Star Wars: novelizations vs. the movies

[Calhoun07]

So, which is better? Personally, on both counts, I found the books to be vastly superior to the actual movies. The books take time with the characters, primarilly the characters centered around Tatooine. In both Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, when I read the novels before I saw the movies, I was really looking forward to seeing the filmed scenes of the early stuff that took place on Tatooine. And in both instances, when they got to Tatooine in the movie, the characters felt out of place and I found myself not drawn into the Tatooine scenes as much as I was drawn into them in the book. Especially in Episode 2

Spoiler:

when Anakin goes to Tatooine and finds his mother ravaged by the Tuskin Raiders.

That scene was built up to in the novel by several scenes with Lars, Owen and Beru and the novel really builds on those characters in the novel and you find yourself really caring about that whole situation. In the movie, it's so out of place and so horribly done
(

Spoiler:

wouldn't you think it would have been better that a Tusken Raider came upon Anakin and Shimi and then killed Shimi in cold blood? The way she died right then...it was so lame and the scene could have been done so much better.

)

At any rate, for that reason and for other reasons (I think all the characters are stronger in the novels) I have to cast my vote that the novels are vastly superior to the movies. I was excited at first about the prospect of deleted footage on the Phantom Menace DVD, but was disappointed to see the crap he put on there as deleted footage. None of what was deleted out of the novel was included on the DVD.

Comments?

[TheHuntressDiana]

I'll let you know my final thoughts on this, after I've read the novelization of AOTC...

But in most cases, the novel is superior to what ends up on screen.

More time can be taken to flesh out scenes that need more work. More backstory or just plain FYI info can be added without it taking up thousands of dollars.