"Watchmen", 2009
*Originally posted by Brett*
Yep, so I watched The Watchmen. HAHA! Get it! Damn, I'm witty.
My initial reaction was that the movie is good, but not amazing.
Let's use a baseball analogy!
The movie was a solid line drive for a double, no RBIs and definitely not a home
run.
Some scenes worked, and worked really well! ex: Jon's visit to Mars, Antartic
Confrontation(s), and anything with Rorschach in it. The film had a good flow -
keeping close to the structure of the book. Furthermore, the detail or the care
put to the mise-en-scene was awesome!
Some scenes didn't work, in fact they were down right awful/awkward. ex: Janey
Slater cancer reveal, and Archie sex scene. Furthermore, the choices of popular
music used in the film was really bad - too distracting and self-referential. I
found myself taken out of the movie whenever they played some awkwardly place
song in the soundtrack. Should have just kept to a modest original score,
perhaps?
Over all, the good scenes saved any bad ones. The film was balanced so that all
acts were poignant and interesting. The movie never fell apart, although there
were some threats here and there.
Moving on, the adaptation as a whole worked for me. I'm not a member of the
cult of the Moore. As a filmmaker, I know things have to be adjusted. For a
narrative film, the story decisions made sense - sure it's always nice to
include that extra bit of story or character, but somethings got to given in
translation from book to film. I actually really liked the changed ending -
while different in use of devices, I thought the spirit and meaning stayed
wholly intact. In fact, it added a new element into the social super hero
dilemma. What happens when your savior becomes your executioner?
With that said, a change from book to film that did give me pause was how
Rorschach deals with the child kidnapper. I thought it was too direct of an
action for Rorschach, his emotion taking over his cold, psychotic intellect.
His actions always seemed planned and methodical - with purpose. Rorschach
loses his whole being here to physical brutality instead of the psychological
brutality we expect from him.
So...yea, that's about it. I'm curious how another director would have handled
the material given the same respect for the source material? I guess we'll find
out in twenty years when Hollywood decides to remake it.
Stuff in this movie:
-boobies
-softcore sex scene to excite all the teenage boys
-big blue wiener
-bodies exploding into giblets
-Rorschach
-dialogue with multi-syllable words that will go over most dumb American's heads
-slow motion
Beverages consumed during this movie: none, but I was damn thirsty
Next movie: I DON'T KNOW!
*Originally posted by Brett*
Yep, so I watched The Watchmen. HAHA! Get it! Damn, I'm witty.
My initial reaction was that the movie is good, but not amazing.
Let's use a baseball analogy!
The movie was a solid line drive for a double, no RBIs and definitely not a home
run.
Some scenes worked, and worked really well! ex: Jon's visit to Mars, Antartic
Confrontation(s), and anything with Rorschach in it. The film had a good flow -
keeping close to the structure of the book. Furthermore, the detail or the care
put to the mise-en-scene was awesome!
Some scenes didn't work, in fact they were down right awful/awkward. ex: Janey
Slater cancer reveal, and Archie sex scene. Furthermore, the choices of popular
music used in the film was really bad - too distracting and self-referential. I
found myself taken out of the movie whenever they played some awkwardly place
song in the soundtrack. Should have just kept to a modest original score,
perhaps?
Over all, the good scenes saved any bad ones. The film was balanced so that all
acts were poignant and interesting. The movie never fell apart, although there
were some threats here and there.
Moving on, the adaptation as a whole worked for me. I'm not a member of the
cult of the Moore. As a filmmaker, I know things have to be adjusted. For a
narrative film, the story decisions made sense - sure it's always nice to
include that extra bit of story or character, but somethings got to given in
translation from book to film. I actually really liked the changed ending -
while different in use of devices, I thought the spirit and meaning stayed
wholly intact. In fact, it added a new element into the social super hero
dilemma. What happens when your savior becomes your executioner?
With that said, a change from book to film that did give me pause was how
Rorschach deals with the child kidnapper. I thought it was too direct of an
action for Rorschach, his emotion taking over his cold, psychotic intellect.
His actions always seemed planned and methodical - with purpose. Rorschach
loses his whole being here to physical brutality instead of the psychological
brutality we expect from him.
So...yea, that's about it. I'm curious how another director would have handled
the material given the same respect for the source material? I guess we'll find
out in twenty years when Hollywood decides to remake it.
Stuff in this movie:
-boobies
-softcore sex scene to excite all the teenage boys
-big blue wiener
-bodies exploding into giblets
-Rorschach
-dialogue with multi-syllable words that will go over most dumb American's heads
-slow motion
Beverages consumed during this movie: none, but I was damn thirsty
Next movie: I DON'T KNOW!
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