Customer Reviews

Comic Books Unbound (Starz Inside)

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Comic books are hot in Hollywood. Just look at the current round of popular films. Iron Man, the Hulk, Batman Returns, Superman Returns, the upcoming Green Hornet, the Fantastic Four, Spiderman #3, Hellboy II, and so many more are taking the box office by storm.

Starz Entertainment, in association with Michael Ruggerio, Gregg Backer, and Evan Kanew, delve into the history of successful comic book to film adaptations starting with the early movie serials like Blackhawk, Batman, Superman, Captain Marvel, and Spy Smasher to current megahits Hellboy II and Iron Man. Interviews with comic book legends Carmine Infantino, Jim Steranko, Stan Lee, Frank Miller, and Mike Mignola, film producers Avi Arad, Micheael Uslan, and Richard Donner, and actors Ron Perlman, and Lou Ferrigno spice the peppy presentation up with insights and opinions. The various decades and productions are dealt with in a choppy fashion, and the flow is not smooth as it might be, but this may be due to the short length of the documentary. For instance, the movie serial era is only glossed over, and seems to zoom in on a limited number of titles, and the 1960's to the 70's is briefly discussed. Missing in action seems to be good discussions on the Batman TV series, the Green Hornet TV series, Wonder Woman, the Hulk, and the animated series from Filmation. The entire range of animated shows is also omitted, leaving the bulk of the time on the documentary spent on the era from 1994 to 2008.

Having said that, the information and interviews is interesting and presents a good overview of how Hollywoods' perception of comic books has gone from hot to cold to hot again. New productions are mentioned and Frank Millers' The Spirit is included, as are announcements from San Diego and New York.

No documentary is perfect, yet, for the intended audience, this is a reasonable presentation. Any more information, and we have a 2 hour special, and many more hours of cast offs.

Look for this at your favorite DVD dealer or online from anchorbay at www.anchorbayentertainment.com.

Make Mine Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse, or Dell....

Tim Lasiuta

I found this on the documentary channel of Netflix streaming and was excited to watch it. What I got was more a taste of the incredible diversity of impact on the silver screen by one of my favorite mediums, Comic Books. Since this is a Stars special, and not a true documentary, the show moves very quickly from era to era without spending a lot of time in each. As a result, my interest is piqued but my hunger not satisfied.

A nice diversion as we wait for the true documentary expose on the impact of Comics on culture.

Comic Books Unbound is an hour-long documentary that originally appeared on the Starz Network a few months ago and has just been released on DVD. I hesitate in calling it a documentary because it isn't one in the truest sense of the word. It is rather a collection of interviews with various comic book pros, actors, and filmmakers on the subject of comic book-based films.

The film traces comic book films from the earliest movie serials of the 1930s and 40s, right through this year's mega-hit films like "Iron Man" and "Batman: The Dark Knight". It is most interesting to see how these films have developed from low-brow, B-movie fare to the blockbusters that they've become today. One need only take a look at the all-time box office leaders and you will see it littered with comic book films. The Dark Knight is inching ever closer to taking the top spot away from "Titanic".

It's not only a history of comic films that you get but a bit of comic history itself. Stan Lee talks about how the comic book business was almost destroyed in the 1950s by the publication of "Seduction of the Innocent" and the Congressional hearings that forced the creation of the Comics Code Authority and doomed many comic book companies, notably EC Comics.

You have to cringe when you think about the sheer stupidity of studio executives. Michael Uslan was turned down by studio execs numerous times in trying to get "Batman" made as the jaded execs could not see past the campy 1960s TV show.

The list of interviewees is long and diverse: Stan Lee, Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, Tim Sales, Mike Mignola, Carmine Infantino from the comic book pros; Guillermo del Toro, Richard Donner, Michael Uslan, Roger Corman, Avi Arad, and Zak Penn representing filmmakers; Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Jeff Bridges, Robert Downey Jr., Edward Norton, and Gwyneth Paltrow, giving their opinions from the actor's perspective.

Corman's tale of his Fantastic Four is quite humorous if you're not familiar with the ill-fated, ultra-low budget fiasco. The film also hits on several other Marvel Comics film flops including the horrible Captain America made-for-TV films and direct-to-video disaster. As a long time comic fan I particularly enjoyed the comments by Neal Adams and Jim Steranko. These guys were the rock stars of the comic book business when I started collecting in the early 1970s.

While enjoyable, it's quite short at just under an hour and it doesn't reveal much information that most comic fans don't know already. One thing that would have been nice to see is a look at some of the films due out in the next few years and an overall assessment of the future of the genre. Not much in the way of extras other than a few minutes of interview outtakes, notably from Stan Lee and a few others. It's fun but fluffier Cool Whip.

Yeah, I wish Starz had devoted a lengthier running time for this documentary, COMIC BOOKS UNBOUND. As others have already raised, there's much to enjoy here but the film also teases you by merely glossing over past key eras. It tends to spotlight the more recent superhero films, which is perhaps why HELLBOY's Ron Perlman and Selma Blair - whose HELLBOY sequel would debut the month after this documentary aired - are prominently interviewed. It's noted that comics have indeed evolved with the times. And yet there are only drive-by mentions of the 1940s serial film adaptations, Wortham's witch hunt and persecution of EC Comics in the '50s and the resulting Comic Code seal (these are events which really soured film industries on comic books), and the campy Batman TV series in the '60s (beloved in certain circles but an undermining influence on the Batman mythos). The documentary does linger some on the underground/counterculture movement of the '70s, with particular attention paid to R. Crumb's hellraising Fritz the Cat, and how its cinematic version was given the "X-rated" treatment. Oh, eyebrows were raised.

A piece that's only about an hour long, COMIC BOOKS UNBOUND delivers a fairly broad overview of the history of comics as it relates to cinema. It presents interviews with actors (Perlman, Blair, Robert Downey, Jr., Ed Norton, etc.), directors (Richard Donner, Guillermo Del Toro), and producers (Roger Corman). Not surprisingly, the detailed insights are delivered by comic book luminaries Stan Lee, Neal Adams, Mike Mignola, Jim Steranko, and Carmine Infantino.

The stigma attached to grown men reading comic books, it hasn't evaporated. But as a comic book reader from way back, I derive satisfaction in seeing Hollywood in such a frenzy over comic book material. I savor Stan Lee's getting treated like a god by movie moguls. Comic books are hot properties nowadays, and comic book conventions are now regularly invaded by Hollywood, eager to promote its upcoming wares. The San Diego Comic Con has become bigger with each passing year, and while a certain soulless element has infused the venue, it's probably worth it for the spotlight glaring on Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, and such. The purity of the Con? Heck, I wanna see my superheroes on the big screen. Mostly, now, they've been doing it right. Especially since Marvel acquired its own movie studio.

This documentary is at its most reverent when the talk swings around to the monumental 1978 Superman film. Christopher Reeves gave comic books its first real shot at legitimacy as a medium. Mad respect to THE DARK KNIGHT, but SUPERMAN was the game changer. It was groundbreaking, THE benchmark superhero film. It's influenced today's generation of film-makers, from Sam Raimi to Bryan Singer to Guillermo Del Toro.

In 1989 Tim Burton gave Batman back his darkness. It seems insane nowadays that no one had wanted to give Burton's reimagining of the Caped Crusader a shot. But the goofy ghost of Adam West was this palpable weight on the Batman franchise. If not for Jack Nicholson's inclusion, I don't know that today Heath Ledger would be nominated for his role as Joker or that THE DARK KNIGHT would be universally hailed as a cinematic masterpiece.

Graphic novels aren't neglected. Casual movie-goers may be startled to know that films like AMERICAN SPLENDOR, 300, ROAD TO PERDITION, and A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE are based on graphic novels.

Meanwhile, for years and years, the epic puzzle was why Marvel hadn't had as much success as DC in adapting its characters to the screen. Pound for pound, Marvel rolls out the more interesting characters. The documentary articulates the core difference between DC and Marvel: DC's characters are more clean-cut and heroic. Marvel's are essentially damaged goods, and thus more relatable. Marvel's one true success, once upon a time, was the Bixby/Ferrigno Hulk television series. For Marvel, other than the Hulk, it's been a cinematic wasteland dotted by a supremely stiff Spider-Man television series and painful Captain America movies. Anyone remember Peter Hooten?

Marvel may've hit bottom with the Fantastic Four fiasco. As Roger Corman explains it, a German producer, fearful of losing the nearly expired option on the Fantastic Four, gave him a million dollars to begin shooting an FF film. Except that this film was never ever meant to see the light of day. It was shot only so that the option rights could be kept in perpetuity.

In 1998, BLADE - which not a lot of folks knew was a Marvel product - flipped the scenario. Edgy and earnest, BLADE was the first Marvel character to gain wide acceptance from the movie-goers. Its unexpected box office success legitimized Marvel as a Hollywood player, and it wasn't too long before X-MEN and SPIDER-MAN would make their big screen debuts. This past decade, DC's been scraping by with its Batman franchise. But Marvel has been dominant, seemingly the one company with a long range strategy in place. Too bad this documentary - which broadcast on June 2008 - didn't have a chance to get into THE AVENGERS, a project Marvel Studios had been steadily working toward for years.

The DVD's bonus feature consists of interview outtakes with Stan Lee, Jim Steranko, and Neal Adams (00:07:42 minutes).

This is far from being a comprehensive documentary on comic books that have made it to the silver screen, but it's a fun little overview, featuring some of the big-name titles that have broken comic books out of its niche and made them more approachable and even acceptable in the mainstream: Superman, Batman, Frank Miller's "Sin City" and particularly Spiderman, as well as the artists and directors who made them possible, including Guillermo Del Toro, Richard Donner, and Marvel Comics' grandmaster, Stan Lee. There's even a few little segments on some oddities, like Roger Corman's attempt at filming The Fantastic Four on a shoestring budget and the 1940s serial versions of classic DC titles. It's a little bit dated, in the fact that it features some hints on the early development of titles like Watchmen and Iron Man, which have now been released, but it's a lot of fun and a good way for a neophyte to comic books to get their feet wet.