Worth seeing; mild spoilers:
1. What is up with the musical score? It’s like they got bored partway in and just used the director’s iPod set to “shuffle”. 99 Luftballons – seriously?
2. Apollonia Vanova: HOT. AS SUNS ARE HOT.
3. Truly not following the pretentious-movie-critic whining about the violence. Hey, about violence? It is violent. And ugly. Apparently the chattering classes would have preferred The Comedian’s attack on Silk Spectre to be more like Rhett Butler dragging Scarlett O’Hara upstairs, rather than, oh, actually beating the crap out of a woman so she isn’t in any position to fight off a brutal sexual assault. A.O. Scott’s adult sensibilities are offended at the notion that if a superhero beats up a bad guy, that is going to involve pain, and broken bones and crippling, bleeding injuries, instead of an “Oof!” and a pratfall. I’d suggest that these critics need to spend less time in confined spaces where the main meal is popcorn, and more time on the planet with the rest of us.
4. She’s right: Ozymandias is an asshole.
5. Yes, the squid ending was changed. No, this is not really a problem. There are many things that work in a graphic novel that would look stupid on the big screen, and a giant vaginaform squid is one of them. The plot change got to the same place without changing the story.
6. I’m actually OK with the sex scene even though it was kind of unnecesary and overlong. It does show a lot of the dynamic between Silk Spectre II and Night Owl II; he’s sort of along for the ride and baffled about it and she is, basically, running the show.
7. I wonder how much of some people’s offense is really rooted in the fact that there is male nudity as well as female. I suppose they wanted Dr. Manhattan to constantly be clad in discreet Jack Kirby-style boy shorts.
mythago
8 Responses to “Watchmen”
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1) Ironic pop songs from the 80′s that reference nuclear war in a movie about the fear of nuclear war is hip. They managed to sneak in ‘Everyone Wants to Rule the World’ as well. All they missed is ‘The Future’s So Bright…’
I give them points for ‘First We Take Manhattan…’
3) The point that Watchmen is a deconstructionist work is lost on people. This is a real world, for some degree of real, with costumed crimefighters. Harsh beatings and curb stompings in real life can cripple and kill… what, do they think this is a comic book?
Not to mention the fact that Blake is meant to be seen as an absolutely disgusting person… specifically so his reaction to the plot has the meaning it does.
7) Hey, his blue member alternated between visible and covered, even in the comic. They were true to source material here. Works for me.
1) Of course, it occurs to me that they used the German version of the song, so it’s only cute if you know the English lyrics…
If there is not a giant blue wang in this film I will be demanding my money back.
I PAID TO SEE A GIANT BLUE WANG, DAMMIT.
Your money is safe, my friend.
I’m OK with the ironic pop songs, but happy, bouncy-sounding ironic pop songs (despite the German lyrics) not all that much.
I think they made Blake look a lot worse and Rorschach look a lot nicer than in the novel – the scene where Silk Spectre explains that Blake just didn’t get what he’d done wrong is absent, and so you’re left with the impression that, yeah, she just got drunk or lonely or something.
I can maybe see Blake coming out looking better, though not by a lot. Rorschach still came across as a fucking psycho I thought. Some of the cut prison and psychiatrist scenes would have provided more context.
Daniel, on the other hand came out a lot better in the movie. He went from being a complete doormat to effectively being the moral compass of the story.
There’s not really anything that was changed in the movie that I take real issue with but I do wonder about how they moved some of the dialog to different characters. Once I finish re-reading it, I may post about that.
Also Veidt is John Galt. ;)
Doh… sent too soon.
Or perhaps Rorschach… still, it amuses me.
It’s a bad film. I enjoyed it very much and am looking forward to seeing it again on Sunday.
3) The point that Watchmen is a deconstructionist work is lost on people. This is a real world, for some degree of real, with costumed crimefighters. Harsh beatings and curb stompings in real life can cripple and kill… what, do they think this is a comic book?
I think you’re absolutely right that that was the comic’s intent. I’m not completely convinced that was the film’s intent, however.
Other than Zach Snyder’s massive hackery and general BIG STAMPY BOOTS direction (YES, of COURSE we needed to see the blood pooling under the washroom door after Rorschach kills Big Figure because WE HADN’T WORKED OUT THAT WAS WHAT HAD HAPPENED UNTIL WE SAW THAT) my main issue was Ozymandias. In the comic, he’s carefully portrayed as the most balanced of all of the masks – he’s a rock-star type, he’s a philanthrophist, he’s warm and pleasant and down-to-earth, if somewhat lonely and isolated. So his role in the plot comes as a massive kick in the gut. In the film he’s obviously a cold, superior corporate schemer and so the twist loses a lot of its impact. I get the feeling that Rorschach’s initial visit to him in the comic was given to Dan instead to try to show Ozy being decent and friendly, but it didn’t remotely convince. Grrrrr.
Odd, I thought I’d answered this before…
@Rodafowa
While I don’t disagree with most of what you’re saying, the blood under the door in the prison isn’t a good example because that IS from the comic.