Plot, character development, entertainment, something people once got from a stack of bound pages is now being replaced with plastic disks. Of course, I am talking about books and movies. It saddens me to say that it seems the concept of actually reading something is going out the window. A good story is composed of several key elements, those being plot, character development, and presentation. Admittedly, presentation is something that is simpler to do in regards to movies, but what about the other two?
A good plot is one that starts interestingly enough to catch your attention, draws you in and makes you want to know more, whether it be a who done it novel, epic fantasy, or even romance.
When done properly in a book, no amount of detail is lost. Key points are stopped and examined when needed, interactions between characters can be shown from both sides, and most importantly, you can get inside the heads of characters and see what they are thinking.
Plots presented in movies rarely follow any of these things, though granted they do have their exceptions. For the most part, however, movies need little more plot than “here is the problem, here is the solution, let’s put some explosions in the middle, and we are good.”
The development of character is also a key component in a good plot. While reading, one can easily get inside the head of the characters, hear what they are thinking, follow their reasoning behind their actions, and get a better feeling of who they are.
In a movie, they are trying to condense down an entire plot to about two hours. Between the explanation of what’s going on, any action scenes needed, and the rest in between, character development often gets shafted to a small amount of scenes or none at all.
Now I know that most of you are probably sitting here, shaking your head and thinking that I don’t know what I am talking about, and that I obviously just don’t like movies. This is far from true. I am simply stating that people should pick up a book once in a while. It can provide a kind of entertainment that a movie cannot, and, hey, it might make you look at things in a different way.