Originally Posted by Godsend
I shouldn't have to read the comics at all to enjoy the movie. If I had to, it should come with the rental. There is absolutely no reason as to why I should know the entire back story because the movie is supposed to explain all that.
But you
should have to read comics to pass judgment on them. That's all he was saying. You said that you don't read comics, but that the comics must blow if they match the film word-for-word. If you don't read comics at all, then how could you pass judgment on the Hellblazer comics based on the film? It's somewhat of a shallow statement.
It doesn't matter, anyway. The comics
don't follow the film word-for-word, and even if they did, there would still be inherent differences. Would you believe that some of the corny lines in the film actually come from the comic? Because the medium is different, the lines seem to work when read, but they fall apart once spoken. It's just the nature of translation, I guess.
Oh, and to the defense of the filmmakers for giving us a film that at least
tried to be a decent watch (and succeeded in some ways, I would argue) - given that it really could have been another "cash-in-on-a-comic-name-with-a-quick-release-crap-film" - I must remind those who didn't enjoy the film that John Constantine has popped up in comics quite a bit since his creation in the mid-80's. He's been around a while, and that means TONS of material to cram into one film (or cut out altogether), and still make the flick a decent, cohesive watch. I can imagine how difficult that must be.