I fear going to see the watchmen… having read the comic ages ago…
I generally stay the hell away from films with that sort of (undeserved) monstrous hype.
Pretty sick of CGI and superhero films too. Give it a rest. It’s as if adults these days can’t handle a film that they couldn’t have handled when they were twelve.
Bring back the choice athouse period of the early seventies when cinema really was considered art and not a toy franchise. I mean, can you imagine McDonalds giving out Woody Allen themed memorabilia when Annie Hall came out?
Ok let’s also think of this. Watchmen is one of the best comics yada yada yada… Ok so the story worked amazingly well in one medium. So does that mean it’ll be a good movie? Shit mona lisa is supposed to be one of the better works of painted art, but does that mean it’ll make a good movie? or what about a song? “Watchmen kicked ass on the pages of a comic so we’re making into this kick ass song…” what i’m getting at is that one medium is so drastically different then another, and the little ticks that make things that can work in a comic cannot translate well on screen. Same as books. Inner dialog can be told in such a vastly precise way that screen or picture cannot possibly convey.
But anyway you look at it, comic book films aren’t going away anywhere anytime soon. Someone tells me they’re now making Thor into a movie. Good heavens, is nothing sacred?
But anyway you look at it, comic book films aren’t going away anywhere anytime soon. Someone tells me they’re now making Thor into a movie. Good heavens, is nothing sacred?
Isn’t it funny how comic movies are all the big rage but guys that go to comic book stores are still big losers?
The World’s not fair!
Late,
grmpysmrf
There’s a a guy who lives on our street who is a raving comic book loving geek - in fact you could say he is the classic text book geek that other geeks model themselves on. Supposedly he has something like 10,000 comics in mint condition stored in a room in his house that’s been converted into a mini ‘library’…of sorts. It even has a humidifier.
He rarely leaves his house (except to buy junk food, buy a comic book or see a movie) and still lives at home with his mother even though he is well past his thirtieth birthday. I don’t think he’s had a job in something like eight or nine years either. The twin girls who live next to him told me that he’d invited them into his house for coffee or something - but ended up showing them his rather extrordinarily large porn collection. They made a break for it when his back was turned. Can’t say I blame them.
I wouldn’t mind showing twins my porn collection… if I had one.
On the topic of converting comics to films: Films are the obvious medium for a comic to be translated to because its visual, it cant be translated as easy to another art medium because they aren’t as visual i.e. a book or a song (though if they are quality books or songs they can inspire visions in your imagination, but thats beside the point). From a cynical perspective you could say film studios just want to make cash from a popular genre, they know a load of comic fans will check out the film regardless if its shite.
Films have the best potential to be the most immediately impressive art medium because they are the best sensory package available (esp. 3D films). Blockbusters may not leave much to the imagination (for adults at least) but other films can be just as artistic as works of a different medium. This is especially the case with filmmakers who have backgrounds in painting or photography (or films with an excellent DP). This can be tested by pausing certain scenes of, say ‘2001’ or ‘Days of Heaven’. They can be stunning still life pictures as well as beautiful in motion.
I think people tend to diss films as a quality art medium sometimes because there is a spate of rubbish films but the truth is there are many shit (or simply boring) books, paintings and music too. I still think the film medium is the best one around as it has the most potential and it takes a broader range of skill to get it right. Also, moreso ideally, it relies on the work of a team not just 1 individual, but in saying that film fans have a tendency to blow out of proportion the work of some filmmakers.
Some of the best films I’ve seen have had as big an impact on me as the best music, books or paintings I’ve enjoyed.
I saw some fucked-up movie starring Samuel Jackson as this homeless guy that had something to do with mothmen in his head and this murder case he was trying to solve. Saw it blitzed out of my head, and all I can coherently remember is that Sam hooked up with the hottest white chick I’d seen in a while.
I think really that another reason that comic book movies are totally being green lite left and right is that the technology finally has reached a point that allows somethign like a cool looking hulk ripping through the landscape or every scene in hellboy 2 possible. So they’re running with it a bit… a bit too much, actually… I mean in the 50’s a movie like spider man could never have gotten made
and as far as the stories go, they’ve already been tested to an extent. example: wolverine a little bit more popular than the silver surfer or ghost rider, who both are nowhere near as possible as batman. While nobody cares about the martian manhunter. also 60 years of backstory can be used to show the potential depth (or lack thereof) of a character, and possible story options
how is it that m night shyamalan can get all sorts of shit for acting in his own movies, which in general he’s a semi-competant to decent actor, while this flaming pile of shit get’s the it’s a wonderful world treatment via cover up and just keeps going.
It’s because M Night is a flaming shamer.
Did anyone here actually see The Happening? Is it really quite the ‘trainwreck’ that everyone (with half a brain) seems to think it is? I’m guessing it is.
I saw Signs at the cinema and that was really ‘omfg I can’t believe what I just saw’ freakin god-awful. It was actually WORSE than Jeepers Creepers which I had previously believed was the worst idea somebody ever had that was eventually put to film.
I hated it in the same way that Al seems to hate With Sympathy…or at least pretends to hate it.
M night movies are I think very one sided. Love them or hate them. And if you tend to dislike his past work, I’d stick away from his current work. I liked the happening (that’s the one with marky mark right?) But I wouldn’t put it up there as his best movie or anything amazingly must see
inland empire. again, after seeing it in LA when it was released. talk about three hour long adventures. and it made slightly more sense this time. i recall that laura dern said she had no idea what the movie was about.
she’s one of the producers. nice.
lol dude Jeepers Creepers is the worst movie ever created by man and they made two of them. I gotta admit i saw them both.
Almost forgot, i just finished watching Goodfellas. That movie is way better than that shit Scarface… m-ayn u marricon
Jeepers Creepers is one of the worst horror films I have ever seen. B EATIN U [:)] I wonder how the monster got that vanity liscence plate?? Just a quick stop in over at the DMV I suppose.
Not to mention the director is a convicted pedophile which might explain why the monster sniffs boys underwear while rumaging through the protaganist’s luggage. That this guy is still able to make films after molesting a 12 year old actor in one of his pictures (Clownhouse) is beyond me.
Cool, going to catch ‘Watchmen’ later today. Is it nearly 3 hours long or something? Also I’ve heard a sequel is unlikely because of what happens in the film, this should be a bonus.
Cool, going to catch ‘Watchmen’ later today. Is it nearly 3 hours long or something? Also I’ve heard a sequel is unlikely because of what happens in the film, this should be a bonus.
It’s 2 hours, 40 minutes… long but engaging… my bladder was bothering me way before my attention span did. The Watchmen film is an adaptation of a comic series that ran for 12 issues and is collected in a trade paperback graphic novel of the same name. The source material has a definitive beginning and end, so hopefully no one would blaspheme the original material to the point of making a sequel… seems illogically impossible.
But hey, Mick, if you haven’t read the comic I strongly recommend you read it before seeing the movie, it stands on it’s own so brilliantly it would be a shame to miss. At least check it out after the movie if you enjoy the picture.