june gloom on 19/3/2009 at 22:24
My 3 word review:
WORTH. THE. WAIT.
Inline Image:
http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t185/dethtoll/clap.gifOkay a few more words since some of you like that:
While I do think Snyder went a bit overboard with the violence (that bit in the alleyway was ridiculous) it wasn't that much of a detriment to the film.
As a longtime fan of the graphic novel let me be the first to say that I actually prefer the Atomic Meatspin ending.
The opening credits were a brilliant way of filling in the historical aspects of the story.
Dreiberg/Nite Owl II was expertly cast, and Rorschach was as intense as he should've been without being overwrought.
If you're familiar with the book it's obvious some things were missing or otherwise changed (for example, Manhattan showing up outside Archimedes rather than in Dreiberg's living room)- but these changes are really minor and I doubt keeping it closer to the original would've added much.
Snyder's fetish for slo-mo is a bit irritating in this film but at the very least it's only really prevalant in the very first scene.
Overall, very impressed with the film, even with the knowledge that things were cut or changed. I thought it was as faithful to the book as a movie was ever going to get.
Vivian on 19/3/2009 at 23:40
It's been the usual combo of 'no its great' from people I half trust and 'seriously, it fucking sucks' from people I trust. I'm going to wait for it to come out on DVD.
Scots Taffer on 20/3/2009 at 00:15
It's a definite cinema movie, Viv.
Fafhrd on 20/3/2009 at 03:23
Most of the 'srsly, it fucking sucks' people are the ones that want to have Alan Moore's demon snake god babies.
Thirith on 20/3/2009 at 09:27
I want to have Alan Moore's demon snake god babies, and I think the film is definitely a worthwhile effort. It gets some things very right, many things fairly right, makes a couple of stupid choices and has a handful of downright idiotic bits - but on the whole it's the first AM adaptation that *as an adaptation* (and as a film in most cases) isn't an utter waste of celluloid IMO.
ignatios on 20/3/2009 at 14:24
I saw it last night on the IMAX screen and thought it was a brilliant adaptation. Rorschach was fantastic.
Stitch on 20/3/2009 at 14:43
I want to take the time to write up a proper full on review at some point, but my short take is "everything Scots said, plus a few additional complaints."
Having said that, overall I enjoyed it and all things Rorschach were utterly perfect.
Thirith on 20/3/2009 at 16:23
Has anyone here already checked out the Curse of the Black Freighter/Under the Hood DVD/Blu-ray? If so, how is it?
doctorfrog on 21/3/2009 at 06:02
Just saw it in the theater today, and I really enjoyed it. I'm not a fan of comics or graphic novels all that much, but I did really enjoy reading Watchmen around five years ago, if you want to judge my bias.
I agree with Scots, this is worth seeing in the theater, in spite of its problems, or rather, the problems that I perceived in it.
I did not like many of the changes that were implemented in the film. The music selections were oddly bombastic and stuck out like sore thumbs (K.C. and the Sunshine Band?), the heroes were so acrobatic, my girlfriend was confused as to whether they were ordinary folk with Batman-esque levels of training or superheroes, since they fought like X-Men in the Matrix. The ending was disappointing and soured me on the last half hour, even though I knew it was coming.
It's the things in between that gave me delight. There are hundreds of little winks and nods snuck in that even a casual fan could pick out. These are the concessions stuck in for those of us who could have done without the extended fight scenes and other mass-audience compromises. Things like how the two masked men on the far right of the 1940 photo looked at each other, and the perfect way they emulated the effect of a policeman kicking Rorschach in the face on his mask (like the comic, a series of exploding exclamation points).
Also, I was delighted with seeing all my favorite scenes shot in live action. Not expecting a worshipful big screen conversion, I came for a live version of the best tidbits of the comic, and not one of these scenes disappointed, even with some of the action being over-brutal and in bullet time. Rorschach's kidnapping case etched in horrific real time. Rorschach in prison: every moment was marvelous. Laurie and Dan getting off on wearing costumes and beating up people. The Comedian, pretty much in everything.
The film also included a large number of things that the comic hinted toward, but were never drawn on the page. A good number of these appeared in the long opening credit montage, and I appreciated them all.
I wasn't expecting this movie to be the embodiment of the comic. I wasn't even expecting it to be I was expecting it to do things that cinema can do, that the comic can't. For example, the Comedian felt very alive in this movie, in spite of being dead. Somehow, in the comic, he always seemed past tense. I liked the change. (Aside: to hell with Wolverine: Origins, I'd go see Comedian: Origins.)
I enjoyed it mightily, even when I was disappointed, and I was disappointed pretty frequently, but more enjoyment was always a few frames away.
