Happy New Year everyone and welcome back to Fan Film Friday! If you’re new to FFF, let me give you a quick run down. Fan Film Friday is all about that: films made by us, the fans. In order for it to qualify as a fan film it has to meet this one major criteria: it cannot be made for profit. There are literally hundreds of thousands of fan films scattered all over the Internet.
Now, some of them are great, some of them not so great, and even more that are utterly horrible. I’ve subjected my wife and kids to all kinds of this fan films, and let me tell you, they have no problem telling me what is dirt and what is good enough for you, the fan, to view.
With all of that in mind though, you have to give credit to everyone that’s attempted to make a film. They feel passionate enough to tough it out and make a film that they think represents the character or characters they love so much. Some of these films are very strict with canon while others tend to lean toward the fantastic and down right weird.
That brings us to tonight’s film. Blinky Productions is one of the leading makers of fan films. In an interview I did with Chris Notarile, he goes into why he chooses the characters he does for his movies:
“I feel the road less traveled is often the one that should be taken. Why make yet another movie about Batman which will probably be overlooked or over shadowed when you can make the first if not only film about a lesser known character? Its more significant to me and allows me to remain diverse and stand out in the fan film community. I’m not Sandy Collora, I don’t have thousands of dollars to blow on a single mainstream fan film. And the last thing I want is to be stuck in his shadow and constantly be compared to him or someone else. I don’t care for that sort of bickering amongst fans. So I prefer to choose the lesser known characters, the ones that have touched my life and influenced me over the years. I choose to adapt them and I think it keeps my films unique.”
The Question is a fantastic character, and his stories are very engaging. This fan film captures that quite well. It has the feel of the Dennis O’neil stories and does a very good job of keeping the essence of who the Question is. It’s a great movie and very safe for the kids to sit down and watch with you.
So grab that popcorn, pull up your favorite computer chair, and settle in for tonight’s movie: The Question!
Well, I’m happy this exists. That’s the first thing.
There’s some things I like about this film. Others that really irk me though. I think trying to put this in a DC cosmic story was a noble ambition but I think it was a mistake.
I have a very very difficult time accpeting that Vic would so easily decide to kill several people. No matter what the stakes. He would make such a decision but that would be a story in itself.
Also, there was almost opportunity to show the costume transition. Not that hard, a smoke machine and a creative edit. The transformation is inherently cinematic. It’s too bad they didn’t shoot that.
I did like how Vic was a thinker and that he is an INVESTIGATIVE journalist. That’s key to his character. He’s not a detective, he’s an investigator, very different things. He culls facts and puts together info. But he isn’t a forensic guy like Batman or a situational detective. he figures things out by putting data together and knowing what questions to ask to which people. Which he kind of did by gathering lots of newspaper clippings and info from the web. That part was well done.
The Vic Sage actor played it straight and I liked that. The Blue Beetle actor lacked charisma and pep for his role though
So like I said, mixed feelings but ultimately, very happy to see someone take a stab at the character.
I didn’t totally feel like Vic Sage to me. I always imagined him with a deeper voice, lol. For the most part, this film was great, and as excellent a portrayal of The Question as we can get. On a side note, Chris did make a video on how to make your own Question mask! Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7gHnGD3w04&feature=relmfu
Yeah, that’s the thing. I don’t like the way they portrayed Vic in some parts but I dare not complain because live action Vic Sage is a rare thing so as a fan you gotta take what’s there.
