Men In Black (Steve Perry)

[**]

I often like film novelizations. Done well, they open up the interior life of the characters that is largely invisible on film. Like most things, the quality can be hit or miss. This is a miss. Rather than use the opportunity of the written words to drive deeper into the characters, revealing their thoughts and capturing their motivations (well, he does try), the author mostly attempts to capture the humor of the movie. The trouble is, much of the movie humor was visual. That does not often translate well into prose.

A few things work. I liked some of what he did with the inner life of the bug (Edgar). But much of the alien vocabulary was too obviously just throw away. He captures a little of the playful banter between Jay and Kay. Even this sometimes comes off a little forced.

It's not like I wish I had a flashy thing to erase my memories of the book. I will have to watch the movie a couple of times, though, to write over those memories with the better stuff.