Even though I'm into comics, I never read Hellblazer before. It was one of those fancy Vertigo title from DC. Those are comics that always surprise you with how good they are but somehow you never really go out of your way to get them. Sandman is written well, but I've always been turned off by the art.
Anyway, I picked up the Constantine movie adaptation, even though it was $6.95. I wanted to find out what all the fuss was about, especially when it is a comic made into a movie. That's another one of those "justification of reading comics" things. Plus, my wife Amy actually wants to see the movie so I thought I better look into it.
I could tell within the first three pages that this probably makes a much better movie than a comic. It was trying to do things that you could sense the camera imagining. That's probably a good thing.
However, I had to do a lot of re-reading several key pages to make sure I wasn't missing anything. When it introduced the character Balthazar, I though there were a couple pages stuck together that I missed. I found it skipping exposition items that a die-hard fan probably didn't need--but I did.
All in all though, as I continued, it was a good story. I really wanted to know what was happening and the story did reveal itself at key moments. I don't know if the author planned it suspensefully or it was a good mistake. It did came full circle and I was not disappointed with the ending.
One good thing is that it makes me want to see the movie. And I guess that is the goal behind a comic book adaptation.
1 comment:
You need to go read the Garth Ennis Hellblazer issues from the early 90s. They were pretty great.
And how could you be turned off by anything in The Sandman. Best. Comic. Ever. (Almost.)
Post a Comment