Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Watchmen


#1 reason why I didn't like it: The graphic novel does not include any sound effects (biff, pow, zap) or thought bubbles as part of its effort to portray a more realistic world than normal comic books. Within the first minute, however, the movie breaks out the standard comic book movie Matrix-style slow-motion, thus completely negating the central idea that these are real people in a real world. While the graphic novel redefined what a comic book could do, the movie just follows the rules of comic book movies.
Also, regarding the above mentioned "schlong" - In the graphic novel, Dr. Manhattan's nudity is symbolic of his distancing himself from humanity. He is not shown completely nude until after we see him leave Earth. Zack Snyder, however, is swinging it around from the Doctor's first scene. Visionary director? Please. This guy does not get it. Warner Brothers should have called me.

I liked the changed ending and the amount of gore, but those didn't save it from being an utter disappointment. Also I wish I had seen it with a crowd of comic book nerds instead of a mainstream audience looking for an action movie (which it was marketed as, which also makes me angry).

3 comments:

Philip Morgan said...

Great review!

Anonymous said...

I have a lot of problems with it, but I still think it accomplished more than I thought possible.

I like a lot of the changes, actually. I didn't really understand why some things were over explained that felt unneccesary, while other major plot points were completely left obscured. They didn't even try to explain what the New Frontiersmen is.

I think the movie will be appreciated more over time.

Mangry said...

I enjoyed it. My biggest complaint was lackluster performances of Silk Spectre II and Nite Owl II. But the birth of Dr. Manhattan sequence was awesome, nearly panel for panel.

As for the credit sequence, I thought it was the highlight of the movie. Looked amazing, set the tone, and summarized a lot of the background information that was cut due to time.

I think that if the acting had been better it would have been as good a Watchmen movie as anyone could create.