I do understand that I am a tad late to the game with this one. Never the less I shall be writing this comparison. The book Paper Towns (written by John Green) was gifted to me for my 20th birthday and the movie was released at some point in 2015.
Now I hate to be a Cliche but the book was in fact better. But here will hopefully explain why and don’t forget to let me know your opinions.
The mystery surrounding Margo in the book was much larger, Q spends much more time investigating her disappearance and to be honest I presumed she was dead for a large majority of the book. As is the luxury of books you can spend much more time with the characters and developing the story and the feels and such. Paper Towns the book emphasis the sheer amount of dedication Q has to Margo and it is much more of a punch to the gut when she reveals she does not have the same feelings.
However, the movie did show the relationship between Q, Radar and Ben very well, it seemed natural and they were annoyingly realistic. Which is a complement as teenage boys do tend to be annoying. Furthermore they don’t fully dive into this, but I do love this quote:
“You know your problem, Quentin? You keep expecting people not to be themselves. I mean, I could hate you for being massively unpunctual and for never being interested in anything other than Margo Roth Spiegelman, and for, like, never asking me about how it’s going with my girlfriend – but I don’t give a shit, man, because you’re you. My parents have a shit ton of black Santas, but that’s okay. They’re them. I’m too obsessed with a reference website to answer my phone sometimes when my friends call, or my girlfriend. That’s okay, too. That’s me. You like me anyway. And I like you. You’re funny, and you’re smart, and you may show up late, but you always show up eventually.”
A big criticism for John Greens books tends to be that the characters have wisdom beyond their years, and speak in a language more Shakespearian than anything else, and this is still present in the narration of Paper Towns. However, reading this style is nice, as the books are an easy read but it is nice to be challenged in some way. Furthermore a typical teenager’s word choice and speech pattern can be repetitive and unimaginative: Which could make for a pretty boring read and an even worse narration, so why not push the boat out, why not try and expand the vocabulary of the reader/viewer. Go Nuts.
Cara Delavigne was an odd choice for Margo, yes she is absolutely stunning, so it is understandable why a teenage boy would be madly in love with her, but she is just far too mature to play Margo Roth Spiegelman.
All I could think about was: she has her tits out in the Blurred Lines music video and models lingerie for Victoria Secrete (which is cool and she’s a total babe with very nice tits) but it just feels a bit wrong for her to be paying a High School Teenager… Her performance was fine but I dunno it just felt like a wrong choice. Although the Teen Choice Awards completely disagree with me as as she was nominated for and won 2 for her performance as Margo. (I AM SO EXCITED FOR HER IN SUICIDE SQUAD THOUGH CAUSE SHE LOOKS SO COOL. OMG LOVE ME!! OK BYE)
I definitely found myself laughing along with the movie and I loved the party scene where Ben is very drunk, its also a favourite scene of mine in the book. Also singing the Pokémon theme song, Me like, it hit me right in my geeky feels.
I would recommend watching the movie, it’s a good evening watch, nothing spectacular but defo worth it. I read the book on holiday and again it was an easy holiday read so I would recommend it for that.
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Let me know what your opinions are, and are their any other John Green Books you hope they turn into movies? I’ve heard that, ‘Will Grayson, Will Grayson,’ is next and i hope so, because i enjoyed that book also 😀
Happy Blogging ❤
Unicornz & Owlz 