Milan Jovanovic

Carthago is a tour of a waxworks in homage to B-movie serials, hitting all the tropes along the way. Like B-movie cinema, many "exhibits" present a perspective wholly impossible to any of the characters involved in the scene: an exterior shot of a submersible, for example, in an undersea cave facing a megaladon and no light save that from the sub itself. A great many of the panels are cinematic in composition, suggesting the comic was an excuse to draw otherwise unrelated visuals. And they are fun to see, but taken again and again, along with the sketchiest of plot and character to hold it all together, is like bingeing in a candy store, a feeling of gluttony or sickness begins to set in.

By happenstance, I watched The Mandalorian around the same time, prompting some comparison. The Mandalorian series focuses on story (something Disney does generally, however successfully it turns out in individual cases), whereas Carthago focuses on set pieces, cinematic scenery, and hardware -- then strings together various characters as a connective tissue for visuals, almost as afterthought or packaging.

Some of the reason it fell flat for me may be stylistic preferences. Had the same material been presented in more of an elliptical aesthetic (thinking AEON FLUX), I might well have enjoyed it more.… (més)