Review: Stan Lee's Mutants, Monsters & Marvels
11-11-02, 02:26 PM
#1
Banned
Thread Starter
Review: Stan Lee's Mutants, Monsters & Marvels
Being this was a pack-in with the Spiderman Collector's box and is available individually I thought I'd review it.
This is a pretty basic 2-part interview, (totalling about 95mins)with just Stan Lee and Kevin Smith sitting across from one another in a comic book store in Ca (Kevin not-so-subtly pluged the store a few times).
Let's get past the technical details first:
Video: Widescreen anamorphic video, a little grainy and tinted a bit dark, but otherwise fine. A good format for the many comic book pages displayed throughout the interview.
Sound: Dolby Surround 2.0. Fine for the interview. Nice and clear. Nothing spectacular. Using Pro-Logic II the voices came out of my center channel speaker.
Menus: Good, solid comic-book style menus which fit with the overall theme and the extras.
Content:
1. Creating Spider-Man
2. Here Come the Heroes
If you've been a longtime comic fan/collector you've probably heard most of the stuff that's discussed here, Stan-Lee imparting his usuall enthusiasm about comics and himself. Stan has had a long and impressive career in comics (he's 80 now), which he doesn't hesitate to mention, and neither does Kevin Smith. If you are new to comics you might find this stuff interesting, some of it I did, but there wasn't enough new information to hold my attention.
The two interviews really seem to be one, split into two parts as an afterthought, partially to promote the Spider-Man flick (the DVD opens with a Spider-Man trailer, another not so subtle marketing ploy).
What I found particularly annoying in the interview was Kevin Smith himself. He just couldn't keep quiet, completing many of Stan's sentences, giving way too many "uh-huh"s and coaching Stan throughout. Not only that, but Kevin was seated in the foreground. Kevin is a big guy and it seemed as if he was often the "star" of the interview and not Stan. The whole interview smacked of a "mutual admiration society".
I would have much rather seen either a documentary type interview showing some part of a typical day in Stan's life, or at least have Kevin be a disembodied voice behind the camera. There was no need for Kevin to be in front of it.
Extras: The usual Bios, a basic behind the scenes featurette (the production crew fawning over Stan), a few more seconds of interview about the unreleased Fantastic 4 movie, Stan reciting a poem and some home movie footage. Who'd be interested in this stuff? I don't know. Do people love and obsess over Stan that much? Apparently Kevin does.
Obviously this is more a labor of love on Kevin's part than anything else. I myself was just a typical collector, and gave up collecting when I decided things like eating and rent was more important than comics. If you're really nuts about Stan Lee and Marvel, I suggest you pick this up, because this is a must. For a general comic book fan, it's worth a look, but Comic Book Confidental is still a much more rounded and better overall documentary.
Feel free to share your thoughts.
This is a pretty basic 2-part interview, (totalling about 95mins)with just Stan Lee and Kevin Smith sitting across from one another in a comic book store in Ca (Kevin not-so-subtly pluged the store a few times).
Let's get past the technical details first:
Video: Widescreen anamorphic video, a little grainy and tinted a bit dark, but otherwise fine. A good format for the many comic book pages displayed throughout the interview.
Sound: Dolby Surround 2.0. Fine for the interview. Nice and clear. Nothing spectacular. Using Pro-Logic II the voices came out of my center channel speaker.
Menus: Good, solid comic-book style menus which fit with the overall theme and the extras.
Content:
1. Creating Spider-Man
2. Here Come the Heroes
If you've been a longtime comic fan/collector you've probably heard most of the stuff that's discussed here, Stan-Lee imparting his usuall enthusiasm about comics and himself. Stan has had a long and impressive career in comics (he's 80 now), which he doesn't hesitate to mention, and neither does Kevin Smith. If you are new to comics you might find this stuff interesting, some of it I did, but there wasn't enough new information to hold my attention.
The two interviews really seem to be one, split into two parts as an afterthought, partially to promote the Spider-Man flick (the DVD opens with a Spider-Man trailer, another not so subtle marketing ploy).
What I found particularly annoying in the interview was Kevin Smith himself. He just couldn't keep quiet, completing many of Stan's sentences, giving way too many "uh-huh"s and coaching Stan throughout. Not only that, but Kevin was seated in the foreground. Kevin is a big guy and it seemed as if he was often the "star" of the interview and not Stan. The whole interview smacked of a "mutual admiration society".
I would have much rather seen either a documentary type interview showing some part of a typical day in Stan's life, or at least have Kevin be a disembodied voice behind the camera. There was no need for Kevin to be in front of it.
Extras: The usual Bios, a basic behind the scenes featurette (the production crew fawning over Stan), a few more seconds of interview about the unreleased Fantastic 4 movie, Stan reciting a poem and some home movie footage. Who'd be interested in this stuff? I don't know. Do people love and obsess over Stan that much? Apparently Kevin does.
Obviously this is more a labor of love on Kevin's part than anything else. I myself was just a typical collector, and gave up collecting when I decided things like eating and rent was more important than comics. If you're really nuts about Stan Lee and Marvel, I suggest you pick this up, because this is a must. For a general comic book fan, it's worth a look, but Comic Book Confidental is still a much more rounded and better overall documentary.
Feel free to share your thoughts.
