| ego custodii ipsos custodes |
[Mar. 6th, 2009|12:41 pm] |
If there is one thing, just one thing, that would improve the quality of my life, it would be the ability to turn down my housemate Thomas when he invites me to midnight showings of movies. Thanks to him I saw only about the first five minutes of Batman Begins on the big screen before passing out, and thanks to him I was up until 4 am (with work at 8 am sharp the next morning) watching Watchmen.
Difficult to know what to say about it really. Zack Snyder is the ultimate reverent adapter, but perhaps a shot-by-shot remake of a comic ends up as something less than the comic itself. The original pacing feels wrong for a movie, and there are numerous tableaux, effectively panels from the graphic novel come to life, that feel similarly stagey and stilted on a giant screen. The changes made to the script are few, thankfully, as they are not improvements, especially the mystifyingly dullified ending and Rorschach's considerably less exquisite disposal of the child kidnapper. (Probably a good idea to cut the Tales of the Black Freighter, though, given that Watchmen weighs in at two and a half hours already.)
It's mostly a great revisiting of the glories of the graphic novel, though, and the actors are mostly superb, especially an unimpeachable Rorscach and Billy Crudup's eerie turn as Dr Manhattan. Veidt is the biggest disappointment, seeming much more chinless and less serene than the golden king of the novel[1] - and his arctic palace comes across as a cheap and tawdry warehouse with a few statues scattered around the place. But all is forgiven when we get to the real reason for the existence of this movie: finally, a medium that can do passable justice to Rorschach's ever-shifting face.
If you've never read the graphic novel you should definitely do that before seeing the film, but to tide you over here's the brilliant Saturday morning cartoon version:
This Watchmen webcomic is also injokily AWESOME.
[1] I fully endorse Thomas's idea that amongst a cast of relative unknowns they should have cast Tom Cruise to play Ozymandias. |
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I've been waiting for someone to go with that post title ever since the film was announced. I put it to you sir, that you watched the film as early as you could just so you could be the first to use it!
Well, now I'll have to go find myself a copy of Watchmen, then see the movie.
To be honest, the last film I saw at a theatre was Metropolis (with a live band no less), and before that Passchendaele (which may or may not be known at all outside of Canada).
Watchmen would be a strange movie for a non-cinemagoer who hasn't read the novel to rush to the multiplex for! But yes, read the book, it's amazing and probably still the best superhero comic ever.
The last movie I saw before Watchmen was I think Frost/Nixon, which is a pretty neat segue... (In Watchmen-world Nixon gets elected to a historic third term in the White House, on the grounds that an America that has Dr Manhattan or Superman never needs to admit, apologize for or learn from its mistakes.)
I try to avoid the multiplex. The noise and lights tend to make me a little keyed-up.
And an America that need neither admit to nor learn from its mistakes is a scary thought. Scary in any country, in my superpower neighbour even more so.
i enjoyed the comic. But it's made me feel both excitement & dread to see the movie (as most movies based on comics/books do). Glad to hear they mostly stuck with the actual storyline, though now it means I have to head to the city so I can go see it!
Probably a good idea to cut the Tales of the Black Freighter
Also, to what extent can the film address the superhero film genre in the terms that Watchmen address superhero comics? There are, like, a squillion pirate films, so should Black Freighter be a comic in the film, or a film series in the film, or what? You can't ask Alan Moore, because he'd tell you to fuck off and get a life.
The Black Freighter had been made, as an animation, and will most likely be a DVD extra and possibly spliced into the mega-extended 3h+ "ultimate vision" version of the movie.
Under The Hood has also been filmed as a documentary, again almost certainly for the DVD.
Edited at 2009-03-07 04:18 am (UTC)
I was under the impression that these would be available on DVD around the cinematic release of the parent film (though presumably spliced with it for its own DVD release); nobody's trying to flog them to me yet but I thought that might mean they were just out Stateside.
Can't say I've noticed, but I've not really been looking that hard.
![[User Picture]](http://l-userpic.livejournal.com/4209213/862219) | From: ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) eldar
2009-03-07 04:15 am (UTC)
Watchmen, Watched | (Link)
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Read the book and watched the movie in the space of a week. At least no punches were pulled, though some changes maybe were for gratuitous reasons? Swapping the acetylene torch for a circular saw, for instance. And you complain the disposing of the kidnapper was distilled?!
The only vaguely confusing thing was how ALL the cops know to show up at Moloch's to take down Rorschach (albeit explained later) - why on earth not just have him take the call from "Moloch"?
Have you seen The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford? That does something similar to the Cruise/Ozymandias idea by having Brad Pitt as James in among a cast who are far less famous, using his unbalancing celebrity status as a deliberate dramatic effect.
Tom Cruise to play Ozymandias
Awesome. I can just see the assassination attempt by the mook in the office lobby: "I thought you'd be ... taller. Aargh, glub, mumfle mumfle, [expires]".
Still, funny that the "how to cast Watchmen" argument isn't finished even though the film has been made. William H. Macy for Rorschach! Throw in Moore as Spectre I, Hoffman for Night Owl II, and Cruise, and you have yourself a Magnolia reunion.
I recently re-read Watchmen (it blows me away as much or more now as it did on the first hit, some... shit, 20 years ago or more. now I feel old!) and am looking forward to seeing the film on Tuesday. I am apprehensive but excited. While linking to Watchmen references (and who the hell was responsible for that Saturday Morning Cartoon animation? Brilliant, but oh-so-wrong!), you should check out the current "Ombudsmen" storyline over at PVP. | |
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