So, for the end of the year, I’m finally going to talk about all those films I read the novelizations for but never got to see when they were in the theaters. I’ll warn you that while I’m not going to go into a detailed summary of the plot of the films or the novelizations – there WILL be spoilers so if you’re still avoiding those kinds of things, don’t read any further. I’ll be covering G.I. Joe, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Terminator: Salvation, Star Trek, Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince, and X-Men Origins: Wolverine – and what I will strive to do is point out the differences between the books (or established cannon), where one worked better than the other, and any time the prequel/bridging novel enhanced the experience as well.

G.I. Joe

I finally had the chance to see the most lam-basted movie of the summer – and I don’t really understand the hate. While it’s certainly not a great film, it’s not particularly offensive either – and it makes for an interesting comparison to the novelization.

So what’s different? Well, there were only two major things that I caught. First, at the point after the Pit has been attacked, when Scarlett and Ripcord have their private conversation – in the book, Scarlett let’s Rip know that she and Snake Eyes are “just friends”. That never comes up in the movie – but then, the movie doesn’t really make any kind of reference to a potential Snake Eyes/Scarlett relationship, whereas the book often has Rip noticing a protective streak in Snake Eyes towards Scarlett. The other large change was in the finale – in the book, Cobra Commander escapes in his sub – in the movie the sub is captured by G.I. Joe at the end. It doesn’t really effect the epilogue though – it just makes the film harder to do a sequel to (whereas the book set it up much better for a follow up).

There are things each medium does better – unsurprisingly. I thought the chase scene through Paris was fantastic in the film – I barely remember it from the book. The battle in the Pit was another highlight in both versions though. At the same time, characterization really takes a hit in the film – the actors are largely forgettable (whereas in the book, I actually believed in the emotions of the characters more). Sure there are probably one too many stretches of believability – Cobra Commander’s origin being the most obvious – but that’s a weakness in the total product, not one media or the other.

Here, the prequel novel (Above & Beyond) was not necessary for the enjoyment of the film – but I found it enjoyable and I expect fans of G.I. Joe would too. It’s actually a little more like the traditional toy/comic/TV series than I think the movie is – so it’s got that going for it. But in all, I enjoyed both reading the novelization and watching the G.I. Joe movie, and found them both to be worthwhile experiences.

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen

Another movie that got repeatedly bashed this summer – and again, I don’t get it. Shia is far less annoying in this sequel, I can actually tell what’s going on most of the time in the robot battles, and I think the plot is actually better on the whole. I enjoyed the novelization, but I have to say I actually liked the film better. There isn’t any major change that I caught between the two – no added scenes or major insights to be gained by reading the book.

In fact, I think some scenes worked better on film – like Sam’s entry into the tomb of the Primes and his afterlife experience as well. I still think stylistically they’ve made the robots look way too complicated – but in terms of creating more backstory (Energon, the Matrix, the Fallen) I’m no purist, I was pleased with the additions and I enjoyed seeing more robots added into the mix.

On the opposite side of the scale from the G.I. Joe prequel novel, Alan Dean Foster’s bridge novel The Veiled Threat adds a lot to the overall story. This book succeeds in transitioning the reader from the first film to the status quo of the second film – both in terms of the Autobots working with the humans, to Starscream leading the Decepticons and what his goals are. The Decepticons suffer in this film from a general lack of much exploration into their motives – and the bridge novel really helps in that respect. If you enjoyed the film, I’d definitely recommend The Veiled Threat.

Terminator: Salvation

Of the many Spring/Summer 09 movies, Terminator: Salvation was probably the one I was looking forward to the most. Part of it probably has to do with having reviewed both the concept art book and the official movie guide book – both of which really ramped up my excitement for the visual aspect of the film. I enjoyed both the prequel novel by Timothy Zahn and the novelization by Alan Dean Foster - and I was generally pretty happy with the resultant film. I’ve heard some complaints about Christian Bale gravely voice in this – but honestly, he doesn’t sound any different to me than he has in any other film. My wife rightfully pointed out, Terminator: Salvation is light on story and heavy on action – but I was fine with that.

So what’s different? Well for starters we’ve got two endings that were written for the novelization – one might have been the original film’s ending, one that matches the actual film ending. There are two big differences – first John Connor doesn’t get stabbed through the chest (though Marcus still dies) and second, Star is revealed as a Terminator in the final scene in the book (explaining how the hell she knew Terminators were approaching all the time in the film). There were one or two rough editing cuts in the film that flow more smoothly in the book – but otherwise I didn’t notice a big difference beyond the ending. Just like in Transformers, because of the nature of the visual aspect of film, a lot of things work better on the screen. The doctor who visits Marcus at the opening being the same image Skynet uses to speak to him later – the fact that it’s the Arnold Terminator that attacks John Connor is much more gripping on film than it was in the book.

Just as I felt at the time when I read both these books, I maintain that Zahn’s prequel From the Ashes works very well to help set up the characters and bridge the gap between Terminator 3 and the new movie. I’m looking forward to the plans to continue this book series and will be reviewing Greg Cox’s Cold War shortly for this column.

Star Trek

I’m a long time Trek fan, but even I’ll admit I have some series burn out after all this time. The last two movies left me cold, the last TV series was the same (sorry Nom) – so despite the fact that I’ve seen every Trek movie in the theaters since The Voyage Home – I wasn’t that excited for this new Star Trek. But the reviews kept coming in that it was really good – and then I gave a listen to an audiobook of the novelization by Alan Dean Foster, and I found myself agreeing. This really seemed like a great Star Trek story. So how did it translate to the screen?

Very well. I’ll be figuring out my favorite books and movies of the year soon, but this will definitely be near the top of the movie list. Again, the few criticisms aimed at this movie (Chris Pine’s immature Kirk, and the whole stepping on cannon issues) did not bother me at all. In fact, I thought Pine was fantastic – it felt just like I was watching a slightly younger Kirk – and I’m ok with this new timeline Trek, so long as it results in movies as good as this one.

From the perspective of novelization to movie – this is one of those cases where Alan Dean Foster wrote the hell out of a novelization. There are a whole lot of scenes in the book that aren’t in the movie (perhaps deleted scenes, or things that were just never filmed at all) – some jokes that Foster added to the book that aren’t a part of the movie I watched. These things being missing from the film don’t take away from it, but they are a wonderful addition to the novelization.

I feel like I should mention Countdown, the prequel comic series (taking place in the future of the original timeline and setting up the events for the movie). When I read it and followed it up by listening to the novelization, I felt like it was essential. When seeing the movie, I felt like it gave just the right amount of information that I could have gone without reading Countdown. But if you’re a fan of the Next Generation crew – you should definitely track down Countdown. And if you enjoyed the movie, I highly recommend Foster’s novelization – this is a clear case of some great additional material for the fans that make it a worthwhile read.

Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince

I didn’t review this book for the site, but I have read it and since it was one of those big blockbusters and most talked about movies of the summer, I thought I’d chime in on this one too. I’m mostly tolerant of the movies in this series – I understand that they by necessity have to make changes to the books, there’s just no other way to adapt these books into meaningful films. At the same time, the choices the scriptwriter/filmmakers have made in cutting certain things often left me scratching my head. There’s a perfect example in The Prisoner of Azkaban (there is no explanation of the connection between the Marauder’s Map and Harry’s father and his friends) – and they do it again in this film by leaving out most of the exploration of the title character. The problem with this film isn’t the enhanced focus on the romance plots (considering the darker turn we’ll get in the next two films, it’s really the last chance for that) nor the lack of Dumbledore’s funeral (actually not really necessary in the grand scheme of things) – but considering Snape’s importance in what will be the last two films, and the lack of information we’ve got about him in Order of the Phoenix – this was the time to focus more on him (The Half Blood Prince) and it was a failure in that regard.

It should go without saying at this point that these films should not be watched without having read the books. I can’t imagine how you’d make heads or tails out of any but the first two films without having read the novels first. The books are fantastically well written, deserving of the praise they’ve gotten, and I’ll note that the films should be credited for continuing to be of high quality – but it’s like the old saying goes, the book is better.

Wolverine

And while we’re talking about these blockbusters, I thought I’d mention X-Men Origins: Wolverine – another movie that left a bad taste in most people’s mouths. While there was no novelization to compare it to – it is based on a few comic series that I have read, most notably Origin and Weapon X. So, how does this film compare to those?

With regard to Origin, it’s actually about as true as a film can be. It’s a fairly weak story about the beginnings of Wolverine – and it’s not made much stronger by the transition to film. Weapon X doesn’t fair as well in the transition – but really, Weapon X is barely about Wolverine – I mean, he’s a mindless killing machine going through VR programming through ¾ of that comic. That wasn’t going to work as a film – so instead we bring in a rogues gallery for him to fight with or against – which worked out about as well as could be expected. The problem with this film is that it wants to be an origin film about a character who’s origin was always better left unexplored.

Should they decide to do the follow up featuring an adaptation of Chris Claremont’s classic Wolverine comic set in Japan – then we’ll be talking about material that’s well worth mining and should make for a compelling film. But, Wolverine’s first solo film is far from terrible – it’s just got a far less interesting story than X-Men films should have.