(the new frank miller/will eisner/whoever else is involved new film)
has anyone seen this? is it good?
i've been wanting to, but every time i say i want to hit up a theater, i never get around to it.
ANYWAYS, i just saw the trailer again, and all i kept thinking was:
someone should really consider making a Grendel movie....

Is it still in theaters? It was one of the most panned films of the holiday season.

i don't know. like i said, i haven't been to a theater in a very long time, so i'm not up on the roster. i guess i will have to add it to the list of dvd rentals....

I thought the Happening was the worst film of 2008 till in the last week of the year I saw the Spirit. It's a disaster, complete and utter disaster. It's photographed well, but that's the end of the compliments. A drunken comic book writer does not make a Hollywood director. There's no actual direction in this film. The actors are doing whatever they want, the pacing is horrible, the story is brutal. I still want to know who let Sam Jackson bring his own wardrobe to set.

I really wanted to like this movie. But I couldn't. I have been a huge fan of the source material for years. Will Eisner's creation was not done justice by this stinker. Eva looked hot, but that was about the only thing i remember from it. And I saw it just last week.
Frank Miller as a director? He should just stay on the printed page. It seems like many of the actors, Samuel L Jackson, and Scarlett Johansen among others just phoned in their performances.
Seemed like a cheap knock off of Sin City, and that's not saying much, but at least Robert Rodriguez knows how to get some performances out of his actors, or can edit around poor performances.
Wait till the dvd comes out.

And why did Miller put himself into the movie??? I mean wtf!?!

so, i should edit out my "someone should make a Grendel movie" comment, just inc ase Frank Miller gets wind of it?

I haven't seen the movie, but the trailer alone makes it pretty clear that this isn't what Will Eisner envisioned.

Pretty ironic how Miller bitches about how Hollywood has bastardized his work over the years and then has no problem doing the same to someone else.

Well, Grendel was Matt Wagner's creation.
I haven't been in a comic store in awhile. Did FM mess with Grendel too?

Miller never really had a problem with being 2-faced. years back there was this whole thing with Miller being anti-Wizard magazine. There were photos of him ripping up an issue and everything during a speech. fast forward to Wizard World Chicago 2005, he was the guest of honor....

no. it was the whole black/white/red thing that got me thinking of Grendel.

and since companies are buying up the rights to turn all these comic books into film, and with Frank Millers history with the black & white with minimal color use on film, it wouldn't be a surprise to see it fall into his hands...

but grendel is Wagner's baby though, i couldn't see him allowing that...

I think a lot of other people do, though.

yes, definitely one of the worst personalitiy flaws....

you also mentioned miller bitching about hollywood fucking up his work. what other stuff has been done of his? i'm not that familiar with FM, the only films based on his stories i can think of is Robocop and Batman: Year One...

The same thing happens with Alan Moore, each time a film is based on one of his comics, he says the industry fucked up his work and he will never work with movies again.......but then theWatchmen makes what? 3 now?

I totally forgot about this movie.
Guess it sucks.

I think Watchmen will be 4. V for Vendetta, From Hell and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to date. None of which i think were all too good. I have high hopes for Watchmen though.

ahh, i totally forgot about From Hell. and yeah, all were less than stellar. i liked V for Vendetta, but it's far from great. I too have high hopes for Watchmen. maybe i will talk about seeing that one in the theater too and then rent it the first moment it comes out on dvd, or however long it will take netflix to get it to me....

I think up until Watchmen things were a different story with Moore. Everything I read was he didn't care if people made his works into movies, he wanted NO part with them because he KNEW they could not do them justice but said if you ask me and pay me I'm ok with it. But than I guess they started doing some pre-production work with Watchmen without asking him, assuming it'd be ok since he general stance was "just pay me" but they forgot his other rule "ask me." So from what I can gather from most interviews I've read with him, he's now done with it all. He's pissed, not about his comics being turned into some sort of marketed whore, but rather companies not having the respect to just ask him.

I can respect "just ask and pay me, but I know it'll suck."

I know Eisner is a legend in his own right but The Spirit is incredibly dated and The Spirit movie looked terrible.

And about Moore. You're absolutely right. He's often said that if you want to take his comics and make movies (Like league of extraordinary gentlemen). Then that's fine but take his name off of it and don't give him any credit for it. He doesn't want to be associated with the film because once it becomes film..it isn't his work anymore. It's become someone else's interpretation.
Plus the Watchman film will never do the complex comic any justice. The movie will terrible and full of slow mo shots. I just got a bad feeling especially over the choice of using a Smashing Pumpkins song for the first preview.

With all due respect to Alan Moore (though he does seem more and more like a batshit insane maniac as time goes on) he really can't I FART A LOT if he accepted whatever monetary offer he was presented with. I've seen James Ellroy (the great neo-noir writer) speak several times, and as much as he's been disappointed with most of the adaptations of his work, his response is always "Hey, I can't complain, because I cashed the check". Moore could take a lesson from this.
However, I do agree that everything I've seen re: the Watchmen film looks just terrible. The actors are WAY too young, and the stylistic affectations make me ill.

Like I said with Moore, I think he's only mad because he wasn't asked first with Watchmen. That's his big rule I guess...other than large sums of cash.

If i remember correctly, Moore is not taking any money for Watchmen. Whatever he was supposed to be paid is going to Dave Gibbons and John Higgins (colorist). I think in the past it was more a case of do whatever you want because I can't stop you, just don't put my name on it because it's not mine, which I totally respect and understand.

If you are going to make a bad adaptation, then at least admit it & go for it.


I passed on the Spirit. To be faithful to the material, it would have had the 40's vibe of Raiders or Rocketeer, not just the affectations of Sin City. (And I thought Sin City was great for Sin City.)

This seemed like putting chocolate sauce on your steak since it tasted so good on ice cream.