Comic books: reigning supreme

[Johann]

The new Superman film Superman Returns looks awesome from what photos I've seen on-line. Check out Brandon Routh in costume on the main page of Joblo.com

Nicolas Cage is playing Ghost Rider, Natalie Portman is starring in V For Vendetta and I can't wait for Shazam! & Watchmen.

Check out the trailer for FF- it is amazing. It's rare for me to be psyched for a Marvel film like this.
Last year I watched a lot of Fantastic Four being shot in Van.
They have a gas station in the film called Kirby Gasoline and turned East Pender street's Smile Restaurant into a New York eatery. Did you know filmmakers can make any street have a subway staircase without ripping up the street?
It's quite the prop.

[Johann]

Iron Man could be awesome as well. Nick Cassavetes is directing.

Hey Tree! Do you know anything about the Iron Man production?

I saw the League of Extrordinary Gentlemen and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
Captain Nemo's ship was pretty boss...
It's a fine "fluffy" actioner- I guess similar to Sahara.

The folks at Marvel should look into spending some big dollars on a film of The Silver Surfer or Thor.

I smell comic cinema nirvana with those two. (If done right).

[wpqx]

Well Sin City effectively raised the bar for all comic book films, so I just hope something, anything can match it. Iron Man is my all time favorite super hero, so my expectations for that film are going to be unrealistically harsh. As far as FF goes, I hate the changes I've heard so far (such as Doom being in the ship launched to space), but I'm sure it'll top the Roger Corman version.

[tabuno]

Sin City has created controversy as to how the adaptive approach to transferring a comic/graphic novel to the big screen is to occur.

Chris Knipp seems to have been arguing for the end product to be realistic, the characters appear quite human as if the contents of the comics were to suddenly come to life in our world. Sin City, on the other hand, has been perceived by some to be souless and zombie like creating mere empty figures of obvious distortions of human beings, acting in ways that are too violence, too warped (perhaps) to be entertaining or acceptable to the movie audience. And Polar Express has opened the possibilities as well as Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within where animation takes over versus Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow where live actors are surrounded by the computer enhanced animinated world.

Personally, to preserve the comic/graphic novel imagery and style in the transference into a movie-format is to give credit to the source material and the medium from which it came, to allow the general public a glimpse into specialized forms of expressive creativity that specific fans have enjoyed such as short stories and books (The Flowers for Algernon - that was also a play - Cliff Robertson won best actor Oscar), plays and muscials (Chorus Line, Noise Off - bad examples, Chicago), television series (Charlies Angels, The Fugitive, Bewitched), and graphic novels/comics (Batman, Superman), even dance/Shakespeare (Westside Story).

[Johann]

Sin City is the textbook definition of perfect translation from books to screen. I learned nothing in the other threads and it's quite apparent I wasted my breath. The film IS the bar at the moment. And as for creating contoversy over the "adaptive approach", there is none. That's a myth. The adaptive approach is bang-on accurate and appropriate.
It takes nothing away from the integrity of the stories and art.
There is nothing to complain about with the adapting.
Anyone who complains doesn't know comics & needs a slap.

The imdb is another example of polarization, like this site.
I smile whenever I read the Sin City reviews. The cro-magnons who hate it make me smile. The fanboys make me smile.
You'll find people who enunciated better than me on it's merits.
You'll find retards who do not know comics from their faces.
You'll find empty-skulled douchebags with no concept of escapist art-entertainment and highly intelligent brothers who do.

It's beautiful.


Iron Man could be great. As long as they do the costume right I don't care what they do. The visuals MUST be right.
The costumes must be right. The adherance to character mythos must be right. If not the movie stands a good chance of being relegated to the "Travesty Of Justice" comic book hall of fame, which includes such classics of crap as:

Howard the Duck
Batman Forever
Batman & Robin
The First Fantastic Four Film
Captain America (both)
The First Punisher Film
Catwoman
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- ALL OF THEM
Blade II/Trinity



Here's some comic films that need some support:

Ghost World
From Hell
Tank Girl
Spawn
Darkman
The Toxic Avenger (a Troma classic!)
Swamp Thing
The Phantom -this is a VERY underrated film. Lee Falk's vision is preserved. Billy Zane is perfect in this role.
Judge Dredd- I know what you're thinking. No way is Judge Dredd a good movie, let alone a good comic book movie.
Wrong.
Judge Dredd appeases. The opening credits, the James Earl Jones voiceover, the futuristic production designs, the odd but beautiful nonetheless costumes, the adherance to the mythos, Max von Sydow. A highly dismissed and highly undeserving of that dismissal film.
The only complaint that has serious merit is the fact that Sly takes off his helmet WAY too many times. Dredd NEVER removes his helmet in the comics.

[HorseradishTree]

First off, Darkman was never a comic originally. Sorry to pick.

Last I heard, Iron Man was being written by the guys who created Smallville. It's been in production for the last two years or so, so I'm not getting my hopes up. However, I would most definitely enjoy my favorite Marvel character duking it out with Soviet rival Crimson Dynamo on the big screen.

I also think Watchmen is a masterpiece that should stay in the books. Hollywood couldn't handle it. Plus, I feel sorry for Alan Moore. He said in an interview he's never seen any of his film adaptations, as he assumes they're bad.

If any comic film needs support, I think it's Road to Perdition.

[tabuno]

I really enjoyed the movie but I didn't know it had been a graphic novel. It surely didn't strike me as a graphic novel in its movie form. In some ways, the adaptation from graphic novel to the big screen stripped away most of the suggestions of such an animated origins. This movie struck me more like the movies "The Presidio and The Untouchables starring Sean Connery rather than animated strips/novels/storyboards.

[HorseradishTree]

The graphic novel of Road to Perdition relies on a beautiful sense of realism. It's all in black & white and the characters stand out astoundingly.

A little piece of trivia: the writer's greatest inspiration for Road to Perdition was actually Lone Wolf and Cub, another great slew of comic films.

[tabuno]

Why change a graphic black and white novel into a realistic color version?

[Johann]

Terry Gilliam was set to direct Watchmen but he couldn't get the script right. He said it wasn't filmable- only as perhaps a 12-part miniseries.

I could have sworn Darkman was comic. Wow I've learned something here! Thank you for correcting me.


Other films in the comic vein that are worth a look (or rental):

The Shadow
The Rocketeer
The Running Man
Blackhawk (serial)
Creepshow


And Unbreakable should be mentioned as an excellent comic book-related film. Comics fans should be able to appreciate what Shyamalan created. (It's the only film of his I really like)