Chaac

Why do you say "even" comics?

Because, while an amazing medium, the sheer most of them are, inexplicably, even more retarded than movies. Only small handful of comics genuinely achieve something.

Is it true that only a reduced number of comic books achieve something? Is this situation worse than any other medium? Are comic books reduced to this due to some of the best they can offer being relegated to obscurity? And what does the sequential art have to offer in its approach and in the original stories created for it?

When I read some posters say they didn't know Tintin prior to the 2011 film, I thought on opening this thread so we could share comic book works that might happen to be unkown for other posters but they might find them enjoyable, although later I forgot about it.

I think that some of what I have in mind are classics inside the world of comic book readers but are little known outside of it, others are more obscure, and others aren't obscure at all. My idea is describing comic books of all kinds that I find to be genuinely awesome.




So I thought I'd start with one of my recent loves.




Hungarian Rhapsody (Vittorio Giardino, 1982).

In 1938, after the destruction of the Hungarian Rhapsody, a French spy group operating in Budapest, the French secret service forces ex-spy Max Fridman to leave his home at Genova, his daughter and his business to investigate the murders. Soon he meets the lone survivor and finds himself the target of every organization in the city.

I'll be honest. I can't help gushing here. The best possible word to describe this book is elegance. The artwork is wonderful, meticulous. I love some he plays with shapes to fit small details like reaction shots. Giardino makes the most out the 30's setting, recreating this moment in a time in a way that seems right out of an old film. I also notice great beauty and expression in his women characters; it turns out he's also drawn erotic comic books.

Giardino's world of spies is anything but romantic, however, the humanity of the characters makes it worthwhile.The author makes great use of conventions of the medium; the pace whithin scenes and whithin the whole book is clocked to perfection, managing a very delicate balance of danger throgrhout a story that goes further than it seems initially and that reminds myself of classic novels of the genre. The characterizations are quick and exquisite, and Max Fridman is probably among my favourite spy characters after 90 pages.



This work destiles an absurd amount of cool at every page. Thankfully, there's more, as this particular series continues in a few more books, with more settings in Istanbul and Spain during the Civil War. Yay for me.

(No choice) I'm not sure if someone here still wants it. It's opened but pretty much intact. I'd send it properly packaged to somewhere in Europe at 2/3 it's original price (20$) and going down.

I had avoided this film for a specific, picky reason (more on this later), but I really want to see The Avengers, so I decided I should know the specific background of my favourite character of the group in that film.

The Incredible Hulk has been seen as the black sheep of the Marvel Studios films, a title that as far as I'm concerned should go to the mess that is Iron Man 2, because this is by no means a bad film. It's not perfect either. Spoilers ahead.

The film starts telling the origin of the Hulk in no time. I love this, I always wanted a "first" super hero film do this. In fact, the film treats the origin thing as not important at all: Bruce Banner has a problem due to an experiment gone wrong or so. So, completely unlike Ang Lee's very good Hulk, which felt like Geoff Johns retelling the whole origin story of the Hulk and adding new things to it, the origin of the Hulk isn't the story at hand, but Banner's efforts to avoid the military and cure himself. Which I liked.

So the film starts with Bruce Banner in Brazil. This part is great. Very visual. In fact, when I was around half an hour into the film I realized that I could've understood almost everything without spoken dialogue, save for a pair dialogue between General Ross and Blonsky. There are some cool shots around here and every scene has a purpose, no meandering around. It's a good foundation for an action film. I like the mood.

Banner's search for his cure has him come into communication with a "Mr Blue" who might help him. Very in media res. It works. We don't know who the hell is that guy we don't actually need to. Mr Blue needs some of Banner's medical data, so we've got a McGuffin to look for.

Bruce Banner is described through the film as a symphatetic guy, without even needing to bring out his problem. This is helped by being played by Edward Norton who is perfect in this film. Norton also rewrote dialogue and characters in the film. Now, another thing that I appreciated here is some of the film's humour. It's very entertaining.

The cast for this is good in general, with one exception.

The story progresses. It continues the idea of showing instead of telling. Bruce's reaction to seeing Betty tells us anything we need to know. In an aim of avoiding introductions it might go a bit too far at trying to hide the general is her father. You might realize if you look at the names. But what the film tries to do there is unnecessary. The relationship between the guy and his daughter feels underdeveloped anyway.

The set up for the different action scenes are quite fun (my favourite is when Bruce is locked in the crystal hallway). The story progresses effortlessly, Bruce always has a problem at hand, an obstacle of some kind. The main threats of the film, other than the Hulk, are Ross and Blonsky. The Blonsky storyline ties with the Captain America universe (some fun is made of this by Tony Stark himself). Blonsky is played by Tim Roth who is awesome. Ross is played by William Hurt who I didn't recognize at first.

The first time we see the Hulk he's in shadows and treated like a grotesque monster from an old film, which we then discover to be not necessarily all that bad. I love the situation of having the second of the main villain become a sort of Final Boss, an alternate, evil, intelligent Hulk. A brutal fight develops. And the moment after the Hulk has defeated him and he's got to run anyway makes a great ending.

I wonder what the hell the general is supposed to do to the Abomination.

Now, I need to point out some stuff that I don't like about this film. It's precisely something that shouldn't have failed in this story:

1) The Hulk. Yes. I don't like how he looks. This was the reason why I hadn't seen it. For a start, I don't like the dark green. The ripped look, I dunno. But the problems concentrate in the face, and the animation. A lot of the time it doesn't come out as an alive creature.

2) The problem with the Hulk can be extended to a lot of the special effects. A lot of them in this film look just wrong to me. I'm not an expert, but when in your climatic moments everything looks false something isn't working here.

3) Liv Tyler. She plays Betty Ross in a very soft manner which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. And when it doesn't she just doesn't feel believable.

The score of the film, as heard in the film, feels irrelevant. Danny Elfman's effort in the other version sounded like a lot of more fun.

However, I think The Incredible Hulk is a very entertaining film, that tells a coherent story in a very effective manner, despite the special effects. It shows how a Hulk film can work being completely different to Ang Lee's Hulk, which requires some balls. To the contrary of a lot of commentaries I've read, I don't find this film "insulting". Like, at all. I think it's a simple action superhero film with a heart.

Despite what might seem at first sight because of the amount of failed efforts, fantasy films are probably in pretty good shape. In the last few years we have seen a list of jewels, some by known filmmakers, some that came from nowhere. But, as with everything else, the films one might really enjoy aren't going to magically get to your door: you have to look for them.

When it comes to vampires, many remember the endearing Låt den rätte komma in (Thomas Alfredson, 2008) We should add to that this one film by Park Chan-wook, titled Bakjwi and known as Thirst in some places. A quite different kind of film, but another story about vampires that manages to create some fresh angle and make it work. I have to say, it's the first film by this director I've seen, and I'm eager to check out his other work.

Bakjwi tells the story of a priest who becomes a vampire by accident and subsequently gets into trouble for the general amusement of the audience. But this film is really a love story. Now, I’m not a fan of love stories. Most of the times they just put me off. But once in a while someone comes and makes a story about a couple of people and adds elements to it so it actually becomes a story that works wonderfully. This Thirst doesn’t only work, it’s fun, it’s catchy, it’s vibrant, and it knows how to be sad. (I'm tired of forced emotions everywhere.)



I have to say, I like Song Kang-ho. I’ve seen him previously in Gwoemul (Bong Hoon-ho, 2006). Here he plays a very different character, somewhat stoic, and sometimes makes us wonder what he’s thinking. This is a character that remains familiar while able to surprise us, someone with good intentions initially that ends up under under too much pressure. On the other hand the young Kim Ok-bin offers a chilling perfomance as a very interesting character and at the same time kind of classic.

The director clearly has an style and I was already loving it half an hour into the film. Lots of beautiful camera movements and clever planification. Park puts great scene after scene and builds and builds in a sober manner towards an absolutely spine tingling ending part where a complicated situation is reduced to its purest expression.

While seeing films from these parts of the world it strikes that they might have a different perception of genres. In any case, a film like Bakjwi shows what can happen when creative people work without being expect to stick to the formulae of a given tradition, and try to make it more lifelike, which is something I particularly enjoy. Truth is, both sides can be very difficult. But as Alan Moore put it: “Life isn’t divided into genres. It’s a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel. You know, with a bit of pornography if you're lucky.”

SCORE: Super 8 (Michael Giacchino, 2011)

At first I wanted to wait for the film to be released here (August 19) so I could listen to the music first in the film, which is the way I prefer it. But last night I was too nervous (for different matters) and I had to listen to this to calm myself down a bit. It worked.

Although I don't do this very often, I listened to it all the way from start to finish, in the dark, without looking at what track was playing. It flows perfectly. If anything I could say that the action dragged a bit in the last third of the score. I didn't feel like this at a second listen, though. In fact the second time the score ended too soon for me. This one gives a better impression listening to it all the way through than playing around cues randomly.

Michael Giacchino is a composer who creates quite satisfying listenings, mostly because his music is fun if you happen to like his usual mannerisms, and they are present in every track of Super 8. I think he's currently one of the people in the bussiness who approaches more closely John Williams' own conceptions of film scoring, but bear in mind that I'm not referring to his technique, although there are nods to Williams in his music. I could describe Giacchino's style as a mixture bewteen what you hear in Medal of Honor and what you can hear in Lost. Super 8 is basically and adventurous Let Me In, minus the chorus. His style appears in a very depurated form in Super 8 so if you don't like it you probably won't enjoy this score.

The music is mostly simple, very intimistic and delicate, with ourstburts of action and adventure mainly in the later part of the score. It's mysterious and childish. It hardly ever sounds like a "big" score.

Giacchino makes similar choices for leitmotivic writing to these by John Williams (I know some people don't like to compare Giacchino with the giant that is JW but I can't help it this time). One of the most repeated through the score is a four note motif identifying the alien threat that goes through all kinds of variations in tone through the whole score. Its use reminds me of the main motif in The Lost World. There are audible flutes and others woodwinds in a Lost World fashion several times, and a bit of brass like in Williams' suspense cues.

Other themes are:

-A family theme (Family Matters), veery simple and heartwarming (it's got the same structure as the Star Trek theme).

-A wonderful love theme that develops several interesting variations, either in the slower parts or the action music (like in Neighborhood Watch or Evacuation of Lillian). This theme has got an E.T. feel to it, while still sounding like Giacchino (Let Me In)

-Another theme is the theme for the military which is very appropiate. Its first seven notes are straight out of a motif in Secret Weapons Over Normandy and I don't know how to feel about that. To say the truth it's also a bit like John Williams and his villain/military themes that repeat a note several times.

-There's also other ideas like a two phrase descending theme (Looking for Lucy) and (I think) some ostinato.

As usual in Giacchino's music the themes are good to great but sometimes feel too short, mostly because they have potential to be very cool elaborate themes. There are some tracks like Letting Go or Neighborhood Watch that offer a bit of colour to the overall tone of the score, that stays pretty much the same. Yet there's something cool about Giacchino's compositional voice that makes me wait in advance for his next score.

So far this is my favourite score this year together with Priest by Christopher Young, and my favourite film score by Giacchino with Ratatouille. There's potential in Giacchino, probably because of his own enthusiasm, but that potential is developing slowly (hey, everybody's different). I hope that the music for John Carter will be as good or better than this one.