Reading the comic before the movie made me enjoy the film less

I watched the new Star Wars movie last month and decided to read the tie-in comic first since everyone online said it was the better version of the story. But honestly, having all the plot beats and character moments laid out in panels took the surprise out of every scene. The comic had way more detail about the side characters, so in the film they felt flat and rushed by comparison. I kept waiting for lines from the comic that never showed up, and I got annoyed about little cuts they made. My buddy read the movie first and then the comic, and he said he liked both because the comic felt like bonus content. I guess I see his point now, but I still think the movie should stand on its own without needing the comic to fill gaps. Has anyone else had a bad time reading source material before seeing the adaptation? Maybe I should just switch my order going forward, but I'm curious if that actually helps.

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mary_schmidt2mo ago

Did you actually go in expecting the comic to improve the movie, or were you just trying to see if the story made more sense? Because for me, the problem is that a comic can spend pages on a single glance or thought, but a movie has to cut that down to maybe two seconds of screen time. Once you know the deeper backstory, those cuts feel like losses instead of just different choices. So my question is, do you think the movie would have felt less flat if you had never seen the comic's version of those side characters at all? I'm asking because I wonder if the movie's pacing only seems rushed when you have the full picture already in your head. If you go in blind, you might not notice the gaps, but you also might not care about the characters as much either.

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