The History of Comic Book Adaptations to Film: Part Fourteen (2010)

2010 was a pretty big year for comic book adaptations as recent hits like The Dark Knight and Iron Man had convinced studios that they were here to stay and the floodgates began to open.


IRON MAN 2

The biggest comic book film of 2010 was Marvel Studios’ Iron Man 2. Jon Favreau came back to direct and most of the cast returned as well. The most notable exception was the character of War Machine. He was played by Terrence Howard in the first one, but Don Cheadle filled the role in the sequel. The reasons for this are not entirely clear, but rumors indicate that payment may have been an issue as Howard was the highest paid cast member in Iron Man. It was probably for the best, as Cheadle is better suited for the role and reprised it again in Iron Man 3, Age of Ultron, and Civil War.

New to the franchise was Mickey Rourke who appeared as the villain, Whiplash. Elements of the Iron Man enemy Crimson Dynamo were included in the character. He's a pretty uninteresting antagonist and Rourke supposedly didn't enjoy the final product and even implied that Marvel Studios' films were "mindless".

The filmmakers also used Justin Hammer as a villain. He’s played by Sam Rockwell and there are a few differences between the MCU Hammer and the comic version. For example, in the comics, he’s an elderly man, but they decided to make him younger so he could be more of a rival to Tony Stark. It's worth noting that there was a Justin Hammer Jr. in the Ultimate universe. Hammer's also a very credible threat in the comics, whereas the film portrays him as an ineffectual buffoon.

Iron Man 2 did great at the box office, making $623 million overall, compared to a budget of $200 million. However, fans usually consider it to be a step down from the original. And now that there are 3 Iron Man films, it’s often chosen at the worst of the trilogy, a sentiment I agree with. The film's Rotten Tomatoes score was still a respectable 73%, it's just that this was significantly lower than the first's score of 94. Iron Man 2 did get one Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects.

A common complaint has been that the second Iron Man movie is too much of a set up for The Avengers. Black Widow, one of the major characters from The Avengers, is shown for the first time here in a pretty sizable role. Nick Fury is also fleshed out for the first time; he had only appeared in an after credit scene before this film. Also, Tony reads his father’s notes about an item called the Tesseract, which would be a plot point in both Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers. Another reference to the greater Marvel universe occurred in the post-credits scene, which involved Agent Coulson finding Thor’s hammer.

This is easily one of the lesser Marvel Studios films, and probably the worst one, with the only movie in the same ballpark being Thor: The Dark World.

KICK-ASS

Kick-Ass was adapted from a comic by the famous writer Mark Millar, published from 2008 to 2010. The concept is basically what would happen if people tried to be superheroes in real life.

The violent, R-Rated film contains tons of references to various comics. The character of Big Daddy is clearly inspired by a certain DC hero, a fact lampshaded by a thug saying he was beaten up by a guy dressed like Batman. Nicolas Cage plays the character in the manner of Adam West from the 1960s TV show and when they show Big Daddy’s backstory, they do it in the form of comic book panels.

Another Batman reference comes at the end with Red Mist quoting The Joker from the 1989 film Batman. The protagonist also says he looks like Wolverine while at one point another character talks about reading Scott Pilgrim.

The movie is decently faithful to the source material but takes a few liberties. In the film, Kick-Ass decides to become a superhero for idealistic reasons, but the comic version was just bored. Also, Big Daddy’s backstory of being a cop is actually made up in the graphic novels, but in the movie, it’s all true.

Kick-Ass is entertaining enough, but I've never had a desire to rewatch it. It was very profitable with a $96 million worldwide gross more than tripling its approximately $30 million budget. Reviews were positive and it got a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes.

SCOTT PILGRIM VS. THE WORLD

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was originally a series of graphic novels written by Brian Lee O’Malley, released from 2004 to 2010. The film was directed by Edgar Wright, who first gained attention for the zombie comedy Shaun of the Dead, and has also made Hot Fuzz, The World’s End, and most recently Baby Driver. Scott Pilgrim is his only film so far that was a financial disappointment.

The movie cost around $90 million to make, but only raked in $47 million worldwide. Obviously, this meant the film was considered a failure. It’s unfortunate because, like all of Edgar Wright’s work, it’s a really good movie. Part of the reason it didn’t do so well is that was released at the same time as The Expendables. Also, the over the top, video game-inspired style may have been off-putting for mainstream audiences, especially older people. The movie did get good reviews and it has an 82% at Rotten Tomatoes.

The original comic is excellent as well with a unique art style and this adaptation does a great job of capturing its feel and tone. A major difference between the two is the in the endings as the comic's was actually written after the script for the film was completed. Some subplots are excised and the time frame is compressed, but many plot points are taken directly from the source material and a lot of the characters stay true to their comic portrayals.

JONAH HEX

Jonah Hex was an abysmal failure based on the long-running DC character first seen in All-Star Western #10 in 1972. Warner Brothers originally hired the awful directing duo Neveldine and Taylor, famous for the Crank films among others, but they ended up leaving the project and just writing the script.

The director would be Jimmy Hayward, who has not made another live-action film to date, but has directed two animated features, Free Birds and Horton Hears a Who. The cast was pretty random with plenty of talented actors, like Josh Brolin in the title role, John Malkovich, Michael Shannon, and Michael Fassbender. But then were odd choices like Megan Fox, Wes Bentley, and Will Arnett. None of them embarrass themselves, but there's not much they could do with such a poorly written script.

The film was a massive flop, making only 10 million dollars on a $47 million budget. The critics were equally unimpressed as its Rotten Tomatoes score is only 12%, which makes this by far the most poorly reviewed comic book film of 2010.

Its main sin is just being boring but it also has lousy special effects and was nominated for two Razzies.

Jonah Hex's appearance is very similar to the source material, but he can bring people back to life, which isn't an ability he has in the comics. In fact, in most incarnations, he has no supernatural powers whatsoever.

RED

Red was adapted from a miniseries published by the DC imprint Homage and created by Warren Ellis and Cully Hammer. Despite being under the DC umbrella, it was not produced by Warner Brothers, but rather Summit Entertainment. Red was directed by Robert Schwentke, who has also directed Flightplan, The Time Traveller’s Wife, and R.I.P.D., another comic adaptation. His movie is much more comedic than the source material.

It was critically successful, as the Rotten Tomatoes score is at 71%. Red also did very well financially, making almost $200 million. The excellent cast included Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Helen Mirren, and John Malkovich. Red is mildly entertaining but pretty standard and forgettable and I'd only recommend it to comic book movie completionists.

THE LOSERS

The Losers was based on a Vertigo comic book series that ran from 2003 to 2006. The movie starred 3 future cast members in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Chris Evans, Idris Elba, and Zoe Saldana. It also featured Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who had just played The Comedian in Watchmen. This should have been a solid cast, but they are all wasted as the characters aren't very interesting.

The Losers was directed by Sylvain White, whose illustrious filmography includes gems like Stomp the Yard and I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer. The film has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 49%, but this is misleading in my opinion, as my feelings were strongly negative towards the film. It didn't do well financially either since it made less than $ 30 million on a modest $25 million budget.

It's full of annoying stylistic flourishes like freeze frames, a supposedly badass slow-mo hero walk of the main cast, and speed ramping as well as fake-looking visual effects. The editing is also irritating at times as it's way too fast and incoherent. Also, the antagonist is cartoonishly evil and silly and the plot and characters are generic at best.

THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADELE BLANC-SEC

Finally, we come to a French-language comic book adaptation called The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec. It was directed by Luc Besson, who also made The Professional, The Fifth Element, and the 2017 comic book movie Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. The film was positively received, getting an 83% on Rotten Tomatoes.

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12 Years A Slave is a masterpiece (10/10)

DIRECTOR: Steve McQueen

     The newest film from acclaimed director Steve McQueen is based on a memoir by Solomon Northrup titled 12 Years a Slave. Northrup was a free black man living in New York who was kidnapped in 1841. He was sold into slavery in Louisiana and was finally rescued in 1853.

     The movie is an absolute masterpiece. Everything about the film, from the cinematography, to the acting, to the writing is excellent. What possibly stands out the most is how the film is shot. 

     There are plenty of long takes which serve to really make the viewer experience the painful, sometimes graphic situations the film portrays. The horrors of slavery aren't sugarcoated here, but rather pushed to the forefront. I'm a huge fan of long takes and McQueen has clearly mastered them. Several of them feature some magnificent blocking and camera moves as well. 

     McQueen has already proven himself with his two previous films, Hunger and Shame, both of which got rave reviews. This is his third collaboration with cinematographer Sean Bobbitt, who also worked on The Place Beyond the Pines and the upcoming Oldboy remake directed by Spike Lee. 12 Years a Slave was shot on 35mm film in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio.

    The amazing cast features quite a few accomplished actors. The main character, Northrup, was played by Chiwetel Ejiofor. He does a great job of portraying the terror of the situation while still maintaining a quiet dignity. Ejiofor has previously appeared in Salt, Children of Men, and Redbelt. There is a very good chance he could get an Oscar nomination for Best Actor. I can't think of anyone more deserving out the films released so far.

    The supporting performances are all top-notch as well. Michael Fassbender is perhaps the best of them all in his haunting role as a sadistic slave owner. Fassbender starred in the two previous McQueen features; they clearly work well together. Benedict Cumberbatch is also outstanding, as is Paul Dano. Brad Pitt does fine in a role that amounts to little more than a cameo. The youngest Oscar-nominated actress ever, Quvenzhané Wallis, also appears.

    12 Years a Slave is technically brilliant, but it's also a powerful film that packs an emotional wallop. In my opinion, it's the best movie of 2013 so far. I don't really see any of the upcoming 2013 films surpassing it. The only ones that could possibly compete would be the Coen Brothers' Inside Llewyn Davis and Martin Scorcese's The Wolf of Wall Street. However, I don't see either of those reaching the heights of this film. 12 Years a Slave will almost surely get a Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, along with several others.

    The reception to this film has been almost unanimously positive. It has a score of 97 on Metacritic and the same on Rotten Tomatoes. It also has a 8.6 on IMDB.

RATING: 10/10



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Thor: The Dark World is a satisfying sequel (8/10)

DIRECTOR: Alan Taylor

 

Thor: The Dark World is a satisfying sequel that perhaps surpasses the original. Alan Taylor, having directed several episodes of Game of Thrones, brings some of the vibe from that show to the world of Thor.

They delivered pretty much everything you could want from a Thor movie. There’s some striking visuals, lots of Loki, and a cool, albeit underdeveloped villain.

Said villain is Malekith, played by Christopher Eccleston, who is mostly known as the ninth incarnation of The Doctor on Doctor Who. Created by Walt Simonson, Malekith has been a Thor villain in the comics since 1984. Eccelston does a good job, but there isn’t much to his character besides being evil.

Most of the cast from the first film is back. Chris Hemsworth continues to do a solid job as the title character and Natalie Portman isn’t bad either as Jane Foster. Tom Hiddleston continues to be a standout as the devious Loki. Jaimie Alexander is back as Sif, who clearly has romantic feelings for Thor in this film and even gives Jane Foster a jealous look.

Idris Elba continues to be awesome as Heimdall, who is given more to do this time around. He even has his own epic heroic moment. Almost as cool is the newcomer bad guy Kurse, played by Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, who played Mr. Eko on Lost.

The Dark World seems to be doing well with critics. As of 11/8 it has a 66% on Rotten Tomatoes, as well as a score of 7.7 on IMDB.

As is usual for Marvel Studios, there are two scenes after the credits. One of them features Benicio del Toro as The Collector, a role that will be fleshed out in the upcoming MCU flick Guardians of the Galaxy. That film will be released in August of 2014. Del Toro’s part seems pretty interesting and the scene definitely gets me hyped for Guardians.

Thor will appear next in The Avengers: Age of Ultron. It’s currently scheduled to come out on May 1, 2015. The next film in Marvel Cinematic Universe will be Captain America: The Winter Soldier, with a release date of April 4, 2014.

Hemsworth is contracted for a third Thor film, and that seems likely to happen. Many have speculated that the third installment with focus on Ragnarok, the apocalypse from Norse legends. A likely villain would be Surtur.

RATING: 8/10

The History of Comic Book Adaptations to Film: Part Thirteen (2009)

WATCHMEN

            Watchmen is one of the most iconic and influential graphic novels ever made and often considered the best graphic novel of all time. It was originally published in 1986 and 1987 as a limited series. The artist was Dave Gibbons and the writer was the legendary Alan Moore. Gibbons served as a consultant on the film, but Alan Moore refused to have anything to do with it or even be credited.

            The film had been in development for quite a long time, with Terry Gilliam, the director of Brazil and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, at one point attached, but he declared the work to be “unfilmable”. Then Darren Aronofsky was supposed to direct, but that fell through as well and eventually, the job went to Zack Snyder. He had previously directed the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead and the adaptation of Frank Miller’s graphic novel 300. However, his style over substance method of filmmaking was inappropriate for a work such as this.

            The graphic novel is amazing, but the film fell far short of its potential. One major reason for this is that Watchmen is inextricably linked with its medium. This is illustrated by a quote from Moore where he states, “What I'd like to explore is the areas that comics succeed in where no other media is capable of operating.” Furthermore, Gibbons called it a “comic about comics.”

            The adaptation got the visuals right but was misguided and perhaps too literal. There was also way too much in Watchmen to put into a single movie. Really, it needed to be a series of films or a miniseries.

            Snyder was very faithful to the graphic novel, except for cutting out some subplots and the famously altered ending. The theatrical version also omitted the story-within-a-story that is "Tales of the Black Freighter", but it was included in an animated version for the DVD and Blu-Ray.

            Some of the performances in Watchmen were great, and the best was given by Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach. Jeffrey Dean Morgan was also excellent as the Comedian. However, some of the performances were subpar, especially Malin Akerman’s.

            Also, while the comic had some violent moments, the movie was not subtle in its depictions of over-the-top violence and turned Watchmen into an action film. In Snyder's defense, I will say that using such a complex work as source material was a daunting task, and it easily could have turned out much worse.  

            Many people still consider it among the best comic book adaptations, and there are undoubtedly aspects of it that are very well-done. If you still haven't seen it, it's worth checking out and making up your own mind about it, especially if you're into comics.

            Watchmen premiered in more theaters than any other previous R-rated film. Unfortunately, it still didn’t do as well as expected. The budget was sizable at $130 million and the global box office was only $185 million. Reviews were mixed, giving it a 64% on Rotten Tomatoes.

X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE

            Easily the worst film in the X-Men series so far was the clumsily titled 2009 film X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In fact, I’d rank it among the worst comic book films, period. The film was a prequel to the X-Men trilogy that solely focused on Wolverine. You know, just in case the previous three didn’t revolve around him enough.

            This was Hugh Jackman’s fourth time playing Wolverine. This made him the first actor to play a superhero four times since Christopher Reeve. Counting his cameo in X-Men: First Class, he has now appeared as Wolverine 9 times, the most of any comic book character. However, Robert Downey Jr. has played Iron Man 8 times if you include his Incredible Hulk cameo and will tie Jackman in 2018 with Avengers: Infinity War.

            The prequel was directed by Gavin Hood. At the time, he was mainly known for Tsotsi, but he was also the director for the adaptation of Ender’s Game, starring Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley.

            X-Men Origins featured the first cinematic appearances of a few notable X-Men. One of these was fan favorite Deadpool, who was created in 1991 by Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza. Sadly, the film version of the character was quite different from the comics in both appearance and personality. 

           Many referred to the character, played by Ryan Reynolds, as “Deadpool in name only”. One of the main complaints was that they sewed up his mouth. Seeing as Deadpool is often referred to as the “Merc with a Mouth”, this was somewhat of an odd decision.

           There was a hint that the character would come back in sequels, but the intensely negative reaction from fans meant that version of Deadpool would never be seen again.

            This film also was the first cinematic portrayal of Gambit, as he was intended to be in the original trilogy but kept getting cut out. He was played by Taylor Kitsch here and doesn't get much screentime.

            The Blob appeared for the first time as well, played by Kevin Durand of Lost and Legion. Logan's brother Sabretooth is in this but is played by Liev Schreiber instead of original actor Tyler Mane and looks nothing the version seen in the first X-Men, which made no reference to them being related. There was even a small appearance by a digitally de-aged Professor X.

            Despite being a terrible movie and getting critically lambasted, X-Men Origins was a box office success. $373 million was the final tally, more than doubling the budget of $150 million. Its Tomatometer score is pretty low at 38%, but this is probably better than it actually deserves.

           This film does have some entertainment value in a "so bad, it's good" kind of way and any fan of awful movies should give it a watch.

            X-Men Origins was pretty much ignored by all future films and they didn't shy away from contradicting it like in First Class when they had a completely different version of Emma Frost. However, it was made fun of in the 2016 Deadpool solo film.

The History of Comic Book Adaptations to Film: Part Twelve (2008)

THE DARK KNIGHT

                The Dark Knight is unquestionably one of the most influential comic book films ever made. It showed that superhero films could be serious, critically acclaimed films.

Before TDK, comic movies could get a good critical reception but were still generally seen as just entertaining popcorn films. Christopher Nolan changed that. His film got 8 Oscar nominations, the most ever for a comic book adaptation.

It won in two of those categories, one being Sound Editing. The other win was Heath Ledger for Best Supporting Actor, one of only two posthumous acting wins in Academy history. It was also the first time a comic book movie had won an acting Oscar or for that matter, any major Oscar at all. The other nominations were mainly in technical categories, but Wally Pfister did get one for the cinematography, just like for Batman Begins.

The Dark Knight did not get a nomination for Best Picture, however. This ended up being one of the most notable snubs in Oscar history and was considered emblematic of AMPAS being out of touch with the average filmgoer. Next year, the Academy switched to 10 nominees for the Best Picture category and many claimed that The Dark Knight was responsible.

TDK was equally successful commercially. It had a moderately sized budget at $185 million, but it made over a billion dollars. It was the fourth film to reach this mark. Right now, it’s the 28^th highest grossing film ever. It solidified Christopher Nolan's reputation as one of the foremost filmmakers of our time.

This film was such a cultural phenomenon that other comic book films are often compared to it even to this day. When the first trailers for Iron Man 3 were released, many fans thought they were trying to put out a tone similar to The Dark Knight. Iron Man 3 ended up bearing little resemblance to Nolan's film. 

Like the first film in the eventual trilogy, The Dark Knight was faithful to the source material in some ways, while differing in others. Two graphic novels that were cited as major influences were Alan Moore’s 1988 one-shot The Killing Joke (drawn by Brian Bolland) and The Long Halloween. The Long Halloween was published beginning in 1996, was written by Jeph Loeb, and illustrated by Tim Sale.

The Joker is vaguely similar to the source material, but some details have been changed. In the comics, he is permanently white due to falling in a chemical vat. This incident is never alluded to in the film, and there’s a scene showing the Joker without his white makeup.

The other villain in the film is Two-Face, played by Aaron Eckhart.  Again, Nolan’s version is vaguely similar to the comic counterpart. However, Two-Face doesn’t really have a split personality in The Dark Knight, which is sort of the hallmark of the character. Originally, he was just going to be Harvey Dent in this film, only to be scarred in the third one. Instead, his storyline was condensed into one film.

The Scarecrow, another member of Batman’s rogues gallery, plays a minor role. This made Cillian Murphy the first actor to reprise a part as a Batman villain on film.

IRON MAN 

          Another very influential film of 2008 was Marvel Studios' Iron Man. This was the first film from Marvel's in-house studio and the first installment of what would go on to become the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This was the first major example of an interconnected superhero universe on film.

          The MCU would go on to include 7 films to date, with an 8th coming this fall. These include 3 Iron Man films, a Hulk movie, Captain America, and Thor. And last but not least, the massive hit that was The Avengers. Needless to say, a connected universe proved lucrative. But none of it may have occurred without the success of Iron Man.

          A somewhat unlikely director was chosen in Jon Favreau. Originally an actor, Favreau wrote and directed his first feature film, Made in 2001. Made was a crime comedy starring Favreau and Vince Vaughn. His only other directorial effort before Iron Man was the 2003 Will Ferrell comedy Elf. This is not exactly the resume that would usually lead to getting a superhero blockbuster. Favreau went on to direct Iron Man 2 and Cowboys and Aliens.

         Iron Man was a huge commercial success. It was moderately budgeted at 140 million dollars. The opening weekend of $100 million was almost enough to make that back. The final tally ended up being $585 million. The reviews were very good as well.

        Undoubtedly, the main reason for the film's success was its star, Robert Downey, Jr. He perfectly portrays the wisecracking Tony Stark. The rest of the cast was solid as well. Downey has good chemistry with Gwyneth Paltrow as his love interest, Pepper Potts. Jeff Bridges is awesome as usual as Obadiah Stane, the villain and Terrence Howard is not bad as James Rhodes. However, in the sequel, he was replaced by Don Cheadle.

       Iron Man also featured a cameo by Samuel L. Jackson in an after credit scene. He plays Nick Fury, the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. Fury was originally white in the comics, but in the "Ultimate" universe, he looks exactly like Jackson. The after credit scene set up the "Avengers Initiative", hinting at the future team-up. The scene was written by famed comic author Brian Michael Bendis.

      Overall, the film was pretty faithful to the source material. One of the few major deviations was changing the location of Stark becoming Iron Man from Vietnam to Afghanistan. Also, Jarvis is a butler in the comics, but in the film, JARVIS is the name of Stark's talking AI system.


THE INCREDIBLE HULK

       The second entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe would end up being The Incredible Hulk. This version of the Hulk was unrelated to the 2003 Ang Lee movie Hulk. It's also not an origin story like so many other superhero films and relates the accident that made Bruce Banner the Hulk in the opening credits.

       The movie was the fourth directed by Frenchman Louis Leterrier, having previously made Transporter, Transporter 2, and Unleashed. He would later direct Now You See Me and Clash of the Titans. The Incredible Hulk is Leterrier's best effort out of the ones I've seen.

       Edward Norton was chosen to portray the title character, and the excellent Tim Roth is his nemesis, Emil Blonksy AKA The Abomination. In the film, he doesn't really go by this moniker but is simply referred to as an "abomination" at one point. Liv Tyler played the love interest Betty Ross and William Hurt filled the role of her father, Thunderbolt Ross.

      The only connective tissue to Iron Man was a post credit scene involving Tony Stark talking to Thunderbolt Ross. After this, viewers would expect some sort of after credit scene in all the Marvel Studios films.

      The character of the Hulk went on to appear in The Avengers. However, Edward Norton was replaced by Mark Ruffalo. This was unfortunate in terms of continuity but probably worked out for the best. Norton gave a rather serious performance as Banner and might not have fit in with the more lighthearted tone of The Avengers. It also might have been difficult balancing Norton's ego with the rest of the main cast.

     The Incredible Hulk gave a decent showing at the box office but was still slightly disappointing. It failed to double its $150 million budget, making only $263 million worldwide.


THE SPIRIT

       Next, we have The Spirit, based on the comic by legendary writer and artist Will Eisner. Eisner started writing in the 1930s and became well known for his work on The Spirit. In the 1970s he started working in longer forms, eventually leading to the conception of the term, "graphic novel". He continued to publish work up until his death in 2005.

      In the 1970s, William Friedkin was considering making a film out of the character of The Spirit, but the film fell through.

     The Spirit comics are awesome, but unfortunately, the film was atrocious. It was Frank Miller's first solo directorial effort after co-directing Sin City with Robert Rodriguez. Miller unwisely chose to apply the high contrast, green screen aesthetics of that film to Eisner's world.

     The Spirit was a massive flop. It only grossed $39 million globally, far less than the budget of $60 million. The critics were equally harsh and it has an abysmal 14 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.

      Perhaps Miller should have learned a lesson from the Sin City film and realized that it's better to stay true to the source material.


WANTED

     Wanted was a comic limited series published in 2003 and 2004. It had art by J.G. Jones and was written by Mark Millar, who wrote the Marvel crossover Civil War and Kick-Ass, which was made into a movie itself in 2010. The filmed adaption of Wanted was released in 2008.

     It was the first American film directed by Timur Bekmambetov. Previously he was known for the Russian language movies Night Watch and its sequel, Day Watch. He went on to direct Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and the 2016 version of Ben-Hur that failed with critics and audiences.

     I haven't read the comic, but apparently, the film is not faithful to the source material, as the comic was more focused on supervillains.

    Wanted was quite successful. It made over $340 million on a budget of about $75 million. It also received mostly positive reviews from critics. I found it to be pretty average and the whole idea of curving bullets is silly and ridiculous.

     James McAvoy's career had just broken through in 2007 with his acclaimed performance in Atonement, and this was his first leading role in a big action movie. After this, he would, of course, be the younger version of Professor X in 3 X-Men films to date.

     Among Wanted's supporting cast were Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, rapper Common, and General Zod himself, Terence Stamp.


HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY

    Guillermo del Toro returned to the director's chair for this sequel. Most of the cast came back including Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, and Doug Jones. David Hyde Pierce, who did the voice for Abe Sapien in the first installment, was not in this. Instead, Doug Jones provided the voice in addition to the body for Abe. Seth MacFarlane of Family Guy fame also voiced a character.

    Whether or not Hellboy II would even be made was in doubt. But del Toro had just come off the success of Spanish-language movie Pan's Labyrinth. This allowed him to go to work on the second Hellboy film.

    It was mildly successful as it doubled its $80 million budget and got good reviews from critics. Hellboy II is very entertaining and easily the best of the smaller 2008 comic book movies.


PUNISHER: WAR ZONE

    This film was considered a "soft reboot" of the first Punisher film. It didn't contradict anything that happened in it but didn't really have any strong connections either. The origin of The Punisher wasn't redone, but Thomas Jane was replaced by Ray Stevenson.

     War Zone is much darker and more violent than the Thomas Jane version and was probably the most violent Marvel film at the time.

    The director was German Lexi Alexander, who also made Green Street Hooligans and episodes of Arrow and Supergirl. She did a poor job here as the film ended up being pretty terrible. It made a measly $10 million worldwide, far below its modest budget of $35 million. The critics also blasted War Zone and it has a rating of only 27% on Rotten Tomatoes.

     War Zone is a huge step down from the previous Punisher film and there hasn't been a theatrical version of the character since. He's only appeared in the Netflix series Daredevil.
    
   
SPEED RACER

   You may not think of Speed Racer as being a comic book property, but the characters first appeared in manga form, so it qualifies. The manga was first published in 1958 and the U.S. TV show first aired in 1967. A live action version was in development since 1992.

   The movie adaptation was directed by the Wachowski brothers. This was the first film they made after The Matrix trilogy and their first that wasn't rated R. The cast included Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci, Susan Sarandon, John Goodman, and Matthew Fox.

   The film flopped spectacularly. It made only $93 million globally, not enough even make back its budget of $120 million. Reviews were mostly negative leading to a 39 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. While I understand why many don't like it and acknowledge its glaring flaws, I personally found Speed Racer to be entertaining and worth watching for its stunning visuals alone.

Machete Kills 6/10

MACHETE KILLS

DIRECTOR: ROBERT RODRIGUEZ


Machete Kills is somewhat disappointing. It's definitely a step down from the raucous fun of the first film, but still a mildly entertaining effort. Machete was more anarchic, whereas the sequel seems almost formulaic.

Robert Rodriguez returns to direct, but I think most of his fans were more eagerly anticipating his Sin City sequel. Danny Trejo comes back as the title character, as do supporting actors Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, and Tom Savini.

There were several newcomers to the cast. Perhaps the best was Demian Bichir who you might know as Esteban Reyes from the TV show Weeds. He's also appeared in films such as Heat, Savages, and Che. He gives an excellent performance here as a crazed revolutionary threatening to blow up Washington D.C.

The other standout is Mel Gibson as the film's true villain (his first role as a bad guy). He seems to be one of the few having fun here and his slightly over the top performance is spot on. Charlie Sheen also joins the franchise as the President of the United States. This seems to just be a bit of stunt casting, as he's largely on autopilot. Sheen was credited by his real name, Carlos Estevez, for the first time.

This is  also the first film role for pop star Lady Gaga. She's decent, but her performance is nothing special.

Overall, the film just has a been there, done that kind of feel to it. There's not much here that wasn't done better in the first movie.


The critics haven't been good to Machete Kills. As of October 19th, it has a paltry 30 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and slightly better 41 on Metacritic. The IMDB rating is 6.3.

The box office performance hasn't been much better. It has only made a little over $5 million so far.

RATING: 6/10