Oh noes! No another Watchmen review...
So. Unadaptable, hmm?
That's what people always talked about Watchmen. Well, I think they really missed the whole point of the “adaptation” word itself. Comics, books, movies, cartoons... there's all different kinds of media and nobody really should expect that a tv series can do the same work of a book or even that a graphic novel can works like a movie.
Nevertheless that’s what I keep reading in a lot of reviews all over the Internet. Some fans keep complain about all those little details (ok, not so little sometimes) that Mr. Snyder just “cut off” for the movie. What can I say? Even those ones have one (or even more) excellent reason to be like that: to improved the understanding of the public, to make the movie "look" more attractive to a large number of people etc. You should know that we, “true” fans, can be so many, but just not enough to pay for the cost of that kind of production by ourselves. So, I know the movie was made by a Watchmen fan and I’m sure he did the best he could. And I think he did a good and very honest job.
Personally, of course, there’s a lot of things from the comics that I would keep if I could and a few another that I will never allowed to see the day light. But I understand the point of what an adaptation means and I can put all those things I don’t like on side and still can sit there and just enjoy my time at theater.
I read Watchmen for fun, not to seek for a meaning of life. And I went to watch the Watchmen movie for the same damn reason. Rorschach can be my favorite Watchmen character, but it doesn’t mean that I share he’s straight point view about life and moral. And I’ll judge people who act like that. (Yeah. That’s mean that I judge Alan Moore as well. Don’t get me wrong. I love the man. I think he’s a freaking genius and I envy each piece of his talent... but I also knows he can be an HUGE ass sometimes. You can call me a bad fan if you like to. I could not care less.)
So, since I think I made my point, I can say that I loved the Watchmen adaptation. I really enjoy it. Every single minute. Every slow motion action. Every sappy song choose for an emotional moment. I probably laugh at some scenes that not made for laughs and roll my eyes sometimes, but, what hell, if even the graphic itself novel can’t be perfect (and I don’t think it is) who’s expecting the movie will be? I’m not.
So, let’s make some lists. Lists are good and easier. [And I bet Adrian will agreed with me. :)]
HELL YEAH
(Or: God, I fucking loved it!)
1) The cast. I think everyone did a great job. JEH was just fucking AWESOME as Rorschach. Patrick did a great Daniel (even if I missed his belly XD). Jeffrey Dean Morgan almost make me liked The Comedian (and Malin did the same for Laurie, btw). Gugino was gorgeous as Sally (she’s my favorite Minutemen! \o\). Crudup did an ethereal Dr. Manhattan and that’s fits him, IMO. Hm, a lot of people complain about Goode as Adrian. Well. I HATE Ozymandias with all my heart and I have to say: I liked him on movie (and maybe it’s because he’s not so boring like he is on the GN).
2) The whole opening scene. “The Times They Are A-Changin’” was a just great choice and the way they did resume the Rise And The Fall of the Costumed Heroes just owns me. I feel my heart break a bit by the time the little Walter shows up and just loved Silhouette taking that nurse in her arms and kissing her. Also: HJ and Captain Metropolis petting each other at Retirement Sally’s party was made of win!
3) The Comedian VS The Mask Killer: OMFG. That's freaking ORGASMIC. That was the book getting a fucking life. I can barely breath or even blink in the whole sequence.
4) JEH. Yeah, he deserves a line just for him. He makes me shiver more by himself than wearing Rorschach’s mask. That scene when he look up to Big Figure after take down his second boy and says “Your move!”. FUCK!!! HIS EYES FOR GOD’S SAKE! I almost feel sorry by the time he recovery his mask. :/
5) Blake’s funeral. “The Sound Of Silence” was a low blow, you know. I already loved that sequence in the comic book and watching it with that soundtrack and all stuff was just made of awesome. The joke by the end makes me feel so sad. D: Remembers me The Killing Joke, for some reason...
6) The whole break prison sequence. Rorschach is just so far from words. The scene at the refectory was even better that in the comics. He shouting “I'm not locked in here with you, YOU'RE locked in here with ME” makes my inner fangirl squeeing like crazy. And he’s breaking that guy fingers makes me grab my sit for good.
7) Rorschach’s death. Man. Who the fuck cares if it’s a bit different of the GN? Daniel watched it happens. I always wondering how he would be react to Rorschach’s death and I'm not disappointed. He falling over his kneels and screaming “NOOOOO!” (Learn, Anakin, learn!) and then running over Adrian and beating the shit out of him. That’s freaking awesome and I squee for each single punch! \o\ (Retribution, yeah!)
8) “Maybe I was keeping an eye on you...” (...) “You were never that sentimental.” -> Come on! You know I ship those two. (Thank you, Mr. Z!)
GET LOST!
(Or: I can live without it)
1) Laurie stabbing one of those punks. I don't get that. I mean, we know she isn't a killer, man.
2) Daniel and Laurie's sex scene. You have to agreed that one was not even closer to “sexy”. That was freaking hilarious. “Hallelujah” was just the final touch to burst me (and the whole theater) into laughs. I want to believed that was intentional.
... Hmmm. I can’t think about nothing more. But I probably will.
THINGS I HAVE MISSED
1) Rorschach’s background. That was so fast. I hope the director’s cut makes real justice to him. :/
2) Rorschach and his sugar cubes. Yeah. I wish he can stolen some more food. The poor guy needs to eat, I mean.
3) Laurie’s cigarettes. Come on! She setting fire on Archie is not the same without that nice touch. XD
4) Rorschach right-winged and the “New Frontiersman”.
5) Daniel’s belly. I liked that detail of him, okay?
6) Sally kissing Minutemen's photographic. (One of my favorites parts of the GN D:)
7) The shrink and his wife fighting because of Rorschach.
8) Rorschach attacking Adrian with a fork. XD
9) Yeah. Pretty much I missed is about Rorschach. Sue me.
THINGS I LIKE TO TALK ABOUT
1) The Blue Penis. Omgtheydidit! [/yes, I’m five]
2) The fight scenes. I just love fight scenes. But I think some of that can be cut by half without any loss (and replacement those by a bit more Rorschach, of course!).
3) The Almost-Rape-Scene: I like to Sally punching Blake! She’s a fighter, man. That fits her.
4) I can’t believe they actually make those costumes (specially Nite Owl II and Silk Spectral II) looks a bit less ridiculous. I just can’t figure out if it’s a good thing or not.
5) I could not care less about the absent Giant Squid. To tell you the truth I think her (?) design is really gross. It’s a vagina, please. (even if it's the point. I still don't like it)
6) I’ll watch this movie so many times that maybe I can beat my record for “The Two Towers” (thirteen times just on theaters). ETA: eight times so far (03/30).
7) Bring it on, fandom. I'm not afraid of you. I know how you works. ;-)
D.
Ps. I wrote about 1.300 words here and I probably made some unforgivable grammar mistakes. Sorry about them. Be my guest and tell me if you like to.
That's what people always talked about Watchmen. Well, I think they really missed the whole point of the “adaptation” word itself. Comics, books, movies, cartoons... there's all different kinds of media and nobody really should expect that a tv series can do the same work of a book or even that a graphic novel can works like a movie.
Nevertheless that’s what I keep reading in a lot of reviews all over the Internet. Some fans keep complain about all those little details (ok, not so little sometimes) that Mr. Snyder just “cut off” for the movie. What can I say? Even those ones have one (or even more) excellent reason to be like that: to improved the understanding of the public, to make the movie "look" more attractive to a large number of people etc. You should know that we, “true” fans, can be so many, but just not enough to pay for the cost of that kind of production by ourselves. So, I know the movie was made by a Watchmen fan and I’m sure he did the best he could. And I think he did a good and very honest job.
Personally, of course, there’s a lot of things from the comics that I would keep if I could and a few another that I will never allowed to see the day light. But I understand the point of what an adaptation means and I can put all those things I don’t like on side and still can sit there and just enjoy my time at theater.
I read Watchmen for fun, not to seek for a meaning of life. And I went to watch the Watchmen movie for the same damn reason. Rorschach can be my favorite Watchmen character, but it doesn’t mean that I share he’s straight point view about life and moral. And I’ll judge people who act like that. (Yeah. That’s mean that I judge Alan Moore as well. Don’t get me wrong. I love the man. I think he’s a freaking genius and I envy each piece of his talent... but I also knows he can be an HUGE ass sometimes. You can call me a bad fan if you like to. I could not care less.)
So, since I think I made my point, I can say that I loved the Watchmen adaptation. I really enjoy it. Every single minute. Every slow motion action. Every sappy song choose for an emotional moment. I probably laugh at some scenes that not made for laughs and roll my eyes sometimes, but, what hell, if even the graphic itself novel can’t be perfect (and I don’t think it is) who’s expecting the movie will be? I’m not.
So, let’s make some lists. Lists are good and easier. [And I bet Adrian will agreed with me. :)]
HELL YEAH
(Or: God, I fucking loved it!)
1) The cast. I think everyone did a great job. JEH was just fucking AWESOME as Rorschach. Patrick did a great Daniel (even if I missed his belly XD). Jeffrey Dean Morgan almost make me liked The Comedian (and Malin did the same for Laurie, btw). Gugino was gorgeous as Sally (she’s my favorite Minutemen! \o\). Crudup did an ethereal Dr. Manhattan and that’s fits him, IMO. Hm, a lot of people complain about Goode as Adrian. Well. I HATE Ozymandias with all my heart and I have to say: I liked him on movie (and maybe it’s because he’s not so boring like he is on the GN).
2) The whole opening scene. “The Times They Are A-Changin’” was a just great choice and the way they did resume the Rise And The Fall of the Costumed Heroes just owns me. I feel my heart break a bit by the time the little Walter shows up and just loved Silhouette taking that nurse in her arms and kissing her. Also: HJ and Captain Metropolis petting each other at Retirement Sally’s party was made of win!
3) The Comedian VS The Mask Killer: OMFG. That's freaking ORGASMIC. That was the book getting a fucking life. I can barely breath or even blink in the whole sequence.
4) JEH. Yeah, he deserves a line just for him. He makes me shiver more by himself than wearing Rorschach’s mask. That scene when he look up to Big Figure after take down his second boy and says “Your move!”. FUCK!!! HIS EYES FOR GOD’S SAKE! I almost feel sorry by the time he recovery his mask. :/
5) Blake’s funeral. “The Sound Of Silence” was a low blow, you know. I already loved that sequence in the comic book and watching it with that soundtrack and all stuff was just made of awesome. The joke by the end makes me feel so sad. D: Remembers me The Killing Joke, for some reason...
6) The whole break prison sequence. Rorschach is just so far from words. The scene at the refectory was even better that in the comics. He shouting “I'm not locked in here with you, YOU'RE locked in here with ME” makes my inner fangirl squeeing like crazy. And he’s breaking that guy fingers makes me grab my sit for good.
7) Rorschach’s death. Man. Who the fuck cares if it’s a bit different of the GN? Daniel watched it happens. I always wondering how he would be react to Rorschach’s death and I'm not disappointed. He falling over his kneels and screaming “NOOOOO!” (Learn, Anakin, learn!) and then running over Adrian and beating the shit out of him. That’s freaking awesome and I squee for each single punch! \o\ (Retribution, yeah!)
8) “Maybe I was keeping an eye on you...” (...) “You were never that sentimental.” -> Come on! You know I ship those two. (Thank you, Mr. Z!)
GET LOST!
(Or: I can live without it)
1) Laurie stabbing one of those punks. I don't get that. I mean, we know she isn't a killer, man.
2) Daniel and Laurie's sex scene. You have to agreed that one was not even closer to “sexy”. That was freaking hilarious. “Hallelujah” was just the final touch to burst me (and the whole theater) into laughs. I want to believed that was intentional.
... Hmmm. I can’t think about nothing more. But I probably will.
THINGS I HAVE MISSED
1) Rorschach’s background. That was so fast. I hope the director’s cut makes real justice to him. :/
2) Rorschach and his sugar cubes. Yeah. I wish he can stolen some more food. The poor guy needs to eat, I mean.
3) Laurie’s cigarettes. Come on! She setting fire on Archie is not the same without that nice touch. XD
4) Rorschach right-winged and the “New Frontiersman”.
5) Daniel’s belly. I liked that detail of him, okay?
6) Sally kissing Minutemen's photographic. (One of my favorites parts of the GN D:)
7) The shrink and his wife fighting because of Rorschach.
8) Rorschach attacking Adrian with a fork. XD
9) Yeah. Pretty much I missed is about Rorschach. Sue me.
THINGS I LIKE TO TALK ABOUT
1) The Blue Penis. Omgtheydidit! [/yes, I’m five]
2) The fight scenes. I just love fight scenes. But I think some of that can be cut by half without any loss (and replacement those by a bit more Rorschach, of course!).
3) The Almost-Rape-Scene: I like to Sally punching Blake! She’s a fighter, man. That fits her.
4) I can’t believe they actually make those costumes (specially Nite Owl II and Silk Spectral II) looks a bit less ridiculous. I just can’t figure out if it’s a good thing or not.
5) I could not care less about the absent Giant Squid. To tell you the truth I think her (?) design is really gross. It’s a vagina, please. (even if it's the point. I still don't like it)
6) I’ll watch this movie so many times that maybe I can beat my record for “The Two Towers” (thirteen times just on theaters). ETA: eight times so far (03/30).
7) Bring it on, fandom. I'm not afraid of you. I know how you works. ;-)
D.
Ps. I wrote about 1.300 words here and I probably made some unforgivable grammar mistakes. Sorry about them. Be my guest and tell me if you like to.