Constantine
Or "How Another Comic Book Movie Was Ruined for Me Because I Am Too Familiar with the Source Material."
If you're going to do a movie about John Constantine, why would you insist on grafting on a bunch of half-explained high-concept Hollywood bullshit to a plot that's sort of complicated enough in the first place? "Oh, I'm one of the only ones who can see demons and angels, only they're not REALLY demons or angels, they're half-breeds, and I've taken it upon myself to be a sort of half-breed policeman because God and the Devil made a wager, you see, and can't directly influence souls and blah blah blah" shut up.
I guess the idea of a grifing magician who's pissed off the Devil just wasn't Matrix-y enough for the filmmakers, which is hysterical considering how many critics didn't understand the original Matrix in the first place. "Kids don't like simple anymore! They need their plots complicated! Can you make it more complicated?" I wouldn't complain if that idea added anything and were ever properly explained, but alas.
I just don't get this idea of adapting books that have a perfectly serviceable story and then completely rewriting the plot. What on earth is wrong with Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? What a great movie that could have been if they'd bothered to just adapt the damn thing, but no. Just a huge slog with flahes of the original work's brilliance.
Constantine (which takes most of its cues from Garth Ennis' run on Hellblazer, most notably "Dangerous Habits") is certainly a better movie than LoEG, but it's still not very good. Garth Ennis' run could easily be condensed into a movie. Perhaps they thought the stakes weren't high enough in the comic. In the book it's just John's soul that's at stake, not the fate of the entire world.
I don't know. It's hard to enjoy a movie for what it is when you know that better material is around. Like Ghost World. Very good movie. Couldn't enjoy it as much as I would otherwise, because they felt the need to completely change the story from the comic. I went in expecting a movie about the dwindling friendship of two adolescent girls, and instead got an adolescent girl's relationship with a Robert Crumb stand-in. ("Don't you see, Robert Crumb? Terry Zwigoff doesn't hate you. He... he LOVES you!") You can see why I might be a bit dismayed.
What was I talking about? Oh, right. I don't think Constantine is a particularly good movie whether you've read the comic or not, but reading the comic just makes it more frustrating.
I know, I need to let go of these things. But it's hard.
If you're going to do a movie about John Constantine, why would you insist on grafting on a bunch of half-explained high-concept Hollywood bullshit to a plot that's sort of complicated enough in the first place? "Oh, I'm one of the only ones who can see demons and angels, only they're not REALLY demons or angels, they're half-breeds, and I've taken it upon myself to be a sort of half-breed policeman because God and the Devil made a wager, you see, and can't directly influence souls and blah blah blah" shut up.
I guess the idea of a grifing magician who's pissed off the Devil just wasn't Matrix-y enough for the filmmakers, which is hysterical considering how many critics didn't understand the original Matrix in the first place. "Kids don't like simple anymore! They need their plots complicated! Can you make it more complicated?" I wouldn't complain if that idea added anything and were ever properly explained, but alas.
I just don't get this idea of adapting books that have a perfectly serviceable story and then completely rewriting the plot. What on earth is wrong with Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? What a great movie that could have been if they'd bothered to just adapt the damn thing, but no. Just a huge slog with flahes of the original work's brilliance.
Constantine (which takes most of its cues from Garth Ennis' run on Hellblazer, most notably "Dangerous Habits") is certainly a better movie than LoEG, but it's still not very good. Garth Ennis' run could easily be condensed into a movie. Perhaps they thought the stakes weren't high enough in the comic. In the book it's just John's soul that's at stake, not the fate of the entire world.
I don't know. It's hard to enjoy a movie for what it is when you know that better material is around. Like Ghost World. Very good movie. Couldn't enjoy it as much as I would otherwise, because they felt the need to completely change the story from the comic. I went in expecting a movie about the dwindling friendship of two adolescent girls, and instead got an adolescent girl's relationship with a Robert Crumb stand-in. ("Don't you see, Robert Crumb? Terry Zwigoff doesn't hate you. He... he LOVES you!") You can see why I might be a bit dismayed.
What was I talking about? Oh, right. I don't think Constantine is a particularly good movie whether you've read the comic or not, but reading the comic just makes it more frustrating.
I know, I need to let go of these things. But it's hard.
posted by Jeff at 10:15 AM
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