Comic-Related Movies
Most comics bloggers seem to have posted some summary of their thoughts on the big comic movies of the summer, but I have yet to see X3 or Superman Returns. The former mostly on an extremely negative recommendation from a friend whose taste in movies I tend to trust; the latter due to a strong dislike of seeing movies while children are in the theater. Fortunately, there are plenty of 21+ theaters in Portland, so I'll see it as soon as it makes its way down there.
Still, just because I haven't seen those, doesn't mean I can't write about comic movies here. Last weekend, I went to see Art School Confidential, based loosely on the comic by Daniel Clowes. I tend to like Clowes' work, even if I haven't quite read all of it and find much of it fairly depressing (though, as far as depressing comics go, Chris Ware has set the bar so high it makes it hard to say that anyone else even counts). The movie was pretty awful. I've liked all the previous Zwigoff films to date,but this one was just awful and feels like something a first-year college student might have come up with. I mean, I'm pretty bitter about my college experience, but I've moved on. It's sort of sad Clowes hasn't been able to do that quite yet.
After that, watched A History of Violence, which was similarly disappointing. I read the graphic novel a few months back and, upon getting to the end, could finally see why Cronenberg might think this would be exactly the right sort of project for him. Except the film didn't contain the rather grisly elements that meshed so well with Cronenberg's long-running interest in the human body as a source of terror. I'm trying really hard here not to spoil things for people who haven't either read the graphic novel or seen the movie, but I never thought I'd see the day that the Cronenberg adaptation of a work is significantly less troubling and disturbing than the source material.
Last Saturday, went out to Beaverton to see Krrish. Pretty darn enjoyable, if maybe a little overlong. By far, the highlight of the film was the incredible dance number at a circus (right before the hero first dons his mask and adopts the Krrish identity). I learned, after seeing it, that it was a sequel to a wildly popular E.T. knockoff. Without that knowledge, the off-handed explanation of how our hero got his special abilities (i.e., his brain-damaged father befriended an abandoned alien who made him unnaturally smart) was pretty wonderfully strange. Overall, I enjoyed that quite a bit and would certainly recommend it if you get the opportunity (and are predisposed to want to see a Bollywood superhero movie).
Still, just because I haven't seen those, doesn't mean I can't write about comic movies here. Last weekend, I went to see Art School Confidential, based loosely on the comic by Daniel Clowes. I tend to like Clowes' work, even if I haven't quite read all of it and find much of it fairly depressing (though, as far as depressing comics go, Chris Ware has set the bar so high it makes it hard to say that anyone else even counts). The movie was pretty awful. I've liked all the previous Zwigoff films to date,but this one was just awful and feels like something a first-year college student might have come up with. I mean, I'm pretty bitter about my college experience, but I've moved on. It's sort of sad Clowes hasn't been able to do that quite yet.
After that, watched A History of Violence, which was similarly disappointing. I read the graphic novel a few months back and, upon getting to the end, could finally see why Cronenberg might think this would be exactly the right sort of project for him. Except the film didn't contain the rather grisly elements that meshed so well with Cronenberg's long-running interest in the human body as a source of terror. I'm trying really hard here not to spoil things for people who haven't either read the graphic novel or seen the movie, but I never thought I'd see the day that the Cronenberg adaptation of a work is significantly less troubling and disturbing than the source material.
Last Saturday, went out to Beaverton to see Krrish. Pretty darn enjoyable, if maybe a little overlong. By far, the highlight of the film was the incredible dance number at a circus (right before the hero first dons his mask and adopts the Krrish identity). I learned, after seeing it, that it was a sequel to a wildly popular E.T. knockoff. Without that knowledge, the off-handed explanation of how our hero got his special abilities (i.e., his brain-damaged father befriended an abandoned alien who made him unnaturally smart) was pretty wonderfully strange. Overall, I enjoyed that quite a bit and would certainly recommend it if you get the opportunity (and are predisposed to want to see a Bollywood superhero movie).
posted by padgett at
5:21 PM
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