Um, maybe it won't suck?
May. 27th, 2008 11:55 amYeah, so remember when I posted those pictures of the contemporary Watchmen (and woman) that will be in the movie?
Here's a picture of the old Watchmen (and women! plural!) I actually feel better about the movie for seeing it, though not entirely great. I like the idea that this picture communicates a lot--that heroing is serious and being taken seriously, but, as in the graphic novel, there's a retrospective recognition that, really, this is all very silly, isn't it?
My God, though: I love the old Silk Spectre's hair (hell, her everything compared to the new one). She's super cute in a thousand ways. Apparently, Watchmen comes out May 6, 2009. MAY MOVIE? Or will it break my heart too much that I wouldn't be able to take it?
Also, apparently they're making a DVD of the Tales of the Black Freighter, which all you comic geeks should recognize could be pretty awesome. I loved how unapologetically pulpy that parallel story is.
I've just finished reading The Horror Show by David Skal again, and I'm bent on reading more about the horror comics of the 1940s-1950s. (I have Comic Book Nation, I need to get more info). Because reading about what they did in these trash books is amazing. It sounds truly thrilling and fun and silly and perversely ahead-of-their-time even for today. I mean, we live in a world today that is scandalized by breasts. Yes, we have Troma, we have independent horror comics, but where has Tales from the Crypt gone? (Except to DVD, I mean.) Where is the glory and reverence in horror, especially horror print fiction? Am I just missing it? Entirely possible, given how oblivious I am.
That's what I recognized from reading about the evolution of horror in the cinema. There's no more taboos being broken. It's sad because there are still plenty of taboos to break. We've just made it forbiddingly impractical to get them broken with the way Hollywood is set up. Sigh.
Here's a picture of the old Watchmen (and women! plural!) I actually feel better about the movie for seeing it, though not entirely great. I like the idea that this picture communicates a lot--that heroing is serious and being taken seriously, but, as in the graphic novel, there's a retrospective recognition that, really, this is all very silly, isn't it?
My God, though: I love the old Silk Spectre's hair (hell, her everything compared to the new one). She's super cute in a thousand ways. Apparently, Watchmen comes out May 6, 2009. MAY MOVIE? Or will it break my heart too much that I wouldn't be able to take it?
Also, apparently they're making a DVD of the Tales of the Black Freighter, which all you comic geeks should recognize could be pretty awesome. I loved how unapologetically pulpy that parallel story is.
I've just finished reading The Horror Show by David Skal again, and I'm bent on reading more about the horror comics of the 1940s-1950s. (I have Comic Book Nation, I need to get more info). Because reading about what they did in these trash books is amazing. It sounds truly thrilling and fun and silly and perversely ahead-of-their-time even for today. I mean, we live in a world today that is scandalized by breasts. Yes, we have Troma, we have independent horror comics, but where has Tales from the Crypt gone? (Except to DVD, I mean.) Where is the glory and reverence in horror, especially horror print fiction? Am I just missing it? Entirely possible, given how oblivious I am.
That's what I recognized from reading about the evolution of horror in the cinema. There's no more taboos being broken. It's sad because there are still plenty of taboos to break. We've just made it forbiddingly impractical to get them broken with the way Hollywood is set up. Sigh.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-27 06:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-27 06:32 pm (UTC)I have a year to figure out what to think, and there will only be more stuff released to compare it against. What will really point me in one direction or another is when Zack Snyder takes it to a Comic Con. He did that with 300 and the enthusiastic response was definitely a sign of the eventual reaction to the film when it was released. Well, monetarily, I mean. I liked the film okay, but it wasn't brilliant. Then again, it was EXACTLY what Frank Miller put out in his graphic novel, so maybe if Snyder makes EXACTLY what Alan Moore created in his, it won't be so bad!