Tuesday, December 9th, 2008...1:56 am
Will Hollywood ever do a decent adaptation?
First off, apologies for the delay (and for the crooked images, wordpress is weird). I have exams this week and I was through in Glasgow watching The Kings of Leon rock the house at the S.E.C.C.
Anyway, earlier on during the week I had to endure one of the worst films I’ve seen in the last year or so. Speed Racer. I haven’t felt that my time has been wasted this bad since I reviewed Divergence Eve last year. (And no, I will never, ever get around to reviewing the third volume)
This two hour piece of crap prompted me to think about Hollywood and our favourite import from the east. Will they ever do a decent adaptation of anything to do with Anime or Manga? 
The biggest problem that I have with this whole scenario is that we, as the regular punters, know that Tinsel Town can chuck out a decent adaptation of something. Insert Spiderman and Batman here. But when it comes to using source material from Asia, everything turns out to be like Daredevil, and the first Hulk, and the Fantastic Four. These three films on their own almost put the last nail in the coffin for comic related films until X-Men and Spiderman came along to save the day.
One of the biggest scepticisms I have of most adaptations these days could be put down to the fact I know when I read some of the press releases for films that the Studios Accountants have done some figures on what they expect the film to make. There are very few mainstream comics left for them to tap into that everyone recognises. For example, you may not have read a Batman comic in your life. But you’ll know who he is.
Another chip on my shoulder is the fact that some of these works have years upon years of work, blood, sweat, tears and other bodily fluids put into them over the years that anything but a good adaptation seems to me like a huge slap in the face to the original author. Take for example, the biggest, meanest, crappiest thing to come out of Germany since Hitler. Uwe Bowl. This “director” has bastardised nearly every decent game in the last 10 years with some utterly crap movie adaptation. I haven’t seen the new Max Payne yet, but thank god Uwe didn’t get his grubby mitts on it. But saying that, I don’t exactly have high hopes for that either.
So why do I have such a disdain for Hollywood and their obsession with bringing anything animated/drawn into a feature movie? Well for the personal reason that I think that with a budget of $100million it could have been the next Batman. Obviously I haven’t seen the film yet, I will be when it comes out, but the internet has umpteen photos that make it look pretty meh.
But things might actually be looking up. I was browsing through ANN earlier on and came across this story. Spielberg, Smith Reportedly Adapting Old Boy Manga Itself. Basically, One of Hollywoods most respected and well known directors is supposedly backing this project.
Now, if there was one director I would want to direct an adaption it would be Stevie. Will Smith isn’t that bad either; at least I thought Hancock was pretty good. So if this rumour is true, and I’m hoping it is as Old boy is a fantastic piece of material, then things might actually be moving in the right direction.
There is no doubt in my mind that there is some fantastic Anime/Manga that would make a great film, you will have no doubt thought about this yourself. There is just so much of the damn stuff that going by pure maths, there just has to be. At the end of the day I have been pretty disappointed about what’s came out of Hollywood. It just annoys me as a fan to see something that I know and love is redone and to miss the entire thing, the whole essence that made the source material worth making a feature film out of.
I’m just hoping that this adaptation of Old Boy might make Hollywood begin to take this material seriously.
10 Comments
December 9th, 2008 at 2:25 am
The only way to get a real, good live-action adaptation is (1) take the studio executives out of the equation, (2) give the project a good budget, and (3) have the writer and director actually understand and appreciate the source material and can bring it to life. Too often, I believe that the attempt is to try to make an adaptation into something American and often, that is going to fail. Going through the motions isn’t enough — it has to have heart too.
December 9th, 2008 at 2:26 am
So you’ve seen one anime/manga adaption, and from that sample size of a single movie, declared that all anime/manga adaptions are bad?
Yes, my brother just saw Strike Witches, therefore ALL anime is for pedophiles.
December 9th, 2008 at 3:12 am
No. They will never make a decent adaptation. EVER.
December 9th, 2008 at 3:17 am
It’s not just Speed Racer, although that’s the most recent adaptation: notice he didn’t just say ‘anime’ - let’s look at Scooby Doo, Street Fighter the Movie, Garfield, Transformers the Live Action Movie, Wing Commander, Bloodrayne, the upcoming Max Payne movie (which completely shifts mood and genre), any Uwe Boll film in existence… Hell, look at most of the comic-book adaptations that AREN’T Batman Returns or X-Men… and most of them suck.
The issue here is that most of their adaptations are horrible, and they’re with material they’re familiar with (supposedly) - the potential for an anime adaptation to suck harder (as Speed Racer did) is definitely there, as often with adaptations the writers and director (and the executives) seem to forget what made the original good in the first place… and instead produce something just like every other movie out there, but worse.
December 9th, 2008 at 3:46 am
Sorry Shinji, I’m far too lazy to read beyond the Divergence Eve paragraph. Can you summarize everything into a single paragraph for the more lazy people…or rather, just me?
Random question: Is Divergence Eve really that bad? I got the whole series from the ADV £1-2 fire sales ages ago, still not having touched them. It looks like a standard issue fan service show, mixed with some mecha elements. Since I don’t like fapping whilst watching non-hentai anime, it and Baatle Vixens will probably never be watched. I obviously love wasting money.
December 9th, 2008 at 10:37 am
Hollywood is also coming out with DBZ and Akira I believe. Judging from the DBZ trailer I have very low standards for that movie. I think Akira is going to be made into 2 movies.
December 9th, 2008 at 11:52 am
My gut feeling to your articles question: no.
In all honesty I’d rather they left anime/manga alone in Hollywood and focused on realising some new ideas of their own. When something is already so good in animated or comic form it seems unlikely any of this will translate to a decent adaption.
… However, the optimist in me wants to think ‘yes’ now that it’s actually being done. I doubt DBZ is really going to do much for anime in the west, but there’s at least some potential in likes of Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell - let’s hope hollywood doesn’t squander it like they have with all those game adaptions..
December 9th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
@ AstroNerdBoy - I don’t think it’s that big an issue getting something to pander to western tastes. One of the biggest issues i think is the whole situation of what do you cut out? Take I Am Legend for example. On the whole, a good film, but some of the best parts of the book were left out. Take the subplot of the main character going insane, great part of the book but almost entirely left out of the film.
@ Haesslich - Thanks, you hit the nail on the head with that reply.
@ Aion - In regards to Divergence Eve, here are my two previous reviews.
http://animeuknews.net/review/840/divergence-eve-1
http://animeuknews.net/review/858/divergence-eve-2
@ Wildcard - I was thinking about this the other day. The anime in question was Black Lagoon, personally i think that has all the right ingredients to make a really good film. But would i trust the film studios to get it right. no.
February 20th, 2009 at 8:57 am
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April 3rd, 2009 at 6:02 pm
…. I was enjoying your well written views, agreeing silently and liking the fact I am not alone in this viewpoint.
But “Hancock was pretty good” ….Wtf, it was a piece of crap. The story was completely retarded, any sane person understands why it sucks, and so should you.
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