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AWESOME-tober-fest 2012: Review of two Friday the 13th Part 3 novelizations

Posted in books, Halloween, holiday, movies, pop culture, reviews with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2012, Book Report, books, Friday the 13th, Halloween, holiday, Jason Voorhees, Movie Novelizations, movies, pop culture on October 9, 2012 by Paxton

And so continues our second week of AWESOME-tober-fest 2012. Last week was Norman Bates/Psycho week. This week is Jason Vorhees/Friday the 13th week. Let’s start off this week with TWO novelizations written for the same movie; Friday the 13th Part 3 in 3-D.

Yes, there were two novelizations written for Friday the 13th Part 3. The first was by Michael Avallone and published the same year as the movie’s release in 1982. This particular novelization was the first published for any of the Jason movies.

Right away, the cover for this novelization is pretty awesome. First of all, the hockey mask isn’t the standard Jason mask. However, Jason didn’t actually get the mask until Part 3, so the Jason hockey mask was not the iconic symbol when this book was published that it is today. Also, I love that they included the 3-D moniker in the title. Like the book is actually written in 3-D (IT SHOULD TOTALLY BE WRITTEN IN 3-D!!!).

For most of the book, the story sticks pretty close to the movie. A few deviations here and there, nothing really to mention. However, that is, until the end. This novelization is interesting in that it features an alternate ending from the one used in the actual movie. In this ending, Chris, who is in the canoe in the lake, hears her boyfriend’s voice back at the lake house. She gets out of the lake and runs back up to the house and opens the door only to have Jason decapitate her. This is vastly different than the “it was all a nightmare” ending that was actually used.

This novelization would go out of print and become fairly hard to find until Paramount decided to publish Friday the 13th novelizations for the release of Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives.

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My preparations for Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 3D

Posted in books, movies, Star Wars with tags books, Movie Novelizations, movies, Star Wars on February 3, 2012 by Paxton

Star Wars Episode I in 3D comes out on February 10 which is a week from today. Being a Star Wars guy, I’m really excited to see the movie again on the big screen.

I was just the other day reading my 10th anniversary review of Star Wars: Episode I. Hard to believe that was nearly 3 years ago. While I think the movie runs a little long, there are scenes and moments in it that are awesome. Darth Maul, obviously, is a BAD ASS. Darth Sidious/Palpatine is great. Qui Gon Jinn is awesome. Ewan as Obi-Wan, podracing, the final 3-way lightsaber battle and John Williams’ score (and most notably Duel of the Fates). All awesome. Not awesome? Jake Lloyd. This kid has been vilified for this movie, and I feel bad for him. I do. But his performance is terrible. And Jar Jar. What can you say about f**king Jar Jar other than he sucks ass?

Regardless, I am excited to see this again in theaters and in 3D. Plus I’m almost positive they’ve replaced that fugly looking Yoda puppet with full CGI. I saw clips of the scenes at that Star Wars Concert that toured the country two years ago. That is exciting.

So, in preparation, I’ve been reading up on some of the Episode I ancillary material to round out my experience with this movie. I know Episode I has been a bit maligned, but honestly, I think it’s better than Episode II: Attack of the Clones which is mostly terrible (except for, again, the final 3-way lightsaber battle).

Here are some of the things I’ve been reading to enhance my readiness for Episode I in 3D.

Star Wars: Darth Plagueis by James Luceno – This book was released in January. I borrowed it from my friend Dr Mike and read it this past week. I just finished it on Tuesday. It’s amazing. Epic and sprawling, the plot of this book spans many years beginning 30+ years before The Phantom Menace and ending just after the events of the movie. It’s a “behind the scenes” book. The book is obstensibly about Darth Plagueis (Palpatine’s Sith Master), but it’s every bit Palpatine/Darth Sideous’ book as well. You see Plagueis come up as an apprentice, kill his master, obtain Palpatine as an apprentice, then begin the Grand Plan to bring down the Republic and decimate the Jedi Order. This book is mostly, like I said, behind the scenes, but it’s amazing how it tries to reconcile plot lines from the movies, TV shows, comics and other novels. Truly worth the read. This book makes the convoluted Trade Federation subplot in Episode I almost make sense. I have a feeling this book is going on my year end “best books” list and it’s only February.

Star Wars Episode I Journal: Darth Maul by Jude Watson – This came out the year after Episode I. It was during the early days when we knew nothing about Darth Maul. This was the first time he was revealed to be a Zabrak from Iridonia. I loved Maul so back in the day I bought up everything I could about him. This is a light, fluff read. Less than 100 pages. It’s essentially written as Maul’s journal during the events of The Phantom Menace. It’s a behind the scenes book similar to Plagueis but you don’t get as much information. It’s mainly Maul waiting around to do stuff. Cool but a bit light in detail.

Star Wars: Darth Maul – This was a comic series from 2000. It’s a fantastic story that takes place a few months before The Phantom Menace. It depicts Maul’s first real assignment from Darth Sidious. Essentially Darth Maul vs Black Sun. And it’s awesome.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2010: Official Universal Studios Wolf Man books

Posted in books, monsters, movies, Universal Studios, werewolf, werewolves, Wolf Man with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2010, books, Halloween, holiday, Movie Novelizations, movies, pop culture, Universal Studios, werewolf, werewolves, Wolf Man on October 13, 2010 by Paxton

Welcome to Day 9 of AWESOME-tober-fest 2010. This is werewolf novel week. Today, let’s take a look at official Universal Studios Wolf Man books.

Universal Studios has often tried to spread their popular monsters into other media besides movies. One of those being paperback fiction. Despite having a stable of very popular monsters, their efforts have been hit or miss. Here are a group of fully authorized Universal Studios Wolf Man novels.

I’ll review the ones I’ve actually read.

The Wolfman by Jonathan Maberry – This one is the most recent. It was released in February 2010. This is the movie novelization of the recent Wolf Man reboot by Joe Johnston staring Benicio Del Toro and Sir Anthony Hopkins. I haven’t read this, but I enjoyed the movie enough that I may try to grab this off Paperbackswap.com. I know the movie had a bunch of script problems and changes, I’d be interested to see how this novel’s story is different. If you haven’t, check out the movie. I’ll talk more about the movie, including a review, in the next few weeks.

Blood Moon Rising (Universal Studios Monsters Book 2) by Larry Mike Garmon – Released in 2001, this was book 2 in a Juvenile Fiction series. I mentioned Book 3 during AWESOME-tober-fest last year because it features Frankenstein. When I stumbled across this book at the annual library book sale this year for less than a quarter, I decided to pick it up. And I read it. And it sucked. They aren’t kidding when they say JUVENILE fiction. This book was like one of the bad Scooby Doo episodes. The story revolves around three teens who mistakenly release the Universal Monsters into this world and must chase them all down and trap them back into their movies. Book 1 featured Dracula. This book features Wolf Man and the story takes place down south in the Florida swamps. The whole book and storyline is a pale imitation of a Three Investigators or Hardy Boys book. It may work for late elementary and junior high kids, but it’s really bad for anyone that’s any more mature than that. I was really disappointed at the cheesiness of this book.

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Ghostbusters 25th Anniversary; New Video Game, New Movie, but no new books?

Posted in books, Ghostbusters, movies, pop culture with tags books, Ghostbusters, Movie Novelizations, movies, pop culture on July 2, 2009 by Paxton

So, this year is the 25th Anniversary of the movie Ghostbusters. Released in 1984, it has become a comedy classic. There has been much buzz recently about the Ghostbusters franchise and several announcements and product releases that have got “Ghosties” (Ghostbusters fans) excited.

On June 16, the first Ghostbusters movie was released on Blu-Ray.

Also on June 16, a new video game called, appropriately, Ghostbusters: The Video Game was released for all the next generation console systems.

One of the things about this video game that excited fans of the movie was that it reunites most of the cast from the original movie for the first time since Ghostbusters II in 1989 (which was also released on June 16). Returning to voice their characters are Harold Ramis (Egon Spengler), Dan Ackroyd (Ray Stantz), Ernie Hudson (Winston Zedmore) and even Bill Murray (Peter Venkman). Also returning for the game are Annie Potts as Janine and William Atherton as Walter Peck. Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis turned down the opportunity to return to voice their characters.

Ramis and Ackroyd wrote the script for the game and they both said that they treated the development of this game as if they were making a new Ghostbusters movie. Judging by online reviews, that commitment shows in the game’s play and storyline. I look forward to playing it on the PS3.

Ghostbusters III

When the actors reunited to voice their characters for the game, Bill Murray was quoted as saying he had a great time re-visiting the character of Venkman and working with his friends Ramis and Ackroyd. He also said he would consider returning to the Ghostbusters franchise in a new movie. That was big news as Murray has continually said for years that he would never do another Ghostbusters movie after the studio made so many changes to Part 2 that it was no longer the movie he signed on to make. Needless to say, Ramis and Ackroyd are in active development of a new Ghostbusters movie. Hopefully, it happens, I would love to see the group back together again.

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Movie Flashback: Tim Burton’s Batman celebrates its 20 year anniversary today

Posted in Batman, movies, pop culture, reviews with tags Batman, Movie Flashback, Movie Novelizations, movie reviews, movies, pop culture on June 23, 2009 by Paxton

20 Years ago today, June 23, 1989, Tim Burton’s first Batman film with Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson was released in theaters.

The release of this movie in 1989 was an event not seen probably since the release of Return of the Jedi in 1983. The merchandising and hype leading up to this movie was at near-Star Wars levels. There were daily news stories, TV specials, t-shirts, hats, posters, toys, product tie-ins etc. The bat signal was seen everywhere. People were talking about missing work to see it opening day.

I totally bought into the Batman hype that summer; hook, line and sinker. I was so excited I bought the movie novelization and read it before I saw the movie. I still have that novel as well as every other Batman movie novelization after it.

A Batman movie had been in development in some form or another since the late ’70s. Superman co-writer Tom Mankiewicz wrote a first draft of what would become the modern Batman movie in 1980. After the success of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure in 1985, Warner Bros asked Tim Burton to take over the Batman movie development. Burton threw out Mankiewicz’s draft, wrote his own 30 page treatment and hired Sam Hamm to write the script. However, due to a writer’s strike in the late ’80s, development dragged on and Sam Hamm had to leave the project. Warren Skaaren was hired to finish the script. The final script was green-lit in 1988 after the success of Beetlejuice at the box office.

The Batman movie development went through many iterations before finally landing on the final script and cast; Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson and Kim Bassinger. Here’s some behind the scene trivia for the movie:

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