...
This was not a great month for me - I won't bore you with the details. Suffice it to say that
money problems came along and stole my
mojo. I didn't know what to write about for my column this month. I was just feeling empty. Then I saw the trailer for
Repo: The Genetic Opera. At first I
disliked it, and after I thought about it for a while I
hated it.
It's good to feel inspired again.
So to be clear: I hate the
trailer.
I haven't seen the movie, so I'm not offering an opinion about the
movie itself. The trailer fails to make me want to watch this movie.
This trailer has convinced me that the film is a waste of time - a
misguided effort.
Why? It's about the sense of scale.
Repo
is a rock opera - a musical. It is all about grand gestures, and
soaring emotions and larger-than-life characters. It seems to be in the
same vein as successes like
Jesus Christ Superstar,
Moulin Rouge and
Rocky Horror Picture Show. These were grand productions. They achieve the scale necessary to pull it off.
What did I see in the trailer for
Repo?
I saw a stage production that was simply shot to film. There were no
panoramic shots of huge sets or large outdoor vistas. It was all
soundstage - claustrophobic and small. Unforgivably
small. (Sorry, bad CG exterior shots do not count)
I know nothing about the history of this project, but I get the feeling that the maker of
Saw
went to a production of this musical and was so moved by the experience
that he wanted to make a movie out of it. It looks like someone just
went into the theatre where this was being done and shot it by the seat
of their pants without any re-imagining or re-envisioning. It smacks of
hubris and laziness. It demonstrates an ignorance of the differences in
media (film vs theatre)
It's easy for a group of actors to
create magic in person. When you go to a live theatre show, the
personal energy can blow the roof off the theatre, and make you sweat
in your seat. I'm sure the live show of
Repo did just that.
But
that is just not going to translate into film without a visionary
director taking hold of the material and using the medium to its
fullest.
Rocky Horror was a
stage show first, but when they made the movie, they went to locations,
they had exteriors, they had special effects, they had great musical
numbers, photographed like a musical. They achieved
bigness.
There are creators out there that understand their medium. Jack Kirby was one - he told some of the
biggest stories ever - so many that have come after are standing on his shoulders. The second Fantastic Four movie
Rise of the Silver Surfer
is a clear example of what I'm talking about. The Fantastic Four aren't
ironic or gritty or dark, and any attempts to make them 'cool' in that
way will result in failure. Stan and Jack just
went for it,
and told huge stories, with characters that explained what they were
doing while they did it, and when you are bold like that, when you
write a story about a giant purple guy from space who's come to eat the
Earth, you have to just jump in with both feet. Any timidity will cause
the whole thing to fail.
My webcomics pick this month has
bigness.
Johnny Saturn by Scott Story and Benita Story(http://johnnysaturn.com/)Superheroes
have been seeing a renaissance since Hugh Jackman first popped his
claws back in 2000. The potential of the genre has been increased as
these stories have broken out of the confines of nerdy obscurity, and
they have become familiar to a wider audience. There's been an
explosion of interest in masks and capes as people are cluing in to the
huge potential of this storytelling form, a
modern-day mythology that allows us to reflect on the big issues while delivering
heroic thrills.
Many
of these characters have been used and abused over the years. There are
many superhero stories that don't bother trying to reach for
mythological greatness, but instead wallow in cheap commercialism. And
there are very few that reach for the great height achieved by Alan
Moore in
Watchmen. Enter
Johnny Saturn.
It's bloody, it's rough around the edges, and it's epic. Scott and
Benita Story take the superhero story into a place that's both
dark & gritty while still being
earnest & heartfelt.
The
story begins with the funeral of Johnny Saturn, where are grateful city
pays its respects to their fallen hero. We are introduced to a world
that has superheroes as a part of its culture, as a combination of
celebrity and additional level of law enforcement/national defense.
This motif is familiar to those that read conventional comics from
Marvel or DC. But rather than set up a status-quo and then return to
it, the universe of Johnny Saturn evolves and changes as it progresses
through the chapters.
The quality of the comic also evolves.
I've said this elsewhere; for me, this is one of the joys of webcomics,
the diamonds-in-the-rough. The joy of witnessing talent in a raw form,
people working on something just because they love it. Johnny Saturn is
a labour of love. This is evident in every panel. Part of what kept me
clicking
next was the sense of urgency that is imbued into this work.
The author was driven to create this comic, as driven as the titular
character is on his mission of vigilante justice.
So yes, it's a
bit rough around the edges. Hell, it's rough in the center as well.
Professional work is always guaranteed to be of a certain level, but
it's also guaranteed to stay within certain boundaries. The plot of
this comic goes out of bounds for the usual superhero story. Waaay out
of bounds. I admit I was lost in the wilderness at some points. I would
assert that this is a good thing, and it's what makes this story
transcend the bounds of popular fiction. It strives to become something
more; if art is too strong a word, then literature at least. Not knowing what's going to happen next is a kind of thrill that can be hard to find in printed comics.
Does it hit the mark? Not exactly, but it reaches for it. And that makes it well worth the price of admission.
