Alas, poor Yorick!

July 25, 2012 10:53 AM

Y: The Last Man Rising is a fan film based on the comic series. (SLYT)
posted by fearfulsymmetry (14 comments total)

And I just got the first issue for this comic club starting at Badass Digest.
posted by onwords at 11:38 AM on July 25, 2012

An incredibly well done fan film. I always felt that the only way an adaptation could come close to the scope and tone of the comics would be a TV series, maybe on premium cable, but that's not likely to happen. I'm just glad the rumors of a movie starring Shia Lebouf have died down.

(also: how did Yorick dial the phone while wearing a straightjacket?)
posted by mediated self at 11:50 AM on July 25, 2012

If you're wondering what Brian K Vaughan is up to now check out SAGA - it's fantastic.
posted by Artw at 11:53 AM on July 25, 2012 [3 favorites]

Oof. This works okay as a film version of some parts of the comics, but I'm not sure it works as well if you're not familiar with the characters and stories already.
posted by GameDesignerBen at 11:58 AM on July 25, 2012

Wow, Artw, Saga looks great.
posted by mediated self at 12:17 PM on July 25, 2012

The big problem with making Y into a movie or a show is the number of people who have already spent a lot of time with these characters and have a pretty specific idea of who they are and what they sound like that's going to be different for different people. For em 355 was reasonably spot on for me, but Yorick was way off. Not to mention the aforementioned point that they'll have to satisfy both people who know this sprawling story and people who have never heard of it.

As much as I would ove to see the epic HBO miniseries that I would want to see made, for that to happen would take a monumental storm of money and talent that's just not going to happen.

This was good overall, though. Even if it was bad, I'd probably watch any subsequent episodes anyway.
posted by cmoj at 12:21 PM on July 25, 2012

I think it might be better than, say, half a dozen versions of Fables cropping up one year.
posted by Artw at 12:25 PM on July 25, 2012

They may say fan-made, but it certainly looks professional -- if low budget. Seems like they aim to make some money with it.
posted by danl at 12:44 PM on July 25, 2012

I don't know cmoj. I'm more sanguine about the possibility of a good TV take on Y: The Last Man. If someone like AMC got a hold of the premise of Y, I bet they could make a decent go of it--unless they fell into the same traps they've fallen into with The Walking Dead. It would need to be a new thing in its own right, I suspect, that just loosely follows the graphic novel but makes the underlying premise and the characters its own.
posted by saulgoodman at 12:46 PM on July 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

It's a fan film for fans. I am one. I enjoyed it.

As for outsiders, sorry I can't show this to you, it won't impress and/or entice you.

After I watched this a couple of weeks ago, I said, "Why didn't they just adapt the first comic? It would have been a fan film AND an ad to hook new readers, then DC would like it too."
posted by CarlRossi at 12:47 PM on July 25, 2012

The big problem with making Y into a movie or a show is the number of people who have already spent a lot of time with these characters and have a pretty specific idea of who they are and what they sound like that's going to be different for different people.

This could actually make a pretty interesting project: exploring how differently or similarly people conceptualize fictional characters in media that aren't movies. I know that I typically want to avoid film adaptations of books until after I've read them, so that the images don't ruin my ability to imagine the people and places in the book for myself.

My concept of Yorick is pretty much Philip J. Fry plopped into a less cartoony world. Which is actually a very positive thing for me; I really love both characters. They're two of my favorite male characters in recentish pop culture, and I think both explore positive avenues of masculinity while avoiding stereotypical/negative roles. Yorick, more than Fry, obviously, but yeah.

I found the masculinity in Y pretty interesting.
posted by byanyothername at 1:02 PM on July 25, 2012

The big problem with making Y into a movie or a show is the number of people who have already spent a lot of time with these characters and have a pretty specific idea of who they are and what they sound like that's going to be different for different people.

You're absolutely right of course. I couldn't tell you how relieved I was that I, Robot and Minority Report and I am Legend showed such profound respect for their source material. And have you seen how faithfully they're adapting World War Z?


I kid, of course, but come on...Hollywood doesn't care what the small percentage of moviegoers who are familiar with the books think.
posted by JaredSeth at 1:59 PM on July 25, 2012 [1 favorite]

I was always so-so on Y, but Saga is, so far, really fantastic (in both sense of the word).
posted by etc. at 5:11 PM on July 25, 2012

I like what I read about Saga, but is it better than Y? I thought Y was... mixed at best, all over the map, and I quit somewhere around the pirate arc. When it finished, I went to Wikipedia to at least read up on what the big reveal was, and found out that [spoilers]...

There was none. Blah.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 12:29 AM on July 26, 2012 [1 favorite]