This week I have been consuming TWO (2) alleged classics of their respective genres - the film Dark Star from 1974 and Batman: Hush from 2002. I had Differing Opinions of them!
I read "Hush" mostly because it's just come out as one of DC's Compact Editions i.e. a nice thick SLAB of comics in a slightly smaller than normal format at a MUCH cheaper than usual price. It's basically NINE QUID for a trade paperback of twelve comics that would usually cost three or four times that much, putting it very much in the ACTUAL AFFORDABLE category that comics used to be in. I've read a couple of stories in this format and it is WONDERFUL to be able to cacth up with the so-called "classics" of superhero comics in this way, especially for someone like me who has HEARD about stuff like this for years and never got around to reading it.
It's been a SURPRISING number of years for me with "Hush", as I thought it came out ten years ago at MOST but is actually TWICE that far ago in the past, which led to me being a bit confused when it talked about Tim Drake as Robin rather than Damian Wayne. Apart from that, and Batman having PANTS on throughout, it felt pretty similar to how most Batman comics are in my opinion i.e. not very good. I didn't understand what is/was supposed to be so good about it AT ALL - it's basically lots of STERN PEOPLE standing around looking a) STERN and b) INDISTINGUISHABLE from each other. It's drawn by Jim Lee who I've always thought of as one of the GOOD artists from that school of 90s art where all men are eight foot tall and made of MUSCLES, all women have impossibly large bums and boobs, tiny waists, and a spine that can twist through about 300 degrees, and EVERYTHING has ten million lines over the top of it. This makes it really difficult to tell who is meant to be who, as everyone looks IDENTICAL, especially when they're standing around STERNLY at social events where tight fitting tuxedos or very very short dresses. It also seems to rely on the reader knowing who all Batman's baddies are and what their powers are - which I sort of do - as well as caring one way other the other which, by the end of it, I didn't!
After that I put the telly on and saw that "Dark Star" was being recommended to me by Amazon Prime's Algorithm. This used to be a thing of magic and wonder, way back at the start of the century when we were unused to such things, but these days it feels like a forgetful elderly relative who has looked in your shopping bag, seen the things you have just bought, and is insistent that you should buy them all again. Nonetheless, I had vague and happy memories of watching the first half of "Dark Star" one Friday or Saturday night in the late 70s when I guess it will have been on BBC2 and we were allowed to stay up. There was a beachball monster and a LOT of beards, was my main memory of it.
I gave it a go and I am happy to report that my memory was accurate - there was a beachball monster and an awful lot of BEARDS - but also that it was a LOT more fun than I remember. I vaguelly recall it being all right, but a bit confusing to my young BRANE, as I'd been expecting it to be more like STAR WARS and less like Some Hippies Having Workplace Issues. Watching it again now I was AMAZED that it had been made fifty flipping years ago, as it felt very FRESH and MODERN, especially with the way all of the characters kept having hissy fits at each other and loping around the universe like they didn't know what they were up to. It was also wonderfully SHORT - 83 minutes, which is about how long I think ALL films should be. It was, in fact DEAD GOOD and, unlike "Hush", I would recommend it to anyone with easy access.
Next time I expect to be reviewing a GEORGE FORMBY movie and probably ALLY SLOPER!
