UKRM film club - I watched Watchmen

It's probably fair to say that Watchmen has had more pre-production problems
than any other film that spring readily to mind. Approximately 715 people
have been attached to direct, there was a strong body of opinion that the
source graphic novel was unfilmable and its creator, Alan Moore, insisted
that his name was withdrawn from the film ... although, to be fair, he does
so with every film based on his work. The point is that we should be
grateful that *something* has finally made it to the big screen.

For those unfamiliar with the plot the film is set in America in 1985, 8
years after costumed heroes were forced to retire following a police strike.
One former hero, who continued to work directly for the government, is
beaten up and thrown out of the window of his penthouse apartment and his
murder is investigated by Rorschach, the only hero who refused to either
retire or work for the government. Rorschach forms a theory that somebody
is murdering the former heroes and warns his colleagues, eventually
convincing two of them - Nite Owl and Silk Spectre - to investigate with
him. The background to their quest is mounting tension between the US and
Russia, with the doomsday clock counting down towards midnight - all out
nuclear war. Ultimately their investigation takes them to places they'd
rather not have gone and threatens to destroy the whole world, as well as
their own morally black & white worlds.

The original graphic novel is subtle, complex and incredibly detailed and
the challenge was always going to be capturing that on film. Probably the
kindest thing that can be said is that Zack Snyder has done probably the
best job that could be done and it's a shame that the film manages to fail
on so many levels.

Aside from a slight change to the conspiracy which underlies the plot the
film sticks slavishly to the source material, but a lot of it had to be
trimmed to fit in to the, already lengthy, 162 minute running time. Bear in
mind that Terry Gilliam said that, in his opinion, the original was only
filmable as a 5-hour mini-series and you get a feel for how much has been
lost. Most of the omissions aren't serious, but they do create two big
problems - firstly I'm convinced that this film must make no sense to
anybody who hasn't read the graphic novel and, secondly, a lot of the
critical scenes are rushed and don't have sufficient build up to create the
impact that they are supposed to. In a way you end up wondering if Snyder
missed the point of the graphic novel a bit.

Without wishing to give away too much the normal fare for superhero comics
is that the hero finds the baddies, beats them up and hands them over to the
police. In Watchmen Rorschach, Nite Owl and Silk Spectre uncover somebody
who has committed a crime of global enormity and then realise that they must
keep their discovery secret in order to protect the whole world. The
heroes, who intrinsically believe that the ends justify the means, discover
somebody who caries this dictum to its horrific conclusion. This is the
highlight of the novel, but unfortunately the film rushes through it with
such indecent haste and with too little foreshadowing to really allow the
audience to grasp what has happened. It's possible that repeat watches will
improve this (certainly the graphic novel has to be read more than once to
get it all), but you wonder how many people are going to bother.

Aside from a few rough patches in the acting my only other gripe was the
level of violence. The graphic novel is reasonably violent, but the film
turns the dial up to 11, quite unnecessarily in my opinion.

On the plus side the visualisation is wonderful throughout the film - it
looks beautiful, the CGI is well done and the New York of the graphic novel
is perfectly recreated.

Ultimately this is a film that would probably have worked if it hadn't had
to live up to the towering heights of the source material. If you haven't
read the graphic novel then probably a lot of this film will make little
sense, if you've read it and love it then you'd probably go to see this film
anyway and if you've read the novel and didn't like it then ... well, I've
never met anybody like you before.

--
AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas)
Aprilia RSV-1000R, Honda VFR750F-L
BOTAFOT#2,ITJWTFO#6,UKRMRM#1/13a,MCT#1,DFV#2,SKoGA#0 (and KotL)
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The speccy Geordie twat.

 

I thought that V for Vendetta and Sin City were mildly entertaining
films. I've not read the comics, though.

 

I liked V for Vendetta and Sin City.

Of which the latter came closest, to my mind, to capturing
the feel and style of that kind of, erm, literature.

 

The old one, about the giant robot? The one set in the commie-paranoia
era? Loved that.

 

No, this one:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0371746/

I've just received it from LoveFilm, so I shall give it a go over the
weekend.

 

Mostly consisting of gay fascists.

 

I've not read "300" and I've only tried one of the "Sin City" graphic
novels, but I thought both films were quite good. Then again Frank Miller
has a much more straightforward style than Alan Moore.

While we're on Frank Miller I thought "Daredevil"[1] was reasonable as
well - not great, but watchable, certainly better than the Spiderman films
or the dreadful Fantastic Four films.

"V for Vendetta" is also good - it loses a lot of the complexity of the
original, but updates it rather well, I thought. I especially like the bit
where, if you squint, you'd swear it looks like Natalie Portman is trying to
act.

[1] Frank Miller was the original creator of Daredevil and returned to the
comic in the mid-80s for an excellent short series that would be well worth
seeing in film form.

--
AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas)
Aprilia RSV-1000R, Honda VFR750F-L
BOTAFOT#2,ITJWTFO#6,UKRMRM#1/13a,MCT#1,DFV#2,SKoGA#0 (and KotL)
BotToS#5,SBS#25,IbW#34, DS#5, COSOC# Suspended, KotTFSTR#
The speccy Geordie twat.

 

oh, Sin City was pretty good.

 

Doesn't it just.

Far too lengthy for a film that doesn't work, particularly if:

Well, I hadn't read the comic, and I think I was able to figure out and
keep up with the plot, just, however I was the only one from our group
of 11 that feels they did.

Some of the (few) ultraviolent pieces were just way over the top - I'm
positive that implied violence would have worked much more effectively.

 

oh, wait, and "Road to Perdition".

And "A History of Violence" - I thought that was excellent.

 

I've not seen either of those. I did enjoy Tank Girl which I thought
kept its comic book style quite well.

 

sure, though let me get these off my chest too:

Blade
Bullet-proof Monk (hey, it's corny, but I enjoyed it)
Men in Black (ditto)
Mystery Men (err, ditto)
Spawn

I actually even quite liked the movie version of Judge Dredd (though I
know this puts me into a very small minority)

Also, I see Frank Miller's "Ronin" is in pre-production - that has the
potential to be pretty good.

 

Watched Kung Fu Hustle t'other night - possibly the most bizarre film
I've ever seen. Bloody entertaining though.


--
Krusty

'03 Tiger 955i
'02 MV Senna (for sale) '96 Tiger (for sale)
'79 Fantic Hiro 250 (for sale) '81 Corvette (for sale)

 

God that was awful. Practically the only film i've considered walking
out of half-way through.

Her 'acting' was excruciating to watch.

Paul.

 

Try to watch it without getting the urge to kick the telly in.

HTH

Paul.

 

if you enjoyed it, try Shaolin Soccer.

 

whereas I think the way it subtly subverts the mainstream form is a
perfect example of a director at the top of his game.

 

Heh, that's *exactly* what one of my minions said when I mentioned it.

--
Krusty

'03 Tiger 955i
'02 MV Senna (for sale) '96 Tiger (for sale)
'79 Fantic Hiro 250 (for sale) '81 Corvette (for sale)

 

That was The Iron Giant, no?