Following a not sober conversation with a friend the other night I realised I'm starting to hate films based on comics. At the moment my heart sinks when a new one is announced, and despite said friend's recommendation of The Spirit I just can't get any enthusiasm together for it - if as the reviews suggest it's a poor man's Sin City then how bad does that make it? Sin City was a massive technical leap forward and really showed George Lucas how to green screen properly but everything on screen was a bit depressing - tough guys! Dames with swords and massive knockers! Loads of swastikas, for some reason! No sodding plot! Clive Owen!
So for the most part it just looks symptomatic of the total lack of ideas in Hollywood, with the occasional exception. Almost literally, in fact - Sin City was a frame-for-frame remake of the comics, which begs the question: why bother? I know you can't judge a book by its cover and so on but taking the following established scientific principles as a starting point, let's see what conclusions we reach about The Spirit without bothering to watch it:
1. Sin City was bollocks.
2. A poor man's Sin City will be more bollocks.
3. 300 was also bollocks.
4. The 2 elements these have in common are the involvement of Frank Miller and too much CGI.
5. Frank Miller gets worse at what he does with each passing year.
6. In directing The Spirit he's doing something he's never even practiced, so how good can he be at it?
1+2+3+4+5+6 = terrible film (probably).
Anyway, I love Will Eisner's comics and seems to me one of the best things about them was the self-reflexive awareness of the comics world. Smart, flip and funny, it's definitely something which could stay in its medium and never be the worse for it. At least maybe there'll be some reissues now... check out Eisner's website here, go straight past the stuff about the film and look at the archive.
Other films the very prospect of which makes my heart sink: this one. I don't know why, it just does.
So for the most part it just looks symptomatic of the total lack of ideas in Hollywood, with the occasional exception. Almost literally, in fact - Sin City was a frame-for-frame remake of the comics, which begs the question: why bother? I know you can't judge a book by its cover and so on but taking the following established scientific principles as a starting point, let's see what conclusions we reach about The Spirit without bothering to watch it:
1. Sin City was bollocks.
2. A poor man's Sin City will be more bollocks.
3. 300 was also bollocks.
4. The 2 elements these have in common are the involvement of Frank Miller and too much CGI.
5. Frank Miller gets worse at what he does with each passing year.
6. In directing The Spirit he's doing something he's never even practiced, so how good can he be at it?
1+2+3+4+5+6 = terrible film (probably).
Anyway, I love Will Eisner's comics and seems to me one of the best things about them was the self-reflexive awareness of the comics world. Smart, flip and funny, it's definitely something which could stay in its medium and never be the worse for it. At least maybe there'll be some reissues now... check out Eisner's website here, go straight past the stuff about the film and look at the archive.
Other films the very prospect of which makes my heart sink: this one. I don't know why, it just does.
