Essay on Comic to Film Transition (wasnt sure where to post sorry)

[HooYang_Leung]

Hi everyone. Basically im doing an essay on the transition of comic to film for my dissertation and was hoping to get some opinions of people in the know, or even just some thoughts from you guys. The question i have set myself is

How succesfully does Hollywood lift out the two dimensional realm of comic books into real world sitatuions, what compromises are made and how succesful are the transitions?

If anyone has any thoughts or ideas they would be much appreciated :)

[Venoman]

i think the films add more realism.... the spiderman films explained things better than the comics did. And i think the films were very succesfull... if they were exactly like the comics theyd probably be boring... they seem to have ignored all concepts of time since the goblin appeared and died before Doc ock... but it still worked very well in its own right. you should talk about sin city.... that actually tries to emulate a comic book in the film... which is different since most comic book films try to make the films look as realistic as possible...
the daredevil film brought a new sense of perspection on how he saw things using his sense which i though was awsome..

[Sean Whitmore]

How succesfully does Hollywood lift out the two dimensional realm of comic books into real world sitatuions, what compromises are made and how succesful are the transitions?


One bit of advice I'd give you is not to proceed from the premise that comic book stories are all two dimensional (from your usage I assume you were referring to the stories and not the fact that they're printed on paper ;) )

More than a few comic book films have been disappointing precisely because they were lighter and less substantial than the comics they were adapted from. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Constantine immediately spring to mind.


SEAN

[Captain Sarcasm]

One bit of advice I'd give you is not to proceed from the premise that comic book stories are all two dimensional (from your usage I assume you were referring to the stories and not the fact that they're printed on paper ;) )

More than a few comic book films have been disappointing precisely because they were lighter and less substantial than the comics they were adapted from. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Constantine immediately spring to mind.

On the other hand, though, a lot of comic book movies that did well have done so primarily because they didn't adhere religiously to the comics.

Batman and Superman, for example, have each had 60-plus years of comic book history, and Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four have had 40-plus. Those characters have had dozens, possibly even hundreds of authors, all with different impressions on the characters and their world. However, the successful comic book movies have worked because they abandoned the minutae and rigid history of the comics and crafted an entirely new story and interpretation while remaining true to the basic spirit of the characters more than anything.

[Sean Whitmore]

On the other hand, though, a lot of comic book movies that did well have done so primarily because they didn't adhere religiously to the comics.


That's all true, but it's not what I'm saying. League of Gentleman wasn't bad because it didn't follow the comics to the letter, it was bad because it was an insubstantial, by-the-numbers, mindless popcorn flick. Whereas the comics were smart unique and had something to say.


SEAN

[KameTen]

Unlike regular films, who start with a believable base can only push disbelief to a certain, sometimes shallow point before all credibility is lost and the viewer is unable to immerse theselves into that world, many comic book movies, because they operate under improbable circumstances, must maintain deeper ties to believable circumstances and actions than most movies, with the exception of action films, which operate under the same standards as the comic book movie. The main objective of the comic book movie, from actor to director to editor down to the cameraman, then becomes keeping people engrossed within the incredible world they are watching rather than relying on the acting abilities of the main characters. Sadly, this gives many actors the option of really bad overacting or really bad method acting, with Willem Dafoe craptastic performance as the Green Goblin the most recent example in my mind.

[Captain Sarcasm]

That's all true, but it's not what I'm saying. League of Gentleman wasn't bad because it didn't follow the comics to the letter, it was bad because it was an insubstantial, by-the-numbers, mindless popcorn flick. Whereas the comics were smart unique and had something to say.

Right, but adapting something like "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" is different from adapting a regular comic. Regular comic books rely on maintaining the more-or-less status quo for a period of several decades, whereas stuff like LOEG or Sin City set out to tell a story with a distinct beginning, middle and end. Mechanically, it's more like adapting a novel than a comic book.

[KameTen]

In the overall with the LXG "adaptation" (as loosely as possible), instead of going for something smart and well written, they went for popcorn flick with no substance. Even with a definite beginning and end, they still screwed it up because they wanted something completly different from the source material, and lowballed their efforts so much that it all went to crap.