Nothing beats the book!

Rating: 6/10 (16 August 2010)

Right when I viewed the trailer for this movie I knew I had to read the book first. The book was amazing considering it was by Nickolas Sparks and I couldn't wait to see the movie. I went and saw Dear John the day it came out and the theater was packed. I was thinking this movie is going to be a hit. However, I was disappointed in a lot of ways. I didn't enjoy the movie like I thought because it didn't follow the book as well as I think it should have. The movie would have been great if I hadn't read the book. I only knew what was going on throughout the film because I had read the book. If it wasn't for that I would have been lost throughout some of the parts. They made things happen too quickly and being a movie about two people falling in love things shouldn't have happened as fast as they did. Yeah it was only two weeks that the are together when they meet before he goes off to Iraq but they didn't show enough of the two weeks of them together and them falling in love. They also messed up with the characters. Tom, Savannah's close friend is married and has a son. The son in the movie however is supposed to be his brother. I don't think they should have swapped it around. Also I feel they should have had John visit her while Savannah is at school like he did in the book. I feel that was an important part and it made the sex scene more meaningful instead of outside in the barn. There are a few more things here and there but the main thing I did not like was that they changed the ending of the movie. In the end they are not supposed to end up back with each other. In the book it closes off with John selling the coins and it saves Tom's life. Then she steps out on the porch and looks at the moon with her thumb and John is standing outside from a distance watching her. Yeah its not a happy ending but it was the original ending from the book. In the end the movie wasn't a disaster and renting it the other day made me realize its not so bad of a movie however they should have followed the book all the way. In my opinion The Notebook did a better job when it came to sticking to the original story.