Why Watch The Watchmen?
The good:
Visually it was very well done. A near-perfect visual adaptation of Dave Gibbons' work. Good (but not great) special effects. Dr. Manhattan detonating folks was disturbing but cool to watch.
Directing, from an adaptation of the Gibbons art POV, very well done. (Except for the slow-mo crap which has been done to death and really just needs to die. No more bullet time, no more panoramic frozen-in-time crap a la Swordfish, no more slow-mo ever again. No one will miss it, really.)
It really did capture a lot of the visual feel of the comic. On a Sin City level, though both the comic and the movie on that one are just awful on about every level. (Frank Miller is stupidly and spectacularly juvenile. Just about everything I've read of his since Dark Knight Returns is plain awful. And I suspect it's all just him mocking his audience while raking in gobs of dough.)
The bad:
The cartoonish violence was just awful. I don't mind graphic violence. But these are humans fighting, not SUPER-humans. Even Silk Spectre is sending guys flying. IIRC, even Ozymandias wasn't super-human. And he wasn't depicted as such in the film either. So WHY the ridiculous-looking antics? Why have folks flying 30 feet away after being kicked? It just looks stupid. This is yet another Hollywood convention that needs to die ASAFP.
The psyche session wasn't interesting at all. Probably the best issue of the entire series and it might as well not even be in the film. That's something that could have been put into a DVD special like the pirate ship thing. It could have been paced appropriately slow to the point of boring. Kovacs "dying" would have been 10 times more interesting and had a much bigger impact psychologically.
The pacing BLOWS. This is a thinking man's comic book, as much as any comic can be. Maybe a contradiction in terms to some, but it isn't so much a slap you in the face with its dick experience as the movie is. The movie is way too much action, not enough subtlety. I said it before watching it, that it should have been a HBO mini-series instead of a film. The pacing pretty much ruins it for me.
Overall, I don't know how well it works as a movie. I tend to think not very well, but my perceptions are mixed up because of the comic and always will be. So I would have to ask someone that knows nothing about the comic series to get a feel for a decent answer.
Other interesting crap:
http://watchmen.wikia.com/wiki/Watchmen_Wiki
Nitpick alert: Watchmen is NOT a graphic novel. It was a twelve-issue limited series when originally released.
Quick aside: How fucking pathetic is this?
http://io9.com/5156140/warner-bros-forced-watchmens-laurie-to-go-cold-turkey
Another quick aside: Malin Akerman actually looks much better as a blonde, something I almost never say. And it's not just because pics of her tits come up on a Google search. Found those accidentally... honest. I accidentally clicked on the pics too... honest... mmmmmmmm...
Visually it was very well done. A near-perfect visual adaptation of Dave Gibbons' work. Good (but not great) special effects. Dr. Manhattan detonating folks was disturbing but cool to watch.
Directing, from an adaptation of the Gibbons art POV, very well done. (Except for the slow-mo crap which has been done to death and really just needs to die. No more bullet time, no more panoramic frozen-in-time crap a la Swordfish, no more slow-mo ever again. No one will miss it, really.)
It really did capture a lot of the visual feel of the comic. On a Sin City level, though both the comic and the movie on that one are just awful on about every level. (Frank Miller is stupidly and spectacularly juvenile. Just about everything I've read of his since Dark Knight Returns is plain awful. And I suspect it's all just him mocking his audience while raking in gobs of dough.)
The bad:
The cartoonish violence was just awful. I don't mind graphic violence. But these are humans fighting, not SUPER-humans. Even Silk Spectre is sending guys flying. IIRC, even Ozymandias wasn't super-human. And he wasn't depicted as such in the film either. So WHY the ridiculous-looking antics? Why have folks flying 30 feet away after being kicked? It just looks stupid. This is yet another Hollywood convention that needs to die ASAFP.
The psyche session wasn't interesting at all. Probably the best issue of the entire series and it might as well not even be in the film. That's something that could have been put into a DVD special like the pirate ship thing. It could have been paced appropriately slow to the point of boring. Kovacs "dying" would have been 10 times more interesting and had a much bigger impact psychologically.
The pacing BLOWS. This is a thinking man's comic book, as much as any comic can be. Maybe a contradiction in terms to some, but it isn't so much a slap you in the face with its dick experience as the movie is. The movie is way too much action, not enough subtlety. I said it before watching it, that it should have been a HBO mini-series instead of a film. The pacing pretty much ruins it for me.
Overall, I don't know how well it works as a movie. I tend to think not very well, but my perceptions are mixed up because of the comic and always will be. So I would have to ask someone that knows nothing about the comic series to get a feel for a decent answer.
Other interesting crap:
http://watchmen.wikia.com/wiki/Watchmen_Wiki
Nitpick alert: Watchmen is NOT a graphic novel. It was a twelve-issue limited series when originally released.
Quick aside: How fucking pathetic is this?
http://io9.com/5156140/warner-bros-forced-watchmens-laurie-to-go-cold-turkey
Another quick aside: Malin Akerman actually looks much better as a blonde, something I almost never say. And it's not just because pics of her tits come up on a Google search. Found those accidentally... honest. I accidentally clicked on the pics too... honest... mmmmmmmm...
Labels: comic books, movies
posted by mmaier2112 at 1:52 AM
2 Comments:
This is probably the best film review I've ever read of yours Mike.
I DO NOT agree with very much of it - but I am glad to see you expressing yourself so well.
I'm also REALLY glad you're not one of those people complaining about the amount of blue cock. It's moronic when people who KNOW the comic book walk out saying there was too much blue penis - HELLO!?!?!?! That was the worst thing about post-viewing was people in Watchman shirts complaining about that.
I will agree that the pacing was off, and never seemed to find itself.
And while the characters we NOT "Super"-Heroes: They do still exist in a fantasy/parallel/comic book world - not everything has to be perfect.
Good review though. I'm glad you didn't EFFING HATE EVERY EFFING THING about it....
I'm so going to see it!
Thanks mister!
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