4 out of 5

Directed by: Paul Goodwin

There’s a bit of connective tissue missing in Future Shock! that might frustrate readers – such as m’self – in feeling like the film properly embraces the genius of the current 2000 AD run (and thus encourages new readers), but then again: are the uninitiated watching this film?, and as focusing on the modern era would have shorted the time dedicated to the roots, and the Golden Age of creators – which, as that’s the mags’ origin story, is obviously of mass importance – as well as probably forcing the narrative to skim over the late 80s and 90s, which would’ve felt like white-washing, the balance of eras covered is, ultimately, fair.  But grumble grumble the mag is as good as its ever been, so you should be reading it too.  (Says the American reader who only started really reading it post Dredd.)

So 2000 AD is a long-running UK comic magazine – something that was /is more common over there, a weekly magazine-sized book with pictures – that not only gave birth to Judge Dredd (and a slew of other creations you’re either aware of or didn’t realize originated in the mag), but served as either a starting point or returning home for plenty of hugely popular creators, such as Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison and more…  But while the format might be common, the exact style of 2000 AD, and its ability to straddle youth-satisfying actionry with brand new world-building creations and one-off Twilight Zone-esque “Future Shocks” and acerbic humor and social commentary was a huge blast of new at the time of its creation in the late 70s, and has remained an independent spirit – punk is commonly referenced in the doc – throughout most of its career.

Goodwin thus lets the story of the mag shine by just letting its fans and creators talk, with some animated comic strips to break up the format somewhat.  And like any talking head feature length, there’s occasionally a sense like the ‘narrative’ – which is mainly just trying to tell the mag’s story from year to year – wanders, and there’s also an odd interview or two that feels randomly interspersed just because it’s a recognizable name who can speak about the magazine.  All of these things are individually interesting to listen to (and maybe slightly odd to look at, because it seemed like the lighting / makeup team were going for a sweaty, plastic look for some people), but again, they don’t always contextually slink into place.  There are also, inevitably, moments that feel like they’re given too much space – Pat Mills was the mag’s daddy, so obviously you want to give him room to breathe, but he repeats his “fuck the man” sentiments enough – and some things that just don’t get spoken to enough (like the bridge to the modern age), and some things that either don’t feel well clarified – do the creators own their works under Rebellion or not? – and some things that are brought up and then skirted, like the whole gender divide of the creators.  But: you’re covering 30 years of history in 90 minutes, and while it might not seem like much of a story to a non-reader, anyone who loves any particular comic character or series or publisher knows how deep the stories can go, and 2000 AD has such a wide breadth of talent and titles to talk about, it’s much the same.

Thus is stated, though, the main question: will you care if you don’t already read the book?  I do think interest in comics is a must, and that might bridge the gap, as seeing your favorite creators talk about the title might be fun, but, admittedly, ‘The Story of 2000 AD’ probably works best for those of us in the know (even if we’ve only ‘known’ for a few years), and so my rating should be taken with that grain of salt.  Future Shock! doesn’t do anything especially new or exciting for the documentary genre, but it is a story that has needed an outlet for a while, and Goodwin appreciably takes a warts and all approach that makes for a generally fascinating listen.