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Darkstalkers/Van Helsing
17 years ago
I love monsters. And I love movies, and I adore animation.
Sooo, why is it that when people try to mesh several different stories or mythologies that it can suck so hard?
I loved the Darkstalker games because they had monsters from different mythologies that you could have beat the shit out of one another, and some of my favorites! A great werewolf, a catwoman, a sasquatch (which was rather cute), a really nifty merman, an interestingly designed Frankenstein's monster, a mummy, and your general vampires, including a succubus. But also Chinese vampires, and a sinister little Red Riding Hood, a queen bee, and haunted samurai armor. This was pretty nifty. But the animations were pretty bad. With all those great possibilities, you'd think they'd be able to use more than six characters regularly, indluding the least interesting of all of them. Repeatedly. And too many monologues. At least two female characters are strong protagonists, which is a point in the four-part series' favor.
The American animation is likely far worse than the Japanese one, but I haven't seen it since I was like... eight. I do recall that characters did get more screen time than just being beaten to hell for five seconds in an opening sequence, but also a character not from the game, who was a young wizard. Oh, and the nearly naked catwoman is wearing a bra rather than being, you know, pretty much nude.
Now, onto Van Helsing. I thought that it had great potential (and Hugh Jackman!) but again, bad acting and stupid story killed what had good potential. I own the movie, but mostly because the werewolves are beautifully done. But, like in the horrible "Underworld", they seem to be stickyspiderwolves. I have no idea where the idea that werewolves should be able to stick to walls and ceilings came about. I prefer the Ginger Snaps version, where trucks make them explode and the symptoms of lycanthropy can be confused with the onset of puberty. If only they had Van Helsing's budget to make the werewolves in that series of movies!
At least there's Hellboy, which gives good story and interesting monsters with pretty, pretty art. I can't wait for THAT movie to come out this summer! And also, Pan's Labyrinth. I loved the character designs, the story was beautiful, and it's one of the few movies with subtitles that I can't get enough of.
If you have any suggestions for good combinations of mythology that were forged into a good movie or book, do let me know!
Sooo, why is it that when people try to mesh several different stories or mythologies that it can suck so hard?
I loved the Darkstalker games because they had monsters from different mythologies that you could have beat the shit out of one another, and some of my favorites! A great werewolf, a catwoman, a sasquatch (which was rather cute), a really nifty merman, an interestingly designed Frankenstein's monster, a mummy, and your general vampires, including a succubus. But also Chinese vampires, and a sinister little Red Riding Hood, a queen bee, and haunted samurai armor. This was pretty nifty. But the animations were pretty bad. With all those great possibilities, you'd think they'd be able to use more than six characters regularly, indluding the least interesting of all of them. Repeatedly. And too many monologues. At least two female characters are strong protagonists, which is a point in the four-part series' favor.
The American animation is likely far worse than the Japanese one, but I haven't seen it since I was like... eight. I do recall that characters did get more screen time than just being beaten to hell for five seconds in an opening sequence, but also a character not from the game, who was a young wizard. Oh, and the nearly naked catwoman is wearing a bra rather than being, you know, pretty much nude.
Now, onto Van Helsing. I thought that it had great potential (and Hugh Jackman!) but again, bad acting and stupid story killed what had good potential. I own the movie, but mostly because the werewolves are beautifully done. But, like in the horrible "Underworld", they seem to be stickyspiderwolves. I have no idea where the idea that werewolves should be able to stick to walls and ceilings came about. I prefer the Ginger Snaps version, where trucks make them explode and the symptoms of lycanthropy can be confused with the onset of puberty. If only they had Van Helsing's budget to make the werewolves in that series of movies!
At least there's Hellboy, which gives good story and interesting monsters with pretty, pretty art. I can't wait for THAT movie to come out this summer! And also, Pan's Labyrinth. I loved the character designs, the story was beautiful, and it's one of the few movies with subtitles that I can't get enough of.
If you have any suggestions for good combinations of mythology that were forged into a good movie or book, do let me know!
I completely agree on Pan's Labyrinth. I had no idea the movie was subtitled until it began...but the story just draws you in! I couldnt' care less about the subtitles 5 minutes later! The real beauty of that Pan's Labyrinth is that you really don't need the subtitles at all to follow and understand the movie. The emotion in the characters' voices and the imagery on screen tell you the entire story even without the dialogue. Loved it. : )
Yes, for me, I never read the comics, so I just went for the movie's sake. Perhaps had I read the comics, the movie wouldn't have been so bad to me. ; )
But time will tell about the next movie! : ) If I go to see it, I'll give it a fair chance. : )
Ginger Snaps is awesome because of the whole puberty/werewolf thing. It made me laugh so hard!!
lol puberty makes you grow a tail!
I forgot about that part!
I enjoyed the comics based on the book pretty much.
so it appears that most movie makers and animators just cant wrap their minds around a decent way to bring all the different angles together and appeal to the fans of the series in a proper way. Its been proven over and over again as just about anything based on a fight game ends up being total crap. Theirs one or two exceptions here and there but even they only end up being par most of the time.
What kills me is the two times they tried to make Darkstalker comics the story was solid and managed to have different events happening at the same time. I never liked Morrigan till i read the recent Udon comics, they really fleshed out her as a character with some purpose. But i guess they werent selling or industry ADHD set in cos they never got around wrapping em up.
Also i agree, Van Hellsing was only watchable cos the werewolves were such eye candy. We kept saying they were created by Wookiee. XD
I was very disappointed with the Darkstalkers movie, and the series was lame. And yea, same to Van Helsing. I almost bought it for the werewolves. But then I couldn't find convincing eyecandy on the net to make sure I didn't dream it all up, so I gave up on that.
And of course, Sandman (or just about anything Neil Gaiman writes) was drawn from a wide variety of mythology.
And if you don't mind Christian mythology mixed in with Western-style violence and filthy language (and an alcoholic Irish vampire), there's my favorite comic series of all time, Preacher. :)
I think the worst thing about that movie was Dracula, really. You need a talented actor to play Vlad well, and that guy played it up too melodramatically.
Then again, Frankenstein's Monster was a ham, and he was still awesome...
A wizard with a private investigator's license living in Chicago, regular vampires, sex vampires, werewolves of all shapes and sizes, zombies, ghosts, demons, perverted skulls...it's a great series. And oh yeah, Queen Mab of the Unseelie Court gets involved over the course of the books, too. ^_^
but with books, I would recommend giving Mercedes Lackey a try. she seems very content to research mytholigies before she uses them in her novels in a very refreshing way. her older books should be availabe in the US, here they unfortunately don't translate eveyone of her books, and older english titles are hard to come by here.
Do werewolves have to have their ears cropped as a Dracula breed standard? LOL! That would be funny to draw. A Vampire with his show werewolf. *runs off to draw it*