I am not sure I can make it three more weeks until Watchmen is released. I know that I'm supposed to be jaded and getting ready to indignantly complain about all the ways in which the film adaptation insults the novel, but I'm really looking forward to it.
The big red flag, of course, is having Zack "300" Snyder direct it. This is a cause for tremendous skepticism.
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The trailers, in fact, depict an alarming amount of slow-motion (as did about 97% of the running time for 300). Directors who make a living solely directing action and horror films are rarely able to make good films of any kind. Apparently nothing has been learned from the stark differences between Joel Schumaker Batman vs the Christopher Nolan version. To be fair, Darren Aronofsky was signed to direct this in 2004 and backed out, but I'm not sure why they had to make the leap from him to Mr.
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300.
The second obstacle is the fact that, when I first read this story as a younger man and when I re-read it today, it strikes me as essentially unfilmable – especially the Dr. Manhattan sequences and their time-has-no-meaning narration jumping among past, present, and future. I know that the screenplay makes some changes to the ending, to great wailing and gnashing of teeth from fanboys everywhere. Frankly I found (find) the ending neither confusing enough to require clarification nor good enough to get upset about changes. Let's face it, as much as people heap praise on the novel, the idea of three major characters (spoiler) deciding within a span of three panels to keep quiet about the plot is lame. Nobody wanted to think it over?
To argue about it? To digest this whole scheme that had just been laid before them? They just say "Yeah, I guess you're right, I'm in!?" Come on. So I think the ending was flawed enough that I don't care that the film intends to make some changes.
Bracing for this to be bad, hoping it's as good as the novel deserves. Basically if they nail Rorschach the movie will be fine. Other characters get more ink in the story and play a bigger role in its climax, but Rorschach is the key. Having confirmed that the "I'm not in here with you, you're in here with me" scene is included I'm not sure how I can be disappointed. It would be unfair to say that there was a time in my early 20s when I wanted to be Rorschach because let's be honest, I kinda still do.
J. Dryden says:
Agreed re: Rorschach. (I myself adopted a still-with-me habit of saying "Hurm" when presented with a problem.) I think for a generation of geeks, there was a phase of hostile anti-socialism of the kind that makes freshman Philosophy majors all read Ayn Rand and decide that they–*they*–are Howard Roark. We all identified with the Watchmen because, behind the masks, Rorschach was a skinny twerp, Night Owl a pudgy loser-with-the-ladies, etc. But Rorschach–who achieved popularity at the exact same time as the other short, angry misfit, Wolverine–coincidence?!?!–was special. Even if the handcuffed-to-the-radiator bit was nakedly stolen from the first MAD MAX movie.
peggy says:
Yeah. Every time I watch a trailer I try to stop hyperventilating long enough to gain some perspective, but…
Yeah. Midnight showing at IMAX, here I come!
Matthew says:
In the days when I used to read more LJs, it was always pretty easy for me to tell when somebody had picked up Watchmen, because their blog posts would start being composed of short, stark sentences with subjects and verbs missing.
I did it, too. Moore really nailed that voice, and sometimes it will just creep back into your head. I loved how in the issue focusing on Rorshach, the arrangement of panels was symmetrical from the first page to the last. But again, that's something that you can't really do in a movie.
I'm expecting it to be bad – and not just in a "I'm a fanboy and a whiner and this is different than the comic!" sort of way. I'm sure it will be bad from that perspective.
David Recine says:
I have some hope for Watchmen. I couldn't even bring myself to watch V for Vendetta, knowing that they changed it from a Cold War period piece to a War on Terror Period Piece (and I would argue that the two conflicts are very different in spit of the obvious parallels), and having it leaked to me by a friend
(SPOILERS FOR THOSE WHO HAVEN'T SEEN V FOR VENDETTA)
that in the movie, the disaster that led to the Fascists seizing power was a staged disaster by the rulers of England. This completely changes the nature of the compelling villain from the book, making it, IMHO, less compelling.
Watchmen remains intact in its original time frame, and the characters seem— from the glimpses I've caught— to have retained their integrity. I think Zack Snyder will do just fine. I hated 300, but it was because I hate Frank Miller, a neocon and a creepily adolescent "dirty old man". In every world Miller creates these days, all the men are unstoppable killing machines, and all the women are bloodthirsty almost-naked sluts. If Zack Snyder can remain faithful to such a flimsy world in the interest of serving the material, hopefully he can remain faithful to a source that gives him so much more to work with.