Scan barcode
k_winchester's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I wasn't vibing with this from the start but I really lost it at "he slipped his glasses into his CAPE POCKET."
His cape pocket?!? REALLY??? 😂😂😂
Look, I liked this movie. It's not great, it's got problems, but I liked it (Brandon Routh is absolutely aces 👌). Being this was the novel of the movie, I did actually expect it would be better, and it was... definitely way worse, tbh.
It was so shallow and emotionless, or the emotions were dead flat. For some reason the story starts with Clark/Kal-El literally in his mother's womb, which was very weird and felt super out of place, and then it felt like it spends waaay too long in like, prologue mode, talking about Kal-El on his journey and remembering womb memories and memories as a baby (I guess because he's an alien he can do this? ....sure) but also not actually sharing interesting lore? Just really slow, strange, repetitive, and pretty much entirely unnecessary. Also, the general writing style was frustrating to read as it flipped around from character to character whenever it was convenient (I guess it was technically omniscient except when it wasn't in the next sentence or at random??)
Luthor came off just ranting and pointless, and considering he had so much "air time" in this book, it should've felt like his scenes meant something instead of just monologuing filler, but... It was almost like the worst parts of the movie, on the whole, got amplified while the best parts of the movie were downplayed, when of course it should've been the opposite.
Despite all this, I didn't *completely* hate it, it wasn't total trash, so hence the 2 stars from me. 😂 There *were* decent moments, decent story bits, a few things that were some nice additions to the movie, some cute Clark moments.
It was a book, I read it, it was utterly mediocre at best, and here we are. 🤷♀️
(I ended up watching the movie again after finishing reading, and ya, it's still not great, but I still like it, and it's better than the book.🤷♀️ I said what I said. 😂)
His cape pocket?!? REALLY??? 😂😂😂
Look, I liked this movie. It's not great, it's got problems, but I liked it (Brandon Routh is absolutely aces 👌). Being this was the novel of the movie, I did actually expect it would be better, and it was... definitely way worse, tbh.
It was so shallow and emotionless, or the emotions were dead flat. For some reason the story starts with Clark/Kal-El literally in his mother's womb, which was very weird and felt super out of place, and then it felt like it spends waaay too long in like, prologue mode, talking about Kal-El on his journey and remembering womb memories and memories as a baby (I guess because he's an alien he can do this? ....sure) but also not actually sharing interesting lore? Just really slow, strange, repetitive, and pretty much entirely unnecessary. Also, the general writing style was frustrating to read as it flipped around from character to character whenever it was convenient (I guess it was technically omniscient except when it wasn't in the next sentence or at random??)
Luthor came off just ranting and pointless, and considering he had so much "air time" in this book, it should've felt like his scenes meant something instead of just monologuing filler, but... It was almost like the worst parts of the movie, on the whole, got amplified while the best parts of the movie were downplayed, when of course it should've been the opposite.
Despite all this, I didn't *completely* hate it, it wasn't total trash, so hence the 2 stars from me. 😂 There *were* decent moments, decent story bits, a few things that were some nice additions to the movie, some cute Clark moments.
It was a book, I read it, it was utterly mediocre at best, and here we are. 🤷♀️
(I ended up watching the movie again after finishing reading, and ya, it's still not great, but I still like it, and it's better than the book.🤷♀️ I said what I said. 😂)
fandom4ever's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Superman Returns, written by the great Marv Wolfman, is a superb novelization of an amazing movie. As movie novelizations tend to do, this book contains way more description and delves deeper into concepts that are shown in the movie.
The first couple chapters alone are non-existent in the film; here we get to see more of Krypton, getting explanations for different structures and showing Jor-El and Lara setting up the crystals that Kal-El will use to learn about his heritage. We also get to actually see Superman during his five year journey away which is incredibly significant to both the plot and his state of mind throughout; whereas movies tend to find scenes of a character alone difficult to manage, books reign supreme when it comes to inner thoughts. For the climax, this book shows the major significance of what Lex is creating with his crystals. It’s not just any crystal structure; he is literally re-growing the framework of Krypton and Superman’s Fortress. This gives so much more to those scenes along with when it’s falling apart. It’s hard for symbolism and significance of a scene to work in a movie when the explanation was never established!
The only thing this book is missing is the big reveal at the end of the movie, which I suppose is to avoid what would be a major spoiler for the movie. It has the traces of setting it up, but it never comes outright with it. This is fine, after all a movie novelization should go hand in hand with its movie, not one without the other. I just wish we could have continued with this fabulous storyline in another movie or at the very least allowed them to continue it out in books! The love and care Superman Returns, in both movie and book form, received was completely obvious, right down to continuing the story from the original two Christopher Reeve’s movies.
I would absolutely recommend this novelization to fans of the movie. If you enjoyed the movie, you’ll love this book even more. Not only do you get to visualize the movie in your head while reading, you’ll get so much additional explanation and story that will stick with you, especially when you watch the movie again.
More...