finished the fight the future novelization!! overall it was an extremely mid adaptation that did not take advantage of the change in medium to do anything interesting, but it was still a fun read and honestly some plot points were clearer than in the movie. liveblog and standout moments under the cut :3
immediately the narration feels like someone is describing something that’s happening on screen. this is not a good thing; a good adaptation is able to use the strengths of its medium to tell the story in a way that is compelling in and of itself (day of the doctor perfect example) (this is why screen -> book adaptations fall flat when using a different author, the book author has a lot of guesswork to do wrt POVs, motivations, and other internal character stuff) (but do I really want to read a book by chris carter)
wait this is awesome face blindness can’t affect me in the written word. wow turns out that one guy was two guys all along
y’know it’s almost not fair to criticize this book for being a clunky adaptation bc fight the future leans so hard into its own cinematography in a way that makes it irreplicable in text. god I want to write a dissertation comparing this to the dotd novelization with references to the other x files and target novelizations and comparing franchises and impact of same vs. different author of the same story. waves sadly at my nonexistent media studies degree
he comes into the initial hearing and her heart LIFTS. this is what i’m talking about use the medium to give us character insight!!!
oh no fucking way. author just used “who’s” when the correct word was “whose.” probably worst mistake I have ever seen in a published book
the dialogue in particular does not translate well to text. maybe there’s a way to make m&s’ opening back and forth just as iconic and characteristic in print, or mulder’s drunken exposition slash tagline just as comedic yet foreboding, but as is, they (and other standout lines) just fall so flat
they don’t even say that he’s peeing on the independence day poster 😑
did this author come from fanfiction or something bc the amount of “the younger man” I’m having to roll my eyes at is obscene
this is the biggest glimpse we get into any character’s thoughts so i’m holding it to my chest forever and ever
god so the 3am “what are you implying” “is that what you’d like me to do” feel WAY more loaded in text
also “she had been thinking exactly that” 🥺
I’m like 90% sure some lines of dialogue are slightly different like just meaningless word order choices but I’m not putting on the movie to confirm
no okay the above is definitely true. “the one thing in the world he can’t live without” is NOT the original line but goes just as hard
have to include this bc it is absolutely the most changed dialogue in the whole book. wish i could see into this author’s head
realizing for the first time that the guy that planted the bomb = the guy eavesdropping on mulder in the bar = the guy driving the ambulance because in a book you have to spell that type of thing out
i DID actually pull up the movie upon reading these lines bc i was like i knowww i would remember this. i wonder if the author was working off of the original script or something and this was part of that? or if she was really just allowed to freestyle
god so we know in the movie he just kind of jumps down a random ice hole after he initially falls through. here it’s specifically and clearly a vent because ig this author could not rationalize him choosing to jump down a random hole
long af image so click to read but INSANE insane emphasis on the cpr scene for no reason. like that lasts 2 seconds in the movie but is fully a page and a half here, thanks for that at least ms elizabeth hand
why is this exchange so neutered?? where is the passion? where is "some hollow personal cause of mine" and "i can't. i won't"?
that's all i got! i think these excerpts really demonstrate the shortcomings of a direct, no-frills screen-to-text translation. i can't help thinking that this book was meant to be just another thing to put on shelves and sell, as opposed to being born of a genuine desire to retell the story in a new way. like i said, still fun though, and enough new tidbits to make it worthwhile!
