I don't consider myself as a comic geek. I consider myself as a very picky comic geek. In fact, the only comics I owned and liked would be Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Warren Elis' Planetary and recently Alan Moore's "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen". A couple of months ago, I saw the movie and was mildly amused so I decided to take a look at the comic. I say that the movie has nothing to do with the comic at all but five character names. The comic really has the feel of the victorian times and the true image of the characters. In addition, most character has a certain default: (drug-addict Quartermain, egocentric pervert Griffin...). Whereas the movies had some cliches, the comic had few which were planted on purpose. Honestly, I am surprised how Alan Moore successfully captured the mood of the epoch and the charcters. Also at the end of the comic there's a rather big 'victorian adventure story' which is no less entertaining than the comic. I do not think there are many comic book readers here but at least I'll try. If not, this topic will be eventually lost and no one would care. G'night.
Well, I heard that the movie was absolute shite, but for a while I was interested in tracking down the comic, it sounds like a great idea - I love that whole 19th Century adventure feel...
It's not that the movie was bad, it's just that it could have been so much better. I blame Sean Connery and his massive ego personally. I find the movie quite watchable and stylish, as long as I don't start thinking about all the parts I'd like to change. Besides, Jason Flemyng is fantastic as Jekyll. The comic on the other hand is pure brilliance. The first series more so than the second, but anyway.
Compare Allan Quartermain from the movie and Alan Quartermain from the comic. Completely different people. I didn't HATE the movie, but now, after reading the comic, it bugs me that the movie was "based on a comic book by Alan Moore" when the story was completely remade (Moriarty's secret hideout was more convinient for a bond movie). Jason Flemyng, like most people who played in Snatch and Lock Stock, is a good actor.
My complaint about Sean Connery isn't solely about his acting. As executive producer he exercised a lot of influence on the film's direction, even to the point of firing the director during post-production. It was an ego project for him (as you know Quartermain wasn't the main focus of the comic), and he ruined it for himself and everyone else.
I find that it's quite rare that the movie and original published book have the same plot. Look what they did to Heilein's "Starship Troopers" and Gibson's "Johnny Menomic", the only thing the same is the charactor names. Damm shame, I liked "Molly Chrome".
Khhh! Don't mention that! Can't believe my father liked that travesty. Instead of a psychological sci-fi about the importance of the military, we get some half-baked, typically-hollywood action flick. They showed Carmen as a slut too.
Actually, I quite liked both the book and the movie. It helped that I read the book second, but really, if you ignore the title, then it becomes a very watchable action movie.
I watched Starship Troopers before reading the book but when I watched, I felt something was... wrong. It was bearable then, but after reading the book I won't watch that movie again. Couldn't they bloody change the title?
Starship Troopers was a joke movie made by some kooky german director. Get the DVD out some day and listen to the commentary, he goes on about fooling 'idiot americans' into thinking this was a serious movie that was either good or is just badly made. Its a giant personal joke to assure this director that americans are generally stupid. It also says as a warning that the publishers do not support the ideas and views of the director in this DVD. It's a hoot.
See, now I thought Starship Troopers was great.... as a comedy. Me and a mate went and saw it and laughed all the way through it, one memorable part was when they arrive at the abandoned outpost and after they find the commander hiding in the closet/cubboatrd and he runs away from the flying "bugs" one of them pick's him up and crashes into the building I yell "GOT HIM!" and start laughing out loud.
i loved the movie and the book... for entirely different reasons. truthfully, i feel as though they just picked the name of the movie out of a hat, and it coincidentally matched the book. i know it's not true, but that's how it feels.
Yeah, I really should listen to the full commentary one of these days. I got as far as him saying that whenever someone wore black, they were about to act like a complete bastard and do something evil (or something to that effect). Then I decided to watch the movie properly. Half the movie has nothing to do with the book, and the other half is so warped and twisted from the original material it's hard to see the connection at times.
I am currently low on cash and comic books are rather expensive. The next thing on my list is Watchmen.
read Preacher. best comic EVER. except maybe tankgirl. but that's completely different. and if you mention the movie, then you obviously never read the comic.
I never saw Tankgirl now I wanted to. I had preacher reccomended by a friend (the same one who reccomended LXG, Watchmen and many others). Thanks anyway.
Another comic i'd recommend is Hellblazer, which follows the exploits of John Constantine, british magus and con man. The series isn't very interesting right now, but the earlier comics were great.
