So…sorry about not updating much in the last several weeks. I opted to take Christmas week off and thought I would be back to a regular schedule at the start of the year. But life takes its unexpected turns, and I found myself working non-stop. Some video projects, but especially between my two jobs. I am currently working around 80 hours a week, which means planned blogs (like a look at the recent X-Files film and thoughts on converting television shows to film and some more Christian Music That Doesn’t Suck columns) have kind of gotten the back seat. I have not gotten to check around the net a whole lot lately, and apparently am missing a great many discussions I would have been more interested in discussing in the past, such as Heidi MacDonald’s piece regarding the lack of women in both the creative and decision making branches of mainstream comics (which got turned into, from my impression, a defense from indie fans and creators feeling slighted). There was discussion over the Spirit movie. This has actually inspired a bit of thought on visually stylish films such as 300 and Sin City. Should films be too visually stylish? I have seen some suggest that blending the sensibility of graphic arts and film doesn’t work. And I do not agree. But I have to work on this before I say more. I have not even gotten to check in on blogs of friends to see where things are for them, which is a bummer. I haven’t been in contact with many people due to my schedule, and it is leaving me feeling like a bit of a hermit.
Hopefully in the coming weeks I can find the rhythm to hammer these various thoughts out.
I haven’t seen The Spirit and don’t plan to, but the impression I got from reading Roger Ebert’s review is that stylish visuals is all it’s got, and that it uses them to cover up lackluster writing and direction. I think that’s the problem with Frank Miller’s films, not the style itself.