As someone who has never read any comics and who doesn’t understand why anyone would need to enjoy something “in spite of the title”(really, sketch that out for me. Because it has the same title as a collection of short stories I like, I have to dislike it?)…
That trailer looked really bad. Brings to mind End of Days.
There will need to be incredible reviews to get me to see this one for free. Since it seems they changed a lot from the original property to get mainstream appeal, this might be very ugly. They didn’t change enough to hook me, but changed enough to outrage the fanboys? Bad judgement.
Let’s exaggerate and say that the movie with Will Smith and some evil robots this summer was undisputedly fun to watch. If it had been called “Will Smith F&*%s Up Some Robots!” and everyone heard good things about it, there wouldn’t have been anything to complain about. But they stuck the name I, Robot on it, when it had very little to do with Asimov’s work by the same name. That means that even when people heard good things about it, they’d have a (false) expectation of the movie, and whether it was fun or not in it’s own right, they’d be disappointed and/or angry about it being called I, Robot and having nothing to do with the Asimov book. If they could get over the hype/marketing machine’s decision to stick it with that name, they’d be able to enjoy a fun movie for what it was.
Obviously, I, Robot wasn’t undisputedly fun, but I think it was better than some people give it credit for and at least a passable cheesey summer popcorn flick. Maybe Constantine will also be fun, but it’s going to lose fans of the comic just based on their expectations of what it should be.
To some people, whether it’s entertaining in its own right or not isn’t as important as whether it fits with their idea of how the original material is being handled.
Admittedly, I would have had a really difficult time enjoying a movie, no matter how fun or well made, if it was called “The Lord Of The Rings” and had only a passing resemblence to Tolkien’s work. So I can’t be too critical of someone being upset with misuse of a license or original because I clearly get attached to some of them just as much as anyone. There will be people though who can get over it and enjoy the movie anyway, “in spite of the title” just like I could with I, Robot. Good for them.
And for one thing, I, Robot was just a collection of short stories. I’m not saying people can’t be angry over the misleading title, but to like the movie less? That’s silly.
If they had called, say, Gladiator “The Hobbit”, would it have been a less enjoyable movie?
One of the best things about Hellblazer was its impenetrable Britishness. Transplanting it to Chicago and making Keanu fucking Reeves Constantine is unforgivable. Just make a different goddamn movie if the property you’re licensing isn’t good enough for you as is.
A friend of mine rebutted this argument by commenting that High Fidelity was charmingly ultra-British as a novel but worked well in Chicago starring an American as a film. He may have a point, but I think music is more universally modular than ancient supernatural evil. I can buy primordial forces of unknown power existing in the fog-laden, history-soaked streets of London. Chicago…not so much.
Though I digged the Vertigo series, I never really liked Hellblazer. I think Tom Waits would be a nice Constantine. Heck Peter Falk would be a better Constatine then Keanu.
High fidelity had more universal themes than Constantine. It only had an ultra-british setting. It’s characters, esp Rob, reflected people across the majority of the western world. As such, it would survive transplantation.
Constantine on the other hand, was a chain smoking, cool in your face, cockney, unflappable brit. Mistaking that for surfer “whoa” apathy is horrible judgement.
I’ll be there opening week to check it out. Same goes for Elektra. Just like I was for Blade III.
Hopefully it’ll work well enough. Music Video directors are a bit hit and miss (see McG - director of Charlie Angels 1 & 2).
If you’re a fan of the series, why wouldn’t you go and see this? I like Alan Moore and I find it fascinating to see the movie adaptations of his films (LxG, From Hell, etc). As a fan, I like seeing how it went horribly wrong (Agent Tom Sawyer, “Goodnight Sweet Prince”) or really right (the Nautilis, the carriage driver).
Is there any more info on the Warren Ellis and selling out? Does that make Alan Moore a sell out?
From what I hear, Alan Moore doesn’t care what movie studios do with his IP as long as he gets paid. He knows the movies will stink, and the comics are the only thing that matter. He’s only doing it for the money. So I guess, yea, he did sell out.
As for Constantine, being totally unfamiliar with Hellblazer, the trailer does look interesting enough to watch. I think I might pick up Dangerous Habits one day to start me off…
I can’t cite any place reliable that I heard this, but I remember hearing what you’d described at first. Something like someone asking him what he thought of how the From Hell movie hurt his book and he pointed to it on the shelf and said “Look, it’s still just fine, I don’t care what the movie did.”
The followup was that after LXG, he said something to the effect of “To hell with it, they are ruining my work, never again!”
I’m pretty sure he was quoting Raymond Chandler during an Onion interview, and the Onion interviewer brought the topic up again after LXG came out in a separate interview.
If you have the money I’m sure that Warren will be happy to sell out to you.[/quote]
It’s not like Ellis has ever claimed to be all about the art or anything. He went out of his way to make money doing commercial work during '04 calling it his year of whoredom and has always been extremely interested in the business of selling comics. (New ways of marketing material, analyzing why some trends failand how other trends can be successfully translated from one medium to another etc.)
His willingness to make money or promote himself or people he likes does not make him any less interesting in my opinion.
As for Hellblazer, it’s one of my favorite comics and the movie will clearly be sacriligious in its treatment of the source material. I also suspect that it will just plain suck. But I will see it and try and judge it on its own merits.
If you have the money I’m sure that Warren will be happy to sell out to you.[/quote]
It’s not like Ellis has ever claimed to be all about the art or anything. He went out of his way to make money doing commercial work during '04 calling it his year of whoredom and has always been extremely interested in the business of selling comics. (New ways of marketing material, analyzing why some trends failand how other trends can be successfully translated from one medium to another etc.)
His willingness to make money or promote himself or people he likes does not make him any less interesting in my opinion.
[/quote]
If you think you’re disagreeing with me, you’re not.
There’s quite a difference between converting a specific story (Watchmen, From Hell etc) and transplanting a set of characters. True, still no excuse for LEG, Catwoman and probably Constantine…
From Hell was one of the shittiest movies I had seen that year, and I’m really fucking glad I didn’t see LXG or Catwoman… Hellboy is another example I can think of that shows that not all comic book movies have to suck (although it wasn’t as good as the other two).
… and I care because…? If the creator loved it as Derek Smart loves his game creations I still wouldn’t give a fuck for it if it sucked like Battlecruiser. And opposite to that if he hated it and it was a good movie that perhaps missed, changed, or glossed the original source-- well, what else is new about good adaptations to movie screens? LOTR was not exactly entirely faithful, but at least good enough to not be overly bothersome to all but the most particular readers.
Oh, I thought I’d point out that the trend of changing British main characters to American is nothing new-- see almost every Robin Hood related movie ever, excepting Errol Flynn, and the fellow from Men in Tights who jokes about it. As if Keanu could even pretend to have a BAD British accent… :P
