Thursday Movie Picks: Movies Based on a Graphic Novel/Comic (Non-Superhero)

This week’s theme has really got me thinking. If you’re not familiar with the Thursday Movie Picks, it’s an amazing thing hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves. Each week brings a new theme, and all you need to do is pick 3 movies that fit the bill to discuss. This week is movies based on a graphic novel or comic book. Easy, right? Think again. They can't be superhero-related!

300 (2006) is the story of King Leonidas and his 300 men, fighting the Persians at Thermopylae many, many years ago. It’s also a series of comic books from back in 1998, written by Frank Miller! I can’t quite believe the movie is 9 years old now, I remember seeing it at the cinemas with my College buddies like it was only yesterday. Does that make me sound old? The sequel was okay, but 300 is a movie everyone should experience at least once!

R.I.P.D. (2013) is a quirky tale of a recently deceased cop who joins the Rest In Peace Department, and tries to find the man who murdered him. The movie is based on a Dark Horse comic by the same name. Sadly, the movie sort of bombed at the box office. I thought it was okay, my opinion is obviously biased but I understood people’s problems with it. Problem is, it’s a very little known comic in the first place and easily comparable to Men in Black.

Snowpiercer (2013) is a crazy story set in the future after a climate-change experiment went terribly wrong, and the planet’s only survivors are living on a train with a strict and harsh class system. The movie is based on a French graphic novel called Le Transperceneige, first published in 1982, although an English translation was released last year. Snowpiercer is a confusing yet brilliant movie, and I would urge anyone to give it a go if they haven’t already.

Review: Snowpiercer (2013)

Out of the blue, my Blogger feed started to fill up with reviews for Snowpiercer. I'd never heard of it before but everyone's reviews were great and when I researched the film a little, the story behind it's release fascinated me, so I knew I needed to see it. I'm writing this while Jenna's on holiday so you'll see this after the hype, but still!

To be fair, the hype appeared to still be alive and kicking when I got back.  I hadn't even heard of this until seeing it on various blogs (gotta love the power of the film blogging community!!).  Anywho, I got on my latest flight and as soon as I saw this and I didn't even bother looking through the other menus!

Snowpiercer is based on a French graphic novel called Le Transperceneige in 1982. The film itself starts in the present day, where an experiment planned to stop the Earth's global warming caused the whole planet to freeze, and wipe out all humans. The only survivors are on a high-tech train called Snowpiercer, and over the years a class system has formed where the wealthy live at the front of the train in luxury, and the poor are left to the slums.

It's been a while since I've been so gripped to a film just by it's plot summary. I knew when I read it that this film would be right up my street.  I knew nothing of what this film was about, honestly from the poster I thought it was a war film (I had avoided all reviews to limit spoilers) and to be honest I'm glad I did because I went into this with no expectations whatsoever.

No surprises here, but I really struggled with the first 20 minutes of Snowpiercer. It just seemed to throw everything at me and I couldn't work out who was who, what was going on or what had gone on in the past that they were talking about, and I had to really sit and concentrate to understand the situation. That seemed to be a running theme for me actually, but as the film went on, a lot of my questions were answered. 

I loved that it took no time at all to get into the story, within the first few minutes you could see this was going to approach to subject of social status.  The characters were amazing, Chris Evans was great in this particularly serious role and Tilda Swinton in (what probably shouldn't have been) a comedic role.  It took me most of the film to work out who she was because she looked so different!! 

At the time I didn't realise Snowpiercer was based on a graphic novel, but if I did I would have appreciated the eccentric characters a little more, as they left me baffled when I was watching it. Minister Mason and Teacher were absolutely fantastic, and I'm not sure if the audience are meant to find humour in their characters but I laughed out loud during some of their scenes!

It was also refreshing to see Chris Evans play a more serious role, and he absolutely smashed it. In one of the last scenes, during his speech outside the door to the engine room, I really wanted to cry for his character.  Oh that scene got me fighting back the tears but also feeling a bit queasy! 

The beginning of this film seemed like a typical action, 'fight against the man' type of film where you root for the lower class protagonist and instantly hate the 'leader'. But the more the film went on the more it started to become more political with more focus on the differences in social status and human nature in the world.  They have shrunk the worlds 'issues' down to one train in an effort to highlight these factors in much stronger ways, which in some parts became horrific (Curtis' final monologue) and other times extremely comical (Alison Pill's amazing singing teacher).  I actually found myself feeling a bit sad when the film had finished, it's much harder to ignore the social issues in our world when they are played out on such a small scale right in front of your eyes!

If you've never heard of Snowpiercer, check out the trailer below:

I'm so glad I gave this film a chance, and I want to watch it again sometime soon because I think I'll appreciate the creativity a lot more the second time round. I wouldn't recommend this film to the general audience just due to its complexity, but watching it was a truly unique experience.

I don't think I would want to watch this again, don't get me wrong I loved it but it left me with an uneasy feeling of how the world might end up, that I don't overly want to think about again.  Ignorance is bliss I say!