PHQ-Nickname:
TheNameless
Halfquake:
Doomsday Device Dealer
Level:
81
Total kills:
43,739,512
Birthday:
June 02nd 1988
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| Southland Tales: Two Roads Diverge |
| Mood: | neutral |
| Type: | Article |
| Added: | November 22nd 2006, 22:31:20 |
| Visits: | 2261 |
| Rating: | 4.5/5 (Votes: 2) |
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"This is the way the world ends.
This is the way the world ends.
This is the way the world ends.
Not with a bang but a whimper."
--T.S. Eliot
This is the introduction you get when reading "Two Roads Diverge" .
It is a comic. It's the first of the three comics to "Southland Tales", the new movie
by Richard Kelly. I bought it, because I was really curious about Kelly's new
film. I really loved his first one: Donnie Darko. This movie was and still is one of my favorites and I wanted to see his latest work.
This new motionpicture was supposed to come to the cinemas in early november.
The big german cinemas, however, don't show it at all. Since I had to wait anyway, I looked around in the internet a little bit and discovered, that there were three comics planned as a
sort of prequel to the story of Southland Tales called "Two Roads Diverge" , "Fingerprints" and
"The Mechanicals". I bought the first one on Amazon to try it out.
Wtf is Southland Tales, anyway?
Well, I'll try to give an answer to that. It's a film, that was first shown at the film festival
of Canne. According to the writer and director Richard Kelly it is "A black comedy about the end of the world." As far as I can see, it is some kind of post apocalyptic story taking place
in the southern states of the USA. It is supposed to be a bit political and ironic but also
a bit ... apocalyptic ... I guess. The Quote by Eliot seems to summarize the topic fairly well,
since Kelly uses it at some points.
Why is there a comic? Is the film not good enough?!
I can't really know the answer to that question, because I haven't seen it, yet.
Damn, I wanna watch it  . But I thought of that question and read a few opinions of
people, who actually saw the movie. Most of the reviews don't really have something
positive to say about it. Bad critics for it. Mostly critisized is the length (too long) and
the story. They say it is senseless and unneccessary. But who knows?
Critics have been wrong some times before.
That about the film. What about the comic?
I guess Kelly thought it was a cool idea to do comics to do it, comics with a whole lot of atmosphere, which is really pretty cool in such a apocalyptic scene. Or.. it would be cool. For people who like this kind of art.. I can't say, that I like the style.
It is drawn by Brett Weldele. Every picture looks more like a sketch. Every picture with ink and water colors. Every Picture with almost only one kind of
yellowish color. The story starts right away, there is no introduction and not a whole lot of
text in it. You can read it really quickly. Half an hour should suffice. A bit disappointing for
the money it costs. 11,50 euro is a bit much for that.
The story is a bit strange, you often have no idea, who is who. There are suddenly characters
doing things you can't follow, because you just don't know the character. No explanation, no
introduction, nothing. And not much text. And at some point there is a part of a movie script printed in the comic. It contributes to the story, but you don't know why it is so important, that
you have to read 10 whole pages of it.
The language isn't that challenging except one exaggerated sentence which seems just silly.
I don't really know what it is supposed to tell me, maybe you get it:
"I am a pragmatic Prevaricator, with a propensity for oratorical seniority, which is too
pleonastical to be expeditiously assimilated by any of your unequivocal veracities."
This is pretty much at the beginning of the comic. No real context. Seem senseless.
Or doesn't it?
So what? Good, bad, dunno?!
I think: dunno. This is my feeling about Southland Tales in general. I don't know what to think
about it. It really depends on the movie and how it's made. Apocalypse can be cool, but it can also
be embarrassing. For the comic: There are so many questions about the story left to answer,
that it isn't that exciting to read anymore. Maybe if you know the movie, you'll like the comic,
because you could actually understand it. But I wouldn't buy it before watching the film, if I were you right now.
So my advise for you is: Go see the movie, because Richard Kelly rocks and makes good films!
If you rally really really like it, you can buy the comic aswell, it's not too bad. Otherwise I wouldn't recommend it.
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muddasheep
November 22nd 2006, 22:40:04
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I'll definitely check out the movie, haven't heard of it before, sounds interesting. Mostly when the media tears something apart it's still worth watching just because of its controversy.  |
TheNameless
November 22nd 2006, 22:40:59
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PS: Here are some links to the Movie:
Official Site:
http://www.southlandtales.com/
Southland Tales at Cannes:
http://www.festival-cannes.org/films/fiche_film.php?langue=6002&id_film=4359806
Reviews, Opinions of the Press (german):
http://www.film-zeit.de/home.php?action=result&sub=film&info=cinema&film_id=17417
Southland Tales at the Internet movie Database (german):
http://german.imdb.com/title/tt0405336/ |
TheNameless
December 07th 2006, 22:02:50
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Update:
The releasedate isn't really clear, I think.
I read on some sites, that the release date would be the 9th of november,
on some was 1st of december, and others say january 2007.
I don't really know what to believe, there is no official date.
It is official, however, that Sony has bought the rights for the film and
forced Kelly to cut down his work of 2 hours and 40 minutes.
There are rumors of a whole hour. Richard Kelly himself made a
statement, in which he says, that he is ok with the alterations and is
proud of his work, and that it will definitely come to the cinemas.
So let's hope he's right and that we can watch it at least in january . |
muddasheep
December 08th 2006, 00:19:37
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| Ah... Sony again. >_< |
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muddasheep
