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fandom4ever's review
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.
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