A true statement used to be, “Movie based on comic books suck.” Kinda like the statement, “Any movie based on a Saturday Night Live skit or character will suck.” Gospel truth.

While SNL-based movies still suck, there’s good news regarding movies based on comic books and graphic novels: some of them are actually quite awesome. Gone are the days when comic-book fans could only dream of seeing their favorite heroes and other comic characters come to life on film - some very cool movies have been made in recent years based on comic book heroes.

Most notable have been X-Men and Spiderman, of course, from the Marvel universe. But who would deny that Batman Returns was cool as hell, or that V for Vendetta was immensely entertaining?

And then there are some movies based on characters which aren’t superheroes: American Splendor was a critically-acclaimed film, and then there was Ghost World - which not only had hot chicks, but had some great humor and the awesome Steve Buschemi.

So now that Wanted is about to be made into a major motion picture, purist fanboys are complaining that Wanted is gonna suck. Why? Because of changes in the comic’s storyline and some minor things that people get hung up on.

I’m not so quick to condemn Wanted the movie. I’ll tell you why: so far, it fits the bill of a “good” comic book movie. A good comic book movie has to fulfill the following criteria:

1. A skilled/accomplished director
2. A talented cast
3. An imaginitive script

I didn’t say it had to be exactly like the comic book - although we would all like that to be the case. I didn’t say it had to have a huge budget, either. It just has to be put in the hands of creative people who know how to tell a story.

Want some examples to back this up? Sure.

The Hulk - It sucked. Big budget. Bad script.

Sin City - Mind-blowing. Great director. Awesome cast. Low budget!

The Fantastic Four - Awful everything. The only reason it was successful was Jessica Alba.

V for Vendetta - Great movie. Not exactly faithful to the graphic novel - but the writing, acting, and directing made up for it.

Ghost Rider - Who even bothered to see it? Not me. I’m sure it sucked…but then again I could tell that from the corny lines and campy attitude shown in the commercials.

Now, there are some exceptions: I think Art School Confidential fulfilled the requirements but I want those two hours of my life back. It wasn’t very entertaining. So you can’t say everything is “black and white” - but these are good rules of thumb.

Basically, we can’t condemn Wanted at this early of a stage in it’s production. So far, it has a great cast and a director who seems to be able to create the necessary mood and attitude we want out of this movie. Will it suck? Maybe it will.

But I don’t want to miss out on what could be an awesome movie before I’ve even seen a trailer.

Posted by admin on Monday, June 25th, 2007 at 2:20 am.