Books somewhat better - Chefelf.com Night Life

Books somewhat better Books from the movies

#1 Guest_Daniel_*

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Posted 17 November 2003 - 12:59 AM

I don't know how many of you have read the book for the movie (EpII), but I found it incredibly helpful in understanding/appreciating the movie slightly more, I really don't understand how Lucas can just cut out certain parts of the book storyline which are intrical to making the film smooth and more believable. Anyways, any of you know good starwars books to read, something that might also have more explanations about what's going on, I would like to go into EPIII having at least read the book first, would have made EP II much better had I read the book before seeing it.

#2 Chefelf

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Posted 17 November 2003 - 12:37 PM

I agree. The book for Episode II was far superior to the movie. R. A. Salvatore had limitations (in that the story he was being forced to tell was crap) yet he told it in better than anyone could have expected. He even tried to explain rather lame elements of the plot in a way to make them appear less random and annoying. His backstory explaining Shmi and Cliegg's romance made up for major holes in the plot of Episode II.

#3 Supes

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Posted 17 November 2003 - 09:44 PM

Thanks for this. I wasn't going to bother reading the Episode II novel, but I think I might take the time to do so now. I'm a fan of Salvatore's work, but really didn't think there was much that could be done with this storyline. I will now be happy to be surprised.

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#4 Chefelf

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Posted 17 November 2003 - 10:06 PM

Well I didn't say it was GREAT but Salvatore certainly did the best with what he had to work with. The proposition of turning that subpar screenplay into a novel must've been rather daunting. He did the best he could. However it's still Attack of the Clones any way you slice it.

#5 barend

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Posted 17 November 2003 - 10:21 PM

the Phantom Menace book must have been short.
30-40 minutes of that film would have been written as :

Anikan won a pod race.

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#6 Supes

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Posted 17 November 2003 - 11:08 PM

QUOTE (Chefelf @ Nov 17 2003, 10:06 PM)

Oh I wont buy it or anything like that. I'll borrow it from a friend :-)

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#7 Kornbread

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Posted 19 November 2003 - 10:49 AM

Actually, the Ep1 novel was very good. It explained a lot of the backstory and set up what the republic was like back then. How many Jedi were around, the relationship between Padawan and Master, etc. It as a whole made decent sense about EP1. And it even showed glimpses of Anakin having a temper/dark side. Far, far better than the crap we had to swallow with the Jake Lloyd rendition.

My brother and I often thought this was an exchange between Lucas and the editors of the Ep1 movie:

Ed: "But George, we should keep this scene in of Anakin getting into a fight with baby Greedo. It really explores this kid's charatcer further and gives you a hint as to what he can become because of his temper and impulsiveness."

GL: "Maybe, but we don't have room for that and I need to keep this scene in of the bantha farting right before teh pod-race. It's gold!"

As opposed to the Ep2 novelization, where it seemed a "by-the-line" copy of the movie, Ep1 seemed to have more freedom to go deeper and explain more than what was shown. I actually recommend it for those interested.

#8 barend

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Posted 19 November 2003 - 08:39 PM

yeah, anikan goes from sweet kid in 1 to a colombine kid in 2. WTF?

smooth transition.
------------------------------

this whole thing backs up the rumor that star wars was based on a series of books, NOT written by lucas, that GL had "dissapear" upon release of ANH.
because they were well written stories (screenplay dialogue was still pretty shit - but we all know who to blame).