Terribly unsatisified

[neotoma]

I've been trying to read the novelization of Pacific Rim, but somehow the writer has managed to make Raleigh come across as a dudebro, which is just unpleasant.

Where is the big Labrador puppy from the movie? Why am I reading about a guy who is insubordinate and disrespectful, because Raleigh was neither of those things in the movie?!

Comments

[neotoma]

I wonder if the novelization author got an early version of the script or something. Because seriously, I'm finding book-Raleigh to be kind of unpleasantly skeevy.

Especially because one of the things that comes across in the movie is that being the bucking-authority male power fantasy is actually counter-productive to saving the world. (ie, everyone thinks Chuck Hansen is a jerk with daddy-issues, even if he's good at piloting a Jaeger).

Basically, I wonder if no one informed the novelization author that the film was about subverting that particular narrative, because it really is, and yet the novelization is trying to wallow in it and I'm finding it very offputting.

[feuervogel]

The novelization was, in fact, made from an earlier draft of the script than the one that was released. (See: the end scene when you get there.) Something to do with production schedules so the book will come out around the same time as the movie.

The writing is terrible, and there are some glaring continuity errors. My favorite is where Raleigh says he's never done a mission with a Mark V jaeger, then further down the page, he talks about being on a mission with Striker Eureka. It's on page 49.

(PS: If you're interested in traveling to Atlanta, I'm running a Pacific Rim con in May...)