Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Superman Related Superman Returns vs. Man of Steel

I agree, except I doubt novelizations are taken into account, since most people don't read them. I believe that the more detail in the novelization is more of the writer (author of the novelizations) trying to fill in the plot holes from the script.

Hollywood gears all "action" movies to teenage to mid-twenties young men. I read a review of why Hollywood was so shocked that Pacific Rim did so horribly at the box office, and it said it was because the only hype was in the "fan-boy" group and they thought everyone else would follow. I saw the preview and it looked a) boring, b) no likeable characters, and c) action-driven without intelligence. Stars and non-stop action don't draw the audiences they used to and Hollywood hasn't yet realized that it has to stop downplaying the intelligence of its audience, who knows that in 3 months they can rent the same movie for a fraction of the cost or buy it for the same amount of money (it would cost for a couple to go the cinema) and get all the extra bonus features and see the movie as often as they want. The in-theater experience has to be worth it or the audience is once burned, twice as shy, especially in this economy.

The action is also because of international sales. Human interaction is partially culturally dependent and requires work to translate. Explosions and car chases are universal.

I doubt that they're taken to account as well, except in rare cases where the director/studio/someone wants to go all trans-media or something.

I collect movie novelizations, and many seem to be written for kids and teens in order to grab a few extra bucks from an audience who may not be allowed to see the movie, or for people who just want something extra. These novels often contain cut scenes from the films or photos (of scenes) cut from the films, which is mainly why I collect them.

But occasionally they do fill in the plot holes or add scenes or dialogue that the movie should've included, but didn't in the end.

And other times, movie novelizations turn out to be completely insane .

With DVD extras, nowadays we often get to SEE (rather than just read about) those extra scenes (if they were shot). There's a pretty good one between Clark and Martha in Superman Returns that was left out of the film. Wish they'd included that instead of, say, five minutes of crystal-growing.

In the case of "Man of Steel", there was VERY little extra added to the actual novelization (I know, I read it multiple times after seeing the movie in theaters twice). If the novelization here is any indication, there was nothing important or relevant left out. There was only ONE major change that I saw from one on-screen scene versus the book. In the scene with the interview, Lois and Kal-El/Clark are not interrupted and thus have a bit more back and forth than the movie actually showed. It (the scene in the movie) took away the "humor" of the scene in favor of smoothness between moments.

The worst book adaptation of a movie I ever saw was for The Cat In The Hat: The Movie. Not sure what they were thinking there.