I don't think I'm inside my own mind today...
Earlier I talked about the movie Wanted. But I also mentioned having watched Hancock and I wanted to talk about that too. You would pretty much have to be living in a hole in the ground to not notice the saturation of comic books into mainstream Hollywood. Superheroes are everywhere and there doesn't seem to be much sign of letting up. However, Hollywood hasn't borrowed all of its comic book hysteria. Movies like Sky High, Zoom and My Super Ex-Girlfriend have all played off of this super powered hysteria but all of them have missed the mark until now. Will Smith's Hancock. Again, spoiler warning I'm not going to try and give away too much of this movie.
Hancock is a derelict asshole, he selflessly helps people and is only brought back with anger and expressed frustration from his adoring public. In response he's chosen to drown his sorrows and live his life on the streets. It isn't until he meets public relations whiz Ray Embrey played brilliantly by Jason Bateman of Arrested Development fame. Ray pleads with Hancock to own u p to his dues to the public by serving a prison sentence. It's during this time that Ray tirelessly devotes his efforts into making Hancock a marketable hero.
I love this movie because it's completely original. We have a hero who clearly has inspirations from comic lore but its Will Smith that turns this into a monumental success. Playing a character unlike anything I've ever seen him portray. We see more of Will Smith's incredible acting range (See: Ali and Persuit of Happiness) as he plays Hancock down to his lowest. When we meet the character it's very clear that for Hancock he's hit rock bottom a long time ago.
In prison, he embraces the experience knowing nobody would dare try anything on him in there. He takes part in group therapy sessions and plays hoops outside. There's some hilarious shots of him making baskets from across the yard. He misses one and the ball goes bouncing high out of the penetentary gates. Hancock eyes the ball before leaping out after it. After he lands he looks out into the vastness surrounding the prison and back to the gates. He knows they can't hold him there but that's not what its about. After a moments hesitation he jump back into the prison gates to hold his sentence.
Charlize Theron play's Ray Embrey's wife. She is a great actress and even though she's kind of the weakest link character wise in this film. That's only because Will Smith and Jason Batemen are excellent in their characters. Hancock is a good movie. Check it out with your family and friends. The end of the movie is bogged down, and nearly kills the immense momentum the movie gains from the beginning but it doesn't harm the overall film. It's a fun adventure where we get to see Hancock clean his act up. Will Smith is hilarious and I think this is a movie that even super-heroic cinics could enjoy.
Check out Hancock. Just don't call him an asshole!
PEACE
Friday, November 28, 2008
Wanted: A Faithful Comic Book Adaptation
I don't think I'm inside my own mind today...
Yesterday I watched a couple of superhero movies. It was an interesting perspective to watch. On one hand we had Wanted. Staring James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie. On the other hand we had Hancock, starring Will Smith, Jason Bateman and Charlize Theron. Two movies that were, okay but missed the mark for different reasons. Before I get into it, yes, there will be spoilers so you'll probably want to stop reading here if you haven't seen Wanted specifically... i don't even know if I'll get to Hancock.
ITS RANT TIME!
Wanted is based off of one of my favorite comic books of the same name. Written by comic's scribe Mark Millar. Wanted is a tale of escapism, a tale of an ordinary joe like you and me being given an opportunity to become something greater than he truly imagined. The comic paints a dark tale of the depths of human depravity. We witness Wesley slowly transitioned from a spineless weasel to a fully testosteroned killing machine. Mark Millar's penchant for cinematic storytelling really helps the comic feel like you're watching a movie. The beautiful art by artist J.G. Jones is also one of the corner stones of the comic's strength.
The movie starts out much like the comic. Helmed by russian director and visual mastermind Timur Bekmambetov. director of russian vampire films that everyone needst to watch. Night Watch and Day Watch. Wanted starts out with Wesley Gibson sitting in his office, speaking about how he hates his life. The beginning of the movie is like watching the comic book come to life and if you're like me, you feel kind of giddy watching it.
As the story continues, Wesley is confronted by a lovely lady named "Fox" who tells him that somebody is trying to kill him. Fox introduces Wesley to Sloan, the leader of The Fraternity. A guild of assassins who bring down the hammer of fate. I won't go to far into it but let me just say that they listen to weaves of thread... its dumb. He's unconvinced of Sloan and his fraternity so he goes home to sleep it off. Waking to find the very gun in his pants that he'd used the night before to shoot the wings off of flies at gun point (a scene they lifted right from the comic book). It's at this point Wesley starts believing that there may be more truth to the Fraternity than he'd oribginally imagined.
Wesley takes stress pills due to completing the repetitive tasks of his job all day long. His manager, an overweight woman who has a penchant for the mean, looms over Wesley and begins to berate him for his work ethic in the beginning of what is probably the most enjoying scene in the movie to watch. Wesley proceeds to tell his boss to shut the fuck up, and then further on goes to tell her how her entire staff hates her, and if she wasn't such a fat bitch they would simply pity her for being so useless. After putting his boss in her place, Wesley grabs his keyboard and strikes it across the face of one of his co-workers who was fucking his girlfriend.
ANYWAY. Wesley eventually comes around and decides to learn the ways of the fraternity. Being punched in the face, being taught how to shoot human targets, taught how to sword fight. He is given a crash course in Assassination 101. They're training him to kill the man who killed his father. Sloan, the best assassin in the fraternity who'se gone rogue. Finally, Wesley feels that he's ready to take Sloan out and he goes to confront him. One intense action scene on a moving train later. Wesley gets the kill, only to find out that he did not kill the man who killed his father but he'd killed his father himself. The fraternity pulled a quick one on ol' Wesley. Wesley learns the truth and decides he needs to get vengeance for his father.
The story diverges from the comic pretty much as soon as Angelina Jolie enters the fray and from there you're lead on an action roller coaster unlike we've experienced in this new age of CGI. Its intense and relentless. It's pretty awesome to watch but holds little to no resonance if you happen to be a fan of the comic. If you're a fan of action flicks, it's a home run. I can't help but imagine how amazing the movie could've been if they followed the comic.
The comic is much different, although it begins similarly as I mentioned above. Wesley is a common joe like you or me. He hates his life, his job, he hates his girlfriend that cheats on him with his best friend and co-worker. The whole idea is that super-villains, not assassains, decided to band together and use their vast powers to eliminate the world's superheroes and rewrite reality in a darker image. Leaving superheroes to be remembered as vague fiction, like they are in the real world. leaving a cabal of villains to run the world from behind the scenes.
Wesley learns that his recently assassinated father was a super-villain named "The Killer" and that Wesley inherited his perfect aim and uncanny skill with any weapon from his father. He enters this new life and must deal now with the most dangerous and lethal people in the world. When Wesley meets Fox, he quits his job and joins the fraternity. He goes through a period of training where he's desensitised to violence. Tied up to a chair just like in the film but told that "he had to get rid of that faggoty fear of being punched in the face sometime" a classic line they neglected to use in the movie during the same scene. He's also given license to fufill every desire he's had. Which includes rape, radically motivated violence and random murder. He goes on to sever his connections to his past life by breaking up with his girlfriend and killing the best friend that she was cheating on him with. He becomes the bodyguard of a super scientist named "Professor Seltzer" who is one of the five, the leading council of the fraternity.
At a council meeting, the main antagonist of the comic book "Mister Rictus" a man who appears to have no skin and bears a skeletal appearance, calls a vote that the Fraternity come forward as the ruling body of the earth. When Wesley encounters Rictus at this meeting my favorite dialog of the comic occurs where Wesley tells Rictus to "Eat shit, sheep fucker." Where Rictus retorts. "I dont fuck sheep, I make love to them."
The vote is defeated narrowly due to hypnotic manipulation by another of The five, "The Emperor". Rictus is tired of hiding in the shadows and also feels he drew the short stick by ontrolling only Australia. He has the professor executed by a lackey of his named Shithead, a creature made of the shit of the evilist people in history. "Death by dysentery!" he screams before drowning the professor in the back of his own limozine... He also has Wesley and Fox marked for death. Wesley strikes back by infiltrating the Fraternities north american headquarters. Killing many villains and Mister Rictus.
After he killed him, Wesley learns that his father is alive and well. The original Killer goes on to explain that he faked his death and got wesley to join the Fraternity to make Wesley into a man. After a little heart-to-heart he tells Wesley that the final step of his training is that he must kill his Father. Telling Wesley that he 'can't handle the idea of not being the best'. Wesley obliges after resisting and tells Fox that he's returning to his former life of msery. After expressing disbelief the Fox realizes he's joking. The ending of the comic is somewhat like the movie. The movie has Wesley breaking the fourth wall in a monologue, saying that he's taking control of his life, what the fuck are we doing? In the comic the ending is a little less tactful, with the final page having Wesley scream "This is my face while I'm fucking you in the ass."
The movie doesn't hold a candle to the comic book, which sucks. Comic book fans will not get anything out of this movie. But hopefully movie goers who haven't been exposed to the comic will watch the movie and be blown away. And maybe even go out and find the comic book in the local book store and read it. The only good thing about the saturation of hollywood into the comic book industry is that maybe, just maybe, more people will start reading the comic books that only a small chunk of society holds so dear.
The comic is an uncompromising thrill ride. An exciting tale of escapism and action. In this sense, the movie and the book are the same. But it's really the only similarities they share.
Sorry about the spoilers but until next time....
PEACE!
Yesterday I watched a couple of superhero movies. It was an interesting perspective to watch. On one hand we had Wanted. Staring James McAvoy and Angelina Jolie. On the other hand we had Hancock, starring Will Smith, Jason Bateman and Charlize Theron. Two movies that were, okay but missed the mark for different reasons. Before I get into it, yes, there will be spoilers so you'll probably want to stop reading here if you haven't seen Wanted specifically... i don't even know if I'll get to Hancock.
ITS RANT TIME!
Wanted is based off of one of my favorite comic books of the same name. Written by comic's scribe Mark Millar. Wanted is a tale of escapism, a tale of an ordinary joe like you and me being given an opportunity to become something greater than he truly imagined. The comic paints a dark tale of the depths of human depravity. We witness Wesley slowly transitioned from a spineless weasel to a fully testosteroned killing machine. Mark Millar's penchant for cinematic storytelling really helps the comic feel like you're watching a movie. The beautiful art by artist J.G. Jones is also one of the corner stones of the comic's strength.
The movie starts out much like the comic. Helmed by russian director and visual mastermind Timur Bekmambetov. director of russian vampire films that everyone needst to watch. Night Watch and Day Watch. Wanted starts out with Wesley Gibson sitting in his office, speaking about how he hates his life. The beginning of the movie is like watching the comic book come to life and if you're like me, you feel kind of giddy watching it.
As the story continues, Wesley is confronted by a lovely lady named "Fox" who tells him that somebody is trying to kill him. Fox introduces Wesley to Sloan, the leader of The Fraternity. A guild of assassins who bring down the hammer of fate. I won't go to far into it but let me just say that they listen to weaves of thread... its dumb. He's unconvinced of Sloan and his fraternity so he goes home to sleep it off. Waking to find the very gun in his pants that he'd used the night before to shoot the wings off of flies at gun point (a scene they lifted right from the comic book). It's at this point Wesley starts believing that there may be more truth to the Fraternity than he'd oribginally imagined.
Wesley takes stress pills due to completing the repetitive tasks of his job all day long. His manager, an overweight woman who has a penchant for the mean, looms over Wesley and begins to berate him for his work ethic in the beginning of what is probably the most enjoying scene in the movie to watch. Wesley proceeds to tell his boss to shut the fuck up, and then further on goes to tell her how her entire staff hates her, and if she wasn't such a fat bitch they would simply pity her for being so useless. After putting his boss in her place, Wesley grabs his keyboard and strikes it across the face of one of his co-workers who was fucking his girlfriend.
ANYWAY. Wesley eventually comes around and decides to learn the ways of the fraternity. Being punched in the face, being taught how to shoot human targets, taught how to sword fight. He is given a crash course in Assassination 101. They're training him to kill the man who killed his father. Sloan, the best assassin in the fraternity who'se gone rogue. Finally, Wesley feels that he's ready to take Sloan out and he goes to confront him. One intense action scene on a moving train later. Wesley gets the kill, only to find out that he did not kill the man who killed his father but he'd killed his father himself. The fraternity pulled a quick one on ol' Wesley. Wesley learns the truth and decides he needs to get vengeance for his father.
The story diverges from the comic pretty much as soon as Angelina Jolie enters the fray and from there you're lead on an action roller coaster unlike we've experienced in this new age of CGI. Its intense and relentless. It's pretty awesome to watch but holds little to no resonance if you happen to be a fan of the comic. If you're a fan of action flicks, it's a home run. I can't help but imagine how amazing the movie could've been if they followed the comic.
The comic is much different, although it begins similarly as I mentioned above. Wesley is a common joe like you or me. He hates his life, his job, he hates his girlfriend that cheats on him with his best friend and co-worker. The whole idea is that super-villains, not assassains, decided to band together and use their vast powers to eliminate the world's superheroes and rewrite reality in a darker image. Leaving superheroes to be remembered as vague fiction, like they are in the real world. leaving a cabal of villains to run the world from behind the scenes.
Wesley learns that his recently assassinated father was a super-villain named "The Killer" and that Wesley inherited his perfect aim and uncanny skill with any weapon from his father. He enters this new life and must deal now with the most dangerous and lethal people in the world. When Wesley meets Fox, he quits his job and joins the fraternity. He goes through a period of training where he's desensitised to violence. Tied up to a chair just like in the film but told that "he had to get rid of that faggoty fear of being punched in the face sometime" a classic line they neglected to use in the movie during the same scene. He's also given license to fufill every desire he's had. Which includes rape, radically motivated violence and random murder. He goes on to sever his connections to his past life by breaking up with his girlfriend and killing the best friend that she was cheating on him with. He becomes the bodyguard of a super scientist named "Professor Seltzer" who is one of the five, the leading council of the fraternity.
At a council meeting, the main antagonist of the comic book "Mister Rictus" a man who appears to have no skin and bears a skeletal appearance, calls a vote that the Fraternity come forward as the ruling body of the earth. When Wesley encounters Rictus at this meeting my favorite dialog of the comic occurs where Wesley tells Rictus to "Eat shit, sheep fucker." Where Rictus retorts. "I dont fuck sheep, I make love to them."
The vote is defeated narrowly due to hypnotic manipulation by another of The five, "The Emperor". Rictus is tired of hiding in the shadows and also feels he drew the short stick by ontrolling only Australia. He has the professor executed by a lackey of his named Shithead, a creature made of the shit of the evilist people in history. "Death by dysentery!" he screams before drowning the professor in the back of his own limozine... He also has Wesley and Fox marked for death. Wesley strikes back by infiltrating the Fraternities north american headquarters. Killing many villains and Mister Rictus.
After he killed him, Wesley learns that his father is alive and well. The original Killer goes on to explain that he faked his death and got wesley to join the Fraternity to make Wesley into a man. After a little heart-to-heart he tells Wesley that the final step of his training is that he must kill his Father. Telling Wesley that he 'can't handle the idea of not being the best'. Wesley obliges after resisting and tells Fox that he's returning to his former life of msery. After expressing disbelief the Fox realizes he's joking. The ending of the comic is somewhat like the movie. The movie has Wesley breaking the fourth wall in a monologue, saying that he's taking control of his life, what the fuck are we doing? In the comic the ending is a little less tactful, with the final page having Wesley scream "This is my face while I'm fucking you in the ass."
The movie doesn't hold a candle to the comic book, which sucks. Comic book fans will not get anything out of this movie. But hopefully movie goers who haven't been exposed to the comic will watch the movie and be blown away. And maybe even go out and find the comic book in the local book store and read it. The only good thing about the saturation of hollywood into the comic book industry is that maybe, just maybe, more people will start reading the comic books that only a small chunk of society holds so dear.
The comic is an uncompromising thrill ride. An exciting tale of escapism and action. In this sense, the movie and the book are the same. But it's really the only similarities they share.
Sorry about the spoilers but until next time....
PEACE!
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Apparently we've forgotten what Vampires are all about.
I don't think I'm inside my own mind today...
I've been busy with things, and that's why I haven't blogged too much lately. I've got something to say today however. In addition to noting that, I'm really only promising to myself that I'm going to give this a bit more attention. I successfully moved with my girlfriend and we've got all those lovely new stresses to deal with. I've found a job and I'm working so that's good.
But there's still a lot of time for procrastination. That's where movies and video games come into play. It's come to my attention that Vampires are all of a sudden cool again. They're on TV, they're in my movies, they're in my media. What was just something that Goths and LARP'ers were into is now a commonly accepted avenue for storytelling I guess.
The catalyst of my rage is the book "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer. This book has spawned huge commercial success, and three following novels. "New Moon", "Eclipse" and "Breaking Dawn" These romantically themed novels shining a brighter light on an otherwise dark and brooding creature has gotten hollywood's attention as well. Spawing the first of what is sure to be milked out as a film franchise.
The story Twilight is about a young girl who finds herself smitten by somebody she concludes is a Vampire! The vampire and the girl fall in love...
They fall in love?
I'm sorry. I've watched Buffy The Vampire Slayer. This shit just doesn't go down. Vampirs are SOULLESS! They are incapable of love! They're incapable of feeling and are creatures driven by pure desire. These desires are not physical. A vampire persues things that it takes an eternity to get. Vampires want power, they want prestige. They don't want into some teenagers pants.
Yes... Buffy fell for Angel, (Aaaand Spike) But they both had SOULS. They are anomalies in vampiric lore.
These books, which craft a lovely tale (I got a synopsis from Wikipedia, no way in HELL I'm actually going to read it. If I need some Vampiric love, I'll just force feed myself Underworld 2) where the main character falls in love with a Vampire. Vampire fears for his girlfriends safety, flees. In the second book, the main character meets a boy who is later revealed to be... A WEREWOLF (SHOCKING!) So this love triangle goes on into the fourth book. The newly converted Vampire makes a little baby Vampire while the scourned Werewolf stands there with his thumb up his bumb.
Seriously? This sounds like a fan fiction and by no means is that a compliment.
Now it's being made into a movie, invading my culture. This is ridiculous. Vampires don't love. I don't get how this shit can be taken seriously but I guess if this gets teenaged girls to stop watching horrible reality television and reading then that's a good thing, right?
I feel pretty strongly about Vampires. Their do's and don'ts. The Love card is a serious don't. Thirst for blood, thirst for vengeance. No thirsting for poonani. Vampires have bigger things to worry about. Im sure some would argue that vampries are sexual creatures because, we humans are sexual creatures. Humans worry enough about all the sex that they aren't having. I'm sure Vampires have much more important things to worry about in their immortality.
I don't know anyone who's read this book so I'm pretty much just shooting from the hip. A friend of mine told me the book was "good" but the movie "wasn't worth watching on an airplane"... Does anyone feel ripped off by these books? I feel ripped off and I haven't even gazed upon the first page! Maybe I'm missing out on something. If I cave and read this book, you'll be sure to hear about it. Until then though, EDUCATE yourselves. Go out and rent Bram Stokers: Dracula or hell go out and rent Underworld (the first one, not... for the love of god not the second one!)
Until I've become more informed about that new TV show "True Blood" which is sure to stir up more of my vampiric rage, next time should be a bit more organized and maybe less angry. Maybe something about sports or hating my job? Maybe a video game or movie rant... Who knows what will tickle my anger bone.
- PEACE
I've been busy with things, and that's why I haven't blogged too much lately. I've got something to say today however. In addition to noting that, I'm really only promising to myself that I'm going to give this a bit more attention. I successfully moved with my girlfriend and we've got all those lovely new stresses to deal with. I've found a job and I'm working so that's good.
But there's still a lot of time for procrastination. That's where movies and video games come into play. It's come to my attention that Vampires are all of a sudden cool again. They're on TV, they're in my movies, they're in my media. What was just something that Goths and LARP'ers were into is now a commonly accepted avenue for storytelling I guess.
The catalyst of my rage is the book "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer. This book has spawned huge commercial success, and three following novels. "New Moon", "Eclipse" and "Breaking Dawn" These romantically themed novels shining a brighter light on an otherwise dark and brooding creature has gotten hollywood's attention as well. Spawing the first of what is sure to be milked out as a film franchise.
The story Twilight is about a young girl who finds herself smitten by somebody she concludes is a Vampire! The vampire and the girl fall in love...
They fall in love?
I'm sorry. I've watched Buffy The Vampire Slayer. This shit just doesn't go down. Vampirs are SOULLESS! They are incapable of love! They're incapable of feeling and are creatures driven by pure desire. These desires are not physical. A vampire persues things that it takes an eternity to get. Vampires want power, they want prestige. They don't want into some teenagers pants.
Yes... Buffy fell for Angel, (Aaaand Spike) But they both had SOULS. They are anomalies in vampiric lore.
These books, which craft a lovely tale (I got a synopsis from Wikipedia, no way in HELL I'm actually going to read it. If I need some Vampiric love, I'll just force feed myself Underworld 2) where the main character falls in love with a Vampire. Vampire fears for his girlfriends safety, flees. In the second book, the main character meets a boy who is later revealed to be... A WEREWOLF (SHOCKING!) So this love triangle goes on into the fourth book. The newly converted Vampire makes a little baby Vampire while the scourned Werewolf stands there with his thumb up his bumb.
Seriously? This sounds like a fan fiction and by no means is that a compliment.
Now it's being made into a movie, invading my culture. This is ridiculous. Vampires don't love. I don't get how this shit can be taken seriously but I guess if this gets teenaged girls to stop watching horrible reality television and reading then that's a good thing, right?
I feel pretty strongly about Vampires. Their do's and don'ts. The Love card is a serious don't. Thirst for blood, thirst for vengeance. No thirsting for poonani. Vampires have bigger things to worry about. Im sure some would argue that vampries are sexual creatures because, we humans are sexual creatures. Humans worry enough about all the sex that they aren't having. I'm sure Vampires have much more important things to worry about in their immortality.
I don't know anyone who's read this book so I'm pretty much just shooting from the hip. A friend of mine told me the book was "good" but the movie "wasn't worth watching on an airplane"... Does anyone feel ripped off by these books? I feel ripped off and I haven't even gazed upon the first page! Maybe I'm missing out on something. If I cave and read this book, you'll be sure to hear about it. Until then though, EDUCATE yourselves. Go out and rent Bram Stokers: Dracula or hell go out and rent Underworld (the first one, not... for the love of god not the second one!)
Until I've become more informed about that new TV show "True Blood" which is sure to stir up more of my vampiric rage, next time should be a bit more organized and maybe less angry. Maybe something about sports or hating my job? Maybe a video game or movie rant... Who knows what will tickle my anger bone.
- PEACE
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