so, i'm going to geek out here, for a moment, if you'll allow me to...
i don't know if i can take comic book-based films lightly any longer.
i'm basing this on my own judgement of the recent spate of films.
a little history, i was a comic book geek for a few years when i was younger. which, of course, gives me a biased viewpoint when it comes to films based on comic books. i have an idea of how they should be and if they don't meet that expectation, they leave me disappointed.
recently, special effects have reached a level where films can finally do justice to the books.
i mean, there was a fantastic four film made a long time ago that never made it to light because it was considered to cheesy. what about the punisher film starring Dolph Lundgren from the 80's? or the Spiderman film from the same era?
in the past three days, i've seen both Batman Begins and Sin City. i have now seen all of the Batman films (even the one based off the hilariously campy tv show) and Batman Begins, by far, is my favorite. i attribute that judgment to the heavy-handed tone Christopher Nolan took with the source material. it's a very dark, very moody film and it has little humor. i like that. it works.
but it also sets expectations high. the inevitable sequel better be better, or i will be disappointed. Spiderman 2 lived up and surpassed the first one, which at the time i said was my favorite comic-book-to-film film.
Sin City, a comic which i never read as i always stayed fairly mainstream in my comic-obsession years, was a much more stylized and hyper-violent film. it was expertly depicted and felt as much like the comics as i imagine it could. the stylization was fantastic and the use of color was done exceptionally well. i didn't like it as much as batman, but that is probably due to my having never read the book.
anyway, that's my little blah about comic books to film.
Posted by iain at July 31, 2005 03:39 PM