Best feature-length movie based on a comic

How did you manage to forget "300"?

Wow. That's pretty comprehensive. Well done.

I went for American Splendor. I thought it captured the spirit of the comic very well.

Whoops, sorry about 300. The list was based on IMDb's "based-on-a-comic" keyword search, with a few additions that came to my mind.

I voted for "Addams Family Values", it made me laugh a lot both times I've seen it. "Addams Family", "Barbarella", "The Rocketeer" I've also enjoyed. Worst I've seen off that list is probably "Heavy Metal", which sucked even though I was loaded when I watched it. I'm sure there is far worse on there though.

Tuomas, you should put this poll up again, second time round for "worst feature length movie based on a comic" - it seems to me that there's been a few good ones, but a few more really bad ones, so just as valid, maybe.

Personally I'm tempted to vote for the "Twelve Tasks of Asterix", which is great - it's not based on any of the Asterix books, but it has an original script by Uderzo and Coscinny (written before he died).

If I'd have to choose the worst comic-based movie I've seen, the live-action Asterix would be a strong candidate.

Also interesting are the movies which are based on comics few people know of, like Oldboy or History of Violence. Or at least I've never seen those particular comics.

Yea totally -- I had no idea either of those two were based on comics.

And in that case, I'm definitely voting for Oldboy, though Sin City would be right behind it. I actually loved X-Men 2 (1 was pretty good too, 3 pretty much failed, though.)

I need to think about this more before I vote. In terms of capturing the essence of the comic, the answer might actually be the most recent Punisher film.

I'll go with "Twelve tasks of Asterix" because it is great and also because it has become such a staple among people i know that scenes from that movie often come up in our discussions to explain what something was like (ok, that only really applies to that one scene where they go up and down and left and right and above and out and in the building to get that one administrative document). There are more good movies on that list than i would expect though.

I knew about Oldboy and A History of Violence, but I had no idea about Over the Hedge.

You forgot all of the Lone Wolf and Cub movies.

Blade v. Hellboy

History of Violence might be the only one that's more interesting than the source material (from what I remember), but it's gotta be http://img201.echo.cx/img201/3692/batshark9wi.gif

I'm stuck between Superman II and American Splendor.

Roger Corman's Fantastic Four >>>>>>>>>>>> something

I'm only voting if Morbs does.

Killer Condom?

i voted '89 Batman, but I would have chosen Akira or Ghost in the Shell..

this is really hard, mostly because the good ones (American Splendor, Batman Returns, Superman II, Ghost World, X-Men I and II) are all so wildly different

however it goes without saying that most of this list is unwatchable crap

Captain America (from 1990 - what the hell is this?)

haha Ned Beatty is in it! Its awful. On a par with the Corman FF movie.

Old Boy is based on a comic? Wow, those Koreans.

With some of these, there is a tension between being good films and being good films based on comics. As in, Old Boy is a better film than X-Men, but X-Men is a better comic film.

Addams Family Values RoXoR... and isn't it based on single image cartoons rather than proper comics?

i voted '89 Batman, but I would have chosen Akira or Ghost in the Shell..

-- poortheatre, Tuesday, August 7, 2007 3:13 PM (Tuesday, August 7, 2007 3:13 PM) Bookmark Link

This list would have been pretty ridiculous if it included every adaptation of a manga. That said, it's kind of silly that Oldboy's on it and nothing else.

Best soundtrack from a feature-length movie based on a comic?

-Popeye: The Musical
-Batman
-Flash Gordon

Batman has Prince & Siouxsie and the Bansheees...the bootleg of Harry Nilsson's Popeye demos is really good too, tho.

"snoopy come home" is better than any of these, if only for the scene where snoopy "boxes" w/ a bunch of ppl with a boxing glove on his nose.

where's Daredevil? never mind, it's pants.

OMG Snoopy Come Home is THE BEST! When my youngest bro was first learning how to talk, we'd always duet on "No Dogs Allowed." (He'd sing, "...or birds" at the end.) And one of his first sentences was "Snoopy come home!" We watched that movie together so many times. I like how gently paced and non-pandering it is.

The snoopy movies are soooo depressing

I went for Batman Begins cos it's fresh in my mind and I love the way it tries to rationalise everything and actually works.

Ghost World by a million billion miles.

Wasn't the Matrix based on a comic book?

Nope.

History of Violence vs. Old Boy. I'm probably going with the former, but either one has a good case. Blade & Blade II are the best superhero ones, I'm thinking.

<i>Wasn't the Matrix based on a comic book?</i>

It shamelessly and systematically rips off Grant Morrison's <i>Invisibles</i>, but that's not quite the same thing I suppose...

I watched Oldboy again the other night. Good movie.

Ha, the Matrix rips from a million things, the Invisibles being just a bit, but that's a conversation for a different thread.

OG Batman, cuz, yeah, the shark-fight, and also the part where they dehydrate the surrogate-UN.

Problem with Oldboy is that the central motivation of the 'villain' doesn't make any sense and so derails the movie.

History of Violence is the best movie IMO, but I voted for Superman 2 because it best expresses, of any of the movies, the core theme of all comic books.

Superpowers = virginity?

Well, if you turn into a big green monster with emotion, you can't touch people without sucking their life out, or you're so strong you can bend steel - probably.

But you would know, now wouldn't you heir Dr.?

big time

I don't read comics, but the best film on that list is Oldboy, followed by A History of Violence.

Killer Condom?

This is a gay detective/horror story spoof based on the comic by Ralf König (and the condom itself is designed by H.R. Giger). König is hugely popular in Continental Europe (and rightfully so), but for some reason he never seems to have launched off in the Anglo countries.

I think I've seen Killer Condom! Well the last 10 minutes of it anyway. There was a giant condom with big teeth. I had NFI what was going on. It was german.

Yeah, that's it.

I agree that there's really two categories here: movies that are good regardless of the source material, and movies which are good in capturing the spirit of the comic. For example, American Splendor does a fine job in adapting the comic to the screen, whereas Constantine is quite far from the original, but it's a fine horror movie nevertheless.

History of Violence might be the only one that's more interesting than the source material (from what I r

Haven't seen the film (yet), but I did buy the book as a present for my husband. Now you're telling me it's not good??? *shit*

It's not great, and is pretty different to the film.

I'd like to vote for Ghost World cause I love the comic but was a little meh about the movie. Maybe V for Vendetta.

xxpost true dat, but doesn't mean it's not present in both men's artwork

Because sexual fantasies aren't the stuff people usually share with each other, I think fictional looks into them can be very interesting in "looking-inside-someone's-head" kinda way.

Not unless it's porn. "Love and Rockets" touched on a lot of that, but not because it presented someone's sexual fantasies as-is, because it deconstructed them.

I've always found Clowes' protestations that he's NOT into goofy indie-girl bondage gear to be rather, erm, disingenuous. I remember him saying how he and his wife just find the idea of middle-class swingers in zipper masks hilarious but completely unerotic, and just cuz they happen to own a lot of such gear/artwork/porn and have it on display in their home and in his work, they actually find it too laughable to be a turn-on.... methinks thou doth protest too much, Dan.

I don't know, that scene at the end of David Boring when he's dating the assless blonde girl and thinking about that one ideal assful woman the whole time...shit like that just kind of makes me wish for the obviousness and transparency of Crumb's fetishes, rather than Clowes' "um...well...I don't know...um...geee... oh god that girl has a big round ass AND glasses... whaddamI gonna say on NPR about this if someone asks?"

xpost haha Shakey Mo OTM

hahaha totally - Crumb's stuff can get plenty boring and repetitive but its so much more interesting precisely because it is so naked and confrontational.

however I am not surprised that Crumb offends Tuomas' sensitive man-feminist sensibilities

Clowes sometimes offends my girl-feminist sensibilities...his patented brand of homely-hot artsy girls ruining/titillating the lives of older men.

I dunno, I found David Boring pretty obvious and transparent. Isn't the whole comic about David's search for the root of his fetish? Just because Clowes doesn't draw himself into it like Crumb doesn't make it less obvious what the comic is about. Though I'd never known he's denied his personal interest in it all, that sounds kinda disingenous. I mean, many of his comics are so open about this stuff it'd feel pretty weird if there wasn't some personal motivation behind it.

(xxx-post)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

not bad

Except for Batman Begins you mean.

Two people voted for Tank Girl. wtf?

eh - I know a couple people who really love that. The appeal escapes me.

Ugh, Batman Begins. At least Ghost World came in 2nd-ish.

Batman Begins is utter crap. 8 of you are completely insane.

Damn, I was so busy debating I forgot to vote myself! I probably would've voted for American Splendor or The Twelve Tasks of Asterix, but it's too late now.

Tank Girl is a fun, silly and thrashy movie, and as such captures the spirit of the comic perfectly. Plus Lori Petty is wonderful as Tank Girl.

Batman Begins is not the worst Batmovie, but not the best either; the main problem is that it takes itself too seriously. But my views are well documented on the official thread, I don't want to return to that controversy again.

It's weird to see that the first Burton Batman got more votes than the second one. I thought everyone agreed Batman Returns is better.

I liked David Boring. I'd be reluctant to apply the comic's big ass obsession to Clowes, cause why not then do that to any author? Although its hard not to with confessional writers I suppose.

Shit I forgot to vote in this. I like Mystery Men. It's great fun. I love Hank Azaria.

It's not just David Boring, fetishes and sexual quirks feature quite prominently in his other work too, so it's not that far-fetched to deduce he has a personal interest in the subject.

Fair point. I've only read GW and DB.

Batman Begins was shit. You are all mad!

fucking Sade fans.

I think the last thing Clowes put out was Ice Haven, which........yeah.

by which you mean total genius, ya? The Death Ray might have been since then, it rocked too.

Aye, The Death Ray was after that and it was pretty fine. Although I think there was a rewrite of Ice Haven after The Death Ray?

Ice Haven was reissued as a book; don't know if it was a rewrite.

I don't know how anyone could not like Ice Haven... I mean, Blue Bunny, FFS.

I read Ice Haven a while ago, but I'm not sure if I really got it. Okay, apparently the old poet guy with the hat kidnapped the little kid, but what's that supposed to mean? Maybe I should reread it.

I mean, Clowes was clearly trying to bring all the disparate elements together at some level, but I didn't really get what he was aiming for.

Batman Begins haters, what the fuck is your deal?

You can read all about it starting from here.

blueski OTM

I tried reading that, then I realised it was the usual superheroes=nazis shite Tuomas spouts on ILC so stopped before he started on about INHERENT SEXISM and why Batman films weren't about lesbians in Palestine or something.

i'm just surprised because i thought Batman Begins was generally well received at the time on ILX but after this poll about 5 different people immediately pop up to express their dislike for it. i expected it to be crap but was pleasantly surprised and impressed with what they tried to do with it, and in many ways succeeded.

I tried reading that, then I realised it was the usual superheroes=nazis shite Tuomas spouts on ILC so stopped before he started on about INHERENT SEXISM and why Batman films weren't about lesbians in Palestine or something.

It's sad if people can't be bothered to read my actual posts and instead criticize the strawman.

blueski, Ste: You are both wrong. Deal with it!

I can't think of anything that bad/wrong with it except the total meh-ness of K Holmes

It's sad if people can't be bothered to read my actual posts and instead criticize the strawman.

he's called The Scarecrow dude

You found out all the vigilantist, downright fascist implications a "realist" superhero story has. And the same applies to Batman Begins, even though it doesn't hold it's right-wing sympathies on it's sleeve as visibly as Miller does.

Summa summarum: Batman Begins was an interesting enough reintroduction to the character of Batman, hopefully the sequels can offer us better villains and less dodgy politics.

I have nothing against against Batman's crypto-fascism as such, but I don't like stories which
A) despite his vigilantism present him as serious, "realistic" character, and
B) make him the hero.

I like only the Batman stories where either A or B applies, but not both of them. As I said, if you want to take Batman seriously, you have to take his politics seriously too.

The "realist" Batman only works when he's not the hero, and the hero Batman only works when he's not that "real". If you have both in one story, you're essentially cheering his vigilantism/fascism.

But revenge and vigilantism are such a big part of the Batman lore that it's much harder to comment real-life issues through him without at least partially supporting his crypto-fascism.

That's right, you never said any of that on the bit of the thread that shows without even opening it up to see the hidden posts, and I'm just just hoisting a weak strawman.

Fuxxake, sometimes I'm not convinced "people can't be bothered to read my actual posts and instead criticize the strawman" doesn't apply to you more than anybody else about your own posts.

Ouch!

I didn't say "superheros=nazis", I said that superhero stories which want insert realism into the idea of a crime-fighting vigilante have to deal with the moral implications of vigilantism. Which Batman Begins did, but in a rather dodgy way, and this was the main point of my criticism. However, like I said on that thread, most superhero stories (even many Batman stories) don't have such realism and can be seen as fantasies of "good vs. evil", so a similar analysis doesn't apply to them. So, if from this deduce that my opinion is "superheros=nazis", then don't you think you're building a strawman here?

(x-post)

"if from this you deduce"

I voted for Batman Begins, but I wish I could go back and change it to Superman 2.

Did you even read what I C&P'd? And y'know you have mentioned it on I Love Comics A COUPLE OF TIMES.

(btw, I'm not saying that some of yr actual criticism of the film itself wasn't valid, especially about the performances)

xpost

"Batman Begins haters, what the fuck is your deal?"

It was boring and with crappy CGI and Katie Holmes was in it (although except for Cilian Murphy--HOT HOT HOT--the acting was pretty ponderous throughout.)

blueski, Ste: You are both wrong. Deal with it!

kv_nol, I'm pulling my comics back!

Batman Begins was shit.

it was not shit. You are shit.

and thus the internet continues.

Boy boy boy, nothing like superheroes to get peoples' hackles up.

Enid Coleslaw would totally beat up Jimmy Corrigan. Unless Jimmy snapped, which I have to admit is a serious possibility.

DV I believe that it is you who is shit.

Leee, not a chance :)

never darken my facebook wall again
*flounces off*

>>It's sad if people can't be bothered to read my actual posts and
>>instead criticize the strawman.

>he's called The Scarecrow dude

^^^ best zing on ILX this month