Harry Potter: Why You Should Read the Books First
The Harry Potter books have become a worldwide phenomenon, so big in fact, that the movie adaptations of the books have also become huge sensations as well, earning millions of dollars at the box office. It is true that the movies were well-made and that the fans of the book series swarm to each film showing, but if you truly want to immerse yourself in the world of Harry Potter, you really need to have read the books first before you watch the movies.
Why do you ask? It is because a lot of the details in the books get lost when transplanted into the silver screen. Even though the Harry Potter movies are long, most of them reaching 2 and a half hours of play time, it is still not enough for you to really understand what is going on in the wizarding world. It is impossible to fully convert a thousand page book into a two-and-a-half hour screenplay, the writers will only get the most climactic scenes from the book and omit the others. But it is really the little details that give the books their charm.
Even though Harry Potter films have notoriously long running times, it is really not enough to describe what happened in the books. The movies are like a summary of the events that have transpired in the Harry Potter books. There are lots of points in the books that you will never get to see in the movie, if the writers of the screenplay add all of the interesting parts that are in the books the movies would just keep getting longer and longer. So the screenplay writers in order to somehow shorten the play time of the movies have had the hard task of choosing only the most interesting parts of the books.
If you watched the movies without reading the books, you may not even understand the dialogue as most of the actors have a thick Cockney accent, and if you're not from England it can be a bit straining to the ears trying to understand what spells or magical items they are talking about. But if you read the books you get to understand them perfectly and you even get an explanation regarding the magical items that are used.
Another good example is the famous sport in the world of Harry Potter, Quidditch. If you watched the first movie, you will only get a brief explanation of the game, that is not enough to really get a grip on how the game is played and you will be wondering what the purpose of all of them flying around trying to hit multiple balls through multiple hoops is. In the book, not only will you get to know how the game is played, you also get to know more about its history.
When you read the books, it is almost like you have a deeper connection with the characters, not like in the movies where only the main characters have a lot of face-time on screen. What makes the world of Harry Potter truly wondrous is the myriad of other characters that surround Harry and his friends. By basing most of your Harry Potter experiences on the movies you will not get to know these other amazing characters that have few or fleeting time on screen.
If you are still wondering why fans of the Harry Potter series are so mad about the boy wizard, you might want to give reading the books a try; only after reading them would you truly know what it is that you are missing.