably the DVD of OotP, will cost about twenty dollars. So I would have money left over from buying the DVD.

Quote :

Also, the books you can read in school, BUT you can't watch the movies, not in most schools anyway.

In my school, we dont use our backpacks to carry things around. We have to make a pile of what we will need in each class in the morning or afternoon, stuff like textbooks, project materials, pens/pencils and so on, and carry that. Already, that is a lot of weight to be carrying around. I know that many of us would not want a five pound book dropped on top of all of that. And since the books are so big, most teachers wouldn't dream of assigning them to dumb eighth graders in my class. The largest book we have read in class was the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which is considerably smaller than HP.

Quote :

Have you ever tried reading in a car when its moving? It gives me the biggest headache trying to focus on the little letters in the book. However, when I am going on a long car ride, you know what I do bring? My laptop, which conveniently plays movies. You see, you don't need a portable DVD player to play DVDs, a laptop does the same thing. Whenever I go on a plane or car ride, I almost never bring a book, but I do bring about ten movies along

Well cookie not all ofus have laptops, i know i still haven't gotten one, and i don't have a portable dvd player either :(. However I do have my books and pleanty of people can read in moving vechicals without getting headaches, i personaly got car sick when there was a person next to me and we were watching a portable dvd player :(.

Quote :

When I bought OotP, it cost me about 30 dollars. I think we can agree that that is a lot of money for one book. But most DVDs, and probably the DVD of OotP, will cost about twenty dollars. So I would have money left over from buying the DVD.

I actually waited for the book to come out in paperback so I payed $10 for the book XD So if i bought both books 4 & 5 in paperback I'd spend $20, and thats the same as the dvd you were talking of XD

Quote :

In my school, we dont use our backpacks to carry things around. We have to make a pile of what we will need in each class in the morning or afternoon, stuff like textbooks, project materials, pens/pencils and so on, and carry that. Already, that is a lot of weight to be carrying around. I know that many of us would not want a five pound book dropped on top of all of that. And since the books are so big, most teachers wouldn't dream of assigning them to dumb eighth graders in my class. The largest book we have read in class was the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which is considerably smaller than HP.

We don't use backpacks either so we carry everything around, stopping at our lockers between class, that we need for said class plus a binder. However the Harry Potter books are the most carried around books, once more if you prefer hard cover you'd have a bit more wieght then if you carried about paperback, still everyone carries around those books. Ask Traci she brings the 5th Hp book to every class, hardcover too, yet she, like many others around here, don't seem to mind the extra weight if she can read a book that she loves XD

Good points Amber. ^.^

In the books, the author is allowed to get as detailed as she wants, and not a detail is spared. Meanwhile, however, in the movies, the directors and screenwriters do everything in their power to cut out what they deem to be unimportant details so that the movie won't extend too far past two hours. We all remember how the Marauders story line was left out of the Prisoner of Azkaban movie. (*twitches* CUARON!!) True, they keep the basic idea, and it is nice to get to see the Harry Potter universe come alive, but it's frustrating at the same time when you notice the missing parts and things that are changed around.

Also, you get a lot more into a book than you do with a movie. You have to read what's going on, process that in your mind, and use your imagination to picture it. When you're an audience at a movie theater, you have everything processed for you-what the characters look like, the words are said for you so you don't have to read them. What happened to using your imagination and your intelligence?

(For movies)

It's true that they cut stuff in the movies but JK left a lot of things out in her books as well. Like Hermione's family. There is more about the Weasleys and Harry's family but hardly any about Hermione. Also we never get told a lot of the details except in interviews with J.K and still some things she left in a blur.

So people cut things out of books just as much as movies.

This debate is now closed, well done everyone!

The results will be posted shortly