...and it's just a quick word about fillums
I know I promised to elaborate on the curious things in my previous post, and I will, but for the moment I'm still zine-ing (in final stages, looking very good indeed, and although the actual number of work hours per issue has gone up, the stress level has plummetted due to an actual (semi?)-permanent news editor coming on board, so I'm very nearly enjoying it for a change). So instead I'm going to write about the movie we saw last night: The Incredible Hulk.
For those of you who aren't with the programme, that's not the Ang Lee abomination of a couple of years ago; it's the new, grown-up one, starring Edward Norton and Tim Roth.
What a gorgeous little film.
I say "little" without the least trace of disparagement - but it's the right word, because this isn't as huge and sweeping and glossy as e.g. the X-Men series, but it's beautifully crafted, extremely believable and realistic (for a comix value of believable and realistic, duh), visually and emotionally engaging, superbly acted (especially Norton and Roth, but Liv Tyler gives surprisingly good value for money...her taming-the-monster turn doesn't come up to the astonishing performance Naomi Watts gave in the similar sequence of King Kong, but hey, somebody's gotta win the gold medal, y'know, and Tyler came in as a strong silver), solidly scripted and edited, and the CGI doesn't suck.
It's also Stan Lee's Hulk, i.e. the modern take on facets of Jekyll and Hyde that he and Marvel originally presented, back before all the puerile daftness took hold and spread across comixdom. And it harks back to that low-key, character-driven, intelligent 1970s Bill Bixby Incredible Hulk series (I had a lot of time for that, and having recently seen several episodes of it again, still do...despite the nonexistent SFX budget and pabulated Ahh Murkan storylines, it had a gentle magic that drew the viewer into Banner's conflicted world). And there are deliberate touches in the new film that reflect or outright reference the series - occasional snatches of the old haunting piano theme, a sweet cameo from '70s Hulk-monster Lou Ferrigno (who also voices the Hulk-monster in the film!) - and other deliberate bits of "classic Hulk".
Oh, and it's about two hours long - much longer than the typical comix movie these days - but, tellingly, it doesn't feel like it. There's no dead air. In fact, the only thing in the entire film that didn't please me was about 45 seconds right at the end. But that's a rant for another time and those of you who have waxed lyrical about er um another recent comix movie should really, really think about laying off the crack, 'k?.
Not a life-changer, but highly recommended.
Right, back to work. Should be publishing tomorrow, and then I can take a chill-breather and get back to work on my own stuff, yay!
p.s. And there were also trailers. For The Dark Knight and the new Mummy and the new X-Files. Can you say "ZOMG!!!"? Ohh yeahhhh.
For those of you who aren't with the programme, that's not the Ang Lee abomination of a couple of years ago; it's the new, grown-up one, starring Edward Norton and Tim Roth.
What a gorgeous little film.
I say "little" without the least trace of disparagement - but it's the right word, because this isn't as huge and sweeping and glossy as e.g. the X-Men series, but it's beautifully crafted, extremely believable and realistic (for a comix value of believable and realistic, duh), visually and emotionally engaging, superbly acted (especially Norton and Roth, but Liv Tyler gives surprisingly good value for money...her taming-the-monster turn doesn't come up to the astonishing performance Naomi Watts gave in the similar sequence of King Kong, but hey, somebody's gotta win the gold medal, y'know, and Tyler came in as a strong silver), solidly scripted and edited, and the CGI doesn't suck.
It's also Stan Lee's Hulk, i.e. the modern take on facets of Jekyll and Hyde that he and Marvel originally presented, back before all the puerile daftness took hold and spread across comixdom. And it harks back to that low-key, character-driven, intelligent 1970s Bill Bixby Incredible Hulk series (I had a lot of time for that, and having recently seen several episodes of it again, still do...despite the nonexistent SFX budget and pabulated Ahh Murkan storylines, it had a gentle magic that drew the viewer into Banner's conflicted world). And there are deliberate touches in the new film that reflect or outright reference the series - occasional snatches of the old haunting piano theme, a sweet cameo from '70s Hulk-monster Lou Ferrigno (who also voices the Hulk-monster in the film!) - and other deliberate bits of "classic Hulk".
Oh, and it's about two hours long - much longer than the typical comix movie these days - but, tellingly, it doesn't feel like it. There's no dead air. In fact, the only thing in the entire film that didn't please me was about 45 seconds right at the end. But that's a rant for another time and those of you who have waxed lyrical about er um another recent comix movie should really, really think about laying off the crack, 'k?.
Not a life-changer, but highly recommended.
Right, back to work. Should be publishing tomorrow, and then I can take a chill-breather and get back to work on my own stuff, yay!
p.s. And there were also trailers. For The Dark Knight and the new Mummy and the new X-Files. Can you say "ZOMG!!!"? Ohh yeahhhh.