Okay, so, SIN CITY...
is okay. I walked out entirely ambivalent to it. I'm not a fan of the books; the style is nice, but storywise they've always left me wanting. The word "noir" never entered my mind until I read reviews of the movie. Then I found myself wanting to see KISS OF DEATH again.
It is undeniably true that Robert Rodriguez has created the most faithful comics to movie translation ever; the question remains as to whether that's automatically a good thing or not. Now that we actually have such a thing in the world, we can ask this. Do we really think that the best thing that can happen to our favorite comics is that they become movies? It's certainly one of the best things that can happen to the creators of our favorite comics, especially when the end product rakes in 28-point-whatever extra-large in one weekend.
On the old LIKE YOU HAVE ANYTHING BETTER TO DO radio show, we took a box of comics and read aloud a single random page from each in rapid succession. We just blindly grabbed comics, read a page, then the next fellow went. My suggestion: do this drunk. Nothing reminds you more forcefully that comics are a visual, participatory medium quite like bellowing "Damn! There goes the shipment!" or "YOU!!!!!!" or "But you can't be my sister!" or, yes, even "And then it hits me like a kick in the nuts."
Sum up: Everything I disliked about SIN CITY was inherent in the source material. The movie itself is a marvel, and hopefully we shake the dust of ONE FROM THE HEART off this method once and for all.
Burning question answered: yeah, I did like SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW more. Neither one topped stretches of THE INCREDIBLES (scenic stuff, mostly) for "is that real or Memorex?" power.
It is undeniably true that Robert Rodriguez has created the most faithful comics to movie translation ever; the question remains as to whether that's automatically a good thing or not. Now that we actually have such a thing in the world, we can ask this. Do we really think that the best thing that can happen to our favorite comics is that they become movies? It's certainly one of the best things that can happen to the creators of our favorite comics, especially when the end product rakes in 28-point-whatever extra-large in one weekend.
On the old LIKE YOU HAVE ANYTHING BETTER TO DO radio show, we took a box of comics and read aloud a single random page from each in rapid succession. We just blindly grabbed comics, read a page, then the next fellow went. My suggestion: do this drunk. Nothing reminds you more forcefully that comics are a visual, participatory medium quite like bellowing "Damn! There goes the shipment!" or "YOU!!!!!!" or "But you can't be my sister!" or, yes, even "And then it hits me like a kick in the nuts."
Sum up: Everything I disliked about SIN CITY was inherent in the source material. The movie itself is a marvel, and hopefully we shake the dust of ONE FROM THE HEART off this method once and for all.
Burning question answered: yeah, I did like SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW more. Neither one topped stretches of THE INCREDIBLES (scenic stuff, mostly) for "is that real or Memorex?" power.
posted by John Ira Thomas at 2:16 PM
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