Hatrack River Forum: Novelizations better than movies they were based on (you're embarrassed to like)

This is topic Novelizations better than movies they were based on (you're embarrassed to like) in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :

I know, it's hard to conceive, but I think I've read several:

2001: A Space Odyssey
Superman III
The Last Starfighter
Any novelization written by Alan Dean Foster*

* Yes, he's a hack, but his novelizations are bis best books. I think what it comes down to is he lacks the ability to invent stories that are not goofy, but given someone else's universe to play with, he fleshes out stories very nicely. He must have started out as a fanfic writer.

Posted by Tinros (Member # 8328) on :

Star Wars: Episode 1 by Terry Brooks

Sorry, I'm partial to Terry Brooks...

Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :

Cor read that one. She says it wasn't bad. Not a ringing endorsement, but then, SW:I was the worst of the films, so it wouldn't take too much to be better.

Posted by JaimeBenlevy (Member # 6222) on :

Spiderman novelization by Peter David. The movie and book were both great, but I think Peter David edged out the movie by a little.

Posted by pfresh85 (Member # 8085) on :

I think all the Star Wars prequel novels were better than their respective movie.

Posted by breyerchic04 (Member # 6423) on :

Mona Lisa Smile, it has a better ending. That's one of the few novelizations of movies I've read.

Posted by Amanecer (Member # 4068) on :

I'm not embarrassed by it, but Abyss by OSC was incredible. The movie far less so.

Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :

Cor says the Ep III novelization was annoyingly quirky:

quote:

This is what it feels like to be Anakin Skywalker:

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

This is what it feels like to be Obi-Wan Kenobi:

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah

Not bad, she said, but annoying.

Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :

I think OSC's Abyss was great. I didn't list it because I thought the movie was very good as well, and I wasn't sure which was better, but thinking about it further, I think you're right.

Posted by pfresh85 (Member # 8085) on :

I called the Episode 3 novelization poorly written, but I still said it was better than some of the movies writing.

Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :

And I was only joking about the embarrassment: trying to make it an über-version of all the recent book and movie threads. [Smile]

Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :

Peter David's Hulk, Peter David's Fantastic Four... I'm seeing a trend here.

Any of the Trek movie novelizations.

I like Alan Dean Foster's movie books, the first few Spellsinger books, and I love "Mad Amos" but no one else seems to have ever read it.

Posted by James Tiberius Kirk (Member # 2832) on :

quote:
2001: A Space Odyssey

All this time I thought the book came first O_o

--j_k

Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :

I think Clarke wrote the screenplay, but the novel came after.

Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :

I've not read it....yet. But that is what I understand to have happened.

Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :

The book actually makes some sense. [Smile]

<--- not a Kubrick fan

Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :

Does it make more sense than the movie? Because the movie confused me. It gave me a headache.

Posted by JaimeBenlevy (Member # 6222) on :

Chris, you like Peter David too? He's awesome.

Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :

quote:
Originally posted by James Tiberius Kirk:

quote:
2001: A Space Odyssey
All this time I thought the book came first O_o

--j_k

The book is not a novelization of the movie, and the movie is not based on the book.

Clarke and Kubrick both wrote the screenplay together. Clarke then went and wrote a novel based on it, and Kubrick went and made a movie based on it.

Posted by Enigmatic (Member # 7785) on :

Pay close attention, this one's a bit odd:

Piers Anthony's novelization of the movie Total Recall which was based on the Philip K Dick story We can remember it for you wholesale is better than the movie. Which one was better than the movie? Well both of them, but the novel and the short story don't have much to do with each other, either.

--Enigmatic

Posted by no. 6 (Member # 7753) on :

What Enigmatic said.

Posted by Sister Annie (Member # 8480) on :

Certainly not God's Army. That Geoff Card is a HACK!

Posted by The Reader (Member # 3636) on :

quote:
Clarke and Kubrick both wrote the screenplay together. Clarke then went and wrote a novel based on it, and Kubrick went and made a movie based on it.

I thought the book came first and Clark agreed with Kubrick to do a movie. I guess not. And the book is far better.