After recently watching The Spirit, I was ruminating on the idea of changing a piece of work so thoroughly in an adaptation that it no longer resembles the thing from which it came. That got me thinking about whether or not I’d seen a movie that changed a concept to the point of near unrecognizability but the end result actually still worked. That, of course, got me thinking of Wanted.
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Archive for September, 2015
Ah, The Spirit. What an odd mess of a film. On nearly every level, this movie is an absolute failure. It fluctuates wildly from cartoonish innocence to outlandish violence. That could possibly be interesting if it wasn’t so glacially paced. Frank Miller was clearly not the person to adapt Will Eisner’s titular character. In fact, even the word “adapt” is false. Miller doesn’t so much attempt to move the story to a new medium as try to take it’s name and force it onto his own creation. As such, here’s the CommentaryCast for Frank Miller’s Will Eisner’s The Spirit.
**This Unadapted piece was written by Andrew Prenger about a 90’s comic that’s ripe for an adaption. Why hasn’t Scud made the jump from the page yet?**
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Swamp Thing (1982 film)
Posted: September 2, 2015 in DC, Swamp Thing, VertigoTags: DC, Swamp Thing, Vertigo
In memory of Wes Craven, who recently passed away, I decided to take a look back at Swamp Thing, an early (and, at the time, DC’s only) attempt at adapting a horror comic book. It’s difficult to evaluate this film on its own merits for me. I am a big fan of the mystical universe established in DC’s Vertigo imprint, and that universe was created in the Swamp Thing comics of the time that this film was released. This movie retains very little of the flair and sophistication of those stories. Regardless, it has a definite love for the source material and despite a limited budget and an unintended tendency toward silliness, it manages to treat the story and it’s lead seriously.
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Comic Book Media 
COMMENTARYCAST: Batman (1989 DVD)
Posted: September 26, 2015 in Batman, CommentaryCast, DCTags: Batman, CommentaryCast, DC
It’s very hard to really appreciate what a momentous film Batman was without actually living through it. In 1989, I was in kindergarten and was completely caught up in the Batmania that was gripping the world. For the first time in my life, I could go to the store and find an entire row of toys based on Batman (and Joker and…Bob the goon?) and every kind of tie-in and cash-grab imaginable. These days, that sort of thing is common place, it’s even strange if a comic book movie doesn’t have a bunch of advertising. In that way, Batman was very ahead of its time. In many, many other ways it’s still a product of the late 80’s. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s fairly dated and not nearly as beholden to the character as modern interpretations. As such, it’s kind of fun to look at it from a historical perspective and see just how much the character has changed over the course of two and a half decades. With that, enjoy Brian and I talking through Batman. Also, don’t forget the trivia question! Or do…I’d rather not have to come up with a prize.
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