But all of this complaining over semantics is rather idiotic. The movie itself looks really interesting and would absolutely love to have the opportunity to check it out when available here in the US.

“Steampunk” may be a _bit_ off (a couple of Steampunk details were visible in the trailer), but these stories are covered in the Steampunk sub-genre of Gaslight Romance (the fantasy emphasis is what tips it in that direction).

Thus, Cory is still technically correct, which is the best kind of correct.

Q.E.D.

Who gives a crap, Besson is making something that’s not a shitty sequel for a change. There’s actually a fair chance it’ll be awesome.

My complaint above about calling it “steampunk” has nothing to do with a dislike of steampunk. Quite the opposite, it’s a genre near and dear to my heart. But if you call everything Steampunk then nothing is Steampunk. This is quite clearly period fantasy. Calling it Steampunk devalues the word and turns it into a cheap adjective like “Awesome!”

Is steampunk any SF set in a Victorian setting? Do we retro HG Wells as steampunk, or would 20,000 Leagues be considered SP and War of the Worlds not? Or is steampunk a specific branch of alternate history SF that springs from the invention of the Difference Engine? Is the term time specific? Does Steampunk begin with a certain novel or literary work, similar to the way some film historians like to date “Film noir”, where films before and after a cut off date might be reminiscent, but not strictly considered a part of the genre? I don’t consider the argument as nit-picky as the difference between say a costumed crime fighter and a superhero, but even that could be argued by someone, and they’d have a valid point.

I only ask because I don’t see many of what I would call true Steampunk films out there, but I see a lot of people getting a lot of mileage out of the term by sticking goggles and gears helter skelter on items whether it makes sense for them to be there or not and calling the result steampunk, or “inspired by steampunk”.

Ah well.

Steampunk and it’s sub-catagories are ill-defined at best, since the term can be used to describe a visual style, not just the universe that it exists in. Let us just say that the world of Adele Blanc-Sec come very close to the some Vernian concepts and leave it at that.

Also, Berk, Besson has worked on very few sequels in his time and most of the those he was only working on as a writer or producer. Most of the movies he has worked on during his rather long career are stand-alone titles, many of which are downright brilliant. I have no doubt that this will be at the very least entertaining and at the most amazing.

It looks like fun.

@ everybody aware of Tardi’s work: I didn’t know Tardi was also popular with non-francophone audiences… pretty cool..

Luc Besson making a movie based on a Tardi comic? Wow!

The movie itself looks really interesting and would absolutely love to have the opportunity to check it out when available here in the US.

There is never a guarantee that French movies will come to the US. The imdb page doesn’t have a release date for any English speaking countries.

In any case, I look forward to seeing more than just rapidfire jump-cuts of this.

Therefore, everything with not-too-childish scenarios, somewhat-realistic-or-complex characters, interesting universe and/or original art are labelled “graphic novel”. Because comics are for fanboys and kids.

Franc-Belgian don’t have this problem because Bande-dessinée has (nearly) won its status of “serious” narrative technique (from the 70s-80s). But you have plenty of crappy stuffs too. The equivalent of the “superheroes comics” niche would be “endless heroic fantasy saga with big breasted females characters”, along with loads of “awful TV show adaptations”, “badly drawn clichés jokes series” (ex: on blondes or high school teachers), and “bad continuation of golden age series, even if the original authors are dead” (ex: Lucky Luke, Asterix (Uderzo is really a poor writer))

1) Um, as one other commenter noted: the protagonist’s name is Adèle, not Adele. (It’s Alt-138, if Ubuntu still allows BIOS Alt-key combinations.)

2) Unlike The Practice Which Is So Common, Perhaps Even Overused In English, When You’re Writing In French (Even Just Copy’N'Pasting), You Don’t Capitalize Every Word In A Sentence. Even When It’s A Headline. SMALLCAPS ARE OK, HOWEVER BOINGBOING’S COMMENT SECTIONS DON’T SUPPORT THE “small” TAG.

failix: Yes, “bande dessinée” or bédé or BD. There’s a subtle distinction between it and “bandes dessinnées“, the former is the art, the latter is the medium.
There’s also “journal illustré” and “petit format” <- which is closest to what is called a comic book in North America.

My work here is done.

Now striving to work “phylactère” into everyday conversation.

I’ve rarely heard someone call a truck a car, but it technically is one. When someone says they own a truck, I have a much more accurate image in my head than if they merely say they own a car.

But yeah, the term “graphic novel” does have an air of pretentiousness since most other types of comics aren’t afraid to include the word “comic” in their label.

It is because of Fifth Element that I hope it’s released here in the U.S. :-D