Flipside Movie Emporium

[matt header]

So you may have heard of a relatively obscure indie film called Spiderman 2, which came out recently, and which I saw last night. I thought it slightly superior to first film, and perhaps even in the pantheon of great comic-book to movie adaptations. Although I'm not an expert on comic books or graphic novels, I thoroughly enjoy them, especially their rather cinematic potential to utilize the shape and size of frames and unrealistic imagery to create atmosphere. Comic book purists may object to adaptations like The Punisher and Spawn (rightfully so), but the art forms turn out to be very complimentary to each other, since both are so fundamentally visual in their storytelling. Tim Burton's Batman Returns remains one of the most astonishing comic book adaptations, maintaining a level of absurd dread and gothic melodrama that the original comics were celebrated for portraying. X2 was a comic book adaptation told with intelligence, style, vibrancy, and adoration, and Sam Raimi's own Darkman is a superb example of comics' vibrant colors and manic pace translated into film languge. And The Hulk attempted a very exact correlation with its digitized, freeze-framed, animated panels during cuts to stress the movie's comic book origins.

Is this a fascinating phenomenon, the prevalence of comic book form in film? That's especially a question for all comic book fanboys and connoiseurs out there. What are your favorites?

[Danny Baldwin]

This includes some graphic novels, in addition:

Great

The Hulk

Ghost World

Road to Perdition

Highly Recommended

Superman

Crumb

American Splendor

Good

Both Spider-Man's

Batman

Spawn

Te Mask

From Hell

Blade

Alright

X-Men

Hellboy

Batman & Robin

Underworld (hear it's a comic)

Bad

X-Men 2

Blade 2

Daredevil

Batman Returns

Terrible

Batman Forever

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (despite a great start)
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Danny Baldwin

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[Jim Harper]

As far as graphic novel/comic adaptations go, I'd have to list Higuchinsky's Uzumaki and Michele Soavi's Dellamorte dellamore as the best. But then they both had some pretty unique source material.

If we're talking about bad adaptations, I'd like to throw The Punisher (1989 version) and Judge Dredd into the mix.

[matt header]

Good choices all. Ghost World was a phenomenal and sly depiction of finding companionship and contentment in life, echoing many of the themes from Zwigoff's Crumb, although that was a documentary. American Splendor presents the most in-depth and varied portrayal of a main character in the year 2003, veering between interviews, animated footage, dramatic reenactment to present the dichotomy between comic-book artistry and mundane everyday life. I too enjoyed From Hell, which had fantastic use of color and a nearly suffocating use of offscreen violence.

I'd be interested in hearing why you don't like X2: X-Men United or Batman Returns, Danny; as mentioned before, I enjoy both, especially Batman Returns. Just curious.

All of these, in my opinion, present the visceral potential for comic-book or graphic-novel-to-film adaptation. I haven't seen your choices, Jim, but I wholeheartedly agree about Judge Dredd (despite Rob Schneider's brilliant use of method acting).

[GimmickAccount]

X2 is the best supermovie, amirite?
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