Books

Terminator Salvation: Official Movie Novelization

By Andy Frisk
May 11, 2009 - 21:39

Most, if not all, movie novelizations read quickly and efficiently with very little depth of wordplay, metaphor, or insight that one might expect from a work of literature or even a well written novel.  This is the way it should be.  Movie novelizations are quite simply quick reads that basically play the movie out in words instead of pictures.  That’s not to say that they are poorly written or that they do not catch the film maker’s and story writer’s intent, purpose or ideas presented for the film’s watcher to absorb, think, discuss and debate about.  It is simply to say that movie novelizations are written by authors who cannot interject their thoughts, discussions and debates about the film they are novelizing because it’s not a work of their own.  They can only relay the intent of the film maker, not their intention.  They do though slow down the action of the film allowing the reader to relive or glean more detail from various shots and sequences in the film.  So, perhaps they are written for the fan who wants to relive the experience and suck out all the detail he or she can from “seeing” the movie in a different way, by, in a sense, “reading” the movie.

 

Actually, I think movie novelizations are written and produced for rabid and impatient fans like myself who will rush out and buy them because we couldn’t wait to see the film and just had to know what’s going to happen and if the film is going to be good.  Terminator Salvation isn’t going to be good…its going to be great.

 

At least it will be great if the events of this “official movie novelization,” as its cover states, are truly in the cut of the film that we will be seeing.  Without spoiling it, as I promised, it is important to note that the horrible ending that has been circulating on the internet, whether director McG originally intended it as the ending and changed it or not, is not the ending in the novelization and thus, with no other reason to believe otherwise, it therefore is not the ending of the film itself. BUT according to titanbooks.com/terminatorsalvation there is “an alternative future to the conclusion of Terminator Salvation The Official Movie Novelization.  Access will be granted on May 21^st 2009.”  Basically when you buy the book you get a code at the end that will allow you to access this special addendum to the ending of the novelization.  Whatever this “alternative future” is, nothing in the ending of the novelization proper points to an ending like that which was circulated.  We can never be sure about these things but, after reading the novelization and watching the extended trailer again, many, many things fell into place and are depicted accurately in the novelization. 

Moto-Terminators

 

Terminator Salvation promises to be a film that pays homage to the previous films and the overriding mythos itself while striking out into some new, but not altogether unfamiliar territory.  Some of the plot events are a bit predictable and some are not.  The characterizations of our familiar heroes, John and Kate Connor as well as some very interesting new characters, hero and villain, are strong and well developed. 

 

The theme remains consistent with the other Terminator films.  Namely that of whether or not Skynet is evil or just incredibly and efficiently logical in its final judgment of mankind, when it “decided our fate in a second.”  Human beings hurt, torture and kill one another for greedy, selfish and most horrifically, pleasure motivated reasons.  Skynet kills quickly and efficiently because human beings are seen as, to borrow a phrase from another human annihilation advocate, Agent Smith of The Matrix Trilogy, “a disease.”  Humans, even in the harsh, “we’re all in this together” world of desperate survivalism in which Terminator Salvation takes place, are not always altruistic and human evil, very defined, does still exist but great goodness and compassion exist as well.  The theme of identity and definition of self through one’s actions and reactions is also a major theme and is related and developed to quite a poignant and thought provoking effect.  The philosophical pondering of just what a man is also comprises a major theme that is well developed.  Is he a machine just like the Terminators of Skynet with just organic instead of metallic components?  Also can a machine be like a man similar to the theme explored in Terminator 2: Judgment Day?

 

The sequences of action as well as the descriptions of the landscape of this post-apocalyptic world, again if accurate, are everything Terminator fans have been waiting and wishing for.  Personally, I swore an oath never to watch or waste my time on a Terminator movie again after Terminator Rise of The Machines unless it was set in the future, was about John Connor and his war and also had plenty of battles that went beyond the typical Terminator slams Terminator into wall after which silly one liners ensue.  I wanted to see the war against the machines.  Terminator Salvation delivers this war and thusly delivers the film we have been waiting for.

 

If you can’t wait to see the film, pick up this book.  If you’d rather wait, by all means do so, but this quick, easy and well written novelization still might help communicate the film’s themes and give you something to ponder upon review, long after the theatre lights go up.  I recommend it.

love it? hate it? tell me! afrisk@comicbookbin.com

Rating: 10 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12