So...The Watchmen. The movie just arrived a few days ago here, so I didn't have the chance until yesterday to go and see it. Here are a few of my thoughts(this will be filled with spoilers, so those not familiar with the novel or the movie, need not read further. Yes, I actually say when my blog will have spoilers in it, unlike some people).
I knew I wouldn't be utterly disappointed when I went to watch the movie. It was a bit action oriented, which is understandable I suppose, so that didn't irk me. All in all, I must say I enjoyed the movie. Was it perfect? Of course not, there were quite a few errors in it, but was it an enjoyable and pretty damn faithful cross to the silver screen? Yes. Yes it was.
I love the Watchmen. I read it a few years ago, and it was an awesome work that really gave you food for your thought and invited you to read it over and over again. Penned by Allan "Sir Douchebag" Moore, who is one of the best writers in the medium ever, it gave us an outlook on how things could have been in an alternative universe and gave a solid political commentary, especially to the people that were old enough to form coherent thoughts at the time.
All in all, my personal irks with this movie come more from the little things then from the things most people were pissed off with(that being the ending). Honestly, I can understand that they didn't want to go with the squid, I can understand that they wanted to make it more "feasible". I do not condone it, because one of the characters is a blue skinned god with an enormous, never hardened penis which gives me inferiority complexes the moment he walks on the screen, but I suppose I can understand it. However, what I can't understand is why they put in Bubastis if they didn't want to go down the route of genetic engineering. It was not necessary, except maybe to make Adrian seem more "emotional", which again could have been pulled off much better. Also, the entire point in the end when Manhattan has his final scene with Walter is that Dan is not there to see it. In the movie he is, which was poorly executed and needless.
And honestly, Adrian was probably my greatest gripe, or more to the point, the guy who played him. We are led to believe that Adrian is the closest thing to a perfect human, his body is the pinnacle of perfection which he keeps in shape through constant labour and excercise. I always thought of him physically as Arnold in his prime. Beautiful, to the point that people of both genders, no matter how certain they are in their own sexuality felt uncomfortable around him.The guy who acted him seemed....tiny, little in comparison as if he just got better after suffering through a very tough battle with a serious illness.
Still, I must say that the other actors were pretty damn good. Dan could have used a bit more flab, since he seems in too good of a shape in this movie, and Silk Spectre could have spent a few more days getting in the character, or just simply by taking acting lessons, but they were not bad to the point where they were unbelieavable.
Rorschach. Oh God, Rorschach. Let me get this straight. In the novel, he was not my favorite character like he seemed to be to every single other person in the world (Comedian was. That maybe makes me a sick and demented person, but Comedian rocks), but the actor and the way he pulled off the role were nothing short of magnificent. Holy crap did they get the right ugly bastard to play him. Everything he did, every single facial and verbal expression were spot on. Honestly, he's the Heath Ledger's Joker of this move. Except he's alive. And thus will never get an Oscar.
What really pleasantly surprised me, is that except for the ending, Snyder really directed the film well, to the point where he followed the comic panel-by-panel. Of course he couldn't fit everything in, which meant that most of the side characters that were fairly important in the novel were here just for an aesthetic purpose of being there, but that is understandable. If he placed everything everywhere, the movie could have lasted twice then it did and that can't happen in a theatrical release, but will be pretty expanded in the director's cut.
There were a few more irks that I had. Dr. Manhattan, the most powerful being in existence seems a bit too...emotional for an apathetic git that he was portrayed to be, and Veidt's famous "I did it 35 minutes ago" was altered into "I triggered it 35 minutes ago" which didn't leave as much of an impact.
So, the action scenes....Some loved them, thinking it really shows what happens when you piss off people, the violence was extremely graphic and I still chuckle when I read the news about parenty taking their children out of the cinema because they expected it to be a normal super-hero film.
Some hated them because it made the watchmen characters look super humanly strong. This I don't know how to feel about. I liked it. I liked watching Dan kick the shit out of people and snap their necks. I liked seeing the Comedian beat hippies to death with his bare hands and then shooting them for good measure. Was it over the top? Probably, but I could watch it and not whisper "Bullshit" while watching it, but rather get immersed in it.
The music was awesome, really fit the times, the characters and the entire prospect of the comic. Most of it was picked up straight from the novel after all.
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Let's end with the spoilers here and end this up. This was not a review of the comic book, I didn't go in the psyches of the characters or why I liked certain ones or disliked the other ones. It was just a commentary on the film itself.
Warner Bros considers it money-not-so well spent since it cost 120 million to make and it "only" made 160 million in it's theatrical release. 40 million dollars profit seems pretty good to me. This has to do with Batman really, since they expected a repeat of that success. The problem with that logic is that everyone heard of Batman. Of Watchmen? Only the core audience and the fans of Moore's work. Hell, even on this site where I am pretty sure geekdom of the highest caliber resides, before the movie a fairly small percentage ever heard of the novel. And it will only make more money with the dvd's, not even to mention how many more copies of the graphic novel will be sold.
So, yes, I do recommend the movie. No, scratch that. Get the novel by any means necessary. Read it, ponder about it, then reread it. After that, watch the movie and leave comments. Me? In my opinion, I got my money's worth.
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wolfqueen001 - March 24, 2009 (09:43 PM) Holy shit. I just saw this movie. It was insane. Of course, everyone's going to shoot me now for not having read the comic beforehand, but oh well. I think I liked Dr. Manhattan the most, though. It's interesting to see how different the comic is from the movie, though... so I like hearing about those things. I'm not sure if I'll ever get around to reading it, anyway. I actually hated the Comedian, but then again, he's a creep and I'm a woman, so it makes perfect sense, really. |
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darketernal - March 25, 2009 (10:51 AM) Everyone hates the Comedian, but that doesn't make him any less of a fascinating character. As Manhattan said, he never met someone so perfectly void of all morals and thoughts about what his actions would cause. Still he fascinated him because unlike all the characters in Watchmen, he "understood" what it was all about. He was basically a glorified soldier, killing for his country. Oh, there's little doubt in my mind he enjoyed killing, since he thinks the value of life is pretty low. In essence, a nihilist. He acted the entire life as if it was just a joke. And in the end, when he found out what Veidt was doing, and about the island(not covered in the movie), he finally found out about the punchline of the joke. And didn't find it funny, which breaks him. |
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