Author: Umbrax
Topher Grace and Venom.
Monday, May 29th, 2006 @ 10:35 am
When comic fans think of Venom this is the image that comes to mind.
Evil, loads of teeth, long tongue, and big.
News that Topher Grace will be playing Eddie Brock/Venom in Spider-Man 3′ has many fans up in arms.
“How can that 70’s kid be Venom? He is just a little guy!”
They have every right to be mad or criticize the casting choice. But I think these people need to step back and begin to embrace the fact that Movies are not Comics.
Remember when the first Spider-Man movie was in the works? Fans were screaming for blood because Spider-Man would have “organic” web shooters instead of building them like he did in the comic. Did the fact that the movie didn’t follow the comic make the movie bad? I’ve never met anyone that said “Spider-Man sucked.”
Before the Comic movie genre became a mainstay in the industry Fans were constantly being disappointed be comic movies that seemed to share nothing with its comic counter part other than the name.
Then the Blade movie came along. People loved this movie. Without the success of the first Blade movie we may have never gotten to see an X-Men or Spider-Man movie.
But Blade in the movie was very little like Blade in the comic book. In fact Marvel has made efforts to “reform” the comic book version of Blade to be more like the movie character.
When the cast of the Daredevil movie was released fans were quick to complain about the King Pin. It the comics he is a big bald white guy. In the movie he is played by Michael Clarke Duncan, a large bald black guy.
But is this why Daredevil sucked? No, scenes like the “playground fight” made the movie hard to watch.
My point, Bad movies are bad movies. It has nothing to do with if it follows the comic or not.
But what about Topher Grace and Venom? That is way off the comic book right?
Well, that depends on what comic book you are reading.
In “Ultimate Spider-man” Eddie Brock doesn’t resemble his mussel bound Marvel -616 counterpart. He is actually a small guy just like Topher Grace. When Brock transforms into “Ultimate” Venom he is even larger than the 616 version of Venom
Everyone should enjoy these movies based on if they are actually good or not. Enjoy them for what they are and try not to worry about what they are not.
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May 31st, 2006 at 4:26 am
I agree completely. I guess it’s unavoidable that real life and real actors can never perfectly match what is created in our imagination. That’s why the ratio of “film better than the book” is about one to a million. Even authors who write a novel merely lay the groundwork, the rest happens in the reader’s mind.
But each different art form - be it illustration, literature, or motion picture - brings its own unique dimension to a story, in completely different ways. Each form of expression has its strengths, and its weaknesses. A comic can’t do a “pregnant pause” or build tension like a film can, nor can it smack you in the face with raw shock or emotion. On the other hand, anything on celluloid is going to be hard-pressed to create the mood, atmosphere, and intangible intensity that exists not just in each frame of a comic, but equally so in that ethereal space in-between frames. There are few forms of escapism more subtle, more immersive than literature and comics.
So when presented with a different adaptation of a story that we already have strongly formed preconceptions of, perhaps we owe it to ourselves to relax, sit back, and enjoy what extra dimensions that new manifestation brings to an already fantastic story, rather than focusing on what it takes away. After all, retelling of a story can only subtract from the magic if we let it, but what it adds is completely beyond our control, and that’s where the fun lies.