movie vs book

I think I'm expecting too much on this movie. I thought the movie would be as good as the book (which in this case not true at all). I'm a big fans of the book, so much that I've reread the book for couple times. So when I knew that they are going to make the movie out of it, and two of my fave actors - Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou - were playing in the movie, I was so excited. But after seeing it, as what the critics were saying, it turned out to be a disappointment. In my opinion, the film was slow (some said that it was a bit too rushed) and they changed some of the story (like the opening scene, and also the ending where they told sophie that her grandpa wasn't her real grandpa...and she didn't even meet her younger brother...). The other thing that bugs me down was that there wasn't enough chemistry between tom and audrey. They played good but not enough. Tom Hanks doesn't really act as good as what he's capable of. He seems too confused in this movie. Surprisingly, Ian McKellen plays really well as Sir Leigh Tobings. The witty conversations, the remarks that he made, those history on Da Vinci stuff and the charm as the bad/good guy. Thumbs up for that. Audrey on the other hand wasn't that bad but there are times where her french accent got in the way of the conversation, making it a bit hard to understand (I'm not complaining about this as me myself am not a English native speaker and I do admit I have accent and sometimes it was hard for people to understand what I was trying to say). I think maybe because I've watched "Amelie" so many times that I kind off expected her to be more that playful :p

Anyway, overall I think it was ok. Not that great. This is the second time where I expect too much from movies adapted from novel. My first (maybe not first but so far that I can remember) was Memoirs of a Geisha. It was one of my fave novel but the movie was such a disappointment. It was just a beautiful but an empty movie, one that you can forget easily just like Da Vinci Code. You just watched it for entertainment and forget about it the next day until you rewatch it again. This whole movie and novel thing makes me wondering was it hard to adapt a novel into a movie? I know there are so many things in the book that you can't even put it inside the movie and so many stuff to consider. I know the notebook wasn't a bad movie and so is pride and prejudice (for me) and I believe there're movies - based on novel - out there that are pretty good. But the Memoirs and Da Vinci.....maybe because i've read the novels and they are such a good one that I put a lot of hope into the movies. sigh... so sad....

Interestingly enough, comic books adaptation were not totally bad. Take X-men and V for Vendetta. They are both adapted from comics and I think they are pretty good (well not guarantee that comic book adaptation can be a good one... like the early batman series or even fantastic 4). Well.. so i guess just because it's from a popular book/comic, don't expect a good movie will come out of it.