I was hoping that giving Snyder a different base material would be a good mitigating factor -- Alan Moore, while not perfect, is certainly less of a self-congratulatory wanker than Frank Miller -- but he still went ahead and pulled out all of the gory, "sexy", "action" stuff (can't use enough scare quotes!), and left out all the moral confusion and ambivalence. Everything that was supposed to be super distasteful in the comic (e.g., the rape, the killings in Vietnam, Ozymandias's "final solution", etc.) came out much shinier in the movie
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Yes to everything in your comment. Shinier is a good way to describe it. There was this layer of surreality over the whole movie that separated the viewer from the on-screen events and their consequences.
I also mostly enjoyed watching the movie at the time, and then walked out with a growing sense of unease. And the ending -- most of the characters just seemed to accept, upon reflection, that Ozymandias' solution was a good one. Where was the overwhelming sense of defeat and horror in Dan and Laurie? I felt like I was supposed to sympathize with Jon's reasoning, which should not happen -- the point is that he's so far beyond human that humanity's moral codes are irrelevant to him. He's going off to create new life, for chrissake. In this context, Rorschach's final moments seemed absurd instead of defiant and righteous.
If I ever wanted to see a movie version of The Authority, that desire has now died a violent death. I don't really want to think about how Hollywood might treat a gay superhero couple
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... if you have more free time, I totally want to horn in on it!
I think my saddest realization about Watchmen is that while I am perfectly capable of watching/remembering it selectively and re-editing it in my mind, I will always remember the sounds of appreciative audience reactions to scenes and visuals I found unnecessary/repugnant/missing the damned point, and I feel once more alone in the so-called mainstream SF/F culture.
At least they got Rorschach right, because he was the only one who made any damned sense and knew what was going on. I agree that his death was rendered senseless and absurd by the relatively easy acceptance of Ozymandias's plan by the others. I also agree that The Authority would probably be butchered, so more's the pity.
My humanities TA hinted that we should go see The Watchmen if we could, because of how Alan Moore and Nietzsche are connected, something something. I only half paid attention. :) In either case, he wanted to be able to talk about it in class. And while I haven't sought out any information about the film, and to be honest know next to nothing about the original comics, this post? Kinda makes me want to not see it. At all.
Also, congrats on your change of Major? Exciting and new and shiny, oooh. :)
The Watchmen graphic novel has Nietzschean connections, even going so far as to have a chapter called "The Abyss Gazes Also", a reference to the Nietzsche quotation used in that section. (Each chapter has a different quotation.) The comic has some existentialist angst and nihilist themes, but they're nowhere near as prevalent in the movie, which makes the film nearly worthless in comparison. I think seeing the movie is worthwhile, but only for the production elements, and only after reading the comic. (And reading the comic is definitely worth it. It's one of the greatest pieces of literature of the last century, IMHO.)
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I also mostly enjoyed watching the movie at the time, and then walked out with a growing sense of unease. And the ending -- most of the characters just seemed to accept, upon reflection, that Ozymandias' solution was a good one. Where was the overwhelming sense of defeat and horror in Dan and Laurie? I felt like I was supposed to sympathize with Jon's reasoning, which should not happen -- the point is that he's so far beyond human that humanity's moral codes are irrelevant to him. He's going off to create new life, for chrissake. In this context, Rorschach's final moments seemed absurd instead of defiant and righteous.
If I ever wanted to see a movie version of The Authority, that desire has now died a violent death. I don't really want to think about how Hollywood might treat a gay superhero couple ( ... )
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I think my saddest realization about Watchmen is that while I am perfectly capable of watching/remembering it selectively and re-editing it in my mind, I will always remember the sounds of appreciative audience reactions to scenes and visuals I found unnecessary/repugnant/missing the damned point, and I feel once more alone in the so-called mainstream SF/F culture.
At least they got Rorschach right, because he was the only one who made any damned sense and knew what was going on. I agree that his death was rendered senseless and absurd by the relatively easy acceptance of Ozymandias's plan by the others. I also agree that The Authority would probably be butchered, so more's the pity.
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Also, congrats on your change of Major? Exciting and new and shiny, oooh. :)
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Thanks! I am so ridiculously pleased. :D
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