Comic Book: The Movie

I don't understand -- I like comic books, but I don't love them. I know some of the players in the industry (Stan Lee, Paul Dini, etc.), but not personally and not all of them. But this movie just SUCKED. The female and male studio execs were annoying, the cameraman was lame and even Billy West pulls out some stupid, creepy performance. Mark Hamill is best when he's excited about comics and the rest of it plays out terribly. I paid for this and will be going to the store to return it. Jeers, Hamill, jeers.

The movie was rather odd, but it did have its moments. It works better if one really knows comics, vintage collectibles, the movie industry, and the actors involved (especially the ones known for voiceovers for popular shows). For those heavily into science fiction and comics, it was fun to pick out the people making cameos, including the "Men Behind the Mask." Mark Hamill's approach showed respect and reverence for the fan base, as well as poking a healthy dose of fun at the movie industry. The DVD has a lot of extra information including some of the panels these talented actors chaired. The movie was made for the fans, but unlike some movies of this ilk, they showed respect instead of making it a geeks on parade feature.

I was very excited to see this and sat patiently for two years while it spent months collecting dust on the Miramax shelves, finally being released direct-to-video. I'm in it--kinda. Since I was at the Comic-Con that year--I can see about a fourth of my face in one of the crowd shots--this added to the excitement. And I'm a comic fan, and a Mark Hamill fan and a fan of cartoon voices. So what could go wrong?

So I watched it, finally, and desperately wanted to like it. I mean, it was about comic fans! But...after the first five minutes or so the novelty wore off and I was stuck with a draggy, boring movie. The cast is game, but without much going on it gets a-mighty tedious. Still, it was nice to revisit a great con that I've not been to since two years after it happened.

For a much more entertaining evening, go to the second disk on the DVD package for "Behind the Voices," the hysterical symposium fans sat through to get themselves on film. They cut out most of it, (the guys doing the Animaniacs singing the Country song from memory, Billy West singing "Happy Happy Joy Joy) but it's still great. The movie: C+ The Other Stuff: B+

I really wanted to enjoy this movie (being a comic book geek and all) but it was just too long and you can see that 90% of it was improve and the thing with improve is that sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. So the movie is mostly the actors throwing jokes at a wall and seeing what sticks and thats very sad because these guys are really funny. The best voice's in show business today and its a shame that Hammill could not channel that.

I admire Hammill, i mean he really knew his comic book history here. But i think like most comic fans he got hung up on one tinny thing and just grinded it to dust. Loosing the character from the journey of comic to movie is great but it doesn't hold a movie together.

It is admirable that they didn't make fun of the fans. In movies based on the comic book culter people tend to take the easy way and just point at the fans and laugh at how they are so "weird". Its very rare in this movie that this happens, Its more like the "normal" people are the weird ones and thats a breath of fresh air.

Most of the actors did a great job, The camera guy was really stealing the show but i think that Hammill should have railed him in more because too much of a good thing is not good. Billy as always did a great job but seemed to loose focus most of the time. Hammill of course was very good and probably the best of the bunch but i think he didn't take a step back and looked at the film in an objective point of view.

The cool thing about this movie guys is that if you buy the DVD you wont be wasting your money. Hammill does allot of extensive interviews about the history of comics and the subculture. Actually I'm quite sad that he cut it out of the movie when other things should have been cut instead. Hugh Heffeners interview about his history with comics is fascinating! Bruce Campbell comes off very funny in the extended interview, Some deleted scenes were very good, like the comic guy who almost seemed despondent after printing up his comic and going all the way to sandiego, spending money he really thought that he would make back and just to be shunned really makes you choke up a little. But probably the funniest and best special feature is the panel they hosted about doing voice work in animation, its worth the price of the DVD alone.

So all in all, i think that the movie deserves a 6/10

I was about 20 minutes into this thing when I realized there was no going up for this movie, that the poor production and shotty acting wasn't just something they were trying, that this mockumentary was really just this bad. I actually felt dumber watching it. You literally have Mark Hammil running around the comic con as Mark Hammil, but calling himself Don, what, like he's acting?? Then, whenever they'd improv something in to move the, I can't believe I'm calling it this but, "plot" along, it was so forced and awkward, I mean the acting, anything else was drivel. I'm not even sure what he was trying to say. what, Hollywood doesn't have the passion for films that we had as kids?? Uh, yah, what planet have you been on?? I mean, if they did something more with it, I dunno, made it meaningful or something, but no. He was just concerned with giving us detail after detail of this fictional comic character, who we don't even care for cuz he's made up by Mark Hammil!!

Mark, stick to the voice work and leave the "movie making" to your fighter jet co-star, he's making 20 mil a flick, you're just making an ass atta yourself....