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egypturnashSaw the Hellboy movie today. I liked it. It took a lot of liberties with the source material, but enough stuff stayed the same, and the atmosphere remained - and that's a lot of the appeal of the comic to me, the visual mood and the sense of pacing, the change between slow, moody parts and crazy action.
I laughed at a lot of things most people wouldn't have - Ashy noted that every time there was a shot of a statue on-screen, it pretty much got a giggle out of me, because I've studied and analyzed Mignola's comics enough to know a bunch of his schtick. Lingering panel of a statue? Snowy graveyard setting? Yep. Hellboy. And yes, there is a part where he's punching monsters and saying "POW!" as he hits. All the little bits that were probably represented in the original boards by a panel torn out of Wake The Devil or Seed Of Destruction got a giggle from me. (The story is pretty much WTD crossed with SoD, with a little bit of the explicit prophecy from Conqueror Worm thrown in. Oh, and a defining moment from Box Full Of Evil, and a nod to The Corpse.)
I didn't like that they turned Abe into a psychic, but this was made up for by the fact that he was totally sexy. I want to have Abe's tadpoles. I want to hear fishy little whispers as I stare into those huge black iris-blinking eyes. (Have I ever mentioned that I'm a xenophile?) The love affair was jarring and formulaic, and the transformation of Karl from a quiet mad scientist into what he is here was... different. Ashy really loathed that because she has a thing for mad science; I thought it was okay because what he is here still fit the general mood of Hellboy, if not the established canon.
But my view on adaptations has changed a lot, after contemplating the Harry Potter movies and the Lord of the Rings movies. A comic is not a movie is not a novel is not a short story is not a series. I think it has to change in the process. How many good novelizations have you read?
Anyway. Not anally true to the comic by any means. But true to the feel and the mood and the rhythm of the comic. I'm a fan of the original and I thought this was a pretty decent adaptation. Not a great one, but it's pretty much exactly what I'd have expected out of a Hellboy movie: monster-whomping with the Right Hand Of Doom, apocalyptic rumblings, tentacles (♥), Abe, Liz, Broom, and a general sense of fun.
I laughed at a lot of things most people wouldn't have - Ashy noted that every time there was a shot of a statue on-screen, it pretty much got a giggle out of me, because I've studied and analyzed Mignola's comics enough to know a bunch of his schtick. Lingering panel of a statue? Snowy graveyard setting? Yep. Hellboy. And yes, there is a part where he's punching monsters and saying "POW!" as he hits. All the little bits that were probably represented in the original boards by a panel torn out of Wake The Devil or Seed Of Destruction got a giggle from me. (The story is pretty much WTD crossed with SoD, with a little bit of the explicit prophecy from Conqueror Worm thrown in. Oh, and a defining moment from Box Full Of Evil, and a nod to The Corpse.)
I didn't like that they turned Abe into a psychic, but this was made up for by the fact that he was totally sexy. I want to have Abe's tadpoles. I want to hear fishy little whispers as I stare into those huge black iris-blinking eyes. (Have I ever mentioned that I'm a xenophile?) The love affair was jarring and formulaic, and the transformation of Karl from a quiet mad scientist into what he is here was... different. Ashy really loathed that because she has a thing for mad science; I thought it was okay because what he is here still fit the general mood of Hellboy, if not the established canon.
But my view on adaptations has changed a lot, after contemplating the Harry Potter movies and the Lord of the Rings movies. A comic is not a movie is not a novel is not a short story is not a series. I think it has to change in the process. How many good novelizations have you read?
Anyway. Not anally true to the comic by any means. But true to the feel and the mood and the rhythm of the comic. I'm a fan of the original and I thought this was a pretty decent adaptation. Not a great one, but it's pretty much exactly what I'd have expected out of a Hellboy movie: monster-whomping with the Right Hand Of Doom, apocalyptic rumblings, tentacles (♥), Abe, Liz, Broom, and a general sense of fun.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-03 03:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-03 05:07 pm (UTC)I did love the visual direction of this movie, though. I had only flipped through a couple of Hellboy's when I was looking for something new. I never really read any of them, but I did love the look, and it was nice to see that they kept paying homage to the look.
As I said in my journal, Hellboy is what Spiderman could have been, but wasn't. I am glad that they got this one right.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-03 10:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-04 02:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-04 02:56 pm (UTC)...I suspect I might have been lusting after Nightcrawler like most of the geekgrrls I know if I'd bothered to see any of the X-Men movies. But the franchise never did much for me, so I didn't bother.
no subject
Date: 2004-04-04 05:14 pm (UTC)Stylistically, though, it looked exactly like it should have.