Customer Reviews

Southland Tales: The Prequel Saga

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Strangely enough, this Graphic Novel Prequel Saga is better than the film, "Southland Tales" which comprises Episodes 4-6. If the film had managed to capture the same tone and pacing as the graphic novel, it likely would have been far more successful in the movie-plexes.

I liked the movie, so reading this was fairly easy.

Like most people, the first time I watched the movie, I was clueless as to what happened or what it meant. After watching it again and again, I loved it.

The Prequel Saga graphic novel is pretty sweet. I wish that I had known about it before I watched the movie, as the Prequel Saga is supposed to be part 1-3 and the movie parts 4-6!

The artwork is good and its very easy to read in one night.
Highly recommended to anyone that LIKED the movie!

The prequel saga really helps spell things out for you.

I haven't seen the movie yet because I'm waiting for the DVD.

Regardless though, I was very pleased to see that what I was being told was a very complicated and incoherent movie, was in fact exceptionally clear (at least by the standards of this novel.

Again, I can't speak how well the movie will follow the book, but the graphic novel does "set the stage" very well.

The drawing style is very similar to conceptual sketches, almost as though all they did was make storyboards and add color.

But still, the style is interesting and this shouldn't deter anyone from reading the book.

The story is very interesting, provided you give it a chance.

If you've seen the film SOUTHLAND TALES, you without a doubt had some questions. This graphic explains pretty much everything you need to know, ranging from Liquid Karma and its role, more details about Pilot and Taverner, to the screenplay written by Krysta and Boxer, etc. There is also a nice deal of discussion regarding some of the religious and symbolic aspects of the film. If you enjoyed the film very much or if you liked it, but weren't sure what exactly was going on, I really recommend you pick this up.

My only gripe would be the art is pretty minimal, and it reminded me of the style of "30 Days of Night" as it's very basic, plain, and at times, sort of confusing as some panels don't go into much detail and it's hard to figure who is who.

Overall, I was very pleased with the PREQUEL SAGA and I easily recommend it to fans of the film.

Southland Tales (the movie that most likely brought you here) is warped and bizarre. It attempts to sum up what happened so far, but you are essentially coming into the story half way through. This book/comic explains it all in great detail.

I'm not saying this comic will make you slap your forehead and exclaim "that explains it all" one of the elements of the overall story is one of interpretation, interpretation of the world, the prophecy of revelation and what is happening in the world today... or two years ago (one would hope). No what this comic does do however is give you the full picture.

As my heading stated, the drawings are simple. Think cleaned-up story boards, with color. But the medium works (i apologize if i'm trivializing the style, i'm not an art student, artist or comic fan), and is engrossing.

Bottom line is that simple or not, it works and it is fun an entertaining. If you liked Southland Tales, this is a must, if you didn't like it because there were missing things from the movie in terms of story, then you probably should read this. If the out there style is what you didn't like I doubt this will rectify it for you.

Being a huge Donnie Darko fan, I watched Southland Tales from Netflix and was more than a little confused. So when I found this graphic novel, I promptly ordered it hoping that it would shed some light on the movie. The movie is episodes 4-6 and the graphic novel is episodes 1-3. The artwork was very pleasing but the storyline offered me little more than I had already experienced from the movie.

If you want an interesting multimedia experience, then Southland Tales is a good option. It's not a great story and it falls short where Donnie Darko succeeded. If you're curious how I could love Donnie Darko -- also a confusing movie -- and not care for the Southland Tales graphic novel, I would simply answer that the ambiguity of events and characters in Donnie Darko is expertly applied to enhance the storyline. In Southland Tales, it almost felt like Richard Kelly was playing the same game but in my opinion missed the mark.

Although the art was great, this didn't add anything to the movie for me. The movie was made so that anyone could watch it and as a result this book was largely recapped quickly in the movie. I challenge anyone who gave this novel three stars or more to tell me how it successfully augmented the movie. Because in my mind it neither augmented the storyline nor added any interesting hints and clues to explain what was going on in the movie.

While a nice piece graphically, there's simply not a lot going on in there that rewards me as a reader and being a huge fan of Dr. Strangelove I was hoping that this sort of black comedy about the United States today would be right down my ally. As a stand alone graphic novel, this lacks resolution (which comes in the movie) but as something paired with the movie it is redundant. I don't understand what this graphic novel's purpose is other than to cater to graphic novel fans and to try a multimedia experience. Sad fact is that most people I ask about Southland Tales seem to think I'm talking about a TV series and others have never heard about it. And I must say I simply wasn't left with an impression that it's a must see/read sleeper like Donnie Darko.

As someone who normally doesn't like reading, I must say this trilogy of graphic novels was an easy read that I accomplished in one sitting. The first 3 chapters of the Southland Tales story are found here. The beginning has an introduction from Richard Kelly and the end of the book has pictures of all of the principle characters in the movie. The stage for the movie is set well with the first three chapters. I must say I had to reread these again after seeing the movie. While the movie wasn't perfect, the pacing of these novels is great. It makes me wish the movie had all 6 of the chapters instead of the final 3; or this project might have been done better as a mini-series.

This is definitely a must read for anyone completely confused on where the movie was coming from. Really interesting to see Richard Kelly's take on the world we live in today, and what could possibly be our end. Interesting art style as well. :)

This is NOTHING like Lynch, it is a postmodern movie, similar to the books Naked Lunch, by William Burroughs or Gravity's Rainbow by Pynchon. Pop references abound - half the movie is populated by Saturday night Live actors, mixing genres and even media, the first three chapters of the story can be found only in the `prequel' graphic novel, the movie starts in the middle much like star wars. Many of the actors seem to be in on the joke, cracking smiles knowingly. It deconstructs itself as we watch it, cannibalizing other movies as it goes. The Rock plays a superstar actor, which he actually is in real life, the movie almost spills into reality, it never lets you forget that this is all a farce, fake, a movie - and then shows you that real life in many ways is also a farce. In a nod to David Lynch Rebekah Del Rio sings in a scene, as she does in Mulholland Drive. The movie even recycles certain time travel elements from the director's first movie Donnie Darko. It's pop culture turned in on itself, Shakespeare's play within a play, or the postmodern creed of "Nothing is true. Pop cult personality Kevin Smith plays the leader of a neo-marxist group, the movie doesn't even pretend to take itself seriously yet the issues really are deadly serious. Like the Media and pop culture it turns the world's issues, even the world itself, into one giant false spectacle. Postmodern author J.G. Ballard, author of Crash, in 1970 predicted that within a few years we'd all be living in one giant T.V. studio. The news and media now define our consensus of what reality is, we are told and sold on what's really going on. Dance pop star Justin Timberlake parodies himself, reflecting the ugliness of MTV culture his face is scarred, he does an MTV style video musical number of The Killer's "All These Things That I've Done." He also plays an Iraq war veteran, which shows how commercialized and vulgarized war has become, it is now practically entertainment: "I think I'll turn on CNN and watch the War show." So, within a self-referencing postmodern context I think it succeeds as a critique of our post 911, post Christian (the movie repeats twice that the NY times has reported that god is dead) world which has no center and the distinction between reality and media is becoming blurred. Plus it's funny as hell.

if you didn't like this movie you should stick to your mind numbing romantic comedies and seen one seen 'em all action movies. This movie was such a refreshing unique statement cinematically from the usual predictable hollywood put out. I wish there were more on its level.