It’s All Geek To Me — . . . and Preacher Is Number Five
Well, you can’t win them all.
In 2006, comic fans were cancellation-of-Firefly-disheartened when it was announced that Garth Ennis’ epically twisted and awesome comic series, Preacher, would be coming to television. The good news? It was for edgy and uncensored HBO. The bad news? It was going to be directed, and possibly even written, by Mark Steven Johnson. Wait, you mean the guy responsible for both Daredevil and Ghost Rider? Yeah, that one. But we all dodged that bullet when the project fell through, leaving the adventures of Jesse Custer, the ex-preacher with the ultimate power of persuasion and a mad-on for God himself, in production limbo.
Two years later, Sam Mendes signed on board to direct an adaptation for the big screen, which in his hands might have had promise, but this also never materialized.
Two years after that, in 2010, rumblings of the project resurfaced. I wrote at the time how I felt going the movie route was a mistake, and only felt marginally better once Darren Aronofsky was rumored to be in the running to direct. Now cut to a few days ago, and 140 fateful characters proclaiming the official director to be D.J. Caruso, who helmed last weekend’s I Am Number Four.
I believe it was Marcel Proust who once wrote, BLAAARGH.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that outside of trailers and commercials I’ve never seen a frame of anything Caruso has directed. But there’s a reason for that. As the pop culture watchdog that I am, I do pay attention to public and critical reaction, and nothing I’ve seen, or heard, or read has moved me to seek his stuff out. I understand the importance of forming one’s own opinion, but really, a consensus is a consensus, no? And I find that in most cases I agree with the prevailing sentiment.
I suppose my nagging conscience will force me to see at least one or two of his projects out of curiosity, but I’m in no rush. However, because I care, I went the extra mile for you people and did some actual math to back up my prejudicial, Proustian “blaaargh.” I went to movie criticism aggregates Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, and calculated the average rating from each site of all six of D.J. Caruso’s feature films: The Salton Sea, Taking Lives, Two for the Money, Disturbia, Eagle Eye, and the previously mentioned I Am Twilight Cash-in Number Four.
So how’d he do? Well, I wouldn’t go running home to mom with these kinds of scores on my report card, that’s for sure. On Metacritic he averaged a 45 out of 100. The highest mark was for Disturbia, at 62, and the lowest was Number Four, getting the number 35. At Rotten Tomatoes things get worse. He averages a whopping 39 overall, with Disturbia still the reigning champ at 68, and Two for the Money pulling up the rear with 21. Excited yet?
As revered modern comic stories go, Preacher is pretty much up there with Watchmen and Y: The Last Man (which Caruso has also been trying to get his hands on, by the way). I just don’t see this choice as being in any way commensurate with the pedigree. Wake me when it’s streaming.
On a much more serious note than my whining about a movie that doesn’t exist yet, I want to acknowledge the sad passing of writer Dwayne McDuffie, whose contributions to the world of comics and superheroes were immeasurable. Aside from being a champion of racial diversity in the field, he was just a damn fine talent, writing and editing for the excellent Justice League cartoons, as well as the critically praised animated adaptation of All-Star Superman which just came out this week. His Justice League of America #20 was one of the first pieces of entertainment I ever critiqued online, so in a small way he helped get my feet wet as your weekly Andy Rooney of the geek world. Looking back at the review, I’m not surprised to find that I liked the comic. A lot.
(25 votes, average: 2.80 out of 4)
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