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This might sound unfair, since movies and books and comics are all very different media. This almost always requires some changes, and it almost always upsets fans of the original version. But part of what makes a comic successful is when it can give you something fun that you can’t get anywhere else. And lucky for Tank Girl, the structure of comics makes it possible to lack long term narrative flow. But on the movie screen, it doesn’t hold water.

Tank Girl is a hurricane of random acts and raunchy humor soaked in beer and dipped in candy. But in movie form that lack of narrative and depth becomes a liability, especially when you’ve already stripped the material of its most successful components. It was partially an issue of studio pressure, and I can’t say I blame the suits on this one; the film was already getting an R rating. But there aren’t enough letters in the alphabet for a movie where the lead character is roaring through the Australian Outback half naked, mowing down crowds of people with her tank and having sex with kangaroos. It all had to come out, which suggests to me that perhaps the film should never have been made.

Forget Watchmen; I say Tank Girl is the Great Unfilmable Comic. But it isn’t all bad. Highlights include Lori Petty, who despite being about ten years too old completely nails Tank Girl’s insolent debauchery. Malcom McDowell channels Standard Evil British Guy, but with 50% more scary mechanical hand and a tendency to evangelize while walking barefoot on glass. Naomi Watts (as Jet Girl) doesn’t have a lot to do, and she shows no sign of the well regarded actress she would one day become, but it’s nice to see her anyway.

The film’s soundtrack is a must have, featuring great songs by Devo, Bjork and Ice-T. (Yes, Ice-T. Believe it or not, he used to be a rapper). Overall, the music is used well and it adds to the film’s zany atmosphere. Occasionally, scenes that might have required a massively expensive set or loads of special effects are represented by comic panels or stylized, hand drawn animation.

Combined with all that manic energy and a palette of color lifted from a bowl of Fruit Loops, it’s all a bit of sensory overload. Much of it works, but if you could film an ice cream headache, this is what it would look like. If nothing else, in the category of “movies meant to look like a comic book," Tank Girl is right up there with the best of them.

This is a high spirited, aggressively ambitious film that sought to take very media unfriendly material and use it to redefine the comic book movie genre. It fails to do that for all the reasons I’ve mentioned and more, but it happens in a way that for the most part, is still a lot of fun to watch. And it popularized the comic, turning it from a minor cult phenomenon into a major one.

The best thing I could say is that if you enjoyed the movie at all, then the comic will be a pleasant surprise. You can see that the film makers were going for, but it’s just a hell of a lot more satisfying when you’re reading it on glossy paper. Tank Girl is a silly comic that’s great fun to read, and a terrible movie that’s great fun to watch. I happen to love both versions, and it’s precisely because despite what the movie lacked, it had enough going for it to get me into the comic. I’ve said this about many cult films and I’ll say it again about this one; I love it for what it tried to do more than for what it did.

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