There are dozens of influential comic book writers, but Frank Miller is up there with Alan Moore as one of the most iconic. However, unlike Moore, who has been infamously critical about his work being adapted, Miller embraces it. There are times when Miller has even been involved in the projects to the extent of being the co-director.
Frank Miller has tons of classic comic books under his belt. Between creating Daredevil’s lore, dramatizing the Persian War, and laying down the groundwork for Wolverine, Miller is a rockstar to comic book fans. Many of them have been faithfully adapted for the big screen, but others were received with a more lukewarm response.
It comes as a surprise that Elektra was ever greenlit, as it’s a spin-off of Daredevil, which underperformed at the box office and was a critical failure. However, the chemistry between Elektra and Matt Murdock was one of the best parts of the 2003 movie.
Unfortunately, Daredevil was completely absent in the spin-off, which harmed the movie as there was nobody for Elektra to bounce off. As entertaining as the Frank Miller-created character is in the comic books, a violent mercenary who simply wields two knives just didn’t translate well to the big screen. And even more so than Daredevil, Elektra was a box office disaster that ironically stopped Daredevil 2 from happening.
Though Frank Miller didn’t create Daredevil, he was the writer who greatly expanded the world of the character, whether it’s the depiction of Hell’s Kitchen or Matt Murdock’s Catholicism. It’s the Miller comics that the movie greatly resembles the most. However, most audiences believed that it had lackluster visuals and lazy storytelling. And even though it was near enough the inception of CGI, it still looked worse than Spider-Man, which came a year before it.
But Daredevil isn’t as bad as people think, as it’s full of great character actors and stretches the PG-13 as far as it can. On top of that, Daredevil is one of the more brutal comic book superheroes, which is why the added 30 minutes of R-rated footage in the director’s cut was much more well-received.
Ultimately, 300: Rise of an Empire is the adaptation of Miller’s graphic novel Xerxes, which acted as a prequel to 300. The first 300 movie was lightning in a bottle, as the effects and visual style were unlike anything that had ever been done in cinema before, but the same can’t be said for the sequel.
For the most part, Rise of an Empire felt like a pale imitation of its predecessor, and it lacked the evocative mythic tale that made the first movie so strong. Though director Zack Snyder, who was at the helm of the first movie, is such a polarizing filmmaker, Rise of an Empire is a great example of how Snyder's style is impossible to replicate.
After the huge commercial and critical success of Sin City, director Robert Rodriguez and Miller got to work on the sequel. But they were in no rush, as it came nine years later, and not striking while the iron was hot may have been their biggest mistake.
Sin City: A Dame To Kill For is the second of two highly unique and stylized crime anthology movies based on one of the writer’s greatest series. Miller was more invested in the sequel and had a stronger role in its creation, as he wrote two original stories exclusively for the movie that were never in the graphic novel. However, though the visual effects of the first movie were fascinatingly fresh, the pastiche of the aesthetic found in A Dame To Kill For felt dated and wore thin.
So many different comic book writers have had a shot at Wolverine, as just like with Batman, he is one of the most layered and brutal superheroes there are. However, none have been as deep or well-written as Miller’s Wolverine, and it’s the blueprint on which all other Logan-related comics are based. The Wolverine centered around volume 1 of the comic book series when Logan was exploring Japan. It’s a brilliantly dark standalone tale, and more importantly, cohesive, which is somewhat unprecedented for the X-Men series.
However, the movie’s biggest mistake was the film’s MPAA rating. The Wolverine shouldn’t have been PG-13, as it was the perfect chance to show the character at his most brutal. But that was rectified with Logan in 2017, which was one of the most graphic depictions of any superhero ever.
Just as he did with Wolverine, Frank Miller made one of the most iconic Batman comic books of all time. Batman: Year One was is a gritty look at Gotham and Bruce’s transformation into the caped crusader. What makes the comic so great is that it centers on James Gordon just as much as it does on Bruce.
Gordon has never been depicted in the movies as a tough guy, but in the comic, he literally beats a man half to death and leaves him naked in the woods. The animated movie portrays that accurately, especially as Bryan Cranston voices the detective with his gruff-sounding voice. The movie’s only downfall is that it’s too short, clocking in at just over 60 minutes.
It was 300 that was Zack Snyder’s breakout movie and it introduced the world to his unique visual style. It’s one of the best movies from a DCEU director, and just like with some of his films from there, the frames of the movie look like they’re lifted straight from the panels of the comic book.
The movie is a historical epic that retells the Battle of Thermopylae during the Persian Wars. However, the appeal of the film is its superimposition chromo key, which is effectively using a green screen to superimpose CG backgrounds. It’s a technique that Snyder uses to this day, but 300 is the greatest example of it, and it still holds up.
Just like 300, Sin City is another adaptation of a Frank Miller comic book that looks identical to the comic panels, and it’s also part of the movie’s biggest appeal. The neo-noir crime movie has a distinct monochrome palette with little splashes of color here and there. However, the movie has a lot of other tricks up its sleeve that make it so beloved, such as how it’s an anthology movie but interweaves all the stories in a non-linear way.
That might have been why the movie appealed so much to Quentin Tarantino, who directed a scene of Sin City. It was the first movie that Frank Miller directed, or rather co-directed with Robert Rodriguez. After that, the comic book writer went on to direct The Spirit and A Dame To Kill For, both of which had a similar visual style, but with worse receptions.
Though it isn’t directly tied to the similarly evocative Batman: Year One, the comic book The Dark Knight Returns is a spiritual successor to Miller’s first take on the caped crusader. The graphic novel is similarly dark, and where Year One saw Bruce creating his alter ego, Returns sees the billionaire after he has hung up the cape, when he is 55 years old.
The Dark Knight Returns is the best Batman story, and the movie adaptation is one of the best depictions of the hero ever. And as far as animated superhero movies go, Returns is a sprawling epic. It was officially split into two parts and released months apart, but in total it comes to 2.5 hours.
Where Part 1 was building the world of Gotham and its aged villains, Part 2 sinks its teeth into the meat of the comic book. Politics of the world, details of the Cold War subplot, and even the introduction of Superman make Part 2 even more compelling than the first half.
As great as the Dark Knight Returns comic book is, the faithful onscreen recreation is possibly even better. And as the end sees Bruce Wayne fake his death, it’s isn’t just the animated movie that owes its success to the comic book, but The Dark Knight Rises too.
