Robocop: Last Stand 1 (August 2013)
8/7/13
I’m going to regret making this statement. I’m liking Robocop: The Last Stand. At first I was confused with the art choice–Korkut Öztekin has a punky, very indie art style and it doesn’t seem to fit Robocop. But it works. He goes for these great caricatures on the characters, who writer Steven Grant is writing as caricatures anyway.
So the art works.
The issue I had, first off, was Grant apparently doing a sequel to his years old Robocop 2 adaptation from Avatar. I don’t think it’s an exact sequel and Grant doesn’t waste time recapping or even doing exposition. He does a fantastic job leaking details about the new ground situation–Robocop is a renegade out trying to help people, Nancy Allen is dead, the evil corporation is after Robo.
There’s also a terrible cliffhanger. Grant doesn’t even try to make it dramatic. He just stops the comic.
CREDITS
Writer, Steven Grant; artist, Korkut Öztekin; colorist, Michael Garland; letterer, Ryan Ferrier; editors, Alex Galer and Eric Harburn; publisher, Boom! Studios.
Robocop: Last Stand 3 (October 2013)
10/2/13
And the awesome is back. About half the issue is an action sequence from Öztekin. It opens with the Japanese android running around the rooftops–here’s where Grant and Öztekin show off how what they’re doing in Last Stand would have been impossible in Robocop 3. There’s a helicopter sequence lifted from T2, for example, but Öztekin amps it up to be beyond what a Hollywood movie could have done in the nineties.
The action sequence is actually mostly just Robocop saving someone in a fire. There’s more to it, with the big storyline about the evil corporation letting people burn, but the action part of it is a rescue. And Öztekin makes it amazing. It kicks off the helicopter fight and other stuff.
Grant’s got some problems writing the kid. She’s odd, which he could get away with if he acknowledged it, but he doesn’t.
Otherwise, it’s plum awesome.
CREDITS
Writer, Steven Grant; artist, Korkut Öztekin; colorist, Michael Garland; letterer, Ryan Ferrier; editors, Alex Galer and Eric Harburn; publisher, Boom! Studios.
Robocop: Last Stand 2 (September 2013)
9/11/13
All of a sudden, the Robocop 3 references are a lot clearer. Grant is in the precarious position of having very familiar scenes or very familiar lines–if anyone else, like me, is familiar with Robocop 3–coming from different characters than in the film.
In other words, it’s becoming about how Frank Miller’s script was changed instead of the script–and story–itself.
There’s the added complication this issue has a lot of returning cast from the second film–and that Avatar adaptation of Miller’s 2 script. It’s mired in continuity, so much so when Robocop actually does get busy doing things, it seems off, like Grant is just throwing him in.
There’s excellent character stuff with Robocop and his lady doctor. Öztekin gets how to draw those scenes as well as the action. He even gives Robocop Peter Weller’s lips.
It’s okay, but too interesting as an adaptation.
CREDITS
Writer, Steven Grant; artist, Korkut Öztekin; colorist, Michael Garland; letterer, Ryan Ferrier; editors, Alex Galer and Eric Harburn; publisher, Boom! Studios.
The Matrix Revolutions (2003, The Wachowskis)
8/16/09
I think The Matrix! Part Trois has to be better than the second one, if only because it’s not as terribly boring in its action sequences. The second one had that highway battle and it was bad and the Keanu Reeves versus a million Hugo Weavings and it was bad. Here, Keanu Reeves fights one Hugo Weaving (in an atrocious performance, it’s a shame how the sequels degraded the fine work he did in the first film) in front of a bunch of non-participating Hugo Weavings. It’s better. And it’s a huge, CG-aided flying fight scene–it’s the Superman versus Zod scene no one ever got to see.
Reeves is okay. It’s amazing how little his eyes effect his emoting when he acts. Jada Pinkett Smith is awful and as much as I appreciate the Wachowskis’ minorities inheriting the earth thing (none of the surviving principles are white), I’m pretty sure the character they have her play is just the equivalent of Will Smith’s heroic, but definitely not revolutionary or intimidating, black guy for white audiences.
Harry Lennix is bad in this one. Maybe he was bad in the second one too. I can’t remember. He’s usually good. But he’s an idiot in this one, even though he’s supposed to be smart.
I think the script probably read well. As a movie, it’s a bit of a disaster; I’ll bet the script read well.
Except for the Wizard of Oz cameo at the end, it wasn’t completely awful.
The Stop Button 