Adaptations

So, with the latest Harry Potter movie passing us by, what are your thoughts on film adaptations of books? Or, more generally, adaptations going from reading material to watching material, or vice versa. Almost always, the movie/series turns out to be disappointing compared to the source material. It's just the way it is. The reason companies invest money in an adaptation is because the original gathered a following, right? If only those same companies cared about disappointing that following just a little more. Too often the adaptation isn't just disappointing compared to the original, it downright sucks by itself. The problem stems from the fact that these people know that a certain amount of revenue will come in no matter what due to the fanbase. Whether or not they leave cursing the movie doesn't matter, the tickets have been paid for. On the other hand, sometimes we get so lucky as to have gems like the Lord of the Rings movies. Furthermore, in some cases the movie brings attention to some under-appreciated things. For example, I had never considered reading Watchmen until I saw the trailers for the movie (2009). And that ain't no shame. Without that movie I wouldn't have ended up reading the comic. And even then, that wasn't due to underexposure. In fact, a few weeks prior to the movie news, my room-mate at the time had suggested I check it out. I didn't and I forgot about it, even though he left his copy on the coffee table the whole time, a mere 2 feet from my usual spot in the commons area.