From: grantham@milton.u.washington.edu (Henry Grantham)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies,alt.cult-movies
Subject: Re: Darkman - Crap (YES!)? Not hardly!(If you say so)
Date: 8 Apr 92 00:45:15 GMT
Organization: University of Washington


msr@kepler.unh.edu (Mathew S Reno) writes:

>So. Just because some of the movies he has have been off the wall, doesn't mean
>that every one will. Look at the movie GHOST. It wasn't really a comedy but
>look who directed it. I try not to sterotype directors. Maybe I should. I did
>not know who directed it at the time and I think that it really shouldn't
>matter. If they're trying to pass it off as an serious action flick, then it
>should be. 

	"Darkman" was clearly a comic book on screen.  It was marketed that way
and it was filmed that way.  Ofcourse it doesn't work as a "serious" action
flick and anyone viewing it with that expectation will be disappointed.
What does "Darkman" sound like?  Batman, Superman, Spiderman, etc.  Look at
the video box, the poster and the previews.  Everything about it says
comic book in big letters.


>I'm not sure what you mean by "cold". I saw the trailers and expected a good
>movie with lots of excitement and action with good acting. I had no opinions
                    ^^^^^^^^^^     ^^^^^^      ^^^^^^^^^^^
>about the movie based on the trailers and word of mouth. I went into the movie
>expecting only to be entertained, as I expect with any movie, and when I was
>not, then I became dissapointed.

	Expectations effect movies.  It's just the way life is.  As you
stated above, you're expectations were:

1. Good acting - These type of films almost never have good acting in 
                 the traditional sense and tend to focus more on camp.
2. Excitement  - I would say that the movie was a success on this count.
3. Action      - The movie was almost nonstop action.        

>I enjoy a nice fade or some tricky edits, but I believe (and all the people
>I've talked to) that this was overdone in DARKMAN.

	Tricky edits is Sam Raimi's trademark.  Just look at "Evil Dead II"
and "Crimewave".  Some of us enjoy watching creative and original edits.
For us, the intentionaly overdone edits in the film worked very well. 

	BTW, in an interview, Raimi said that he had to tone down his style
for this movie because of restrictions put on him by having a big budget.  
If he did not have these restrictions, who knows how wild the film would
have turned out?  

>If a reasonable large budget movie
>can't edit together a movie without making the edits noticible, then there is
>something wrong. 

	You are suppose to noitice the edits!!  It helps give the movie
the comic book flavor that it strives for.  Have you ever seen the
comic "Watchman"?  The edits in "Darkman" have a simular feel to the
panels in "Watchman".

>I really don't think you can say that another director would have made a boring
>movie. But what's done is done.

	Not many directors can make a good comic book movie.  Just look at
"Dick Tracy" for an example of a failier.

>>Now I'll admit that I would have liked to have seen Bruce Campbell playing
>>lead all the way through instead of just for one shot at the end, but Liam
>>Neeson did an amazing job with the script too.

	That would have been great!

>>
>>--
>>Lazlo (lazlo@triton.unm.edu)

>---Matt 
>-- 
>********************************************************************************
>**Matt Reno            ** Percy-"Ahh, the fashion today is towards the tiny." **
>**msr@kepler.unh.edu   ** Edmund-"Then Percy you have the most fashionable    **
>**M_RENO@unhh.unh.edu  **         brain in all of England."                   **
>********************************************************************************



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Henry Grantham grantham@milton.u.washington.edu