Reviews

Highlander by Garry Kilworth

thomcat's review against another edition

4.0

A decent novelization of one of my favorite movies - there can be only one.

ianbanks's review against another edition

3.0

I'm a big fan of this movie, despite its many flaws, because it's a clever story and tries to make some impact with its visual style. However, a good script is hampered by the director not being able to direct his actors with more care and emotion (if an actor is good elsewhere I will usually blame the director or the scriptwriter).

However, I love this novelisation because it gives a lot more depth to the existing story. Conner's life before his immortality is explained further, as are the thoughts and feelings of his friends and relatives; the Kurgan's life is fleshed out and his motivations make him a more realistic character; Brenda is a more interesting character (and even calls out her colleagues on their sexism occasionally); and in general, there's a lot more information and depth given than you would find in a regular, standard retelling of a script.

That said, there's a sense of uneasiness when Mr Kilworth tries to marry that depth to the scenes as written by script-writer Gregory Widen where you get the feeling that he doesn't feel comfortable with the style of the source material. This is a problem when an author collaborates with another author, and I can only imagine that it must be magnified when you are putting some flesh to another author's words and can't alter them too much because you're retelling the story and can't change it too much.

Overall, enjoyable fun that enhances and complements the movie.

vylotte's review

2.0

An amuse bouche between epic fantasy tomes, I read this in a couple hours on a rainy morning. I like movie adaptations that go beyond the source material, fill in some blanks, go inside the characters's heads for more. This filled that, though it still didn't go into the things that made me truly curious, like the origin of the immortals, how they can feel each others's presence, etc. Still, would have totally been worth the read if it didn't degenerate into some truly wretched writing for the last 1/5th of the book. I'm gonna put that on some deadline, or perhaps a rushed editor, because the first parts of the book were significantly better.

rstar's review

A too intense for Me!