When pictures leap on to the screen

With Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill For, based on Frank Miller’s epic noir up for release, we talk to graphic novelists on the best and worst cinematic adaptation of comics

August 28, 2014 08:54 pm | Updated 08:54 pm IST

This image released by The Weinstein Company shows Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a scene from, "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For."

This image released by The Weinstein Company shows Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a scene from, "Sin City: A Dame to Kill For."

Samit Basu

Local Monsters

Best: If you're looking at the film alone, Road to Perdition, Ghost World, The Mask . If you're looking for faithfulness to original, Sin City and 300 . I liked that they took the visual/narrative strengths of the comic but made sure that they were films first above everything else. So they were good films that were made from comics, not comics with the gaps filled in with motion.

Worst:The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to LXG . Ruined the story.

Suhas Sundar

Odayan

Best:Persepolis maybe because it was animated in the same style as the art?

Worst: Would have to be Whiteout

Saurav Mohapatra

Mumbai Confidential

Best: I personally like the way Road to Perdition was adapted from book to film. It felt authentic and it felt like a film.

The Sin City adaptations have been more than faithful to the books. Perhaps a little too faithful. Movie and comics are two different media with different grammar, language and idioms. That being said, the fanboy in me will definitely make me go see Sin City 2 in theatres as I am a big Robert Rodriguez fan and Frank Miller's earlier work.

Worst: In recent memory, it will have to be the Catwoman movie. It totally missed the point, had scant respect for the story material, was too generic/bland execution and was very, very condescending in assuming that Halle Berry in a tattered skintight costume is enough to bring the fanboys in. It is a case study in how not to make a comic book movie.

Vikram Balagopal

Simian

Graphic novel adaptions to film have the same pitfalls as any literary adaptations to film. However, there is the added caveat of matching the visuals of the characters and objects, which is otherwise subjective in novels where they are left to the reader's imagination.

Best

Oldboy : The graphic novel was perfectly adapted for the film medium in the Korean movie with apt stylistic choices and good acting. Oldboy is a great illustration of a great adaptation, as in the case of the Korean movie version, and an unsuccessful adaptation, which was the case for the English movie version. Akira: A milestone in feature animation in both technique and storytelling.

V for Vendetta: Powerful story well told in the film in the most successful adaptation of any of Alan Moore's graphic novels.

Kickass: Adapted well for the screen with some scenes added that actually work better than those in the book.

Road to Perdition: The perfect transition from graphic novel to screen with amazing cinematography, skilled direction and splendid acting all-around.

Sin City: Fresh and unrestricted in tone and subject matter. You are watching the graphic novel pages come alive on the screen and it works.

Scott Pilgrim Vs the World: It places the viewer into the graphic novel’s frenetic zeal and is an amazing ride. The number of boyfriends gets repetitive after a point, but until then it is glorious.

Worst

From Hell: The directors had a particular movie in mind and disregarded the graphic novel’s tone completely. The graphic novel’s writer, Alan Moore, has been totally ignored.

300: Didn’t appreciate the tone of the graphic novel and the historical liberties it took, and though the movie is visually appealing, I wish it had dealt with those inaccuracies.

Watchmen: Perfect example of why adhering too close to the source in an overindulgent way can cause a film more harm than good. The director loves the source material so much he was blind to what mattered.

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Another of Alan Moore's works. Amazing collection of actors but the changes in the story and characters from the graphic novel, and especially the way the whole endeavour is handled does not work for the movie.

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