4) Tank Girl (1995)
Quite possibly one of the most ambitious comic book adaptations of all time, Tank Girl was a financial disappointment to the tune of a $4 million gross on a $25 million budget, being so unsuccessful that the debacle all but destroyed director Rachel Talalay’s career – but as a comic book adaptation, it’s pretty damn vivid.
Tank Girl goes for broke in every sense of the phrase, mixing a whole slew of filmmaking techniques into this adaptation based on Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett’s source comic series. Stan Winston was brought in to design a crew of kangaroo punks, a lavish water plant was built, the whole ordeal plays around with illuminating colors and there’s a huge push to use as much technology as possible.
These ideas all work wonders in the comic book world, being a dystopian sci-fi story that’s much easier to draw, but Tank Girl‘s ambition translates a heavy comic book feel to screen – aided by actual cartoon segments in lieu of live-action.
Sadly, the overload of fantasy elements becomes very jumbled in presentation, and the film bounces around far too frantically – but any movie that presents Ice-T as a mutant kangaroo deserves a shout out!
