Reviews

Ghostbusters - The Original Movie Novelizations Omnibus by Richard Mueller

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alex_unabridged's review against another edition

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fast-paced

3.0

webslingingadam's review

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funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

joe_spracklen17's review

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adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

While these are two decently adapted books, they don't reach the magic of those original films.

I love the two Ghostbusters films, they're among my favorite films of all time so I was excited to read these books. They didn't disappoint but they didn't have quite the same impact. The first films are a perfect blend of writing, acting, direction, and music and the books don't have all of that working in sync obviously.

The first book is good, however, there are changes that I think are worse and unnecessary. Mainly changes to dialogue, the dialogue in the films is so well written and more importantly well delivered. Some of the lines in the film have been changed for seemingly no reason other than to be different and for me, they just came across as lesser. The second thing is characters like Venkman and Louis come across as quite creepy in the book because they don't have the characterization, charm or line delivery that Bill Murray and Rick Moranis have.

The second book I strangely prefer to the first one, it sticks much closer to the original script for the film and I preferred the writing style of the second writer. And for the record, I don't think the second film is as bad as other people seem to.

Overall they are perfectly fine novelizations but just go and watch the films because the books don't provide anything more than the films and the films are the best way to experience this story.

postmodernblues's review

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

Not bad for movie novelizations, but both stories make some strange amendments and omissions, particularly to the dialogue. I know this is really just nit-picky, but a lot of the lines are said by different characters than in the movies, and some iconic lines are changed for no discernible reason (i.e. Venkman's "we came, we saw, we kicked its ass!" line). Additionally, the first novelization was weirdly anti-Egon and made him out to be this awkward, asexual creature as if he doesn't literally canonically sleep with slime in the name of science in Ghostbusters II. Winston is, as usual, sidelined, although seemingly even more than in the films. One thing I really liked, though, is how the novelization of the second movie expanded more on the Ray-Vigo possession subplot. Good, clean, Ghost-busting fun.

shell_rocks's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

3.0

heathssm's review

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adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

greatnate008's review

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4.0

I like Ghostbusters, so I thought I would read this. It's like reading the movie. I guess that's what happens when a novel is written from the script.