Spider-Man 3
It’s been more than 20 years since I’ve read a film novelization before seeing the movie. That means at around 7 or 8, I read the Scholastic Point novelizations of SPACEBALLS and ADVENTURES IN BABYSITTING, which I got at our school’s book fair. (I truly miss book fairs. Sigh…)
While the adaptation of SPACEBALLS was so far off-base, I felt like nothing was ruined, that damn book ruined every bit of BABYSITTING. I vowed never to read a film adaptation ever again. Ever.
But here I am, two decades later, fresh from reading the novelization of SPIDER-MAN 3. And why? Mostly because I am incredibly hyped for the movie, but also because I was intrigued that it’s written by comic scribe Peter David, who did a really kick-ass Hulk future story a few years ago that has always stuck with me. So I bought it on impulse.
Now I’m presented with the problem of how exactly to review it, as anything I say about the plot – besides the fact that Spidey faces off against Sandman, Venom and a newly christened Green Goblin – would be spoiler-central. So what it comes down to is judging David’s adaptation of it, which, I’m saddened to say, is about as bland as wheat paste.
David tries to put his own spin on the characters, but their internal monologues and thoughts only make them come off like maudlin brats: Mary Jane is a woe-is-me whiner, the Sandman is a helpless crybaby and Harry Osborne is a little bitchy girl. So much of the book is filled with motivational reasons for their actions that it feels like filler.
Consequently, much of the book got a quick scan instead of a full-on read.
Another complaint is that, for the life of him, David cannot write an action scene. Sure, he can write one for the comics, but his translation of the visual to the written word is like listening to a forgetful drunk try to recount a Monty Python sketch: It gets boring very fast.
I know why I don’t read adaptations before the movie; I can’t let these overexcited feelings of “I can’t wait I can’t wait I can’t wait” take hold of me again. I know what happens in the movie now, so I’m left with the dread feeling that maybe – just maybe – what if the fact that the book doesn’t work isn’t entirely David’s fault? What if the movie is a bit of a letdown?
Even worse, I’m afraid that as I watch it, I might filter David’s boring prose throughout the whole thing. Never again. –Louis Fowler
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• PSI-MAN: DEATHSCAPE by Peter David
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF SPIDER-MAN:
• SPIDER-MAN FAMILY
• SPIDER-MAN FAMILY: AMAZING FRIENDS
• SPIDER-MAN FAMILY FEATURING SPIDER-CLAN
• SPIDER-MAN: THE DARKEST HOURS by Jim Butcher
I just saw Spider-Man 3 and, luckily, the novelization is quite different than the movie. Many extremely embarrassing moments in the book–like when Sandman turns into a giant snowglobe for his daughter–are thankfully gone.
I saw it at an advance screening last night, and I thought it was awesome. The buzz is that it’s some kind of letdown, but I wasn’t disappointed by it at all.
Snowglobe? That’s nuts. What other scenes are in the book that didn’t make the cut?
The ending is completely different for Venom and kinda different for Harry, but in the book, Sandman’s daughter somehow gets to the construction site, talking her father down from is rampage. Also, Gwen is a bit more of a cockteasing slut.
When I was a kid I read the EMPIRE STRIKES BACK novelization before the movie came out.
Then - so excited by the novelization - I drew the entire story in still images on a long scroll of paper and built a TV style contraption out of a cardboard box so I could turn the scroll and the images would advance from one picture to the next - through the hole (the TV screen).
To make it even geekier, I broke out my LP soundtrack to STAR WARS and enacted all of EMPIRE STRIKES back using my picture scroll tv box for my parents and grandparents - acting out all the roles - with occasional breaks to change the soundtrack to appropriately ominous music. So I “spoiled” the whole family.
They were probably so disturbed by my behavior that they didn’t even care. That’s what an average weeknight at home was like during my grade school years.
Yeah, I did the same thing to MOMMIE DEAREST.
[...] BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THESE AUTHORS: • SPIDER-MAN 3 by Peter David • PSI-MAN: DEATHSCAPE by Peter [...]