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What Is The Point Of Movie Novelizations? Who Buys Them?

I liked the Batman Begins novelisation. It talked about more stuff and showed more of his pre-League of Shadows training. Also showed him doing more investigation once he got back to Gotham when he was trying to figure out who wasn't corrupt in the police force.
 
Kids who want easy book reports.

Star wars novelizations usually make the film better though. If Revenge of the Sith was as good as its own novel, it would probably be the best SW movie ever.
 

yyzjohn

Banned
The only one I've ever bothered to read was:

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Because a book based on a film based on a short story was something I had to check out.

And Piers doesn't get a chance to get creepy iirc.

Hey I read the same one. Read it before I saw the movie, I thought it added alot. That's the only time i've read a novelization of a movie.
 

Lagamorph

Member
The last film novelisation I read was the one for Resident Evil Extinction and it filled in a lot of gaps. Gaps like,

Where the fuck is Jill?
Where the fuck is Angela?
How the hell did the T-virus escape Raccoon City and spread worldwide?
 
The novelization of Dragonheart is far better than the actual film.

And the novel of Titan AE, holy shit. Its a third longer because its adds the subplot of the Drej and explains their motivations rather than them just being generic evil aliens.
 
Honestly, it's just a different way to experience a story. The theater of your brain instead of a screen. Also, they originated in a time when it wasn't that easy to see a film. Wide release wasn't always a thing. Movie reels were expensive and they used to travel slowly around small towns. If you missed it, you missed it. So sometimes if you wanted to experience the story you read the book.
 

Riptwo

Member
I bought the Hard Target and The Crow 2 novelizations when I was a kid because they changed the ratings system in Canada and I couldn't get into the theatre to watch them with a parent anymore. I also have a copy of the Predator novel that I got as a birthday gift, and the arm-wrestling scene is something wonderful.
 
Being based off the scripts, they often include scenes and ideas not being left in the final film. That's pretty cool.

Did the slasherfilms of the 80s get novelisations? Would love to read one those if that's the case.
 
Read the novelization of ET as a kid because my local library had it. Still haven't seen the movie. I probably should

Yeah, I read it before I saw the movie. And it made the movie seem weird and kind of wrong.

Another way people, well kids, used to experience movies was book and record sets. Several Star Wars movies, Indiana Jones and others I first experienced through listening to these abridged records retelling the story. Sometimes I'd look at the books, sometimes I'd just lie on the bed and use my imagination as I listened to the story.

Here's an example, Star Wars.

http://starwars77-80.blogspot.com/2011/01/read-along-book-and-record.html
 

Chojin

Member
I love novelizations. A lot of times theres more content left out from movies.


Also take the novelization of Total Recall. Written by Piers Anthony. Its soooooo Anthony. I mean theres already Dick's We will remember it for you wholesale. But the fact another writer can put a new spin on the same story is great.


My favorites though are E.T. and Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey. Also have a soft spot for License to Drive.
 
Yeah, I read it before I saw the movie. And it made the movie seem weird and kind of wrong.

Another way people, well kids, used to experience movies was book and record sets. Several Star Wars movies, Indiana Jones and others I first experienced through listening to these abridged records retelling the story. Sometimes I'd look at the books, sometimes I'd just lie on the bed and use my imagination as I listened to the story.

Here's an example, Star Wars.

http://starwars77-80.blogspot.com/2011/01/read-along-book-and-record.html
Also cassettes, I had a couple as a kid.
 

bwahhhhh

Member
i used to read these all the time in elementary school and junior high when we could choose our own books to read and do reports on. (same with comic book novelizations like Death of Superman and Knightfall, i remember thinking the DoS novelization was really well done, though it has been ages)

You'd also get insight into things that weren't obvious, at least to kid-me. Like when i saw Batman Returns, i thought Catwoman suriving those gunshots was weird and almost mystical, i thought it was her cat-powers or something and the 9 lives thing was legit. but then i read the novelization, and it said explicitly that she was shot in the thighs/shoulders etc. turns out that Max Shreck is apparently just a horrible shot.
 

NekoFever

Member
I used to devour these as a kid. I'd be obsessed with whatever the big blockbuster movie was, and the novelisation was a way to experience it whenever I wanted, often with more detail and scenes that didn't make it into the final film.

Like I saw Jurassic Park in the cinema, loved it, but wouldn't get to see it again for six months or however long it was until the VHS came out, so I read the novelisation, then the original novel (that was a tough read at eight years old), then the 'making of' books.

It was also a way to enjoy the story of movies you weren't old enough to see. I remember reading the Robocop novelisation when I was really young.

As far as I'm concerned, if they get kids reading books they're a good thing.
 

ArjanN

Member
99% of the time they're completely dreadful but there might be a few exceptions here and there that expand on the universe I guess.
 

Chojin

Member
He did great Star Trek novelizations, too. Trek novelizations were great overall.

Are novelizations still as big of a thing these days? Seems like the availability of movies on DVD/BD/streaming would reduce the market for them.


Just like vinyl ;)
 

tr00per

Member
Star Wars Ep 3 was incredible. Way better than the movie. Also, I recommend the audiobook version because Jonathan Davis does the narration and he's freaking amazing at it.

I also really liked Independence Day's novelization.


Of Korn?

And the novel of Titan AE, holy shit. Its a third longer because its adds the subplot of the Drej and explains their motivations rather than them just being generic evil aliens.

Shut the front door! There's a Titan AE book!? *runs to nearest bookstore*
 

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
I remember when I was a kid, a friend of mine had the novelization of Harry And The Hendersons. He said it was better than the movie. Even as a 10 year old, I thought that was preposterous.
 
I, err, bought the Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets last week. I wanted to see if a certain death scene was expanded to make sense, and see if some of the dialogue would work better with my head voices versus the shitty acting. I skimmed to the death scene and it somehow made it even worse than the movie did. Not going to finish the rest.
 

WillyFive

Member
Usually the novelizations are better than the movie's script; with scenes and ideas taken from an earlier version of the script that hadn't been shot yet (since the movie was in production when the book was being written).

Some are also even good books, the Rogue One adaptation was beautifully written.
 

The Kree

Banned
Would you mind if I listen to my book on tape? I'm kind of a bookworm. This is the novelization of the movie Precious based on the book Push by Sapphire.
 

ibyea

Banned
I am glad that at least they gave us Revenge of the Sith's novelization, which is way better than the movie.
 
There's a V For Vendetta novelization? Might as well read the original graphic novel.

At any rate, I had a couple of these, notably for 101 Dalmations (the 1961 version) and Toy Story. I also read the one for Return of the Jedi. Then there was Goosebumps. Yeah, there were books, then it was made into a TV show, then they made novelizations for the TV episodes. Stupid me bought those too, even though I also owned the original books.

Another way people, well kids, used to experience movies was book and record sets. Several Star Wars movies, Indiana Jones and others I first experienced through listening to these abridged records retelling the story. Sometimes I'd look at the books, sometimes I'd just lie on the bed and use my imagination as I listened to the story.

Here's an example, Star Wars.

http://starwars77-80.blogspot.com/2011/01/read-along-book-and-record.html

I had a couple of those too. The only one I really remember is Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek III.
 
Some times they expend on the story and have whole other scenes. Hell the transformer movie tie in books make way more sense then the movies.

Maybe they make more sense but you'd still be reading a whole fuckin book based on Michael Bay's Transformers by an author who probably couldn't hack it as either a screenwriter or someone who makes actual literature. Like why spend the time doing that?? I don't see the appeal of seeing scenes from movies "expanded" in the form of a mediocre prose.
 

NekoFever

Member
The Spiderman 2 novelization opens with a fight with the rhino

At the end of the Spider-Man 3 novelisation, they
get the symbiote off Brock and find all that's left is his skeleton. So presumably he'd been dead basically since it attached and it was wearing him as a skin suit, pretending to be him all along, having absorbed his body
. Always thought that was fucked up.
 
Star Wars Ep 3 was incredible. Way better than the movie. Also, I recommend the audiobook version because Jonathan Davis does the narration and he's freaking amazing at it.

I also really liked Independence Day's novelization.
I read that one as a kid, it really wasn't bad. Better than the actual movie for sure. I read a few of these as a kid, mainly for stuff like Star Wars or other film franchises I enjoyed that weren't based on novels, I read a ton as a kid and it was always easy to convince my mom to buy me a book over a VHS/DVD. As an adult, I would never bother.
 
I read that the novelization of ico, castle in the mist, is really good, but I've never read it myself.

Edit: one great thing about movie novelization is that they are based on early version of the script, so they include deleted scenes and often give a glimpse of what an otherwise mediocre movie could have been
 

bengraven

Member
I remember they did a Mallrats novelization back in the day.

After a few years when Chasing Amy came out and Kevin Smith's star kept soaring it ended up being heavily sought after due to having all the cut scenes from the original cut.
 

Weevilone

Member
I love those kinds of books when I'm at the beach, and I just need something light that's a quick, easy read.

At least I did before I had kids and went on lifeguard duty.
 

Turnstyle

Member
We didn't have a video player when I was a kid, so I used to read them in lieu of watching the films. They are a real mixed bag, but I remember a couple of the Aliens tie-ins being excellent.

We also used to have a book buying service at school, where you took home a catalogue and picked out some books for your parents to buy. Novelisations were a great way of getting 'cool' books, and avoiding all the 'boring' junior novels and dry text books. Although looking back, maybe buying Temple of Doom instead of Maths Key Stage 1 was a short sighted decision.

I saw a novelisation of the Emoji Movie in a store the other day - did a double take on that one.
 
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