RED posters and my opinion on comics to movie adaptations.

Hello everyone and thanks for stopping by to check out my little Blog. I always try to find things of interest to show and talk about every week. I try also to vary the subject matter to keep things interesting.

This week has seen the final versions of the posters for the movie entitled RED which is based on a Warren Ellis miniseries that he did for Wildstorm comics a while ago.

Even though the posters are very cool,they definitely show that the movie is an ensemble piece.Granted there are some very cool actors in this movie but the final version of this flick is very different from the original comic it was based on.

Personally I didn't think that they would adapt the story very faithfully considering that it was about a retired government hit man that becomes a liability simply because he knows too much and is still alive,much to the chagrin of his new superiors that want to have no witnesses that can implicate them in a huge bloody cover up.

Right there is where things get bloody and a cluster fuck happens. What was supposed to be a easy hit for some black ops agents who had no idea that their target despite being retired is not a soft target, being in retirement for a while now. Willis' character in the comic rubs them out and goes on a rampage taking out anyone involved with trying to have him retired permanently.

It's dark,bloody,not very funny and you get a real sense of doom permeating the comic as the story builds to it's climax.

The trailer so far is very far removed form the original comic. The trailer shows a lot of humour,albeit a bit on the dark side but still the tone has changed. Throw in a bunch of characters that were never in the original story,turning this not into a personal revenger but more of a "let's get back together and wreak havoc on the bastards that are trying to kill all of us." kinda flick. It could end up being a fun movie but I don't expect anything more than that.

Guaranteed to justify a bigger budget they had to throw in a lot of A-Lister's to make this movie a can't lose affair for cinema goers and studios alike. Especially these days where the studio heads are very nervous when it comes to big name actors carrying a flick just on the strength of their names or it being yet another sequel. If it's a new franchise watch out because the field seems to be wide open and no one can predict what will tank at the box office and what won't.

I personally would have liked RED filmed on a very small budget with Ed Harris in the lead role and keeping the tone and story identical to the comic. I think it would have been an awesome movie and maybe surprised a lot of people that have never read the original comic. I know,I know, a lot of people say that you have to change the story when you're turning a comic into a movie but just take a look at Sin City,History of Violence,300 or the Crow with Brandon Lee and right there is a very strong argument to be faithful to the source material and you can still have a hit movie.

Another example is this year's Kick ASS: I enjoyed it immensely and it made money,which I think surprised a lot of people BUT it didn't do a huge amount of cash as it was an unknown concept with very unknown actors in principal roles. I mean apart from Nic Cage who everyone knows and seems to be in almost every superhero based franchise that is being made these days. Still a lot of big movies have tanked at the Box Office and even actors like Tom Cruise have had flops this summer.





More and more comics are being adapted into movies and with little to no respect for the original subject matter the final product is usually a disaster and as far as I can see if this trend continues it will only hurt future comic based projects that might be adapted for movies.

I really do hope Hollywood wakes up and realizes that by disrespecting the source material you not only alienate the fans of the comic but end up with a crappy washed out version of what the movie could have been. Catwoman anyone?
I think this way of thinking has made DC's movies flops for the last few years at least until Christopher Nolan showed up and jumped started Batman. This has been the exception rather than the rule of thumb.

Marvel on the other hand has been getting more and more involved with the final product and by doing so they have scored big hits like Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk with Edward Norton and this year Iron Man 2 with a whole bunch in the pipeline to come very soon.


Maybe I should be thinking like Alan Moore who has said that once his stuff has been sold to be made into a movie he removes himself creatively and figuratively from being involved with the final product. To me it sounds like selling your child to the highest bidder and then turning your back on helping to make sure it's taken care of properly.

It feels like very soon there will be a breaking point and a lot of cool ideas will never get made into movies because they are not viable "hits" in the eyes of the producers or the studios. I hope I'm wrong and things don't become worse and all we are left with as movie goers are spoon fed pablum that put us into intellectual comas or something much worse devoid of imagination.

Rich.