Small hand falls from novelty clock, film at 11.
I think my brain almost melted last night. Not from Zack Snyder's astoundingly faithful translation of Watchmen, but due to the reactions it provoked in the obviously braindead.
If I recounted all of the ridiculous arguments made against the content or style of the film I would most likely implode in the same fashion as the target of the Romulan Death Star seen in the shiny new Star Trek trailer.
No, I will just stick to two responses.
The first can easily be dismissed as the ramblings of the prepubescent who have been complaining about Dr. Manhattan's blue penis as being "distracting". In fact any divvy who was unable to watch the film and enjoy it due to a CGI azure wang, really shouldn't have been in the cinema (I myself was staggered at how many parents were queued up to see their film with young kids, Watchmen is rated R and deservedly so, the violence is very graphic and the sex explicit).
Happy as a dog with three shiny blue dicks.He was very critical of the film and recommended that his fanboard members go see the film purely as it would fuel debate, though he himself felt the film was a "fascinating failure".
He stated: "i (sic) think it's(sic) success will rely on how many people want to sit there and feel that humanty(sic) is ugly and useless and a joke for 2.5 hours."
If you know nothing of Watchmen I can understand about how the desolate and desperate tone of much of the film could be jarring, but for someone who is a leading figure in the comics industry to be surprised an adaptation of Watchmen offers a critique on aspects of modern society, and particularly that of the 80s, makes me scratch my head until I make sparks on my skull.
This doesn't mean I think Watchmen is the best comic book film ever made, that title is still owned by The Dark Knight, it is however a good film.
I do think it is about as faithful an adaptation that is possible to make without simply filming every pane of the comic (and yes it is a bloody comic, but if you want to say Graphic Novel to make you feel easier then ok).
The performances are excellent in the main (particularly Jackie Earle Haley and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Rorschach and The Comedian) with only Matthew Goode's overplaying of Veidt's affectations being a choice I found uncomfortable.
Malin Akerman as the Silk Spectre II is capable in the action scenes and frankly jaw dropping when disrobed while maintaining a playful sense of humour in her scenes with Patrick Wilson. I do think her character is an aspect of the film that suffers from the translation as her role is trimmed down somewhat. I don't think it is Akerman's fault that the character doesn't shine in comparison to the others.
Wilson is affable and likeable as Nite Owl II and though some will complain that he is certainly not the flabby mess that Rorshach witheringly accuses him of, it is only a small criticism and did not detract from his empathy.
Snyder does not overuse the slow-mo in the action sequences, though it is difficult to criticise his choices in the film in relation to use of camera as it seems Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons made most of those decisions.
It really is amazing how many of the scenes are shot for shot from the original text.
Spoilers for the next paragraph:
The montage for the opening titles is sublime. Using Dylan is the first of many smart music choices in the film. I won't go into too much detail but I found the background use of Tears for Fears at one point hilarious. When a message board mewler complained that 99 Red Balloons was a stupid song to use, it did make me realise that there are many morons with access to the Internet.
Snyder's decision to get rid of the squids and have Dr. Manhattan as the scapegoat to save the world makes perfect sense. All of the subtext and clues about the missing engineers and the island would have been to unwieldy in an already long film and would have been difficult to pull off visually without being underwhelming when devoid of that subtext.
I didn't like the titillating shots that were used before the sexual assault on Silk Spectre and also how after The Comedian mocks Hooded Justice, HJ continues the assault. In the books Moore has Justice walk away to emphasise just how true The Comedian's appraisal of him is, a consistent theme that runs through the story (a la King Lear).
The sex scene between Nite Owl and Silk Spectre is a little long, Snyder lingers on the scene for obvious reasons, mainly that Malin Akerman is stunning, but also this is the payoff from their clumsy initial fumbling as Dreiberg and Jupiter, their coupling becomes overtly stylised due to their empowerment by the costumes. A comment on the fetishistic psychology of the vigilantes.
Spoilers off.
I found the film satisfying but I am still undecided on how good it is to be honest. It demands a second viewing as I feel I spent too much time being blown away by how accurate a translation it was to really judge it as a film on its own.
Hopefully I can do that soon.
Even so this is certainly not the huge disaster this film could have been (Brett Ratner's Watchmen, set in 2020 with a split screen of two squid creatures destroying the US and Moscow by flattening people with tendrils that are obviously moved on wires, in the background Rorschach cries for the dead).
After seeing it my initial response was pleased but somewhat muted, the more I think about it the more I like each aspect, a second viewing is just necessary.
