That mail-order company with the little red envelopes sent me the Comic Book Villains DVD recently, and I watched it tonight; the experience was surprising, if not totally satisfying.I must have ordered the film, which was written and directed by the same fellow who went on to write the execrable League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, during my comics-related-stuff search when I first established my queue. I didn't read any reviews of it until after I saw it, and the ones I have checked out have been almost unanimously negative.
The film starts out looking like it will be an examination of fandom: the plot revolves around the efforts of rival comic shop owners, a fanboy and husband-and-wife team of speculators, to secure the dream of all obsessed collectors: a previously unknown, totally complete, Golden Age-to-present collection held by someone who doesn't know its true worth. As the rivalry heats up, we are led to believe the movie will become a caper flick, with increasing complicated methods being employed to curry favor and obtain the collection. The film then takes a dark turn; the caper is not lighthearted, but mean-spirited, and Bad Things Happen.
This is the aspect that seemed to turn most reviewers off: that the film was unnecessarily dark and violent for a movie about comic book geeks. This is also where I think that most reviewers got it wrong.
You see, this is not a comic book movie. It is rather a wannabe thriller or noir moderne in the mold of the Coen Brothers' Blood Simple; the comic book stuff is just extra. The director wrote comics in the nineties and clearly called upon a world that he knew, but the fought-over collection could have just as easily been stamps or coins or baseball cards; comics qua comics don't have as much significance in this story as vinyl albums did in High Fidelity, for example. Notwithstanding some lessons learned about living a real life rather than obsessing over imaginary characters, this isn't really a movie about collectors and collecting: it is about greed, desperation, and morality.
Considered in this light, the film still falls short -- the director just doesn't have a deft enough touch to carry off the descent into madness without stumbling -- but it is less of a complete misfire. The cast of well-known (if not A-list) actors acquit themselves well, although Cary Elwes seems to be channeling Bruce Campbell for some reason, and the soundtrack is pretty cool, if not always appropriately scored. Maybe I was just feeling generous, but I would recommend checking this movie out, with graded expectations, and not just for comics fans.
Comic Book Villains (2002) Written and Directed by James Robinson; Capital Arts Entertainment.
