In which Frank Miller proves he stopped having good ideas 15 years ago....
Frank Miller, GTFO of my Spirit.
So they leaked the theatrical trailer for "My City Screams" and now, even more so than after the teaser, I'm having urges to take my complete volume set (24 volumes, plus the Best Of and Eisner's 2 biographies) and beat Miller over the head with it.
Basically, my main two problems can be summed up like thus:
1) THIS IS NOT SIN CITY 2.
2) You know that joke a while back that Miller can't write any woman character that isn't a whore? Yeah....turns out? He can't. Way to throw out 30 years of character development right there.
What IS this? The joke was that the Spirit wasn't really all that interested in the various girls he teamed up with. Sand Serif and Ellen Dolan were the only two that really got under his skin. And judging by the trailer, Miller has conveniently forgot that a)Ellen and Denny were sort of a chummy-but-I-really-love-you relationship (Doctor and Rose fans? Yeah, it's kinda like that, but Ellen wants Denny to actually admit he loves her, every now and then) b) Sand Serif does use her charms on me, but not on the Spirit- she respects him too much.
Lorelei never had interest in the Spirit- HELL, she showed up for one ehn story!- Same with Plaster of Paris! Silken Floss never hit on the Spirit, she kept her crush a secret- that was the point!
(There's a fantastic article of the women of the Spirit located here that the ladies over at Sequential Tart did a few years ago).
YOU NEVER SEE THE OCTOPUS'S FACE. THAT WAS THE GREAT PART ABOUT THE CHARACTER- YOU SAW THE GLOVES AND THAT WAS IT. Showing him in the trailer? FOR SHAME.
And the Spirit's mask is meant to be a small, cloth domino mask. NOT LEATHER FETISHWEAR.
Never mind that suit itself looks horribly ill fitting.
Last, but not least, tying back with the "This isn't Sin City 2, idiot" is the using of "cartoonish" backgrounds to portray Eisner's city backdrops. See, Eisner, unlike Miller, could actually draw pretty things. And he drew some of the most beautiful backgrounds- in darkness, yes, but NOT cartoon cut out- to the point that even today, a moody, dark, evocative background (usually with rain or fog) is known as Eisnespritz.
A great example can be found here: http://dccomics.com/media/excerpts/1196_x.pdf The reintroduction of the Spirit's origin done by Will right after he had returned from WWII. It gives a great example of the use of background (or lack of one) that Eisner knew how to do, and Miller just doesn't get.
So why am I bothering to whine about this? Because Will Eisner, who coined the term "graphic novel" and really created everything that modern comics rely on, deserves better than this. The Spirit was a larger than life character that is still amazingly relevant today.
And before you say "Oh, but translating comics to the big screen is hard", I know there are people who could do a much better job. Darwyn Cooke, who restarted the Spirit comic with Eisner's blessing before his death in 2005, originally was an animator for "Batman: the Animated Series", and has shown a lot more ability handling the material than Miller.
Anyways, don't take my word on it. If you want some summer reading that will show you just how much of master Eisner was and how the movie should have been done, pick up either The Best of the Spirit by Will Eisner or Will Eisner's The Spirit by Darwyn Cooke.
EDIT: HA! Apparently, I'm not the only one complaining- they've disabled the official message board. Gee, that's a good sign.
So they leaked the theatrical trailer for "My City Screams" and now, even more so than after the teaser, I'm having urges to take my complete volume set (24 volumes, plus the Best Of and Eisner's 2 biographies) and beat Miller over the head with it.
Basically, my main two problems can be summed up like thus:
1) THIS IS NOT SIN CITY 2.
2) You know that joke a while back that Miller can't write any woman character that isn't a whore? Yeah....turns out? He can't. Way to throw out 30 years of character development right there.
What IS this? The joke was that the Spirit wasn't really all that interested in the various girls he teamed up with. Sand Serif and Ellen Dolan were the only two that really got under his skin. And judging by the trailer, Miller has conveniently forgot that a)Ellen and Denny were sort of a chummy-but-I-really-love-you relationship (Doctor and Rose fans? Yeah, it's kinda like that, but Ellen wants Denny to actually admit he loves her, every now and then) b) Sand Serif does use her charms on me, but not on the Spirit- she respects him too much.
Lorelei never had interest in the Spirit- HELL, she showed up for one ehn story!- Same with Plaster of Paris! Silken Floss never hit on the Spirit, she kept her crush a secret- that was the point!
(There's a fantastic article of the women of the Spirit located here that the ladies over at Sequential Tart did a few years ago).
YOU NEVER SEE THE OCTOPUS'S FACE. THAT WAS THE GREAT PART ABOUT THE CHARACTER- YOU SAW THE GLOVES AND THAT WAS IT. Showing him in the trailer? FOR SHAME.
And the Spirit's mask is meant to be a small, cloth domino mask. NOT LEATHER FETISHWEAR.
Never mind that suit itself looks horribly ill fitting.
Last, but not least, tying back with the "This isn't Sin City 2, idiot" is the using of "cartoonish" backgrounds to portray Eisner's city backdrops. See, Eisner, unlike Miller, could actually draw pretty things. And he drew some of the most beautiful backgrounds- in darkness, yes, but NOT cartoon cut out- to the point that even today, a moody, dark, evocative background (usually with rain or fog) is known as Eisnespritz.
A great example can be found here: http://dccomics.com/media/excerpts/1196_x.pdf The reintroduction of the Spirit's origin done by Will right after he had returned from WWII. It gives a great example of the use of background (or lack of one) that Eisner knew how to do, and Miller just doesn't get.
So why am I bothering to whine about this? Because Will Eisner, who coined the term "graphic novel" and really created everything that modern comics rely on, deserves better than this. The Spirit was a larger than life character that is still amazingly relevant today.
And before you say "Oh, but translating comics to the big screen is hard", I know there are people who could do a much better job. Darwyn Cooke, who restarted the Spirit comic with Eisner's blessing before his death in 2005, originally was an animator for "Batman: the Animated Series", and has shown a lot more ability handling the material than Miller.
Anyways, don't take my word on it. If you want some summer reading that will show you just how much of master Eisner was and how the movie should have been done, pick up either The Best of the Spirit by Will Eisner or Will Eisner's The Spirit by Darwyn Cooke.
EDIT: HA! Apparently, I'm not the only one complaining- they've disabled the official message board. Gee, that's a good sign.