ROTS: The Book vs The Movie

I think that the "obsession with distinguishing" as you put it, comes from the fact that the book just doesn't "feel" like Star Wars. At least, I didn't think so. I have all of the hardback books, (including the in-between novels) for all of the prequel movies, but I find myself torn on whether or not to purchase this one, simply because the writing was so incredibly horrid and I just didn't feel as if I were immersed in the SW universe. - In fact, I found the book extremely difficult to get into and highly annoying in many spots.

I understand where you're coming from in saying that how each individual interprets the movie is what's important, but SW means a lot to many people, so they tend to dislike seeing any part of it being less than it could/should be.

The only good thing that I have to say about the book, is that I got to find out (approximately) what was going to happen in the movie, without having to wait to see it.

 

Thank the maker that we have some rationally thinking folks on this forum. I was going mad for awhile there! lol

The book is far far superior to the movie. It should be MANDATORY for folks who've seen the movie. This way, they can learn what real writing is, not the stuff that is passed off as a "screenplay" for ROTS.

Stover could have turned a decent but flawed movie into an EPIC and the fact that this didnt happen hurts this fanboy to the very core...

Yah yah...i know that everyone's going to rise up and yell at me and say that writing a book is nothing like writing a screenplay blah blah blah...but you know what? I'd take my chances with Stover.

 

George Lucas personally edited Stover's novel, so the book does indeed add to the movie. Though it is Stover's work, much of Lucas' influence is present, even beyond the scope of the script.

 

I agree and think that the novelization of the films are always a great read and really add more layers to the films.

 

ROTS is a movie first and a novel second. It has never been about the novelization. Reading the book does not have any of the effect that watching the movie does. The visuals combined with the sound and music make it superior. It is a good book in its own right, but I feel no need to complain about what was "left out" of the movie. I'm sure if more was included, people would complain about length or to slowing down the pace of the movie.

 

I finished the novel last night.

Big difference in ending of the Yoda / Sidious battle.

Who would have ever thought Yoda would get his azz handed to him?

 

i think that the Novel, was better then the movie...it tells more in the story wise....the Dooku Duel and the Yoda/sidious duel was well done...

the book added more to movie, a more of an understanding of y certain things happen the way they did

 

I like them both, although sometimes the novels include some "stupid" parts. Yoda pretending to be a baby to get past clone troopers is lame as hell. But even with flaws, the book is very enjoyable. I just bought LOE and started reading that. Very nice so far.

 

Can anyone explain what happen to the 20 Jedis who defected to the Seperatist along with Count Dooku as mentioned in AOTC. I did not read the books or EU and do not know. Thanks

 

GIG, i am rather surprised that you say that. While i read and acknowledge all opinions in the forums, yours is one of those that i TRULY respect, and would like for you to elaborate as to why you like the movie better? i mean, the book details the state of mind of each character, outlines their motivations throughout the entire episode AND details anakin's thought process moreso than the film did. given all of that,what about the book DIDNT you like?

George Lucas is a great film-maker.
Along with Kubrick, Spielberg, Kurosawa, Hitchcock, Scorsese etc etc.

Call me a snob, but Phillip K Dick is a good Sci-fi novelist.
Iain Banks.
Douglas Adams.
Ray Bradbury.

Matthew Stover is someone who bashed out a long-hand version of George Lucas' screenplay.

Don't get me wrong - I like the novel, but it is hardly high art.
It is a movie novelization.

The comparison is this:
George Lucas is someone who excels in his chosen field.
Matthew Stover is a nobody who was fortunate enough to have Lucas' rich universe to play around in.
He is far from the cream of the crop in his chosen field.
No offense to the guy intended.

The film is better because it is as good as science-fiction/fantasy films come at the start of the 21st century.
The book simply is not a great book, in the context of other great books.
And the more it probes character's "inner-workings" - well - the more it reveals about what Matthew Stover perceives to be happening inside the heads of characters, and the less it says about a universe Lucas always saw working on a lyrical level - almost as a silent movie.

It is like having a text the size of War and Peace describing a Pollock...
Well, slight exaggeration, perhaps...

 

I just saw the film last night, and all I can say is this. No matter how much this movie makes, it will never be enough to pay for the amount of therapy I'm going to need to get over how bad this film sucked! I can't believe Lucas did this this to his fans. He needs to give everybody their f!@#@$%* money back! I've been a fan of the story since it started. Like everybody that saw the first one, I was hooked. I bought into the whole thing, even the ewoks, the christmas special, and expanded universe. I just find it sad that he thinks so little of his fan base, that he would spoon feed them such a GIANT TURD!

What's sadder is that we all ate it. I should have guessed that the man who gave us jar jar binks could not live up to the expectations of his fans. This film is a travesty, and for the first time in my life, I ashamed to call myself a star wars fan.
Well I hope YOU all enjoyed it

 

"What's sadder is that we all ate it. I should have guessed that the man who gave us jar jar binks could not live up to the expectations of his fans. This film is a travesty, and for the first time in my life, I ashamed to call myself a star wars fan. "

Please, don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel.

 

Well done, Darkhunter - there's probably several more threads you could post your one opinion in, malnourished in terms of reasoning, context and corobarrative evidence as it is.
You could at least of typed it up in a new and equally mind-numbing way, rather than just cutting and pasting what you have posted elsewhere in these hallowed boards to an equally unreceptive audience...

 

he definitely didn't purposely make the acting bad

 

I've read every PT Star Wars book before the movies came out and I was hoping this time that the Book wouldn't be better then Movie. Yet sadly I agree with everyone who says the Book was better. It gives more details that the movie didn't have time for. It showed Anakin's turning in a way that while you didn't agree you could understand why he felt it was the only way.

I also agree that reading the Book makes having seen the Movie better to understand. It gives you inseen into what everyone is thinking.

(P.s Did anyone else not like the writing style of ROTS? While I liked the book I didn't care for the POV things the Author had going.)

 

First off, forgive me for being a noob becasue I'm sure most of the responses have been from forum regulars but as much as I loved RoTS, I think the book gave added dimension to the story. As fans we thank GL for creating the phenomenon that is SW but all the credit simply can't be given to him anymore. GL's vision remains but in many ways his vision has been surpassed by the many talented writers out there that has opted to carry his story further by adding much needed details that GL leaves us to interpret and debate. If not for the comics, the animated shorts of the Clone Wars and various other media sources out there, I feel the movie wouldn't have been as fulfilling as it was.

The Star wars universe is far larger than that of LOTR and in my opinion, GL could have easily delivered three prequels in greater detail. LOTR proved that fans will sit through incredibly long films if the movie is good. I left the theater satisfied but if it weren't for the separate materials that are out there, the movie would have let me down.

 

I feel that the Book does things the Movie doesn't, and vice versa.

For example, as good as it is, I think the book version of the finale of Obi vs Anakin absolutely pales in comparison to the movie.

You get none of the energy from this scene as Obi-Wan and Anakin yell at each other, none of the visual horror of what happens to Anakin, and you don't get Obi-Wan's one last effort in trying to get Anakin to stop by warning him he has the higher ground.

So, it's swings and roundabouts, just as with any book of a film.

 

good book, crap movie. Am still v disappointed with the movie

 

I saw the movie opening night *unspoiled*. I didn't even see the preview (it was so hard!). I had not read any of the previous books and only saw the movies. I enjoyed the movie beyond a doubt. However, I had SO many questions when I left that I don't think I stopped thinking about the meaning of it all for a couple days. I read the book and *BOOM* I understood the movie so much better. It really added to the "why" of the movie. Anakin's fall at the end of the movie was too fast for me, but after the book, I saw that it was not a drop but a slow decent. The book defined Anakin's relationship with Palps so much better. Seeing the movie the first time, I thought the relationship was fairly new - and not that he had taken Anakin under his wing from the time he arrived there (the movie states this, but we don't feel it as much as it was in the book). The second time I saw the movie, their scenes together made so much more sense - as his decent into darkness.

I wish they had developed Padme's character more in the movie like they did in the book. In the movie she seemed to have no back bone anymore, and was totally about Anakin. Actually, I thought she never left that apartment anymore and was more of a house wife the first time I saw the movie! In this way, I was so much more glad that I had read the book before I saw the movie the second time because it all made sense after!

I agree with the other posters, though, the book couldn't touch the action scenes and some of Vader's witty comments after his initial fall in the book seemed very out of place. The movie did a better job showing Vader's sadness at his new role.

Mel!

 

I'm sorry but are you all CRAZY?! Sure the book extrapolates a little on whats going on bhind he scenes, and a few deleted scenes from the original screenplay couldve been in the final cut i.e. qui-gon. but dudes, the dialogue in the book was simply REEEEEEEDICULOUS!!! page after page, i just... couldne believe it. couldnt believe what i was reading. i thought to myself "all this time i thought it couldnt possibly be worse than clones...and now this...oh george, how could you..." when i learned it was actually nohing like the screenplay, i was so relieved. and even more relieved to learn that the screenplay was actually quite good. and so was the movie! finally a movie done right. but anyway, to add backbone to what i hope is an eye-opener fro some of you, i will highlight some of stover's gut wrenching dialogue. Almpost unreadable in my opion. YES i understand it should be cheesy serial film stuf, and i can handle cheesy. Its not cheesy, its just plain bad!

"lord sidious said he would leave us in peace!, Anakin replies" no he said hed leave you in piecES!" *slice*

"lord sisious promised us a handsome reward"
"Im your rreweard, you dont find me handsome? " *slice*

(those two i call, vaders lounge act. those one-liners were tasteless, cringeworthy and inapropriate. I almost feel like stover is making fun of a serious moment. oh but gets worse...)

sidious says, yes yoda, im kmakin this th first annual happy empire day!

WHAT?! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT ABOUT?

grievous ..."I am sorry I don't have time to fight you." says the Grievous. "It would have been an interesting match but I have an appointment with an escape pod and you... YOU have appointments with death."

these are a few examples of what i mean. the movie far surpassed the book. the book was a characeture, a mockery of a serious film. like i said, cheese is fine. serial style action/adventure is fine, but a twelve year old couldve written better dialogue than that.

 

Matthew Stover is a nobody who was fortunate enough to have Lucas' rich universe to play around in.
He is far from the cream of the crop in his chosen field.
No offense to the guy intended.

While he is still fairly new to the entire SFF scene, Stover is actually considered one of the best contemporaries, but his strongest field is definitely not the 'space opera' area, and he's admitted that. Go grab some of his original work and you might be surprised by it.

 

I found Stover's writing to be very good. I especially liked his stylistic touches about the dark being generous and the bits about what it feels like to be each of the characters. I liked it because, unlike other novelizations, it felt Stover just treated this as a *novel* not a book of the movie. There are certainly things you can do on print that you can't do on film and Stover takes advantage of that.

However, I do feel there were some aforementioned parts in the novel that I am *so* glad were not in the film. People complain about cheesy lines in the movie?! The 'handsome' and 'pieces' lines come to mind.

But oh my word, more than anything, I am infinitely glad we didn't have to see Obi-Wan pretending to be a hunchback with a Cockney accent carrying Yoda pretending to be a baby I would never have gotten over the ridiculousness of that, sorry. That's like really bad fanfiction.

On the whole, though, Stover's novel was good. When it maintained it's 'noble' feel, it was excellent. It obviously shows that he's a huge Obi-Wan fan and as a fellow fan I have to say I liked the extras there for the General ... but at times I felt he almost made Obi-Wan too perfect. He's more conflicted and ambiguous in the film, I think. I love that about the film.

The Dooku fight is longer and much better in the book. It seemed crunched for time in the film. I also liked the added comments by Palpatine to try to get Anakin to leave Obi-Wan behind. But I do understand that not everything can make it to the film edit. Too much going on.

But mostly I have to give a *huge* YES to Damon for pointing out what he has. The ending of the film is lightyears ahead of the ending of the book. Part of this is that Stover couldn't *see* the fight to know what was going to happen. But in the novel, I almost didn't realise Anakin had even been defeated. It just happened so quickly. Besides, Ewan and Hayden were both so wonderful especially at the end of the Duel that you just have to see it on screen.

Also, the novel suffers from having no John Williams.

-sj loves kevin spacey

 

While he is still fairly new to the entire SFF scene, Stover is actually considered one of the best contemporaries, but his strongest field is definitely not the 'space opera' area, and he's admitted that. Go grab some of his original work and you might be surprised by it.

I agree, I was a little unfair on the guy, just to stress my point.

But ROTS is a very good movie by a legend of cinema.
ROTS: the novelization is exactly that - a hired gun trying to pad out a screenplay to however many hundered pages.

100 years from now, Lucas' work will, I'd hazard a guess, be just as cinematically important as the work of Melies and Eisenstein is today.
Matthew Stover, however...

 

you're right get in gear, my apologies to you all for the cutting and pasting. But I think I had a valid point. I am new to this board . But this was the first time I really felt compelled to post. I've read the boards in the past and thought they were great. I was just really disappointed by the film. With all the time, energy, and money all of us have put into the franchise, I just figured there would be a better film made for the people who made Lucas the millionaire he is.

 

Okay, Darkhunter, but you still haven't actually said why you didn't like ROTS.
I think it was that that people were a bit annoyed about.

Welcome to the boards, all the same...