The blogging opportunities haven’t really been presenting themselves this week, sadly.
On the bright side–I do have a line on one of the pre-”Jennifer Jones” Isley performances, so perhaps the delay in launching my star persona analysis project can be construed as fortuitous.
But I thought I would take this opportunity to direct your attention to this stuff that I wrote on Watchmen (the comic), a while back. I’d say that I stand by about 70% of it (especially the idea of altruism-as-aphrodisiac in the coffee-serving scene–my personal favourite–will it make it onto the screen?)
I have pretty low expectations for the movie , but will, of course, be going to see it as soon as it hits Montreal. Luckily, Frank Miler’s The Spirit has already secured a lock on “worst comic book adaptation ever filmed,” so Snyder has averted that danger by default.
good afternoon friends!
Dave
Did you see The Spirit? I really wanted to go when it came out, but it got such bad reviews, I reneged. Is it worth watching for the cinematography?
Casey!
I did indeed see the Spirit–would that I had not!
On the other hand, I don’t want to take too strong a stand against it, where others are concerned. My advice is–if you liked Sin City, you’ll get enough out of The Spirit to justify the investment of time and money.
In some ways I like it more than Sin City (it’s certainly less death-obsessed–which is an odd thing to say about a film whose protagonist is, basically, undead!) And it actually attempts whimsy (don’t know if you’ve read any of the Spirit comics by Eisner, but they are pure noir whimsy–and one of the greatest pop culture achievements of the 20th century), Unfortunately, Frank Miller trying to be funny is quite sad. Despite my philosophical objections, he’s much better when he’s setting up his characters for motivated suicide attempts. Because he really believes in that kind of thing.
It does contain a few nifty visual ideas, and the hard-boiled goofing has amused some smart people that I know…
hope that helps!
Dave
Thanks, Dave. That helps a lot! I think I will watch it now. I’m going to see if I can get my hands on those comic books, too. They sound amazing. You make me think I’m missing out on something good!
Thanks!
Casey
my pleasure–I’d love to hear your reactions to the movie (and even more so to the comics–which have been collected into some pretty sharp archival volumes.) They might even be available at your local library!
Dave