Funnily enough, I’ve only just seen it. I enjoyed it, as I’m a fan of the graphic novel, but I can see why it the film was a bit of a flop - too long, and adheres too slavishly to trying to make every scene like a panel from the graphic novel. This makes it curiously static-feeling.
Films based on comics have to be interpretations grounded in cinematic tropes, not attempts to bring to life inked pages you can hold in your hand.
I think there’s a sort of confusion people have about comics, that they are “filmic”. In a way, yes they are, but the manner in which they suggest motion and the passage of time is its own language that simply does NOT translate well to the big screen IMHO.
A storyboard is a very different beast from a comic.
A three-part video interview of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons from 1991 that also touches on the filmic touches of Watchmen. The good stuff starts at 4:10. Originally an episode of the Canadian show Prisoners of Gravity.
The ending of the film makes very little sense. It may be streamlined but when you logically think it out, there is no way Dr. Manhattan should be the scapegoat.
I’ll check out the interview in a bit but Watchmen never felt anything like a film while reading it. It was 11 chapters of people talking, then a lot of blood and gore (which they totally pussied out in the film) in the big shock moments in the end.
And given that you need the prose end points to make sense of motivations and a lot of plot details (including the original ending), the film dropped the ball in a lot of ways. I have the Blu-ray Directors Cut with me, so I’ll give it another shot soon.
Being 45 and having watched Bad News Bears and, far more importantly, Breaking Away as a young boy, I loved that Jackie Earle Haley played that part. He did a great job with the role, and Rorschach is definitely the most interesting of the Watchmen.
I absolutely love that story told by Alan Moore (it’s either in that PoG clip or the documentary by Jonathan Ross) where he says he heard that Ditko had been asked about Watchmen (the graphic novel). Apparently Ditko didn’t know what his interlocutor was talking about at first, then the guy said “you know, the one with the Rorschach character”.
Apparently, Ditko said “Oh yeah, Rorschach. He’s just like Mr A - only he’s insane”.
I recently re-watched this after seeing it in the theaters originally and two things bothered me much more today, than in 2009:
Rorschach outright killing the guy with the dogs. Cleaver to the face is so painfully grotesque. I felt the comic dealt with this in a superbly Rorshach-y way: cuff him to the stove with a cleaver left nearby, and set the place on fire to watch it burn. Tit for tat, not sudden murdery violence. This change felt out of place and just unnecessary when the comic gave you a better storyline to film!
The ending, of course. Why pin it on Dr Manhattan when the faux alien invasion was so much… more inventive and interesting and befitting of Ozymandias genius? Budget and time issue maybe?
Still I am impressed this got made at all, it did not suck in any way (in fact it’s pretty good considering the book was considered nearly unfilmable), and other than some pretty terrible acting in spots – man did Silk Spectre’s mom ever chew up the damn scenery – I enjoyed it the second time, too.
Regarding point 2: because people for some reason think that the alien invasion is goofy and implausible and it’s better to make a sweeping alteration to the themes and characters of the source material. I don’t get it either.
Funny how this caused me to look at the wikipedia article, where it says the alien invasion is the same plit device of an episode of the Outer Limits (with even a shout out to in the comic.)
According to the same article Moore’s unwillingness to make an effort to come up with a new idea prompted his editor to quit.
I think the change was made because of 9/11. It was too soon after the attack, and to show New York decimated with thousands of dead bodies strewn about was a little too much for the people behind the film version.
I much prefer it too. Less goofy in a world that aside from Manhattan is devoid of the supernatural/aliens, etc. even though those elements are common in comics.
And there was still a big explosion, so that wasn’t the reason for the change, although they didn’t show the graphic effects f the explosion. It was too sanitized, really.
Definitely not. Much better, as it really feels right with all of the public tension around Dr. Manhattan. I thought the aliens thing was a bit WTF in the book.
