The full trailer for Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City is now online. The jury’s still out on this one for me. On one hand, it looks as close to the Frank Miller source material as you can get. On the other, I’m not sure if it looks like a film, really…I could see this coming off like a bad community theater production after the first few minutes. Quite a cast, though.
Category: Comics
If he only had a brain.
With the thoughts he’d be thinkin’, he could be another Lincoln…but, no, he’s turned to super-villainy. The first quality shots of Cillian Murphy’s Scarecrow from Batman Begins pop up online. Word is he’ll look slightly more twisted to those under the influence.
The Bombing Game.
Stephen Rea joins the Wachowskis’ take on V for Vendetta (with James Purefoy and Natalie Portman.) Unfortunately, according to Newsarama‘s Rich Johnston, the movie’s taking a few detours away from Alan Moore’s series. Given the terrorist protagonist, I’m dismayed, but not surprised. (2nd link via Ed Rants.)
Lung Shadows.
At first, after the early director troubles and the casting of Keanu, I wouldn’t have given Constantine a snowball’s chance in Hell. But, while I can definitely see how it might come off as long-winded, somewhat inscrutable, and mostly boring to folks who hadn’t read the comics, I found the movie a surprisingly good adaptation of the source material. Much more atmospheric than your average February release comic book film, Constantine is a well-thought-out, well-constructed (if occasionally overlong) B-picture. As Keanu might say, “Whoa.”
I haven’t read Hellblazer much in the past decade, but what I remember most about the early adventures of John Constantine were (a) his frequent conversations and complicated pacts with the various demilords of Heaven and Hell, and (b) the absurdly short life-spans among his worldwide network of demonologists, clairvoyants, freaks, and hangers-on. To its credit, Constantine gets both details exactly right, with Tilda Swinton, Gavin Rossdale, Djimon Hounsou, and Peter Stormare playing otherworldly nobility to great effect (although I think I preferred Viggo’s take on Lucifer in The Prophecy), and Max Baker and Pruitt Taylor Vince (born to play a Constantine sidekick) layering on the eccentricities thick as unlucky compadres of the man of the hour.
When Constantine falters, it’s mainly in the long, protracted scenes between Keanu and Rachel Weisz, the latter of whom plays twins (one the love interest, the other the McGuffin.) The two (or three, whatever) don’t have much chemistry, and they stop the film cold occasionally in the middle hour. Also, the depiction of the Underworld, which basically resembles Sarah Connor’s nuclear nightmare in T2, has that cheap FX-house look to it, and fails to capture the wry malevolence often seen in DC’s comic-book Hell (for example, in the various torments visited upon Alan Moore’s Anton Arcane in Swamp Thing, or, in a creepy vision that I’ve never escaped, when Grant Morrison’s Kid Eternity encountered his teddy bear in the throes of agony, pleading for respite and demanding vengeance for his abandonment.)
Still, despite these lapses, I found Constantine for the most part an enjoyable and sequel-worthy adaptation, and an auspicious sign for fanboy cinema in 2005. Perhaps this’ll even bode well for FF…Nah.
I am the Resurrection.
By way of the new-look DYFL, the X-Men try to figure out what it takes to die for good in the Marvel universe in the flash film Death Becomes Them. Claremont, like nature, always finds a way.
Jedis, Muggles, & Bats.
Coming Soon points the way to a number of 2005 tentpole pics, including this EW shot from Episode III, another from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and a smattering of new images from Batman Begins.
Watching the Detectives.
A hearty congrats to Chris at Do You Feel Loved?, who procured one of his dream jobs yesterday, and will be working for none other than DC Comics starting next week. With this and Batman Begins, is Detective Comics back for the ’05?
Lex and Kumar go to White Kandor.
Move over, Otis: Harold & Kumar‘s Kal Penn joins the cast of Superman as “Riley,” Lex Luthor’s #2. Will Supes be sent slip-slyding away?
Pats and Bats.
Well, there may have been no nipple sightings during this year’s somewhat sloppy Superbowl (McCartney, you tease) — nor, as Seth Stevenson points out, were there much in the way of memorable ads — but we did get another look at Batman Begins, which included what appears to be our first glimpse of The Scarecrow, as well as a disaster-movie moment from War of the Worlds. I was hoping for more, but ah well.
The Mongoose to his Spider.
“Absolutely we wanted to have a villain not only who would fulfill the character needs but somebody who could entertain the audience on a visceral level and provide great visuals, something we haven’t seen before, and create a real challenge and great foe for Spider-Man and his unique spidery, spider-like powers.” Sam Raimi announces he’s picked a villain for Spiderman 3, but won’t say who it is. After the Green Goblin/Hobgoblin and Dr. Octopus, Spiderman doesn’t have all that many more culturally resonant arch-nemeses in his Rogue’s Gallery: It’d be hard to see them building a movie around Mysterio, Electro, The Vulture, The Sandman, or Kraven the Hunter. And, while Green Goblin II, The Lizard, and Man-Wolf were all alluded to in Spidey II, only the Harry Osborne/James Franco storyline seems weighty enough to build a third feature around, and I’m not sure they’d want to repeat the Goblin so quickly. So, unless Webhead takes on the entire Sinister Six, I think it’s a pretty good bet we’ll be seeing Venom in the next installment. He got really quickly overused in the McFarlane era, which is right around where I stopped reading Spidey (give or take a few issues of the Straczynski run.) But he should also be an FX dream on film if done right.