My Favorite Non-Superhero Comicbook Movies.

Since I made up a list of my fave superhero comicbook movies list, as a comicbook nerd, I figured that I should probably make one up for those publications that are sans masks, capes & superpowers.



10. Men In Black
I was kinda surprised that as a comicbook nerd, I was never even aware of MIB until the movie came out. So afterwards, I decided to look up the printed version & check it out. And no wonder I had never heard about it: it was a piece of crap. Which I guess just made me like the film version even more, for what it was.



9. Heavy Metal
One of the most important moments growing up for me as a huge comicbook nerd was the discovery of Heavy Metal, an anthology comic-magazine full of fantasy, futuristic and/or the emergin cyber-punkologic stories that were not restricted by those imposed upon more immature superheroic fare.
When the movie came out, even though it lacked the technical strength of more general-audience targeted animated features, in it I saw the potential for the kind of creative diversity & no-holds barred story telling that I had experienced in the magazine. It is definitely flawed, & even more definitely not for everybody, but what it is, is a vehicle for anyone interested in looking for something that is not the same ol' same ol' & with an interesting anthology theme whose rock'roll/sci-fi/animated integrated format is bound by neither PC rules or those that result from the kid-targeted genre.



8. Appleseed Ex Machina
So far, the most updated amazing computer animation in any animated feature.
Simply put, the computer-generated visuals in this film truly have to be seen in order to be believed.
However, even though the story is solid, as the sci-fi epic that Appleseed's visuals aspire to be, it does lack some originality in it's plotline. It is for this reason, combined with the indistinguisnness of the faces (as is usually common for most 3-D anime) that prevented this film from being ranked higher on this list, despite the fact that the graphics are, so far, some of the most favorite that my eyes have ever laid upon.
That said, there wasn't a frame in this movie where I just wasn't completely stunned with awe. The technical details & intricate designs in Ex Machina are some of the most striking ever to be generated on film.
Iron-Man's armor looks like it was created by Fisher-Price compared to the "hardwear" that these guys are sporting.
A true marvel to behold.



7. Coraline
Okay, this entry is basically a cheat.
I know that Coraline is a book that got translate into a graphic novel & then it was adapted into a movie.
But, as a comicbook nerd, & since it's author it more well known as a comicbook writer, I was first introduced to Coraline as a comicbook. So, y'know.... there you go.
Regardless, it's still a fine modern update of the Alice In Wonderland theme, with it's mixed ingredients of creative psychodelica, slightly edged childlike wonder, along with a nice dash of horror, but just enough to gurgitate a lump of fear in the throat of the kiddie audience within its targeted age. But not so much that it would scare any of it's young viewers to the point of absolving their parents of any responsibility for any trauma that might lead 'em up to the top of a building with a sniper gun, later on in life. Hopefully.



6. Oldboy
A hard-bitten, no-holds barred tale of revenge that bites hard & holds no bars. And while I know that sentence is doublely redundant, it seems to fit the situation as far the level of emotional ravishing that this story leads it's characters up to. Brutal it may be, it's a film that depicts it's story at an operatic level & with a refreshing energy to give the film a distinct life that widely separates it from the standard vengeance theme of traditional Hollywood-fare. IMO, a great flick that is armed with an in-your-face type of plot twist & proves that the medium of the graphic novel & comicbook is a world full of potentially good cinema, if one is willing to shuffle passed the mainstream same old same old.



5. A History of Violence
This movie depicts how the process of "keeping up with the Joneses" can be suddenly interrupted when the time comes to "bring out the mattresses".
A normal family man's life is suddenly endangered by gangsters who insist, even against his own memory, that he's more than just an average joe. Soon, an existence that seemed beyond his comprehension begins to unravel before him in a manner that will assure that for better or worse, his family will never be the same again.
And this film is actually based off of a graphic novel called (you guessed it) "A History Of Violence".
I highly recommend reading it.
Cuz there'll probably be a pop quiz later.



4. 300
I thought that the limited comicbook series was just okay.
But then Zack Snyder & the writers took Frank Miller's story & used this movie to add a whole different dimension to the telling of this early historic battle. While the story itself suffered a bit because it had to be shorten into a "two-hour" movie ( or however long this thing ran), it seemed to be made up by the surrealist matrix-like effects that were used to enhance the story-telling in a manner such as when an artist uses a new medium for his/her artwork.
In this history epic, I have seen the future of film storytelling,
And it works.



3. Ghost World
While I had seen Scarlett Johansson before in other movies, this was the first one where I had actually "fallen in love" with her.
I always liked Dan Clowes' comics. His work definitely subscribed to the idea of having a "style that was all his own". And for my money, this style fits in even more effectively in the medium of film than it does in the comicbook version of what is known as the "alternative" genre (a genre that his printed works mold into quite successfully). Dan Clowes' movies bring a well-welcomed shot of something new & different to watch just as effectively as his comics bring to the experience of reading.



2. Road to Perdition
Let's forget the comicbook for a moment.
Road To Perdition is a quality film that addresses an area of the mobster life that rarely gets any notice from most movies from this genre: the relationship of a gangster with his kid(s) when the child is at the age in which the the parent's influence is most strongest & begins to crystalize in the kid's identity. Just this one aspect of the mafia lifestyle is enough to open a new set of ideas for future movies plotlines that focus on those in the world of organized crime.
Tom Hanks wanders out of his standard role to play an assasin who, along with his only survivng son, is on the run from the crime syndicate which he formerly called home. A life & death experience which reveals that there's a difference between the blood that is spilled for a mob-family & the blood that is shared between a real family.



1. Sin City
The weird thing about this movie is that the male lead characters are all practically the same guy. And the stories don't seem to stray too off far from each other or from a theme that we've all seen on the big screen millions of times before. The thing is, the visuals on this thing are so goddamn striking that, for me at least, it almost felt like I was watching a much more unique set of plotlines than was actually being told. Rather than trying to bring the Sin City graphic novel into movie "reel life", it seemed almost like this was more an exercise to bringing reel life into the Sin City comicbook. That the actors weren't trying to portray comicbook characters as much as they were trying to integrate their 3-D physicality into 2-D flat-figured Frank Miller drawings ( as was most evident with the make-up jobs on Marv & the Yellow Man). I know that there are some people who criticized the simplicity & graphic "pointlessness" of this movie, but it's art direction was so full of energy & depth ( for my visual senses, at least) that I couldn't keep my eyes off the screen & found myself truly embedded in the illusion that I was watching something original.