The adapting of comics to television and motion pictures has more pitfalls than expected.  While all three are visual media, the artwork in comics allows for a greater range of imagery that budget and physical restrictions disallow in movies and on TV.  A laser beam is easily drawn, inked, and coloured on the page; on screen, that same blast takes longer to add, with multiple frames drawn on and edited.  Something along the lines of Jack Kirby’s dots are prohibitive without the advents of modern CGI.

Adding to just the difficulty of adapting the visuals of powers is the sheer mass of continuity, some of it conflicting with itself.  Marvel has fifty years of Spider-Man stories establishing the character and the setting.  DC Comics, the older of the Big Two, has over seventy-five years of Superman* stories, with the added bonus of continuity being an afterthought during the Golden Age.  Adapting a character may mean sifting through the years of issues to find the hero’s essence.

With Wonder Woman, there are other elements that come into play.  Her creator, William Moulton Marston, had ideas he wanted to present in the title.  Working under the penname Charles Moulton, Marston created Wonder Woman to offset the more violent titles featuring male heroes like Superman and Batman.  Instead of pummeling a miscreant into submission, Wonder Woman would use love to put the villain back on the path of good.  To emphasize the different approach, Wonder Woman came from Paradise Island, populated by just women, where they were able to advance technology and philosophy because the the threat of violence was non-existent.  The early run of the title explored bondage and submission; defeated villains would be bound by the golden Lasso of Truth and submit to Wonder Woman, only to be released reformed.  Comics Bulletin has more about Moulton in a review of The Secret History of Wonder Woman.

With the first appearance in late 1941 and the first issue of the title released in 1942, Nazis appeared often as the villain.  Wartime comics were used as propaganda, keeping American morale up while warning of the dangers of the Axis.  The war intruded on Paradise Island when a plane piloted by Steve Trevor, an American intelligence officer, crashed on it.  While the women on the island were not keen on getting involved in the man’s war, Wonder Woman, then just Princess Diana of Paradise Island, fell in love with Trevor.  She earned the right to take him back to the US, competing against other athletes in disguise.  Diana received the Lasso of Truth and magic bracelets that would let her deflect bullets.  In the US, Diana took on two new identities, the first being the superheroine Wonder Woman, the other being Diana Prince, assistant to Steve Trevor.

As time passed, Wonder Woman stopped fighting Nazis and started dealing with criminals and other would-be world conquerors, always using love instead of fists as her weapon of choice.  In the Sixties, the title ran into sagging sales.  To bolster readership, the character lost her powers, becoming secret agent Diana Prince, who used her head and heart to investigate.  By the end of the decade, though, feminists were demanding that Wonder Woman get her powers back.  Wonder Woman had become a feminist icon.

In the Seventies, ABC was looking for a new series.  The network ordered a pilot for Wonder Woman, a ninety minute movie starring Lynda Carter as the heroine and Lyle Waggoner as Major Steve Trevor.  The creators went back to the early years of the comic and set the movie during World War II.  Maj. Trevor was assigned to a mission to stop a new Nazi bomber from destroying a secret base.  Ultimately, Maj. Trevor rammed his fighter into the Nazi craft.  Both pilots bailed out before the collision, leading to a gunfight while parachuting that left Maj. Trevor critically wounded and the Nazi pilot landing amidst sharks.

Maj. Trevor was more fortunate where he landed, an uncharted island in the Bermuda Triangle known by its inhabitants as Paradise Island.  Two women spot the parachute and run to investigate.  One of the women, Princess Diana, picks up the wounded pilot and rushes him to the island’s hospital where he is nursed back to health.  While Maj. Trevor is never allowed to see his surroundings, Diana does what she can to spend time with him.  As the Major heals, the Queen announces a competition to see who accompanies the American back to Washington.  Diana is forbidden to enter the contest, but she does so using a disguise.  The final event, Bullets and Bracelets, is down to two women, one being the disguised princess.  Diana wins after she wounds her opponent without being touched by any of her shots.  She reveals herself to her mother, who reluctantly lets her go.

Diana receives her costumes, her Lasso of Truth, her bracelets, and a belt that allows her to keep her strength and speed in the man’s world away from Paradise Island.  She takes Maj. Trevor back to Washington in her invisible plane, leaving him at a hospital before disappearing.  As she walks around the city, Diana and her costume attracts attention from both men and women.  Diana is unfamiliar with the customs outside Paradise Island but is unfazed.  During her exploration of Washington, she stops a bank robbery, through deflecting bullets, tossing the robbers, then picking up the back of the getaway car, all insight of a promoter, played by Red Buttons.  The promoter makes Diana an offer, she performs on stage and she gets half the ticket sales.  Not knowing better, Diana agrees.

The show is very much vaudeville.  Diana is billed as Wonder Woman, capable of stopping any bullet.  A number of people line up to take shots, from a revolver to a rifle to an old woman with a Tommy gun.  Diana blocks every shot.  Having earned enough money to get clothes and her own apartment in the one show, Diana leaves showbiz and returns to helping Maj. Trevor.  The Nazi plot to destroy the secret base is still going.  A second bomber has been sent, and there are Nazi agents even at the offices of Air Force intelligence.  Diana also infiltrates the offices, posing as Petty Officer First Class Diana Prince, all the better to keep an eye on Maj. Trevor.

For Steve Trevor, his return to the US was a shock.  He had been declared missing, presumed dead, after the collision in the Bermuda Triangle.  No wreckage of his plane was recovered.  His return meant that the defense of the base was still possible.  The Nazi agent is also surprised by his return, having mourned him with the general.  The Nazis kidnap Maj. Trevor, forcing Wonder Woman to rescue him.  She is unsurprised to see the promoter; Diana had suspected something was out of place when an older woman with a machine gun showed up at the show.  A shoot out starts, but the promoter is well aware of how effective shooting Wonder Woman is.  Diana frees Steve and gets the identity of the Nazi infiltrator after using the Lasso of Truth.  Back at the OSS offices, the Nazi tries fighting Wonder Woman, but loses.  The second bomber is stopped by Maj. Trevor and the secret base is saved.

The pilot did well enough in the ratings for ABC to pick up the series.  Etta Candy, one of the comic’s supporting cast, is introduced as a corporal, subordinate to Diana.  Etta, played by Beatrice Colen, was a contrast to Diana and was a more representative woman of the era.  Wonder Woman still faced Nazis, but also some domestic threats.  The cost of keeping the series in the Forties led ABC to drop the show at the end of the season.  CBS, though, was willing to pick it up, with changes.  The second season brought Wonder Woman to the today of 1977.  The first episode of the season starts with Diana back on Paradise Island after the end of WWII.  Overhead, a private jet with Inter-Agency Defense Command agents has been infiltrated, with the hijacker unable to keep his gas mask on during a fight with Steve Trevor, Jr, played by Lyle Waggoner.  The plane starts to crash in the Bermuda Triangle, but women operating a magnetic field bring the craft down safely.  Diana is again the first to board the craft, where she sees Steve.  After the war, Maj. Trevor found someone else and had a son who grew up to look just like him.  Everyone is healed up, and Diana earns the right to follow the plane in her invisible jet after another Bullets and Bracelets contest.

Diana again must adjust to life in Washington.  Fashion has again changed, as have prices.  This time, though, she’s prepared.  Her mother, the Queen, gave her some vintage, undamaged drachmas, which Diana is able to sell for a good price.  Diana is quick to learn computer programming and adds new data to I.R.A.C., the Information Retrieval Associative Computer, that creates a background for Diana Prince.  Most of the opponents Wonder Woman faces come from Diana’s job at the IADC, though she also has to deal with aliens and telepaths.  Through it, Wonder Woman still tries to turn people around from their wrong-doing ways, but will fight if she must.

Season one of Wonder Woman took its lead from the early comics.  Season two and three took some ideas from when Diana lost her powers and became a spy, but let her keep her powers, with some Seventies-specific ideas, like ESP, added.  At the time, concerns about television violence and repeatable stunts were making the rounds, forcing Wonder Woman to find a way to stop an opponent without throwing a punch.  That requirement worked out well, though.  Wonder Woman went from punching to throwing, using a judo-like maneuver.  Martial arts like judo and aikido are known as soft arts, using the opponent’s energy against him, fitting in with Wonder Woman’s original concept as envisioned by Marston.

Casting was key.  Lynda Carter was ideal to play Wonder Woman.  Beyond just looking like the character, Carter had the poise and confidence in the costume to be Wonder Woman.  She performed feats of strength while looking like she wasn’t making an effort, but when effort was needed, she showed it.  Wonder Woman wasn’t confident because she was sexy; she was sexy because of her confidence, and Carter portrayed that aspect well.  For Maj. Steve Trevor, Lyle Waggoner may not have looked like him, but he was comfortable enough with his masculinity to be the damsel in distress of the series.  Waggoner had been on The Carol Burnett Show and, prior to that, appeared as the first nude centerfold for Playgirl.  Sex appeal and a sense of humour, both needed for the role.

As mentioned above, the key to a good adaptation of a comic is the ability to find the essence of the character or characters and bring them out on screen.  With Wonder Woman, the TV series did that.  Casting, as mentioned above, helped.  Gender-flipping the hero/damsel dynamic emphasized Wonder Woman as the superheroine.  Lynda Carter’s poise and confidence mirrored that of the character in the comic.  The creators went out of their way to make sure that the source was honoured.  Many of Wonder Woman’s opponents in the TV series were also women; if they weren’t in charge, they were the mastermind.  The introduction of Wonder Girl, played by Debra Winger**, in the first season let the series show how well Diana adjusted to living in the man’s world.  Even after the time and network jump, Diana kept her confidence and was allowed to do more investigating in her secret identity, only changing to Wonder Woman when needed.

The TV series became influential on the comic.  Before the show aired, Wonder Woman changed clothes in two different ways.  Originally, she just took off the top layer, revealing the costume underneath, much like Clark Kent changed into Superman in a phone booth.  As the title continued, Diana would twirl her lasso, which would change her clothes for her.  That method, though, would require a level of special effects not available yet in the Seventies.  Instead, the creators came up with the idea of Diana twirling, using a platform.  Carter suggested that she just twirl herself, taking advantage of her dance training.  At first the twirling showed her clothes coming off, but to save time and money, an explosion of light marked the change from Diana to Wonder Woman.  This twirl was then adapted by the comic.

The other influence was on artists such as Phil Jimenez and Alex Ross, who had watched the show when it was ion the air.  Jimenez, in his last issue on the title in 2003, managed to get permission to use Lynda Carter’s likeness as Wonder Woman and as Diana.  DC Comics has also released Wonder Woman 77, a continuation of the TV series.  The Wonder Woman series caught the core essence of the comic and of the character.

Next week, the Adaptation Fix-It Shop looks at Battleship.  Can the movie be salvaged?

* Action Comics #1 was released July 1938.
** The same Debra Winger who would go on to be nominated for an Oscar for An Officer and a Gentleman, Terms of Endearment, and Shadowlands, among other awards.  Her version of Wonder Girl was Diana’s younger sister, Druscilla, created by Dru to hide her identity from the Nazis.  The Nazis, though, confused her with Wonder Woman.  In the comics, Wonder Girl was, first, just a teenaged version of Diana, and later a mantle taken up by Donna Troy and Cassie Sandsmark.

Over the course of writing Lost in Translation, I’ve seen movies that caught the core of works perfectly and I’ve seen movies that missed the target to the degree of not even being in the same ballpark.  It’s easy enough in the latter case to point out just what went so horribly wrong.  Is it possible to redeem those movies, to take what went wrong and put it right?  With some movies, it is, and the Fix-It Shop will explore those possibilities.  With this inaugural entry, I will go back to the 1998 Godzilla.

The 1998 Godzilla had many problems, but only really went off the rails when Zilla reached New York City.  Prior to that point, the movie played out as the original Gojira had, with the monster being hinted at instead of shown.  When Zilla appears, then problems start.  The obvious fixes were done in the 2014 Godzilla, keeping the focus on Godzilla.  Even with the human element being front and centre, Godzilla’s battle with the MUTOs were still the central conflict.  With that fixed, what can be done with the rest of the 1998 film?

The core problem with the latter half of the ’98 Godzilla was the shift in tone and genre.  The first half was a kaiju movie.  The second half added action and comedy, taking focus away from Zilla.  Yet, that element could work in its own movie, away from Godzilla.  Having the most famous kaiju off the poster frees up expectations.  The entire subplot involving the Direction génèral de la sécurité extérieure* is now available on its own.  Jean Reno is too good to waste.

In Godzilla, the French Directorate had a division set up for the research and containment of kaiju and was more prepared for Zilla than either the Japanese or the Americans.  The agent in charge, Philippe Roaché, played by Reno, managed to protray himself as an insurance investigator and as an American soldier**.  Let’s take him and his team and change their approach just a little.  After the events in New York, the existance of giant monsters is no longer a secret.  When a major American metropolis with several media headquarters, from television to print, gets trashed and evacuated, it’s news.  Even in 1998, the twenty-four hour news cycle existed, with CNN being the major outlet.  Roaché needs a new way to research while keeping his connections to the Directorate hidden.  Anyone who sees him or his team may remember him from New York.

The solution?  A front company, funded by the Directorate, that investigates kaiju sightings.  The company can’t be Fortune 500; monster hunting has never been portrayed as profitable in TV or movies.  Sam and Dean of Supernatural make money through credit card scams.  The Ghostbusters put all their earnings into maintenance and paying fines.  Roaché’s company, thus, is a small one, using grants for the most part as it develops anti-kaiju weaponry and hunts giant monsters.  Having no official government status means the team must get into sites under attack through subterfuge, allowing Roaché to be an insurance investigator, a military officer, a university researcher, and anything else needed.

Tone will be key.  As mentioned above, the latter half of Godzilla changed genre without a clutch, becoming an action comedy.  The change was dissonant in the ’98 film, but if the new movie – let’s give it the working title Kaiju Hunters – starts as such, with the team in action against a lawyer-friendly version of a known giant monster, then the audience won’t have a problem with the approach.  Ideally, the tone of Kaiju Hunters should be along the lines of Ghostbusters, Arachnophobia, and Tremors; a bit of horror, a bit of comedy, a bit of action, and monsters.

Casting will be important.  Matthew Broderick was an odd choice and looked out of place in the 1998 film.  Broderick is better known for comedies, not action.  Given the change in tone above, he might fit in better, the field researcher brought into the company at the end thanks to the events during Kaiju Hunters.  This will give the audience the outsider viewpoint to follow to learn about the company and its secrets.  The rest of the cast are company employees, either hired on as staff or assigned by the Directorate.

Will Kaiju Hunters be successful?  The ultimate question, with no easy answer.  There’s no real built-in draw, unlike Godzilla of any year.  Reno and Broderick aren’t household names.  It may come down to budget.  Is Kaiju Hunters blockbuster material?  No.  A lower budget may make the movie profitable, though.  It will be a balancing act, finding a way to draw in audiences without needing an Avengers-sized number of people watching.  What do you think?  What would you do to fix the 98 Godzilla?

Next week, the December news round up.

* The French intelligence service, literally, the General Directorate for External Security
** Albeit, based on Elvis Presley.

Fairy tales have served as cautionary stories throughout history, warning children to mind their parents, to not take candy from strangers or their homes, and to not buy anything frivolous.  The stories started with an oral tradition, only being written down when the Brothers Grimm and Franz Xaver von Schönwerth gathered the tales.  Even after being written down, the stories changed, becoming more kid- and parent-friendly.  Disney has been successful with animated adaptations of several fairy tales, from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to Beauty and the Beast.

Jack is a common name in fairy tales.  On its own, it’s a nickname and variant on John, the most popular name throughout the ages in English.  The commonality of the name lends itself to cautionary tales, speaking directly to the audience.  “Jack and the Beanstalk” is no exception.  In that story, Jack must take a cow to market to get a fair price to help his poor mother get enough food for them both to live on.  A shady merchant, however, convinces Jack to trade the cow for magical beans.  When Jack returns home, he is berated by his mother for letting himself be fooled.  She throws the beans away.  Overnight, the beans sprout and a giant beanstalk grows, reaching for the sky.  Curiosity overcomes Jack and he climbs the beanstalk.

Reaching the top, Jack discovers a new land.  He wanders, searching for food.  In the distance, he spies a castle and makes his way to it.  The castle huge, far larger than Jack expected.  Inside, he hears a beautiful voice singing and a gruff voice.  Jack sneaks in and sees a giant being sung to by a golden harp with a woman’s body carved in it.  The giant smells him, declaring it with a “fee fie fo fum”.  Jack manages to hide, and finds a goose that lays golden eggs.  The harp asks for Jack’s help to escape the giant’s clutches.  Jack steals both the harp and the goose, but the giant discovers the theft.  Jack escapes down the beanstalk, the giant in hot pursuit.  He chops down the beanstalk, causing the giant to fall to his death.  Everyone lives happily ever after, except the giant.

Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures combined to produce and distribute the 2013 movie, Jack the Giant Killer, based on the “Jack and the Beanstalk” fairy tale.  The film begins with two children, one a princess, the other the son of a tenant farmer, being told a tale of King Eric the Great, the king who put an end to the predations of giants in Albion and Cloister through the use of a magic crown.  Both children, Isabelle and Jack, love the story, though they do not meet until Jack, played by Nicholas Houte, is sent by his uncle into town to sell a horse and cart to get thatch to repair the roof of their home.  Jack gets distracted by a wandering minstrel troup putting on the story of King Eric the Great.  As he checks out the show, he finds three drunks accosting a young woman, Eleanor Tomlinson, and steps in to help her.  The three drunks back down, not because of Jack, but because of Elmont, played by Ewan MacGregor, and the rest of the king’s troops.

Elmont escorts the young woman, Princess Isabelle, back to the castle, where her father, King Brahmwell, played by Ian McShane, lectures her about the dangers outside the castle walls.  Lord Roderick, played by Stanley Tucci, listens but has other matters on his mind more important to him than the behaviour of his betrothed.  Roderick and his henchman, Wicke, played by Ewen Bremner, need to track down some magic beans, stolen by a monk.

Back in the city, Jack discovers that his cart has been stolen, leaving him with just the horse.  Without the cart, Jack can only sell the horse.  A monk approaches him with the deal of a lifetime; a handful of magic beans in return for the horse.  The monk warns that Jack should never let the beans get wet*.  Jack takes the beans back home.  His uncle is not pleased; they needed thatch for the roof.  He knocks the beans out of Jack’s hands.  Jack picks up most of them, but some fall through cracks in the floor to land in the soil underneath the house.  Jack’s uncle heads back to town despite how late in the day it is.

Isabelle is not a princess that can be sent to her tower.  Her late mother told her that to rule well, a future queen needs to know how the common people live.  Isabelle disguises herself and leaves the castle and the city.  As it gets late and rain pours down, she spies a light in the distance.  The light is a lantern hung outside by Jack to help his uncle.  Jack lets Isabelle in and soon recognizes her as the princess.

The beans have not been idle during this.  The heavy rain seeps under the house, getting the magic beans wet.  The beans sprout, growing fast, destroying the house and whisking Jack and Isabelle skyward.  Jack discovers he has acrophobia, then slips on a wet leaf and falls.  Several strands of the stalk slow his fall to make the landing painful but not lethal.

The next morning, King Brahmwell, Lord Roderick, and Captain Elmont, along with the king’s royal guard and army, arrive at the remains of the home of Jack’s uncle.  The royal entourage is searching for Isabelle.  Jack answers truthfully and points up.  Brahmwell orders Elmont to get his best men ready to climb.  Jack volunteers to go, feeling responsible for the princess’s disappearance.  Lord Roderick also volunteers to go, to help find his betrothed.  Roderick’s plot is shown.  He has the crown used by Eric the Great to defeat the giants, but he needs the magic beans, and he’s worked out that the monk gave Jack those beans.  Roderick has Wicke cut loose several of Elmont’s men after they slip, sending them plummeting back to Earth.  He threatens Jack, demanding the beans.  Jack gives him what he has left, save one.

At the top of the beanstalk, the expedition discovers a new land, way above the clouds looking down on the Kingdom of Cloister.  They follow a trail left by Isabelle marked into trees.  The last mark, though, was half done, interrupted.  The group looks around, spies sheep, and decides on an impromptu mutton lunch, since the supplies also returned to Earth when Wicke cut the rope.  The chase leads into a trap, with Jack and Crawe, Elmont’s second-in-command, getting caught in a net.  Soon, a giant comes to find out what set the trap off.  Jack and Crawe escape the trap and try to hide.  The giant finds Crawe and Elmont, knocking out both and taking them back to a castle.  Jack follows the giant, sneaking inside.  He hides to escape notice, finding a golden egg and a golden harp.  Pocketing the egg, Jack continues sneaking.

Elmont and Crawe are taken to see the self-appointed leader of the giants, a two-headed monster named Fallon, played by Bill Nighy and John Kassir**.  Fallon threatens Elmont, demanding to know about the beans and crowne, and eats Crawe to emphasize the threats.  Lord Roderick steps up to show who has the crown, forcing the giants to bend their knees to him in allegiance.  Roderick doesn’t want to be the the Prince Consort to future Queen Isabelle.  He wants to rule, not just Cloister, but Albion and the Viking lands beyond.  With the crown to command the giants and the magic beans to give the giants a way back down, Roderick has an unstoppable army.  To celebrate, Roderick orders a feast, featuring Elmont-in-a-poke.

Jack finds the kitchen, where Isabelle is being held captive in a cage.  Elmont is delivered, and the giants’ cook start preparing the feast.  Jack is unable to open the cage, so he slips down to try to cut Elmont out while the cook’s back is turned.  The cook isn’t distracted long enough, though.  Jack gives Elmont his knife, then hides.  The cook puts the pigs-in-a-poke on to cook.  Jack, sneaking on a rafter overhead, drops a knife on to the cook.  It’s not enough to kill the cook, but the flailing around is enough to send the giant into the wall hard enough to finish the job.  Isabelle and Elmont are rescued, and the trio escape the castle.

Roderick may be a would-be world conqueror, but he does know the villain playbook.  He has a giant guarding the beanstalk, to stop both people trying to climb up and people trying to go down.  Roderick doesn’t have much to work from, though.  The guard is fast asleep.  Jack and Elmont retrieve a honeycomb to drop in the giant’s helmet.  It takes some time, but the giant does feel the stings and eventually falls over the cliff.  Jack and Isabelle escape, but Elmont remains behind to gather intelligence and to slow Roderick down.

At the bottom of the beanstalk, the king’s men have set up camp.  They have seen the bodies of Elmont’s men and see the giant land hard.  King Brahmwell makes the hardest decision in his life, to cut down the beanstalk before Isabelle can return.  The army starts hacking away at the stalk while teams of horses are hooked up to pull strands down.  Above, Jack and Isabelle feel the work of the men and prepare for the fall.  Elmont, in the meantime, has seen Roderick’s army and flees, jumping on to the beanstalk just before it falls.

Isabelle is reunited with her father.  Jack declines a reward.  Elmont survives the fall.  Roderick is thwarted.  Wait, Roderick still has one more trick up his sleeve, the magic beans he took from Jack.  He throws them into the river, where they sprout.  The giants climb on to them as the new stalks bend Earthward.  Jack, who stayed at the remains of his uncle’s farm, sees the beanstalks and gets on his horse to warn the king.

As seen above, the movie takes great liberties with the fairy tale, adding elements, such as Eric the Great, Roderick, and Isabelle.  The core of the tale is still there, the selling of a farm animal for magic beans that lets a hero named Jack climb to a realm ruled by a giant.  The movie has an end montage as parents tell the story to children, with each telling changing details, losing Isabelle, changing the horse to a cow, and changing the giant army into just one giant.  The hero remains Jack, though.  The montage serves to remind the audience that fairy tales have been altered through re-tellings.  The core of “Jack and the Beanstalk” is in the movie, with layers built up over it.  Part of it is to expand the movie to fill out the running time of a film.  The layers, though, also work to make the world richer, with backstory for the giants and a villain that knows what happens when the hero is given a chance to escape.

At the box office, the movie barely broke even on its budget.  The core problem was being a PG-13 movie for a story that was aimed at a PG crowd.  The rating kept away parents concerned about violence, but the trailers were targeting the younger crowd.  Coupled with an almost $200 million budget, the movie needed to have an ideal release.

As an adaptation, the darker look at “Jack and the Beanstalk” wasn’t unusual.  Many fairy tales have a dark side, from two children abandoned in the woods by their parents in “Hansel and Gretel” to the cruelty done to Cinderella by her step-mother and step-sisters.  Jack fights the giants using his wits, not with any skill with a sword.  As mentioned, the closing montage shows how oral stories change.  For much of history, literacy wasn’t available to the common man, just to a limited elite.  Oral tradition allowed narrators to add their own embellishments.  Jack the Giant Slayer honours the oral tradition of fairy tales with its own take on “Jack and the Beanstalk”.

Next week, a new feature at Lost in Translation with a look at fixing the 1998 Godzilla.

* No word on whether the beans shouldn’t be fed after midnight.
** Nighy played the smarter head.  Kassir got to be the half-witted head.

Back in March, I reviewed Mr. Peabody & Sherman, the big screen animated remake of the old Peabody’s Improbable History shorts.  The movie worked out well as an adaptation of the shorts, building on top of the formula set down by Peabody’s Improbable History of a trip in the WABAC to meet a historical personage and help them to do what history says they did, wrapping up with a pun.  So, why a second look?

Part of preparing for Lost in Translation is finding the work to be reviewed.  Most of the movies reviewed are found on DVD by wandering the aisles of the music and video store, looking for anything that stands out.  A few weeks ago, I found the complete collection of Peabody’s Improbable History, standing out along with Mr. Peabody & Sherman on DVD.  Ninety five-minute short cartoons, featuring fractured history and weaponized puns, well worth watching, leading me to agree with my earlier findings.  The ninety-first short, or, properly, the first short is the reason for the second look.

That first short, entitled “Show Opening” in the collection, set up the entire premise of Peabody’s Improbable History.  The short shows Mr. Peabody adopting Sherman and why he built the WABAC.  The collection was my first time seeing it.  I had been working on memories of reruns of The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show when it was on YTV.  My viewing was hit and miss, so I got the gist of the show without getting full details.  Having access to the first short and, indeed, the entire collection means reassessing the review.

Turns out, the movie was a better adaptation than original review said.  Mr. Peabody & Sherman mined “Show Opening”, using it almost verbatim in the opening minutes.  Mr. Peabody’s apartment in the movie is a larger budget version of his apartment in the shorts.  The puns are as wonderful in the movie.  Compare*.

From “Henry VIII”:
Catharine Parr, Henry’s fifth wife, is along the wall for her execution, facing a firing line aiming golf clubs.  Sherman naturally asks about her and Mr. Peabody explains.
Sherman: “But the guards are aiming at her with golf clubs?”
Mr. Peabody: “How else would you shoot Parr?”

From Mr. Peabody & Sherman:
After escaping Robespierre at the start of the Reign of Terror, Mr. Peabody remarks on how the French Revolutuion could have been prevented.
Mr. Peabody: And think, Marie Antoinette could have avoided the whole revolution if she simply issued an edict to distribute bread to the poor.  But then she couldn’t have her dessert.
Sherman: But why, Mr. Peabody.
Mr. Peabody: Because, Sherman, you can’t have your cake and edict, too.

It’s obvious that the writers watched the original series, all of it.  They started at the original concept, of a dog adopting a boy and Mr. Peabody needing a way to channel Sherman’s energy, leading to the creation of the WABAC.  The CG animation was used to tell the story about a dog and his boy instead of being the reason for the movie.  There were a few updates; it’s been fifty-five years since “Show Opening” first aired and a lot more history has happened, but Mr. Peabody is still a genius.  The effort was made to keep the core, and the movie leans heavily on the first short as its main source.  Mr. Peabody & Sherman is a far better adaptation than expected.

Next week, the November news round up.

* Neither of these comes close to the pun ending the “Mata Hari” short.  The fourth wall was broken to warn viewers of the quality of the final pun.

Unexpected fan favourites can appear just about anywhere.  Marvel Comics has several, characters that, for various reasons, just resonated with readers.  With some, such as Squirrel Girl, it’s the innate humour that draws in fans.  For others, it’s the rebel of the group.  In the various X-Men titles, that was Wolverine.

Wolverine first appeared in the final panel of The Incredible Hulk #180, with the story continuing the next issue.  Conceived as a mutant agent of a Canadian intelligence agency, Wolverine reappeared in the first issue of Giant-Size X-Men, the soon afterwards in X-Men #94.  His popularity grew, exploding in the 80s as the anti-hero movement began.  This popularity led to a four-issue mini-series, Wolverine, helmed by Chris Claremont and Frank Miller.  With Wolverine’s in-universe longevity, thanks to his mutant healing factor, writers could look at various parts of his past, adding depth to the character.  Popularity with fans led to Logan to several mini-series, cross-overs, becoming the anchor in the weekly Marvel Comics Presents, his own ongoing series, joining the Avengers, and the lead of a cartoon.  He has joined Spider-Man as a means of letting readers know a title is part of the Marvel Universe just by appearing in a new character’s comic.  Wolverine has been a Canadian secret agent, a teacher, an X-Man, a crime lord, a ronin, a soldier, an Avenger.

The Wolverine, released in 2013 by Twentieth Century Fox, takes a look at a moment in Logan’s long life, with Hugh Jackman returning as the title character.  The movie opens at a prisoner-of-war camp in Japan in 1945, across the bay from Nagasaki.  Logan is the first to hear the approaching B-29 bomber, but a Japanese officer also hears it and frees the prisoners to prevent their deaths in the coming bombing run.  As the prisoners run for their lives, the officer remembers the one in the hole, Logan, and frees him as well.  Logan, though, recognizes what is about to happen.  There is only one bomber.  However, instead of also running, the officer joins his superiors as they commit seppuku.  Logan prevents the lethal stabbing, and both watch as the second atomic bomb ever explodes.  Hauling the officer along, Logan returns to his cell in the hole, where he protects the officer from the fireball with his own body.

Logan then wakes up from the dream within a dream.  As he shakes off the nightmare, he realizes that he’s in the Yukon, where he went after the X-Men movies.*  He spends a typical day, a trip into town for supplies followed by work in the woods.  He ignores the boisterousness of a group of hunters, not wanting to get involved or be noticed.  That night, though, he hears their screams.  When he investigates, he finds their camp torn apart and a bear in the throes of agony from an arrow.  Logan puts the poor beast out of its misery and heads to town.  He easily finds the hunters, including the one survivor of the bear’s rampage and starts asking questions, wanting to find the owner of the poisoned arrow he pulled from the bear’s body.  Before an all-out brawl can start, a tiny Japanese woman introduces herself and her katana.  The hunters don’t take her seriously, but she demonstrates finesse with the weapon, killing no one while making precise cuts that show that it was her decision to keep them alive.  As she leaves, she invites Logan to follow her to her car.

The young woman introduces herself as Yukio, representing Yashida, the dying CEO of Yashida Industries, who has requested Logan, the Wolverine, to talk to him before he passes away.  Yukio, herself a mutant who can see how people will die, manages to persuade Logan into going to Tokyo, though just for one day.  As for the hunters, Yukio sees them dying in a week in a car crash.

In Tokyo, Logan is reunited with the Japanese officer he saved, Yashida himself, who is in the final stages of cancer.  Yashida asks his doctor, Dr. Green, and his family, son Shingen and granddaughter Mariko, time alone to talk with Logan.  With everyone out, Yashida makes an offer to Logan, the end of Wolverine’s long suffering, the removal of his powers and transferring them to the dying man.  Logan refuses.  Later that night, Yashida passes away.  That same night, Jean Grey returns again in Logan’s dreams, only to turn into Dr. Green.

Yashida’s funeral the next day is somber and formal.  Logan, though, senses something is off just before the Yakuza gangsters reveal themselves.  One gangster produces a shotgun from underneath his monk robes and shoots Logan.  While shooting the Wolverine is never a good idea, this time, Logan is staggered.  The wounds don’t close as rapidly as they should.  Logan doesn’t let the wounds slow him down as he demonstrates that he is the best at what he does.  Still, he is slowed down by gunshot wounds, far more than he should be.

The gangsters’ target is Mariko; they attempt to kidnap her, but are stopped by not only Logan, but by Harada, who is making accurate bow shots from rooftops over a kilometre away.  Logan is the only one to spot him, but since Harada is assisting Mariko, does nothing to stop the archer.  Instead, he grabs Mariko to take her away from the fighting and the gangsters.  The pair work their way through Tokyo, running from the Yakuza, until they reach the train station.  Mariko loses Logan in the crowd at the station and boards a bullet train to Nagasaki.  As she starts to relax, Logan falls into a seat across the aisle from her.

Logan’s tenaciousness is rewarded.  Several gangsters have also boarded the train.  Logan spots them and tries to deal with them.  Adamantium claws are not the best weapon in an enclosed space, especially if trying to keep the space enclosed; Logan rips through the outer wall of the train car.  At first, it works to his advantage, letting him toss out a couple of gangsters, but he, too, is soon dragged out of the bullet train.  The fight winds up on the top of the train, still travelling at 300km/h** and ends when Logan bluffs the last gangster into jumping at the wrong time.

The pair leave the train at the next stop, long before reaching Nagasaki.  Stopping at a love hotel,  Logan gets patched up by a veterinary student after collapsing.  His healing factor is completely shut down, yet he insists on protecting Mariko through to Nagasaki and beyond.  They take a bus to the reborn city, where Mariko’s grandfather had built a sanctuary for the family.  Logan recognizes the view.  He looks for and finds the cell he was in when the atomic bomb exploded.

During the time at the sanctuary, Logan and Mariko fall in love.  Yukio, still in Tokyo, has a vision of Logan dying, and heads to the haven to warn him.  The Yakuza catch up and kidnap Mariko, taking her away before Logan can stop them.  After some interrogation of the sole gangster stopped by Logan and some investigation, Logan and Yukio return to the Yashida residence, where they do not find any security.  Eariler, Harada and his ninja had arrived to rescue Mariko from her father.  Dr. Green also appears and poisons Shingen, leaving with Harada.  Logan, not finding anyone, heads to Yashida’s hospital bed and uses the X-ray machine there to find out why his healing factor isn’t working.  The X-ray reveals a device attached to his heart.  Yukio reminds Logan of the vision she had: him, on his back, his heart in his hand.  Logan, however, performs his own open heart surgery.

Shingen, left for dead by Dr. Green, appears.  Yukio fights him off as Logan tries to remove the device.  The Wolverine does, indeed, die on the table, but instead of his heart in his hand, he has the device that had blocked his healing factor.  Yukio keeps Shingen away from Logan, the fight a standstill.  Despite the flatline beep, though, Logan’s body repairs itself.  Shingen manages to get the upper hand in the sword fight, but before he can kill Yukio, Logan stops him.  The fight’s tenor changes.  Logan is no longer hampered by his lack of power.  Cuts that would kill another man just get him angry.  Shingen’s best attack, one that, if The Wolverine was an anime series, would leave Logan cut in twain, does little to stop him.  Logan leaves Shingen alive, reminding him that he tried to kill his own daughter.

Yukio and Logan work out where Mariko is taken.  Logan heads out to Yashida’s birthplace and enters the family compound.  Harada confronts him, and tries to point out that getting further is a death sentence, not realizing that Logan has solved that little problem.  Ninja move in to attack and are cut down.  Harada, realizing that there’s nothing gained by throwing more ninja at Wolverine other than giving Logan practice, orders his men to use bows insteads.  The archer poisons his own broadhead arrows, and, after many arrows, all with cables attached, Logan is brought down.

Inside, when he awakens, Logan finds out what has been happening.  The family’s Silver Samurai, protector for many generations, has been modified.  The pilot needs Logan’s healing factor.  Logan, however, refuses to go down without a fight.

A lot happened in the movie, to say the least.  Before I analyze The Wolverine, I want to make reference to Adaptations and the Superheroic Setting, which discussed the creation of using a different universe in different media.  The short version of it:  Comic books tend to have a lot of continuity behind them.  With the Wolverine, there is forty years worth of stories since his first appearance in 1974.  While fans of the character are aware of the backstory, not everyone in the audience is.  Setting the X-Men movies as their own cinematic universe allows the film makers room to tell the story they want without spending half the running time explaining everything that has happened prior.  Adding to the complexity, The Wolverine also has to fit in with the previous movies; X-Men: First Class was, essentially, a prequel to X-Men, not a reboot.  It’s an interesting position to be in, where interesting is akin to the “Chinese curse“.

The film makers, in the DVD extra***, mentioned that they used the Claremont-Miller mini-series as a starting point, using the dichotomy in Logan’s nature to be both soldier and loner.  Mariko has appeared not only in the mini-series but also in the regular X-Men title and is, for the most part, portrayed the same.  Logan’s visions of Jean flow from the events in X2, though it’s possible that the film makers could be angling towards the Dark Phoenix Saga or that what Logan remembers is not necessarily how things are, thanks to Days of Future Past.  Time travel really messes up continuity.  The Wolverine focuses on Logan as Logan, not his superhero identity.  This focus has appeared in the comics, including his time as the anchor for Marvel Comics Presents and his own mini-series.

Balancing the different aspects and origins (film and comic) of the character is a fine line, but the movie manages to walk it.  Anyone familiar with Logan from either just the comic or just the movies will have no issue with Jackman’s portrayal.  There are liberties taken; in the comics, Harada is the Silver Samurai and a mutant himself.  The changes, though, don’t take away from Logan, nor do they substantially change the events.  While The Wolverine follows the movies more than the comic, the essence of Logan is caught and portrayed well.

Next week, a second look at Mr. Peabody & Sherman.

* The X-Men movie timeline gets a bit convoluted.  X-Men: Days of Future Past ignores X-Men 3 completely.  The Wolverine seems to do the same thing, but there are elements, such as the Jean Grey dreams, that hint at something else, like a timeline that is about to change.
** Speed limit in Ontario is 100km/h, or a bit over 60mph.
*** DVD extras are a boon to these reviews.  Sometimes, a bit of insight into the process of making the movie helps figure out why some decisions were made.

Lost in Translation has taken a look at different movies based on Marvel characters, from the Avengers Initiative to the licensed characters like Spider-Man and Daredevil.  The recent movies have all been well received for the most part.  However, Marvel’s fortunes weren’t always so lofty.  The first theatrical release featuring a Marvel character* laid an egg.

The character, Howard the Duck, was created by Steve Gerber and Val Mayerik for Adventure into Fear #19 in 1973.  Howard was a duck who found himself stuck on Earth, pulled away from his life on his home planet of Duckworld, plucked from his life by Thog the Nether-Spawn.  Thog wanted to collapse all realities into one under his control.  Howard teamed up with several other heroes to stop Thog, but a misstep sent him to Cleveland.  After a few problems with law enforcement and being mistaken for a mutant, he happened across the lair of the villainous Pro-Rata and rescued Beverly Switzer, a life model, with the help of Spider-Man**.  Howard and Beverly would come to love each other across species differences.

The movie Howard the Duck, released in 1986, focuses on Howard and his arrival on Earth.  Without access to other characters in the Marvel-verse, the movie shows Howard in his everyday life, establishing him as an everyduck, before hurling him through a wormhole to land in Cleveland, Ohio, outside a dive bar with live band Cherry Bomb.  Howard bounces from trouble to trouble before finding a place to hide and gather his wits.  Meanwhile, the lead singer of Cherry Bomb, Beverly Switzer, has wrapped up for the night and left the bar.  Two “fans” intercept her and refuse to let her leave.  She fights them off the best she can while calling for help.  Help does arrive, all three-foot-two of him.  Howard leaps in with his Quak-Fu and helps Beverly chase away her assailants.  Not having anywhere else to go, Howard takes up Beverly’s offer to go home with her.

The next day, Beverly introduces Howard to Phil, a scientist and intern at a lab.  Phil is ecstatic at meeting an living, breathing, talking example of parallel evolution.  Howard gets overwhelmed and leaves.  As he tries to adjust to Cleveland, he looks for a job.  The best he gets a position as a janitor at a romance spa.  The job and the boss soon get to him and Howard quits.  He wanders around Cleveland, eventually returning to the dive where he first landed and met Beverly.  Cherry Bomb is on stage inside.  Howard goes inside, where he overhears Cherry Bomb’s manager talk about his plan to withhold the band’s money to get Beverly to go home with him.  A barroom brawl breaks out with Howard outnumbered three to one by the manager and his friends, but the alien duck wins.  Howard takes the money and forces the manager to stop managing Cherry Bomb.  Later backstage, Howard reveals the cash to Cherry Bomb.

Meanwhile, Phil has been busy.  He has spoken to Dr. Jennings, the lead researcher at the lab, and arrives at the bar.  Phil wasn’t expecting Howard to be there, but takes advantage of the situation to take one of Howard’s tail feathers.  The DNA in that feather matches the DNA on a feather that appeared after a laser-retrieval experiment.  Dr. Jennings was responsible for pulling Howard across the galaxy to Cleveland.  Howard reasons that if the laser could pull him to Cleveland, it could send him back to Duckworld.

An accident at the lab interferes with Howard’s plan.  Dr. Jennings has been changed.  The police arrive as a result of the alarm going off and wind up arresting Howard for being an illegal alien.  Howard manages to escape from the police and meet up with Beverly and Dr. Jenning.  In Dr. Jenning’s car, the researcher starts undergoing a transformation.  The last experiment had pulled one of the Dark Overlords, one who is now occupying Dr. Jennings’ body.  The Dark Overlord wants to free his comrades and plans to use the laser to bring them to Earth.  His comrades need a body, and the Dark Overlord plans on giving them Beverly’s.  Howard, with the help of Phil, rescue Beverly, defeat the Dark Overlord, and sends the other Overlords back.

As mentioned at the beginning, the movie bombed.  However, as an adaptation, it works.  There’s a change from the existentialism that Gerber had in the comic to a science fiction comedy, but the idea of a person ripped out of his home, his life, to an alien landscape is still there.  The love between Howard and Beverly is still there, and builds subtly where even they aren’t aware of it even if the audience is.  When two people can finish each other’s sentences without effort, there’s a true connection between them.  The main issue is the design of Howard.  The movie was made before CGI was commonplace.  The Last Starfighter had been released two years earlier in 1984, but the techniques were still in their infancy.  Thus, Howard was a man in a duck suit.  Howard’s look in the comics was still very duck-like, and his stance would be murder on most people’s backs if attempted in real life.  Industrial Lights & Magic did manage to create believable animatronics for Howard’s facial expressions.

As for tanking at the box office, Howard the Duck was an odd choice to adapt.  George Lucas had found the comic, read it, then passed it on to Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck to write.  The project sat for a few years before Universal needed a film to add to its line up.  The original idea was to create an animated feature, but Universal needed one sooner than animating would take.  This need led to Howard being live action.  The other issue was that Howard, both comic and movie, wasn’t a children’s title.  Howard smokes cigars and has sex.  At the time of release, though, the movie received a PG rating, which allowed for saltier scenes and topless nudity without necessarily allowing much in language or violence.  As a comparison, Airplane also received a PG rating with a topless woman shimmying with the plane.

In favour, the writers, producers, directors, even actors had read the comic.  Lea Thompson, who played Beverly, was given copies of the comic after she was hired.  The original idea of an animated film would have avoided some of the problems they had.  With John Barry, of 007 fame, composing the soundtrack and Thomas Dolby writing songs for Cherry Bomb, the music fit.  The original Howard the Duck was respected, even with the problems of doing Howard live.  With Howard making a cameo in Guardians of the Galaxy, it could be time for his triumphant return.

Next week, The Wolverine.

* The 1944 Captain America Republic film serial was under the Timely banner.
** To establish a character within the Marvel Universe and to pull in readers, editorial frequently used Spider-Man as a guest star.  In later years, the Punisher and the Wolverine would also guest in titles for the same reason.

There are movies that become the go-to source for adaptations.  Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai is one such film.  In Seven Samurai, a village gets overrun by an army of bandits, intent on abusing the farmers and taking their crops for their own purposes.  The farmers send three men to find ronin, masterless samurai to help defend the village.  The men find seven: the experienced Kambei, his young disciple Katsushiro, his friend Shichiroji, the strategic Gorobei, good-willed Heihachi, the taciturn master swordsman Kyuzo, and the poser Kikuchiyo.  Kikuchiyo follows, despite attempts to drive him away.  As the samurai train the farmers and prepare fortifications, Katsushiro meets Shino, the daughter of one of the men sent to find the ronin, and begins a relationship with her.

Shortly before the bandits are due to return, two of their scouts are found and killed and a third captured.  After questioning, the location of the bandits’ camp is revealed.  A pre-emptive strike on the camp sees it burned down, but at the cost of Heihachi’s life.  The bandits attack the village and run into the new fortifications and farmers trained to fight back.  After a battle inside the village, the bandit chief is defeated, though several of the samurai died in the fighting, and the famers are able to plant a new crop.

Seven Samurai was one of the first movies to show the recruiting and gathering of the heroes into a team, a trope that’s commonplace today, appearing in The Guns of Navarone, Marvel’s The Avengers, and the pilot of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.  Seven Samurai became Japan’s highest grossing movie after its release.  Naturally, it was ripe for being brought across the Pacific Ocean to be remade in Hollywood.  John Sturges took the story and placed it in the Old West with the 1960 film, The Magnificent Seven.  The samurai became gunslingers who get hired by a farming village in Mexico to protect it from marauding bandits.

The plot of The Magnificent Seven parallels Seven Samurai.  The gunslingers, veteran Chris, hotheaded Chico, Chris’s friend Harry, drifter Vin, hard luck Bernardo, cowboy Britt, and outlaw Lee, train the farmers in using guns and defending themselves.  Chico falls for Petra, one of the villagers, while Bernardo gets to know three children.  The bandits attack and take heavy losses, forcing them to retreat.  However, Chico learns that the bandits will return; they have no food and need the village’s supply.  The gunslingers move out to surprise the bandits, but are surprised themselves to find the bandit camp empty.  Calvera, the bandit leader, returned to the village and, with the gunslingers gone, the villagers put him in charge out of fear.  The gunslingers are chased off.  After a debate, the group, with the exception of Harry, decide to return to the village to fight Calvera and his bandits.  When the gunfight erupts, the villagers join the gunslingers.  Harry returns in time to prevent Chris from being shot, but is shot fatally himself.  Calvera is shot, the bandits are defeated, and the surviving gunmen go on with their lives.

The Magnificent Seven performed well in Europe but not well in the US.  The European success allowed for three sequels and several similar films, including the Italian sword-and-sandals film The Seven Magnificent Gladiators (I sette magnific gladiatori) in 1983 and the 1980 space opera, Battle Beyond the Stars.

By 1980, science fiction on the silver screen had transformed.  Gone were the B-movies with cheap effects like Them.  Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, both released in 1977, raised audience expectations of special effects, as did 1968’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1978’s Battlestar Galactica, 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture and 1980’s Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.  A green-screened ant made to look the size of an office tower would not do.  At the time, CGI wasn’t even a pipe dream; TRON wouldn’t be out until 1982 and The Last Starfighter wasn’t released until 1984.  All the effects had to be practical, which could get expensive.  Roger Corman, producer of Battle Beyond the Stars, never started a movie that he knew wouldn’t make money.

The king of exploitive B-movies, Corman has a reputation of being cheap.  While George Lucas was able to make Star Wars with a budget of $11 million, Corman’s was just $2 million, or twice that of Sharknado.  With that princely sum, the crew of Battle Beyond the Stars had to make all the sets, costumes, starship interiors, and starship exteriors, and make sure all that met expectations.  The art director, Jim Cameron, had a task in front of him.  That very same Jim Cameron would go on to create movies such as The Terminator, Titanic, and Avatar.

The plot of Battle Beyond the Stars should be familiar by now.  Akira, a pacifist planet, is visited by Sador, played by John Saxon.  A warlord with an army of mutants called the Malmori, Sador threatens the world into submission with the threat of his flagship’s main gun, the Stellar Converter.  The Stellar Converter does exactly what it says on the tin; it converts planets into stars.  Sador gives Akira a few days to decide its fate, then leaves, leaving behind a two-man starfighter to watch the world.  Realizing that there’s little the inhabitants of Akira can do, the council sends young Shad off to recruit mercenaries and purchase guns to teach the Akirans how to fight.  Shad heads off in a former corsair ship, the property of the last warrior of Akira, and the ship’s computer, Nell.  Shad’s education is too much to overcome when the Malmori ship fires on him; he cannot shoot back.  However, the ship also has speed and can outrun the Malmori fighter.

Young Shad’s first stop is at Dr. Hephaestus’ station, where he hopes he can purchase weapons.  The station appears deserted when he arrives, though.  Shad lands his ship and enters.  He is brought to Nanelia, Hepaestus’ daughter and only other living being on the station.  She takes Shad to Hepaestus, whe the good doctor explains that Shad will be remaining to become Nanelia’s companion and lover.  Shad turns down the offer and breaks out of the station.  Nanelia, taken with the young man, assists in the breakout and follows a short while later.  The two split up, Shad to look for mercenaries and Nanelia to wait in the Lambda Zone for him.

While trying to figure out where to go next, Shad is alerted to a long-haul starship being attacked by jackers who are trying to hijack the cargo.  The pilot of the ship, Space Cowboy, sends off a distress call.  Shad moves in, finding a loophole in his code of conduct, but still cannot bring himself to shoot someone in the back.  Despite being on manual, Nell destroys one of the jackers, getting the attention of the other three.  With the jackers now facing him, Shad shoots them all down, getting the thanks of Cowboy as he escorts the transport to the next port of call.  Sador, however, got there first and uses the Stellar Converter on the world, destroying it.  The cargo of weapons, fully paid for, needs to go somewhere, and Akira is much closer than Earth.  After a bit of persuasion, Cowboy agrees to help teach the Akirans how to use the guns.

Shad heads back out, still looking for mercenaries.  He runs into a white, glowing UFO, and is brought on board.  The crew of the ship is Nestor, a being and race that has multiple facets but one mind.  Nestor is bored and, on hearing of the plight of Akira, agrees to help for no payment at all.  The experience would be payment enough.  Shad then find Gelt, an assassin who is so well known in the galaxy that there is no place for him left to live.  Gelt has immense wealth, more than anything Akira could offer, but Gelt only has two desires; a meal and a home.  After leaving Gelt, Shad is challenged by a small ship, one faster and more maneuverable than his own.  After a brief mock battle, the pilot, St-Exmin, a space valkyrie, tags along, hoping to find a battle worthy of her.  Meanwhile, in the Lambda Zone, Nanelia is taken prisoner by Cayman, a reptilian being who is intent on selling her to the highest bidder.  Nanelia explains why she was there and, hoping that Cayman would be more interested in being paid as a mercenary, mentions Sador.  Cayman agrees to join her, the only payment being Sador’s head.

Seven ships return to Akira, where plans are drawn and fortifications created to defeat Sador and his mutants.  There would be only one chance to destroy Sador and his Stellar Converter; the ship has to drop its force field long enough to let the weapon fire.  In that moment, one of the mercenaries could open fire in that precise shot to destroy the weapon and possibly Sador’s flagship.  Sador returns, launching starfighters to deal with the ragtag fleet, but the recruited mercenaries are too much for the mutants to handle.  On the surface of Akira, Cowboy leads the defense, holding off Sador’s ground troops.

After the first wave of fighting, Gelt has been mortally wounded, forced down after a collision with a Malmori fighter.  Shad orders his people to bury Gelt with a meal, fulfilling his end of the deal.  One of the Nestors allows himself to be captured.  Sador’s top interrogator, known for keeping a victim alive through the incredible agony, starts torturing the Nestor.  Having no pain resistance, Nestor quickly succumbs to the torture and dies, becoming Dako’s first premature death.  Sador orders Nestor’s arm grafted on to him, replacing his damaged one.  The remaining Nestors manipulate the arm, trying to slit Sador’s throat.  Dako manages to take away the knife and remove the arm.

In retaliation, Sador resumes the attack, this time to get in position to use the Stellar Converter.  The mercenaries meet him head on, but the force field on the flagship is too much.  Ship after ship is destroyed, but St-Exmin manages to fly her tiny ship into the Stellar Converter’s bay, damaging it before going out in a blaze of glory herself.  With the Stellar Converter out of action, Sador wants to personally deal with the last of the mercenary ships and its pilot.  The last ship, Nell, has Shad and Nanelia on it.  A nuclear blast wipes Nell’s memory, resetting it to when the last Akiran warrior was young.  When Nell gets caught in a magnetic net to be drawn within Sador’s flagship, Shad uses the net to help accelerate, landing within the vessel while setting Nell to self destruct.  Nell, still not all there, has Shad and Nanelia get into a lifepod for launch.  The countdown is awkward, but Nell hits zero.  The explosion starts a chain reaction through Sador’s ship, destroying it.  Akira is saved.

As mentioned, Battle Beyond the Stars was a low budget movie.  Despite that, the effects, while showing their age, don’t look as old as they should be.  While Corman kept costs down by using interns and film school students, those very same people were able to come up with solutions and sets on the fly, staying up late and overnight as needed.  Corman had bought a lumber yard to use as a stage, but kept the old sign up.  There were people who came in to purchase lumber who were hired to build sets.  Meanwhile, the big-name stars, George Peppard and Robert Vaughn, were placed in memorable scenes but weren’t used throughout the movie, allowing Corman to only pay for the days they were on set.  Richard Thomas, being in the midst of wrapping up his role of John-Boy on The Waltons, was looking for a different type of movie from what he had done in the past.  He still had money coming in from The Waltons, so could take a cut in pay, allowing him to be in most scenes.  Editing pulled together the various shots, especially during the climactic battle, creating a movie that leaves viewers on the edge of their seat, helped by a soundtrack by James Horner.  Elements of the music would appear later in 1982’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan*.

Battle Beyond the Stars is not a simple remake of The Magnificent Seven or Seven Samurai.  Just as The Magnificent Seven brings the samurai drama into the Old West, Battle Beyond the Stars brings both the Western and the samurai drama into space.  Yet, the core, the threatened people needing outside help to fend off a villain, remains in each instance.  The gathering of the warriors, whether ronin, gunslinger, or mercenary pilot, remains intact.  While there are some minor changes, the warriors are recognizable no matter the version.  Battle Beyond the Stars‘ Shad, The Magnificent Seven‘s Chico, and Seven Samurai‘s Katsushiro are the same character, just transposed to a new setting.  Helping with this is Robert Vaughn’s characters in both The Magnificent Seven and Battle Beyond the Stars; Lee and Gelt are both wanted and too recognizable to appear in public.  St-Exmin and Kikuchyo fill the same role.  For a B-movie exploiting the popularity of Star Wars, Battle Beyond the Stars took efforts to be recognizable as Seven Samurai as a space opera and succeeded.

Next week, Ocean’s Eleven.

* While The Wrath of Khan‘s soundtrack is distinct from Battle Beyond the Stars, Horner’s style can be heard in both, particularly in the use of the call of the hunting horns.

Marvel, being one of the Big Two with DC Comics, has a large number of heroes in its stable.  Many got their start during the 1960s, when the threat of nuclear war was a palpable threat but the power of the atom was being harnessed for beneficial means.  Characters from this time featured a brush with radiations, from Peter Parker being bitten by a radioactive spider and gaining power to Professor Xavier taking in the children of the atom to become his X-Men.  The focus of the review, Daredevil, was splashed as a young boy by radioactive waste leaking from a barrel*.  The waste destroyed his sight but amplified his other senses, allowing him to see using a form of radar.  The sight isn’t perfect; small details can’t be made out nor can he determine colour, but the power allows him to target opponents.

Matt Murdoch was the only child of “Battling Jack” Murdoch, a former pro fighter who got mixed up with organized crime to make ends meet.  Matt’s mother was missing, presumed dead.  After the accident, as Jack tried to go straight, Matt tested out the extent of his new found abilities.  Unfortunately for Jack, there is no retirement plan from the mob.  Matt soon became an orphan, but he was determined to be there for people who needed help.  Murdoch worked his way through law school, and teamed up with Franklin “Foggy” Nelson to work in the old neighbourhood, Hell’s Kitchen.  Where Matt Murdoch, lawyer, couldn’t get justice, Daredevil could.  Along the way, Daredevil made a few enemies, including the Kingpin, who controlled crime in New York City, and Bullseye, the Kingpin’s assassin.  Ben Ulrich, reporter for the Daily Bugle, was more thorn than enemy, but her did deduce that Matt Murdoch was Daredevil.

/Daredevil/ was created by Stan Lee and Bill Everett, with Jack Kirby providing the character’s original yellow and red costume, later replaced by an all red costume.  While Lee was the first writer on the title, others followed, including John Romita, Sr, Roy Thomas, Marv Wolfman, and Frank Miller.  Miller’s run in the 1980s was key to increasing the title and the character’s popularity, introducing a film noir style to the comic.  Once given the reigns as writer, Miller changed Daredevil’s backstory, altered the personalities of the supporting cast and rogues gallery, and revitalized the title.  The introduction of Elektra and her relationship and romance with Daredevil occurred under Miller’s watch.

For the 2003 film, Daredevil, script writer Mark Steven Johnson dug heavily into Frank Miller’s run on the comic.  This is where I need to make an aside, to set up the remainder of the review.  The version used for this review was the director’s cut, not the theatrical release.  A featurette on the DVD goes into detail about the differences between the two.  The theatrical release was mandated by the studio to be a PG-13 rated action film running under 100 minutes (actual runtime was 103 minutes) and included a romance between Elektra and Murdoch that was consummated onscreen.  The director’s cut restored at least a half-hour’s worth of footage, including scenes between Matt and Foggy, a subplot about an innocent man accused of murdering a prostitute that led to a link through to the Kingpin, and Murdoch’s use of a sensory deprivation chamber to get peace.  The cut also removed the love scene, showing Matt having to leave Elektra because of heroing business, and changing the plot, according to Johnson, from a “you stole/killed my girlfriend” ending to becoming a hero.  The director’s cut has a total runtime of 133 minutes and received an R-rating from the MPAA.

The biggest change in the movie with the director’s cut was the feel of the movie.  While there was still action, the changes brought the movie towards film noir, the same style that Frank Miller used during his tenure with the comic.  The story starts in media res as Daredevil drops into a Catholic church.  He explains what is happening, putting most of the movie as a flashback, starting with how he got the powers, how he lost his father, Jack “The Devil” Murdoch, to a mob hit, how he became the Man Without Fear.  The first appearance of Daredevil is after Matt loses a case trying to prosecute a rapist; in costume, Murdoch tracks down the rapist and ensures that justice is served.  Ben Ulrich, a reporter for the New York Post** specializing in urban legends***, has been following Daredevil sightings, trying to track down the elusive being.  That night, Murdoch hears the murder of a young woman just before he seals himself inside his sensory deprivation chamber.

The next morning, Matt and Foggy meet for breakfast.  Both notice an attractive woman enter the diner.  Matt tries to get her interest, using his blindness as an opening for an introduction.  When the woman leaves without telling Matt her name, he follows her to a playground.  Naturally, the woman is annoyed at being followed and tries to show Matt the error of his ways, forcefully.  They trade martial arts moves, nothing to injure the other, enough to first dissuade then to impress the other.  Elektra Nachios gives Matt her name, but not her number or address; she’ll find him.

Afterwards, Matt rushes to the courthouse to meet with Foggy and their new client, a young man accused of murdering the woman Murdoch had heard overnight.  Matt, able to hear the young man’s heartbeat, is reassured that the man is innocent and takes on the case.  Meanwhile, the Kingpin, already upset about a leak in his organization, has to deal with a partner who wants to retire, Nicholas Nachios.  The Kingpin calls in his best assassin, Bullseye.  Bullseye has a power; he always hits his target, no matter what he throws.

An evening soiree later, Nicholas Nachios leaves in a rush, Elektra following.  Matt detected the father’s elevated pulse and follows as Daredevil.  He sees Bullseye take out the bodyguards and jumps into the fight to protect father and daughter.  One of the first actions he has is to block a thrown missile from hitting Nachios.  Or, as Bullseye put it, “He made me miss.”  The fight ends when Bullseye hurls Daredevil’s baton at Nachios.  An explosion makes it impossible for Daredevil to see the baton properly with his radar sense and the baton impales Nachios, killing him.

Elektra sees to her father’s funeral, then continues her training.  She was never in a good place to see the fight and blames Daredevil for killing her father.  Elektra manages to track down Daredevil; Bullseye tracks them both.  In the major fight sequence of the film, Bullseye injures Daredevil and kills Elektra****.  The flashback catches up to the beginning of the film as Bullseye enters the church to finish the job he started.  During the fight, Matt discovers the identity of the Kingpin and that he was responsible for his father’s murder.  Defeating Bullseye, Daredevil leaves the church to confront the Kingpin.

As mentioned, the movie uses the Frank Miller run on Daredevil to the point where Miller gets a cameo as well as Stan Lee.  The film noir style is used for effect, giving the movie a grittier feel and setting up the sense of loss Murdoch has with Elektra.  The acting holds up; Ben Affleck is able to be both Matt Murdoch and Daredevil, while Jennifer Garner makes Elektra memorable despite a lack of screen time.  The main problem is pacing.  Frank Miller’s run covered four years, a lot to pack into a two hour, fifteen minute movie.  The director’s cut does involve most of the character’s supporting cast in one way or another, but there are moments where the film drags a little and where it feels rushed.  A movie may have been the wrong format for the story told; a mini-series or a short TV series might have worked better, but wouldn’t have had the pull that a feature film does.  It’s not even a case of too much story; the theatrical release managed to cut a subplot without too many issue.  However, a longer format, one that could develop relationships, both beneficial and adversarial, would have helped.

Next week, Battle Beyond the Stars.

* The same radioactive waste then spilled into the sewers of New York and on to four adolescent turtles.  Really.
** The Daily Bugle is considered to be part of Spider-Man’s mythos, and Sony has the rights to that part of Marvel while Twentieth Century Fox had the Daredevil rights, since reverted back to Marvel.
*** In a missed shout out, Ulrich mentions that there are no alligators living in the sewers of New York City.  He never said a word about turtles.  The alligator may have been the Spider-Man villain, the Lizard, if Fox had the Spider-rights instead of Sony.
**** Or apparently kills.  She gets better for the spin-off movie, Elekctra.

Last week, I looked at the mess that was Super Mario Bros.  That adaptation, along with those for Double Dragon and Street Fighter, cemented the idea that movies based on video games will suck.  Mortal Kombat, released in 1995, did reduce the stigma of the video game movie by being both entertaining and a decent adaptation of the Mortal Kombat video game, but quality is still not guarenteed.  Still, licensing for movies still happens, even if the concept of the game isn’t easily adapted.

With the march of technology, what once cost thousands to millions to make can now be done at home on a computer with inexpensive or even open source software.  Digital cameras are now standard on cell phones, smart or otherwise.  Editing software allows budding film makers to create their blockbuster.  Sure, they may not have the budget for extensive sets and A-list actors, but creativity can get the film makers around those problems.  Today’s technology allows anyone to try to make a film.  Even Spielberg and Lucas had to start somewhere and, today, it’s far easier to get started.

This week’s focus is on The Four Players by PolarisGo, a group that creates short films based on video games.  With The Four Players, they went for a gritty background for four iconic characters.  Each part is short, no more than five minutes each, and is available on PolarisGo’s YouTube channel.  Go take a look, then come back.

• The Fixer
• The Addict
• The Star
• The Soldier

Without names being dropped during each video, it’s easy to tell which Mario character is the focus.  The videos use the iconic colours for Mario and Luigi, even if they’re not wearing the traditional coveralls at first.  Mario is still a plumber and still Italian-American.  He still wears the cheesy mustache.  Luigi is tall and lanky.  The Princess is still in distress.  Toad is still a mushroom.  In fact, Toad being a mushroom puts his video ahead of the official adaptation, even with Mojo Nixon doing what he can with what he was given.

The cast and crew have put their own spin on the video game.  At the same time, the videos do fit into the world of Mario.  Mario punches a block made of bricks, something not seen in the movie.  Likewise, the Chain Chomps that threaten the Princess and the power-up mushrooms Mario and Luigi use appear in the videos but not Super Mario Bros.  Toad gets a bag full of Bob-ombs.  Guarding and menacing the Princess are recognizable Koopa Troopas, which were called Goombas in the movie.

At this point, it is obvious that PolarisGo put more effort into keeping to the spirit of the Super Mario Bros. video game in four short videos that the creators of the movie had.  Steve said it best when he pointed out the movie “went out of its way to be wrong.”  Meanwhile, a low budget fan production managed to portray Mario as seen in the game while still putting a dark twist on it and still giving the audience a ray of hope.  The Four Players channels the essence of Mario and builds on top instead of replacing.

The videos do show why now is a great time to be a geek.  A creative group willing to put time and effort can put together a video based on a favorite work and be seen by other fans.  The gear needed to film and the software to edit is within reach of most groups.  Game peripherals can easily be adapted for filming; a steering wheel controller can be turned into a steady-cam for far less than the cost of the steady-cam.  Getting the final product out for the world to see just requires a webpage and a YouTube channel.  We’re long past the 500-channel future of the 80s and 90s.

Next week, the June round-up of remake news.

Hollywood movie adaptations of video games have a poor reputation.  The expectation is that the movie won’t capture the essence of the game.  The reputation stems from three movies, the first three Hollywood video game adaptations.  Street Fighter: The Movie, the third made, is reaching cult classic status, thanks to the strength of Raul Julia’s last movie performance.  The second, Double Dragon, was panned by audiences and critics and received a 0% at Rotten Tomatoes.  The first video game movie adaptation, though, set the tone.

As a video game, Super Mario Bros. introduced North America to one of the biggest video game franchise produced.  Mario first appeared in 1981’s Donkey Kong video arcade game where the goal was to rescue Pauline from the clutches of the titular ape.  Luigi joined his brother in 1983’s arcade game Mario Bros. where the pair fought against monsters coming up from New York’s sewers.  Their big break through came on the Nintendo Entertainment System in Super Mario Bros. in 1985.  The goal in Super Mario was to search through the Mushroom Kingdom and numerous castles to rescue Princess Toadstool from the evil Bowser.  Along the way, Mario and Luigi would have to dodge obstacles and enemies, defeating the latter by jumping on them.

The franchise bloomed, adding game sequels, cartoons, spin-offs, and the Hollywood film.  Mario has been on every Nintendo console, from the NES through to the Wii and on every handheld system since the Game Boy.  The cast of characters has grown as well, with Princesses Daisy and Peach appearing, plus helpers such as Toad and Yoshi, and the Koopa family as villains.  Mario, already the world’s most famous plumber, picked up tennis and go-carting, and even got a second career as a doctor.  Mario, as a franchise, has done well for Nintendo.

Twenty-one years and nine days ago, the film adaptation of the video game was released.  Super Mario Bros. starred a solid cast, with Bob Hoskins as Mario, John Leguizamo as Luigi, Samantha Mathis as Daisy, Dennis Hopper as Koopa, Fisher Stevens as Iggy Koopa, and Mojo Nixon as Toad.  The plot of the movie had Mario and Luigi Mario, the proprietors and sole employees of Mario Bros. plumbing, cross paths with a young paleontology student named Daisy.  Daisy, an orphan raised from an egg by the nuns who found her, gets stalked by Spike and Iggy, who are responsible for a number of women disappearing from Brooklyn.  As the pair of kidnappers move in to grab her, she gets a ride from Mario and Luigi, the latter inviting her out to dinner.  Iggy and Spike, not really smart enough to know the meaning of the word “quit”, keep following, but wind up grabbing Daniella, Mario’s date, instead after being taken home by the plumber.

Daisy had been working at a dig site in Brooklyn where unusual dinosaur bones had been found.  Anthony Scapelli, who owns the Scapelli Construction Company and Scapelli Plumbing, owns the land where the dig is occurring and wants to end the delays.  Since Daisy has a court order allowing her to complete her dig, Scapelli uses other means, including sending his own plumbers into the dig site to sabotage it by opening pipes.  Fortunately, when Daisy discovers the sabotage, Luigi is with her.  Luigi gets Mario and together they shut off the water pouring in.  However, they are so focused on their work that Iggy and Spike are able to sneak up, knock the plumbers out, and kidnap Daisy.  Mario and Luigi aren’t out of action for long; they’re able to give chase until they run into a chasm and lose track of Daisy.  The kidnapped girl, though, appears in a rock, leaning far enough out that Luigi can take the piece of meteorite Daisy wears as a necklace.

Luigi, with a leap of faith, leaps across the chasm and through the rock.  Mario hesitates but does follow his brother through what turns out to be a dimensional bridge.  Mario lands in a strange world with unusual people driving electric cars.  The Mario Bros. get bumped around, mugged, and arrested before they can get their bearings.  One of the people they’re arrested with is Toad, a anti-Koopa protest singer.  Toad babbles about the fungus covering the city, claiming it’s really the former king and it’s fighting to regain the throne.  This earns Toad the sentence of de-evolution, turning him into a Goomba.  The Marios do escape and are able to fight back against Koopa, recover the meteorite piece, rescue Daisy and Daniella, and prevent Koopa from merging his dimension with the Earth’s.

The biggest problem with Super Mario Bros. is that it only has a passing resemblence to the video game.  Koopa’s world is unlike the worlds in the video game; instead, it’s a dingy, brown place that makes Brooklyn look bright and cheery.  When an 8-bit world has more colour than half a movie, something’s gone wrong.  The cast does what they can with the script.  Dennis Hopper chews the scenery everytime he’s on screen while Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo are fun to watch even if they were drunk on set.  Can’t blame them, really.  Hopper was meant to be there five weeks, but wound up shooting over seventeen instead.  Hoskins and Leguizamo both have excised the movie from their resumes; Hoskins biggest regret was doing Super Mario Bros.

The problems just start with the script, though.  The Mario elements are shoe-horned in.  Koopa looks like Dennis Hopper with mutant cornrows in his hair instead of the dragon-like Bowser.  The Marios don’t get their signature coveralls until the climax.  Until then, Mario doesn’t wear red and Luigi doesn’t wear green; the colours the characters use in the game.  The Goombas, evil mushrooms with fangs in the video game, became large humanoid dinosaurs with tiny heads, which would better fit a Koopa Troopa, though not really.  A viewer would get the feeling that key people in the crew had never played or see played the video game at any point in the twelve years between the release of the game and the release of the movie.

The movie might have been better if it hadn’t been tied to the video game.  The basic plot – stop a villainous overlord and his henchmen from merging his dimension with ours – is more than enough for a Hollywood movie.  Given that Iggy and Spike don’t have a brain cell between them, the movie could be played as a comedy and aimed at children.  Koopa’s dimension was created by the meteor strike that wiped out the dinosaurs; some of the beasts survived by being pulled to the parallel dimension.  The electric cars reflect that there would be no oil from extinct dinosaurs.  Even that concept, though, isn’t fully explored.  Koopa’s scheme was to save his world; Mario and Luigi, by defeating him, doomed a dimension.  Congrats!  The Earth is saved, but Daisy’s world must keep suffering.

This isn’t to say that the movie didn’t try to include elements from the video game.  The movie starts on a promising note by using the video game’s own soundtrack to open.  Yoshi makes an appearance as a pet, and the fungus covering the city does sprout mushrooms to help Mario and Luigi, including providing them with a Bob-omb.  Super Mario Bros. was meant to be a prequel, an origins movie.  The movie is closer to the earlier arcade game Mario Bros. than it is to Super Mario Bros.  For all it’s faults, the movie did win two Saturn awards, one for Best Costume and one for Best Make-Up.  But, it’s not a Super Mario movie.  The details serve to remind the audience on what could have been.  There’s a feeling of a reuse of script or scripts with Mario shoved in.

The main problem is the one seen with Battleship, there are a lot of good ideas being squished into an adaptation that just doesn’t need them and getting wasted.  Super Mario Bros. is a mess that can’t use its strong cast to save itself.

Next week, a fan’s take on Mario.

And speaking of the fan take, there is a webcomic based on the work done for the non-existing sequel.  The artist has had discussions with the script writers about the aborted sequel and has continued the story.