Comic Flash

I’m going to forgo my Spider-Man essay for now. No, I’m not copping out! I just don’t have the time. I actually started it but the way I was going, it was going to be too long. I’ll sum it up by saying that character development could’ve been much better. It was just too flashy for me on a whole. Overall, though, it was pretty decent. It may have stuck to the original comic too closely. What!? Isn’t that a good thing? In my opinion, not really.

See, comic books themselves aren’t that deep. They’re mostly “flash” also. The majority of the comic is cool drawings and action. I’m not slamming that, it’s what they are and that’s perfectly fine. When they want to get deeper on a story, they do a graphic novel, a much longer version that you can fit more story into. Or, they run a long series. When a comic book gets made into a movie, though, it needs to build some depth. That’s what I prefer in a movie. I’d love to see some “exploration” on subjects that the comic books didn’t cover. For example, Peter Parker’s childhood. It would’ve been cool if they briefly explored that, even if it never was in the comics.

I must applaud Universal for going with Ang Lee to direct the Hulk. When you look at his filmography, he’s one of the least likely you’d expect to direct the Hulk. His previous movies are pretty deep and artsy. They include, The Wedding Banquet, Eat Drink Man Woman, Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm, and the one that made him most famous – Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I’ve seen most of these and they are excellent movies. I think he brought a lot of himself to Hulk and it showed.

It seems to be the trend with the studios for comic book movies - hire a lesser known director that has critically acclaimed movies. Then the studio makes up for the appeal by hiring big name actors. Those studios! Always copying each other!

Speaking of deep, artsy movies – Punch Drunk Love came out on DVD Tuesday. I hope to check out the extras this weekend.

Dang, I went rambling! I planned on a short post. Oh, well.