Watchmen
Watchmen is a movie. And it’s a comic book, or in a more haughty phrase, a graphic novel. It’s one hell of film though.
It’s an adaptation of one of the most revered comic books. It sticks to it very much. There’s a lot of talking. Not much action which is funny for a comic book movie. Yet, it was trying to capture what the comic book was all about.
Who was a hero? Rorschach, looking for the killer, but is too indebted to his honor system and world of good-bad, black-white, is done pretty well. The Comedian is plenty fascistic. The Night Owl finds himself grows from sad sack to kick ass. Dr. Manhattan and his blue organ blow shit up. Silk Spectre is pretty bad ass herself. Ozymandias is effeminate and cruel.
It’s a good movie I’ll admit, but I am a geek at heart.
The music was incongruous. It got in the way because it wasn’t period.
4 of 5 stars.
5 Replies to “Watchmen”
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Ozymandias as effeminate proved too much Rorschach’s theory in the book. “Possibly homosexual? Must investigate further.” hahaha!
I just wish they handled the pace and multiple story lines better. I wasn’t really into the slow motion either. It took the grit away from the idea of making a Comic book film “adult”.
As much fun as it was watching Specter and Owl kick ass in the Alley, it lessened Rorschach’s underlying menace as a character.
I think a little tweaks here and there the film could be one of the best films ever. But it felt like he tried too hard to please fans and Alan Moore. It lost a little soul. There were times that it felt little too conscious of the existing source material as if the directer was sitting next to me saying, “and remember this in the comic”, while I tried to enjoy the film. Like the constant shots of the smiley tag in the beginning, the reveal of Mars base, Rorschach looking at the split head dog… I mean it was cool, but it didn’t affect me like I wish it did. I wish I felt the cynical darkness of the comedian and his fucking Happy face pin so when we see the happy face kid drop his ketchup on it at the end, we laugh. The idea of world change happening through blood and guts now rests in the hands of some intern. It rests in the hands of an average everyday joe. I’m not sure that’s what Moore was going for, but that’s what I got out of it on the book. The ketchup on the happy face was also a funny juxtaposition from the opening panel in the comic. I wish Mars Base didn’t feel cool, but lonely and desolate. Then there’s the menace of Rorschach. If Zach held back on the violence during Owls and Specter’s alley fight, Rorschach’s hatchet scene would have been that more menacing. Instead it just felt like it made sense in a world where everyone is overly violent.
I really did dig the film. I dug what it tried to accomplish. It was a pretty cool play by play on the comic. I think the problem though was that the multiple story lines felt one and the same. It came down to people trying to forget the past and begin with a clean slate on our own. I really dug that idea, but it felt a little repetitive. I really think it just comes down to pace. I really dug the movie, it just missed the mark a little for me.
It’s definitely one of those that will benefit with home viewing. But it was nice thing to see on the big screen. Just a little nip tuck and this movie would have been perfect.
Oh and Marge in the movie I think they didn’t hint at it, but banged us over the head with it. I laughed really hard when Rorschach and Owl were digging through his files. Guess what was on his desktop? A blatant folder labeled “boys”. That annoyed me a little because I don’t know what that had to do with his character. But maybe I missed that in the book. What is to prove Rorschach was right all along? Or that Ozymandias was just man dealing with his personal demons. I’d rather prefer to think he really was just trying to change the world. In a very extreme way. I’d rather think of him as a person that thought the lives of few outweighed personal choice and freedom. I’d like to think that he was too smart for his own good that it blinded him to the fact that human nature is not controllable. There were quite a few ideas that I think just missed the mark and became something else. Even if that was in Moore’s book it would degrade the idea of the man who really thought he could save the world. It just degrades the guy to some “who just had personal issues”.
Damn I’m going o have to post this on my blog. It’s a mess of thoughts, but that’s what the movie was to invoke right?
Since I read it a while ago, I forgot a lot of the story. On watching the movie it was a nice story. I remember from reading the comic book that I didn’t really get the plot too well because of how talkative each panel was. The movie while being talky actually cleared up the themes and plot for me. The streamlined nature of things was good.
I honestly barely remember most of the Graphic novel and I just read it. It definitely takes more than one sitting. So does the movie.
I just thought that even though he did try to streamline the story, in the film, it sort of neutered it and became repetitive. But it is a cluster of ideas and a hard story to get on screen.
I dug it, but just felt it was a little off. Still it’s one of the better Super Hero kind of films. I hope people write some original stories rather take from comic from now on. It’s a wonderful concept that can be played with. This had a good go at it.
I meant that super hero films are an interesting concept that can have interesting ideas to be played with.