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Well, I'd had this sitting around the apartment for weeks, and had only gotten through one chapter. But today I found myself with time to spare (due to having to take my car in for some seat repairs), and someone asked where my review of this was earlier today, so I decided to sit down and read it all this afternoon.
CAPSULE
Spider-Man 2: Ballantine/Del Rey - Peter David has a great ear for dialogue, and I'm certain that many of my favorite bits were pure PAD, embellishments on the movie script. Of course, it does give away movie plot points, so you may want to wait until after seeing the movie to read the book, but you should definitely read the book! Strongly recommended. $6.99/$10.99Cn (311 pages)
RANT
It's pretty much a given that when you adapt a work from one medium to another, you simply can't tell the same exact story. A comic book can't show as much as a movie, which can't show as much as a novel. This usually means that comic adaptations of movies suck, and that novelizations do a LOT of fleshing out in terms of backstory and motivations. Peter David in particular has a lot of practice at this, inserting entire scenes in novelizations that give more and better perspectives on the movies they adapt.
Now, I'm just guessing here, but I suspect that (and here's where the spoilers really start, folks!) the dialogue between Doc Ock and his tentacles is largely PAD's invention. Certainly the tentacles' end of the conversation. Four artificially intelligent beings that see Otto Octavius as their father, and act much like very dangerous children. I really hope the movie manages to capture some of this interaction.
Internal/external conversations are a big part of this story. Otto and his four kids, Peter talking to the dream-shade of Uncle Ben, even Harry Osborn gets in on the act in the epilogue. The duality of identities carries over from the first movie, of course, and I'm sure that if you've read this far you've seen the "I am Spider-Man...NO MORE" bits in the ads and trailers. Peter's arguments with Uncle Ben are part of his wrestling with his dual identity, and he even manifests physical symptoms of the schism in his self. No, he doesn't do a split-in-two like in Superman III, but his powers do kick in and out as if participating in the argument about whether to be normal or ab-. Octavius himself has pre/post-accident identity issues, with his "children" urging him forward even as he tries (and generally fails) to remember his old life. Both Peter and Otto are struggling with identity issues stemming from both physical and psychological trauma, although Peter leans more towards the overwhelming guilt issue and Otto towards physical damage.
While I did have trouble getting rolling, once I committed to reading the book it just rolled along. The pacing does sometimes get a bit slow amid the "things suck the most" segment of the story, but really raced along at the end. The final scene had me in tears, although I am a sucker for catharsis, I'll admit. :)
All along the way, I could easily hear the characters in my head. Sure, most of them have the first movie to set the stage for my internal audio system, but PAD evokes them perfectly, never jarring my mental ear with a bit of dialogue that doesn't seem to fit.
Buy it, read it.
"It was at that point that gravity, offended by his audacity, decided to show him who was boss." - p 235
By the way, the Doctor Octopus action figure LOOKS great, excellent likeness of Molina and they didn't shy away from making him just that tad pudgy. But the tentacles are all on a lever gimmick and can't be posed independently, which bites.
Oh, and in case you're wondering why so many of my review posts have "Current mood: hungry", it's because I generally don't eat dinner until I'm done reviewing....
CAPSULE
Spider-Man 2: Ballantine/Del Rey - Peter David has a great ear for dialogue, and I'm certain that many of my favorite bits were pure PAD, embellishments on the movie script. Of course, it does give away movie plot points, so you may want to wait until after seeing the movie to read the book, but you should definitely read the book! Strongly recommended. $6.99/$10.99Cn (311 pages)
RANT
It's pretty much a given that when you adapt a work from one medium to another, you simply can't tell the same exact story. A comic book can't show as much as a movie, which can't show as much as a novel. This usually means that comic adaptations of movies suck, and that novelizations do a LOT of fleshing out in terms of backstory and motivations. Peter David in particular has a lot of practice at this, inserting entire scenes in novelizations that give more and better perspectives on the movies they adapt.
Now, I'm just guessing here, but I suspect that (and here's where the spoilers really start, folks!) the dialogue between Doc Ock and his tentacles is largely PAD's invention. Certainly the tentacles' end of the conversation. Four artificially intelligent beings that see Otto Octavius as their father, and act much like very dangerous children. I really hope the movie manages to capture some of this interaction.
Internal/external conversations are a big part of this story. Otto and his four kids, Peter talking to the dream-shade of Uncle Ben, even Harry Osborn gets in on the act in the epilogue. The duality of identities carries over from the first movie, of course, and I'm sure that if you've read this far you've seen the "I am Spider-Man...NO MORE" bits in the ads and trailers. Peter's arguments with Uncle Ben are part of his wrestling with his dual identity, and he even manifests physical symptoms of the schism in his self. No, he doesn't do a split-in-two like in Superman III, but his powers do kick in and out as if participating in the argument about whether to be normal or ab-. Octavius himself has pre/post-accident identity issues, with his "children" urging him forward even as he tries (and generally fails) to remember his old life. Both Peter and Otto are struggling with identity issues stemming from both physical and psychological trauma, although Peter leans more towards the overwhelming guilt issue and Otto towards physical damage.
While I did have trouble getting rolling, once I committed to reading the book it just rolled along. The pacing does sometimes get a bit slow amid the "things suck the most" segment of the story, but really raced along at the end. The final scene had me in tears, although I am a sucker for catharsis, I'll admit. :)
All along the way, I could easily hear the characters in my head. Sure, most of them have the first movie to set the stage for my internal audio system, but PAD evokes them perfectly, never jarring my mental ear with a bit of dialogue that doesn't seem to fit.
Buy it, read it.
"It was at that point that gravity, offended by his audacity, decided to show him who was boss." - p 235
By the way, the Doctor Octopus action figure LOOKS great, excellent likeness of Molina and they didn't shy away from making him just that tad pudgy. But the tentacles are all on a lever gimmick and can't be posed independently, which bites.
Oh, and in case you're wondering why so many of my review posts have "Current mood: hungry", it's because I generally don't eat dinner until I'm done reviewing....
