Naughty Adaptations

As in ‘Film Adaptations made in the ‘Noughties’: 2000 to 2009’.

For as long as there have been films there have been adaptations. One of the first real ‘productions’, the 14 minute 1902 French silent film A Trip to The Moon, was loosely based on popular science fiction of the time.

Purists may baulk but I like the version with the goofy narration:



Fast forward to 1999 and The Matrix, which also drew heavily from contemporary science fiction to create something new, something that also showed other film makers (and would-be film makers) of the age what could be done using new technology in imaginative new ways. Comparing the Matrix to A Trip to The Moon is rather tenuous. The way cinema has progressed since The Matrix can’t be weighed against what happened over the decade since 1902. Way back then the language of cinema had to be written and discovered as film makers went along; continuity, reverse angles, point-of-view and all the rest of it were created for the first time in the creative dawn of the cinematic revolution.

But in my opinion the Matrix is one of the most important modern films because it showed a new generation that special effects and imagination could create something fascinating, believable and appealing. There are lots of films made in the five to ten years before the Matrix that made use of the emerging GSI techniques: Armageddon, the American Godzilla, Jurassic Park, The Fifth Element and Independence Day to name but a few. The Matrix stands head and shoulders above these films because it was the first to really show that with new technology, anything was now possible (I wonder if that’s how audiences felt in 1902?). The public appetite for effects heavy film had returned, all that was needed was the vision.

The Matrix is an anomaly because it’s an original screenplay. I’ve blogged before about how it borrowed liberally from other sources but it is not based entirely on any one work. Post-Matrix Hollywood was keen to build on the Wachowski Brother’s success. The will was there to put the digital talent available to use in order to revitalise the summer/holiday-season blockbuster. The only problem was the lack of original material. What followed was a decade of big budget action adaptation spectaculars. Comic books were mined first, followed by video games and the occasional book series. Peter Jackson’s Lord of The Rings films had been in development for years but the success of the Matrix probably helped things along, ditto Harry Potter.

Lengthier than intended introduction aside, I take a look at a few examples of adaptations from the second half of the last decade: (there are a hundred others I could mention, I just happen to have watched these ones quite recently, all of them effects heavy fantasies)

Aeon Flux – 2005, Karyn Kusama
Oh dear. It’s a huge shame for a number of reasons, none more than fact that the original Aeon Flux animations were incredible. I remember watching them on BBC 2 back in what I consider to be a special time in the history of the channel. If I may reminisce; there was a time when 6pm on weekdays meant only one thing: BBC2. Aeon Flux, The Fresh Prince of Bell Air, The Tick, Buffy, Sliders and of course, Star Trek. Good Lord it was good. I seem to remember that it was the arrival of The Simpsons on BBC 2 that was the beginning of the end.
Anyway, Aeon Flux was awesome and prime fodder for a live action adaptation. Charlize Theron was at her most bankable, the source material was associated with MTV so a film could rely on being promoted through all the right channels, and the budget was ample. So what went wrong? Too much attention to detail perhaps? The props and the sets and the locations are all amazing, they just don’t look anything like the cartoon. The cartoon was dirty looking and subversive, profound even. The film was highly polished, a completely different vision. It didn’t help that the story and characters were all rubbish. As the man behind the original Peter Chung said ‘I was unhappy when I read the script four years ago; seeing it projected larger than life in a crowded theatre made me feel helpless, humiliated and sad’
The failure of this adaptation didn’t put a stop to the big budget movie adaptation trend, thankfully, but it did ensure that adaptations made in the following years had smaller budgets, and some of them were clearly better for it.

Silent Hill – 2006, Christpohe Gans
I like Silent Hill a lot. It’s faithful to the video game on a number of levels, as well as being a well structured film. Anyone who’s played any of the Silent Hill games will know that it’s all about the atmosphere; wandering around a creepy town in the fog bumping into hellish demons. The movie captures this well. It also does a good job of being a video game adaptation in the sense that it’s structured episodically, like the levels of a game: get to the town, get to the school, get to the hotel, get to the church, get to the hospital. Simple but effective, with a satisfyingly gory ending. My only criticism is one instance where a character looks a bit too much like their video game counterpart:



In a video game you can get away with a blonde crop-haired cop who wanders around in tight leather pants, but not so much in a film. Laurie Holden was a well cast though.

30 Days of Night – 2007, David Slade
This one is similar to Silent Hill but it’s not quite as good as it’s far more formulaic as horror films go, the creatures are well designed but strangely inconsistent. It also takes the ‘less is more’ approach a bit far. It builds and builds but doesn’t really go anywhere, then the ending’s a bit of a let down. Quite good on the whole though.

Speed Racer – 2008, Andy and Larry Wachowski
They should have known better than to spend $120 million on a film version of Speed Racer. With the release of the new Tron film there’s been a lot of talk along the lines of ‘Why make a new Tron film? Who cares about Tron anyway?’ The same could (and should) have been said about Speed Racer.
But...Speed Racer is a guilty pleasure of mine. It should be called LSD Racer. This is just about the trippiest kids film ever. Imagine playing with toy cars inside a rainbow. It’s bonkers. Never before or since has so much money been spent on such a weak, contrived, confused plot. It makes Avatar look like The Shawshank Redemption. This is a difficult one to recommend but if the opportunity comes along, give it a go. It’s pure imagination. If I ever have kids, I’ll happily put a copy of Speed Racer on the DVD shelf along with all the Miyazaki films I’ll force them to watch. Speed Racer gives me hope for the inevitable Yellow Submarine remake.

Watchmen 2009, Zack Snyder
The comic-book adaptation genre is well established now, and in amongst the dross, the OKs and the Quite-Goods there have been a few definite peaks: Sin City, 300 and Watchmen. Watchmen does have it’s flaws; Mathew Goode is miscast as Ozymandias (and I was never crazy about Billy Cruddup...in fact when I think about it, other than Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian all the main cast are bad choices) and the ending is all wrong. I don’t mean because it’s missing the Giant Squid Monster, the movie plot makes more sense and was a good idea, I mean the little things anyone who’d read the comic would notice and be annoyed by.
However, on the whole it’s good, for the simple reason that they took what was on the pages of the comic book and put it on screen. The colours, the costumes, the setting, all are faithful to what Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons created back in 1986. The people behind the Watchmen film were brave enough stick to the comic and not change what didn’t need to be changed.