So I went to see Watchmen.
Mar. 8th, 2009 01:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
janradderBefore saying anything else, I really liked the opening credit montage and I thought the Dylan song worked well with it. I also thought that Jackie Earle Haley was great as Rorschach (though I must admit, there were a few times I couldn't help but see Moocher from Breaking Away but that had more to do with me than his performance). That said, I was kind of disappointed.
For one thing, after the opening credits, the music really got in the way of the film. There were quite a few sequences that would have had a lot more emotional impact were it not for the soundtrack, which turned them into stylized violence and made me feel like I was watching a bad music video.
As to the violence itself, when I first heard people complain that there was too much of it in the movie my initial reaction was, "But it's a pretty violent and bloody book." Well, it's bloodier and more violent than the book and it gets in the way of the story. While in the book, Rorschach and the Comedian are different from the other masks because how they use violence, in the movie, there is no difference. Everyone is ultra-violent which makes Nite Owl's scene, where he supposedly loses it and pounds the crap out of someone, ineffective since we've already seen him do much worse.
Another problem I had with the movie was that, though it includes a lot from the book (and a lot of it was well done -- Rorschach eating beans in Dan's kitchen, for instance, or the pull back from the blood-spattered smiley face pin), there was quite a bit that seemed unnecessary and did nothing for the film except to allow Snyder to say, "Look -- see? We put in there."
That said, there were things missing which really hurt the film, namely Bernard, the news vendor. One of the biggest problems I had with the film was that I never got a real sense that the Americans and the Soviets were seriously headed toward nuclear war, at least not in how that was affecting the general population. Bernard, as the man on the street, provided that sense (in my opinion). There were also things changed that didn't save any time or exposition (or at least minimal exposition) that either made the story confusing (like how Rorschach is set up in Molock's apartment) or just lost something meaningful (like leaving out Jon's line on Mars about how all life is a miracle, not just Lori's). And I just didn't buy the ending.
Overall, I felt like the movie version of Watchmen was really ham-fisted and clunky and it lost a lot of the subtlety and the heart of the book (and there were some really bad acting performances, to boot -- hello Carla Gugino). It wasn't a bad movie, but it really wasn't a good movie, either, and it frustrated me watching it because I think with a better director, it could have been really great.
For one thing, after the opening credits, the music really got in the way of the film. There were quite a few sequences that would have had a lot more emotional impact were it not for the soundtrack, which turned them into stylized violence and made me feel like I was watching a bad music video.
As to the violence itself, when I first heard people complain that there was too much of it in the movie my initial reaction was, "But it's a pretty violent and bloody book." Well, it's bloodier and more violent than the book and it gets in the way of the story. While in the book, Rorschach and the Comedian are different from the other masks because how they use violence, in the movie, there is no difference. Everyone is ultra-violent which makes Nite Owl's scene, where he supposedly loses it and pounds the crap out of someone, ineffective since we've already seen him do much worse.
Another problem I had with the movie was that, though it includes a lot from the book (and a lot of it was well done -- Rorschach eating beans in Dan's kitchen, for instance, or the pull back from the blood-spattered smiley face pin), there was quite a bit that seemed unnecessary and did nothing for the film except to allow Snyder to say, "Look -- see? We put in there."
That said, there were things missing which really hurt the film, namely Bernard, the news vendor. One of the biggest problems I had with the film was that I never got a real sense that the Americans and the Soviets were seriously headed toward nuclear war, at least not in how that was affecting the general population. Bernard, as the man on the street, provided that sense (in my opinion). There were also things changed that didn't save any time or exposition (or at least minimal exposition) that either made the story confusing (like how Rorschach is set up in Molock's apartment) or just lost something meaningful (like leaving out Jon's line on Mars about how all life is a miracle, not just Lori's). And I just didn't buy the ending.
Overall, I felt like the movie version of Watchmen was really ham-fisted and clunky and it lost a lot of the subtlety and the heart of the book (and there were some really bad acting performances, to boot -- hello Carla Gugino). It wasn't a bad movie, but it really wasn't a good movie, either, and it frustrated me watching it because I think with a better director, it could have been really great.
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Re: Watchmen
Date: 2009-04-26 06:29 pm (UTC)I'll check to see if our library has Mythology, though, since it sound like something my boys would like. They also have a few comics subscriptions from DC. If you don't know about it yet, there's a great series for kids and adults called Bone by Jeff Smith (who also did a three or four issue Captain Marvel series for DC a couple years ago that, if I remember right, is also kid friendly). Though he hasn't read past the first trade, Arie really liked it a lot.