Post by DeepArcher on Oct 26, 2022 3:49:42 GMT
(Originally posted this in the "What are you currently reading?" thread, but I figure we have enough Mann stans on here that this discussion could warrant its own thread. I'm surprised it doesn't exist already!)
So, I finally finished Heat 2 last night, and I've been mulling it over since. It's a damn good page-turning read. Does it justify itself? Ultimately, I think so - Mann was compelled to return to the Heat universe because he couldn't stop thinking about these characters for 25+ years, and as much is clear when you read the book. Mann resurrects Heat's three central characters and puts them to the page as if they never left - adding new dimensions to them (to varying degrees) while still making them feel completely consistent with the characters we know and love from the film. (As excited as I'd naturally be to see the movie adaptation of this happen, I'd still be so damn skeptical, largely due to the need to re-cast the roles: the characters in the book feel so of a piece with the characters from the film in a way that'd be nearly impossible to capture with new actors in the roles. Maybe this story would be best kept as a novel, where the characters only need to be portrayed by the reader's imagination. But I trust Mann if he goes through with it.)
Some parts of this I liked more than others: the storyline of Chris in Paraguay in '96, getting mixed up with the Lius and Chens, was largely uninteresting to me, to the point that I kinda started skimming a lot of the stuff with those characters as it went along. In general, the prequel section(s) felt largely more compelling and more productive than the sequel stuff, but L.A. '95 is an undeniably thrilling opening, and L.A. '00, while kind of insanely convoluted and maybe a tad unsatisfying, is pretty damn effective as a closing act. Maybe all the story coincidences will be hard for some to buy into - but considering that themes of fate and coincidence have always been part of Mann's style, it mostly worked for me.
As a piece of prose, it's often nothing particularly special. But there are definitely some sections where Mann (and his co-writer, Meg Gardiner) perfectly capture the essence of his filmmaking style in the language - that sense of electricity, spontaneity, chemistry, etc. When the book really taps into that tone, it's marvelous, and at its best, can be beautiful and exciting to read.
The very ending is interesting -
So, I finally finished Heat 2 last night, and I've been mulling it over since. It's a damn good page-turning read. Does it justify itself? Ultimately, I think so - Mann was compelled to return to the Heat universe because he couldn't stop thinking about these characters for 25+ years, and as much is clear when you read the book. Mann resurrects Heat's three central characters and puts them to the page as if they never left - adding new dimensions to them (to varying degrees) while still making them feel completely consistent with the characters we know and love from the film. (As excited as I'd naturally be to see the movie adaptation of this happen, I'd still be so damn skeptical, largely due to the need to re-cast the roles: the characters in the book feel so of a piece with the characters from the film in a way that'd be nearly impossible to capture with new actors in the roles. Maybe this story would be best kept as a novel, where the characters only need to be portrayed by the reader's imagination. But I trust Mann if he goes through with it.)
Some parts of this I liked more than others: the storyline of Chris in Paraguay in '96, getting mixed up with the Lius and Chens, was largely uninteresting to me, to the point that I kinda started skimming a lot of the stuff with those characters as it went along. In general, the prequel section(s) felt largely more compelling and more productive than the sequel stuff, but L.A. '95 is an undeniably thrilling opening, and L.A. '00, while kind of insanely convoluted and maybe a tad unsatisfying, is pretty damn effective as a closing act. Maybe all the story coincidences will be hard for some to buy into - but considering that themes of fate and coincidence have always been part of Mann's style, it mostly worked for me.
As a piece of prose, it's often nothing particularly special. But there are definitely some sections where Mann (and his co-writer, Meg Gardiner) perfectly capture the essence of his filmmaking style in the language - that sense of electricity, spontaneity, chemistry, etc. When the book really taps into that tone, it's marvelous, and at its best, can be beautiful and exciting to read.
The very ending is interesting -
Chris stays on the run, Hanna will always be chasing him
- it's kinda poetic, it kinda feels noncommittal for the sake of not wanting to taint the ending of the film. But ... maybe I shouldn't cynically overthink it, and just say it works on that level of poetry.