April, you are really spoiling us
Apr. 16th, 2010 11:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexsarllI've got a suede jacket which I love but hardly ever wear, because it needs really specific conditions - a fairly cold day, but also one with no chance of rain. Which would appear to be exactly the conditions you get if Spring is interrupted by a massive volcanic eruption. I hope we don't get a reprise of the Year Without A Summer, but for now, I'm rather enjoying this little apocalypse.
Went to see a band called Thee Faction last night; the backstory appealed to the Devant/Kalevala fan in me. They say they were a socialist R&B band who, in 1985, ended up trapped in the collapsing Soviet sphere - they can't reveal the full details under the 30 Year Rule. They have onstage ideological arguments, and the photocopied fanzine interview handed out on the door (worth the price of admission on its own, even if said money hadn't gone to an MS charity) has them getting into a punch-up over Althusser. The only problem is, I'm not sure if the schtick is quite enough to sustain a ten song set (including the bourgeois pantomime of an encore). Which is a pity because the best of the songs - especially 'I'm The Man' and 'I Can See The Future' - are very good indeed.
Obviously any film which the Mail described as featuring "one of the most disturbing icons and damaging role-models in the history of cinema" was going to be worth seeing. And even while I was reading the comic, I suspected Kick-Ass was going to work better as on screen. But then I started hearing about various changes they'd made and thinking, hang on, I'm not so sure about this. Turns out that with one exception, I had nothing to worry about - and it feels great finally to have a film of a specific comic - as opposed to a character, distilled - where rather than telling people that they should read the original, I can instead honestly tell them that they needn't bother. Because the changes aren't random, or based on some studio exec's supposed wisdom; they were made carefully and with an agenda. The comic shows you why nobody's tried to be a superhero; the film asks instead. Which is a much more dangerous message, but also a stronger one. Audience sizes aside, the comic was never going to inspire a real Kick-Ass; I think the film just might. The one change I didn't like - and I'm not sure it was even necessary to that plan - was losing the extra layer from Big Daddy's origin. Having him actually be a wronged hero cop with a dead wife isn't nearly as entertaining as that just being a cover story for a geek financing his war on crime by selling rare comics. And I would have liked them to keep Hit-Girl's sniffing coke which her dad's told her is a special preparation, Hourman-style. But otherwise, even the big change, having Dave's admission that he wasn't gay get him laid instead of just another beating, made sense in this new light, not least because the film Dave was a lot more attractive than the book's version. Stretching out the conclusion worked simply because big extended fights feel more like value for money in a film than a comic. Having us know about Red Mist's duplicity all along was just a storytelling choice; Millar made a different decision in the comic, but this one works too, as does making Red Mist slightly less of a total shit.
Beyond all that...wow, basically. Big dumb fun with just enough of a message not to feel bad-stupid. Updating the old maxim about the gun on the wall in the first act to show lots of guns on the wall - and one bazooka. And if the jetpack was at the limits of the plausibility you need with the basic 'real world superhero' premise, it was cool enough that I bought it. Hell, if I'm going to pick one hole in the tech, it's that a film set in late 2007 has the main online communication be via Myspace.
At times like this I am reminded why I was so excited about Obama: "A landing on Mars will follow. And I expect to be around to see it."
Went to see a band called Thee Faction last night; the backstory appealed to the Devant/Kalevala fan in me. They say they were a socialist R&B band who, in 1985, ended up trapped in the collapsing Soviet sphere - they can't reveal the full details under the 30 Year Rule. They have onstage ideological arguments, and the photocopied fanzine interview handed out on the door (worth the price of admission on its own, even if said money hadn't gone to an MS charity) has them getting into a punch-up over Althusser. The only problem is, I'm not sure if the schtick is quite enough to sustain a ten song set (including the bourgeois pantomime of an encore). Which is a pity because the best of the songs - especially 'I'm The Man' and 'I Can See The Future' - are very good indeed.
Obviously any film which the Mail described as featuring "one of the most disturbing icons and damaging role-models in the history of cinema" was going to be worth seeing. And even while I was reading the comic, I suspected Kick-Ass was going to work better as on screen. But then I started hearing about various changes they'd made and thinking, hang on, I'm not so sure about this. Turns out that with one exception, I had nothing to worry about - and it feels great finally to have a film of a specific comic - as opposed to a character, distilled - where rather than telling people that they should read the original, I can instead honestly tell them that they needn't bother. Because the changes aren't random, or based on some studio exec's supposed wisdom; they were made carefully and with an agenda. The comic shows you why nobody's tried to be a superhero; the film asks instead. Which is a much more dangerous message, but also a stronger one. Audience sizes aside, the comic was never going to inspire a real Kick-Ass; I think the film just might. The one change I didn't like - and I'm not sure it was even necessary to that plan - was losing the extra layer from Big Daddy's origin. Having him actually be a wronged hero cop with a dead wife isn't nearly as entertaining as that just being a cover story for a geek financing his war on crime by selling rare comics. And I would have liked them to keep Hit-Girl's sniffing coke which her dad's told her is a special preparation, Hourman-style. But otherwise, even the big change, having Dave's admission that he wasn't gay get him laid instead of just another beating, made sense in this new light, not least because the film Dave was a lot more attractive than the book's version. Stretching out the conclusion worked simply because big extended fights feel more like value for money in a film than a comic. Having us know about Red Mist's duplicity all along was just a storytelling choice; Millar made a different decision in the comic, but this one works too, as does making Red Mist slightly less of a total shit.
Beyond all that...wow, basically. Big dumb fun with just enough of a message not to feel bad-stupid. Updating the old maxim about the gun on the wall in the first act to show lots of guns on the wall - and one bazooka. And if the jetpack was at the limits of the plausibility you need with the basic 'real world superhero' premise, it was cool enough that I bought it. Hell, if I'm going to pick one hole in the tech, it's that a film set in late 2007 has the main online communication be via Myspace.
At times like this I am reminded why I was so excited about Obama: "A landing on Mars will follow. And I expect to be around to see it."
