Posts Tagged ‘adaptations’

My husband and I just finished the second episode of the anime version of High School of the Dead, a series about the zombie apocalypse starting in downtown Tokyo.

It was originally a manga that my husband adores and is still reading as new chapters come out.

So far the adaptation from manga to anime is spot on.

I watched my first anime before I read my first manga, Weiss Kreuz, an older series about assassins posing as flower shop workers during the day. It is not a great anime, but it has a special place in my heart, and like many of its fellows it also has an accompanying manga.

The manga for Weiss Kreuz is not typical, but tells the story of how the main characters ended up working together, a prequel to better understand the events in the anime.

Manga and Anime relations for a single series can develop in a number of different ways. Most people assume that the norm is to have a manga that existed first that they then translated into an anime to see the stationary pictures come alive with movement and voice actors.

Sometimes it is that clean cut, but not always.
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It isn’t often that a movie is so bad that I allow it to join the ranks of my most hated movies of all time, like The Spirit, Shadow of the Vampire and To Die For. But The Last Airbender was so painful to watch, I almost left the theatre.

I do not leave movies without giving them the full benefit of the doubt, but maybe sometimes I should. If I had left when I realized that no, the movie was not going to get better, I could have avoided the inevitable soul-raping that took place.
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There are classic lines from movies that have become a part of cinema history. These lines are often used in parodies and quoted in reverence.

I don’t have any problem with parodies or when a classic line is spoken specifically to honor the movie it came from.

But there are also generic lines, lines we have heard again and again that have become more than just clichés, they are an epidemic.

You know some of the classic lines I’m talking about.

The American Film Institution’s list of the top 100 movie quotes in American cinema puts this at #1:
 

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

But my favorite would have to be #79:

Striker: “Surely you can’t be serious!”
Rumack: “I am serious… and don’t call me Shirley.”

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I realize I have been starting a trend lately with not doing the blog I promised to do the week I said I would, but I will get to “Why Today’s Cartoons Suck” next week. Today I need to rant.

I recently posted the blog “Comic Book Movie Adaptations FTW” in preparation for Kick-Ass, The Losers, and Scott Pilgrim vs the World. I admitted not having read Kick-Ass or The Losers at the time, but before seeing Kick-Ass in theatres I finally got the chance to read its comic.

And I hated it.

Don’t misunderstand, I adored the movie. It was everything I wanted it to be. But the comic almost had me backing out of seeing the film at all.

I would like to avoid spoilers for those of you who have not read the comic or seen the film yet, so I will try to generalize as I explain why the comic upset me so much.
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I have discussed comic book movies a few times on here, including a few from last summer, some good, some bad, and some of the more terrible examples in the history of adaptations, like Batman & Robin.

When we think of comic book movies we usually think of classic examples like that— Batman, Iron Man, X-men—but there are also comic book movie adaptations from lesser known comics.

Those are the examples I would like to discuss today, because there are three such movies coming out in the near future that look pretty damn good: Kick-Ass, The Losers, and Scott Pilgrim vs The World.
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Yes, I realize that this is not the promised blog about role playing handbooks, but the deluge of Captain America rumors has overtaken my mind recently. Every day my husband and I check for updates on whom the lucky man might be.

We were promised that we would be told the identity of the Captain America actor by the end of February. Obviously, that has not happened.

While I do have my own two cents that I will add later about the actor I think should be chosen, the real fascination here is in how public this whole process has been.

Now, to be fair, Marvel has stated that we should ignore all the rumors, because none of them have been official statements. We simply know that certain actors have read for the part, and some of them have announced/tweeted that they are no longer in the running. That hardly confirms anything on who might actually be chosen.

Plans for a new Captain America movie have been in the works for some time. After the huge success of Iron Man, and the slightly better numbers for Edward Norton’s The Incredible Hulk compared to Eric Bana’s Hulk, plans for an eventual Avengers movie has been the ultimate goal.

Thor is confirmed and cast. They won’t scrap Ant Man rumors no matter how much we groan. And now…Captain America.
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I think most people underestimate just how many films in existence have been based off of comics. The list is rather extensive, even just for the English language ones.

I am not talking about the good ones either. This blog is for the ones that sucked. The ones that were either all around bad or just didn’t capture their parent source correctly.

This is for the ones that FAILED.

If I tried to discuss all of them, or went into TV movies, God forbid, we’d be here all day (and I really don’t want to review the Hoff as Nick Fury). So here is my short list.
 
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I am torn on this one. With the other versus blogs I had a clear favorite even when most of the time I greatly respected the opposing side, but with this particular debate it is harder to choose. I would say Marvel simply because Spider-Man, Deadpool, and the X-men are some of my favorite characters of all time, but then DC has Batman, and it really is hard to compete against Batman.

There is a lot more to cover with these franchises than with any of the others I have compared thus far, so bear with me. Onto a brief history of each of these incredible comic publishers.
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I hate Twilight. I think Stephanie Meyer’s poorly written and inane series is the worst thing to ever happen to fictional vampire culture. Possibly the entire fiction world.

Vampires that sparkle in the sun? Seriously?

And don’t even get me started on the abusive relationship between Mr. Hot Vampire Guy and his totally unremarkable leading lady.

But this isn’t a forum for me to bitch about Twilight. At least not today. Today I am comparing as impartially as possible the franchises of Twilight and Anne Rice’s older series, The Vampire Chronicles that began with its most notable title, Interview with the Vampire.

My bias is even worse here since I have reed the entire original series by Anne Rice and I absolutely adore it, at least up until the point when the author lost her mind, but again, I will do my best to remain impartial throughout.

Onto the history.
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I once got into a heated debate over how only an idiot would think Harry Potter wins in a comparison with Lord of the Rings because the writing is so superior. Me? I was on Harry’s side.

To some readers J. R. R. Tolkien drones on and on about the details of a leaf when we just want to get to the story, while J. K. Rowling has readership with children barely in their double digits as well as with their grandparents with equal success.

So what is the definition of ‘superior writing’ exactly?

As with my previous blog entry, Star Trek vs Star Wars, I do not want my opinion to further cloud this comparison, as I see great strengths in both franchises. Let us begin then, as before, with a quick history.
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