Frenchy’s Fracas

One of the most important comic book series in my life has ended. Tears and Smiles..

Fin.

The End.

Einde.

Finito.

Strangers In Paradise is over.

Damn.. Can’t find the words. I’ll miss this book.

Share This

Before this event in my life, I had no really mentionable experiences.. But I’ve been added to the Scary and Funny mister Warren Ellis‘ blog series called The Friday Telescreen and now I feel as life finally has meaning!! Heheh..

Share This

General Info
Title: 300
Year: 2007

In Short
191 BC - Persian God-King Xerxes comes to Greece and brings along all of his human and sub-human fighter slave army to conquer the place. Everybody’s shaking in their boots except King Leonidas of the Spartans. He will stop the mighty invaders with his small non-sanctioned army of just 300 men.

It’s a comic book!
Yep, sorry for all those with a fixed opinion about the genre, but 300 is a comic book, written and illustrated by one of the greats of the biz: Frank Miller.
The story isn’t his of course, it’s his interpretation of the legendary Battle of Thermopylae. And mister Miller does love his fighting stories..

The Movie
Visuals
Kaboom! From the opening scene to the closing titles: Kaboom! You get blown away.
Now, after quite some years of over the top computer graphics, you’d think you’d be kinda done seeing the stuff, but the way the effects are applied in this movie is incredible. What I really liked was the dark-brown ancient feeling they used and while you know it’s all fake, you get to enjoy a great suspension of disbelief, visuals-wise.

Plot
Ah.. well.. Not much to say: a small band of heroes fighting of a way, waaaaaay larger group of “evil men”. Hey, everybody roots for the underdog. It’s classical (no pun intended) storytelling - not really great in quality, but just a great bedtime story adventure thingy. Works for me.
There was even some political commotion from Iranian politicians and commentators that the movie was vilifying the Persians (Iran’s ancestors) - which was funny, I guess..

Cast
Not really any performances that stand out - the cast does work hard in realizing director Zack Snyder’s vision.

Conclusion
I enjoyed the movie coz I got what I expected: over the top macho muscle entertainment without any real heavy cerebral challenges. But that’s what some blasphemers think of Spartacus..
It’s also a comic book made to a movie and like Miller’s previous movie success, Sin City, you can sense the comic book feeling that dominates the movie. And that’s a tough job to accomplish, kudos.
I read that Snyder’s working on the filming of the movie version of Alan Moore’s in-frigging-credible Watchmen and judging by his work on 300, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Just a little bit..

Rating: (remember the Trojans Spartans)

Share This

Yes, I am a comics geek, now btfo.. Movie geeks will know his work: “From Hell”, “League Of Extra-Ordinary Gentlemen” and the upcoming “V for Vendetta“.
Check out this interview with Alan Moore on YouTube.com

Share This

General Info
Title: Batman Begins
Year: 2005

In Short
Bruce Wayne resolves to find a meaning in his life after losing his parents. His quest for revenge leads him to the Far East, to a mysterious group of ninja people who’s agenda would bring Bruce the answers he seeks.
Or something like that..

It’s a comic book!
Yep, sorry for all those with a fixed opinion about the genre, but Batman Begins is based on the comic book, written and illustrated by one of the greats of the biz: Bob Kane.
The Batman franchise survived the camp 70’s TV series after Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman. The following sequels are to be rated (and berated) from not bad to huh? to oh, shit..
Fortunately the people at Warner Bros. realised that they should stay away from the Batman franchise for a coupla years. With Batman Begins we see a return to a more quality approach, using the Batman: Year One book from Frank Miller as basis.

The Movie
Visuals
Great looking movie, especially the scenes in the mountains and the fight scene on ice (yep) are very nice. There’s a trademark look and feel to a Batman movie and it’s applied here too: the light versus dark contrast thingy of Gotham City and the almost total absence of primary colors.

Plot
Hmm.. Having read the original work, it’s easy to pull the wings off of this little bug, but it’s not an important thing to nag about (so why write about it?).
We get to see Bruce Wayne growing into the Dark Knight persona, we get to see that it sure as hell wasn’t the Joker that killed his parents (and so correcting a serious oversight in Burton’s Batman).
We get to see a love interest that doesn’t really happen and we get a very wide cast of characters being (re-)introduced to the saga.
I really liked the story, especially the future commissioner Gordon’s fight for right. The repositioning of Ra’s Al Ghul as one of Batman’s greatest foes is skillfully done.
Scarecrow was a great bad guy and the whole Arkham Asylum Island thing was entertaining.

Cast
The cast consists an incredible selection of performers:
The Good People: a delightful yet slightly incredulous Michael Cain as Alfred, the Butler. Typecasted Gary Oldman as do-gooder cop Jim Gordon. Morgan Freeman taking some extra retirement funds as the Q-character Lucius Fox
The Bad People: Liam Neeson taking revenge on his lame Star Wars character. Tom Wilkinson giving an excellent performance as mobster Carmine Falcone. Dutch grand master Rutger Hauer, enjoying his renaissance. And Cillian Murphy, the biggest pleasant surprise, as the Scarecrow.
The Waste Of Time People: Katie Holmes, period.

And Christian Bale as Batman? Wow.. nuff said..
Conclusion
Restoring a franchise-gone-wrong is quite an accomplishment and with Batman Begins the movie franchise has been given a second chance. Credit is due to director Christopher Nolan, of Memento and Insomnia fame.
I enjoyed the movie quite a lot and I’m eager to see what the next installment will bring. As a comic book geek, I have to admit that this movie doesn’t impress me as much as Sin City, but it still is a bloody good movie!

Rating:

Share This