Don't know if you're into comic book adaptations but there's an adult (18 certificate) one coming our way soon which looks quite interesting. Here's an article about it: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2009/feb/25/watchmen-dark-knight-green-hornet
and here's a review: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/mar/08/watchmen-review-philip-french and here's a profile of Alan Moore who wrote the original graphic novel (i.e. a comic book:) http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/mar/01/alan-moore-profile-watchmen
For those of you who couldn't care less about super heroes, here's an article about the celebrated but controversial female director, Mary Harron: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/06/mary-harron-film
and, finally, this piece is about a film starring Daniel Craig which has upset a lot of people in Poland recently (and no, it's not A Quantum of Solace): http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/mar/05/defiance-film-poland
Happy reading, and please leave a comment if you have any thoughts about any of these topics (or anything else in the movie world).
Bye now,
Frank
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Well, according to a friend of mine I just asked about the Watchmen, it seems that I was living under a rock somewhere in the middle of the desert, since I haven't heard even a ripple of this product's shockwave. So, I read the reviews, watched a trailer and looked up imdb, and I'm a little bit in the clear now. Funny, after seeing the pictures, I can't help not seeing other comic-book characters parading around as these ones. Scarecrow in Joker's purple coat, Jean Grey in a latex costume a queen bee would envy, pointy-eared Batman and a Robin lookalike, the lovechild of Mr. Freeze and Silver Surfer, and that flamethrower-wielding guy who got a moustache slapped on him. Don't fret, I loved the XMen franchise, still waiting for the Wolverine special out in summer (finally, they realized that Gambit should be placed in the movies), but I was never blown away by the others. Early Batman movies had quite the comedic element to them (Kilmer and Keaton not being able to turn their heads properly in the suit); frankly (no pun intended) I despise the Spiderman trilogy - seriously, Tobey has about the same number of expressions as a cowboy (hat on, hat off), that always effervescent mix of smirk, smile and pouting, I don't give him any credits for acting, even trying to look like he is working for a paycheck. The Superman movies, well, that's a whole another era, closed by the death of Reeve. Mystery men is more of a parody of superhero movies than the Scary Movie franchise failure did - with a cast led by Hank Azaria, Ben Stiller, William Macy and Ken Mitchell, there is no way you can fail. Um, what else, Fantastic Four, other than Miss Alba's parading around, not much to see there; Catwoman was a major flop, Iron Man, Daredevil and those other tries of past years made me yawn, so I'm still sticking to the XMen saga. I'll try to get the time to see Watchmen, I don't want to judge it before I see it. And I'll get to the other two articles also, I just don't have the time right now.
ReplyDeleteFor me comic adaptations always revealed a certain darkness in color and in mood that I feel to be a projection of a mixture of bitterness, uncertainty and isolation. Have you noticed that any main character in such a piece is lonely to some extent? --- I'm speaking in general of course. I think I've seen only a tiny bit of all those movies or series that belong to this genre (not to mention my lack of experience regarding any other motion picture category). It's just an overall feeling based on (the first) Batman anthology of 1980s and '90s, the first installment directed by Tim Burton (and of course the more "up-to-date" piece, the newly planned trilogy by Christopher Nolan) and a few others like "Superman", "Spiderman" and later on Frank Miller's and Robert Rodriguez' "Sin City".
ReplyDeleteNonetheless I've always found it interesting to look for possible interpretations for these stories, and my all-time favorite in this respect is "Batman". I like him because he is perhaps the only one not having supernatural powers but forced to rely on his own (humanly limited) abilities. The 2008 movie "The Dark Knight" bears a title that perhaps provides some way of looking at Batman: as a 'knight.' Hmm, some food for thought seems to be revealing in the shadows...
Well, frankly, this is the kind of thing that is the most inspiring in all movies, isn't it? Interpretation.