So what is this thing? It’s an upgrade of the “Top 10” feature I’ve done infrequently here, but it’s an extended version of said feature. Each day, you’ll get two items on the list, with a crescendo on Friday with the Top 2 entries. As for what we call this feature? Well, at the risk of sacrificing cutesiness, let’s just call it... “The Top 10.”
This week’s Top 10? “The Top 10 Greatest Comic Book Movie Moments.” A few words of definition: First, this is not a list of the Top 10 Greatest Comic Book Movies, so you may find your favorites wholly unrepresented on this list. Instead, what I’m cataloging this week are the scenes that encapsulate what a comic book movie ought to be. These scenes can fall under one (or more) of three categories: scenes that translate the experience of reading a comic, scenes that adapt the source material in a brilliantly original way, or scenes that use the language of film to do something that comics can’t (or simply haven’t) done. Finally, the list is subjective; if I only chose iconic moments, the list would seem predictable, but in sharing my opinions I hope to spark a bit of debate.
Say what you want about Martin Campbell’s first foray into the Green Lantern mythos – its exposition was clunky, its antagonist unconvincing, its fan service all too evident – the film, however flawed, has a sense of humor about itself and a surprisingly earnest performance by Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, the eponymous galactic defender. At the heart of this movie is his relationship with employer Carol Ferris (Blake Lively); while their chemistry isn’t always convincing, the moment when Carol realizes her beau is a superhero is priceless. Deconstructing the secret identity trope, Campbell pokes fun at the idea of an alter ego secret to your closest friends. Reynolds’s hilarious fake-gravel voice (a la Bale’s Batman) and Lively’s flabbergasted “You don’t think I would recognize you because I can’t see your cheekbones?” make this a great comic book movie moment because of its willingness to admit – and more importantly, improve upon – holes in the source material.
Zack Snyder’s Watchmen has been simultaneously lauded and lashed for its slavish devotion to the original comics by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Whether such literal translation from panel to screen is for better or worse is up for grabs (I say that in this case, it worked), but one element of the film on which most fans agree is that Snyder’s use of the montage technique was among the film’s best elements. I almost cited the opening credits montage, set to Dylan’s “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” but I’m not convinced that this scene is easily accessible to audience members unfamiliar with the comic. But a later montage, in which Snyder delivers the origin of the godlike Dr. Manhattan, all his filmmaking skills come to bear in a scene which uses comics-style cuts and narration (provided by the unpitched perfection of Billy Crudup’s emotionless Doctor), played under a spot-on lilting musical cue by Philip Glass, to convey how a man displaced from time remembers his past. This, perhaps above all, is the standout moment of the film, a scene in which Snyder’s dedication to the comics manifests itself most articulately.
Come back tomorrow for Moments #8-7!
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