CUSTODIO IPSOS CUSTODES
Two years worth of Latin and all I can quite definitively tell is that that's not right at all. Oh well. Watch (ahem) me try and be clever anyway.
So I read the GN before watching the movie. It's not like an integrity thing; I've got none, really, and hey, I saw V for Vendetta, own it, even, and have no desire at all to read the GN. But I liked it; liked it a hell of a lot more than I was expecting to, really. It's uneven, in terms of things I appreciate (certain storylines I find pointless and cliche), but the things I loved about it I really loved, so I figured, the movie's probably going to be pretty okay, given that everyone says it sticks pretty close to the book.
And the movie is pretty okay. More than, because it cut some of those things that I found pointless and cliche (although it added a couple, but nothing's perfect). The title sequence, though, was one of my absolute favorite things, although I'm not quite sure how much people who haven't read the GN would have appreciated. But just the style of it was amazing; the song choice, the montage of not-quite-stills, all of it. The "Happy Retirement Sally" or whatever it was, with the table set up like the Last Supper? Loved it. Want it as a wallpaper, almost. And the look of all the characters then was just amazing; I was particularly fond of Silhouette, I have to say, and her girlfriend. Even though the poor girl doesn't get so much as a panel in the Graphic Novel (as far as I remember) I was always kind of intrigued by her and...well, there's something about seeing people as these characters that's even more affecting. But I'll get to that in a minute.
One of the few things that made me a little sad was how small a role Hollis had it in, but I think it's understandable; the movie was long as it was, and they managed to make all the little sessions he and Dan had not as necessary. And it did after all save him from the fate he gets in the GN, which I was incredibly thankful for. Because I adored Hollis in that way you come to adore grandparents or older people you become friendly with; you realize that they're a little racist, a little set in their ways, but good people, basically, and have to appreciate that about them.
One of the things that I found utterly, kind of hilariously, fantastic, was just how damn slashy the whole thing was. I mean, the Nite Owl/Rorschach stuff is mildly there in the GN, even though as I've heard it said, Walter loves Dan too much to want to have sex him. But oh my god, the movie. Not even just the Nite Owl/Rorschach stuff (which aww, in a sense, and *sniff*, in an other because of the end), the Dan/Adrian?! My god! That scene in the office? Slasher's gold, my friends. Totally out of left field. But yeah, all of them. Doin' it. Poor Laurie.
What else, what else? Oh yes. I'm a fan of little moments, in general. Not things that are big, plot-driving events, just a look here and there, little snarky reference to something, poke at current events, that kind of thing. One of my favorites in the GN, which didn't make the movie (or maybe did, but you wouldn't have heard it over the sound of Bob Dylan) was when Dr. Manhattan met JFK. JFK asks him what it's like to be a superhero; Dr. Manhattan in turn tells him that he ought to know. That gave me the warm and fuzzies, I won't lie. And I got marginally fonder of Alan Moore because of it. Anyway, the point being: there were a couple of those minor moments in the movie that I really did get a kick out of.
1) The "Ride of the Valkyries" for the Vietnam sequence. Apocalypse Now references are sometimes over done, but I liked it.
2) The joke about Ronald Reagan running for president at the end; in the GN, which was published in the '80s, the joke was about Robert Redford running, and the line was about "No one wants an actor as a president", because Reagan had just won. Now the line's about "No one's going to want a cowboy in the White House" because of, um, well. Y'know. That dude. For one thing it's a little ironic kick, for another it's interesting to see how a joke evolves, and for a third, somewhat irrelevant level, there's the recurring theme of "RR"s that show up here and there, that they managed to make fit in. So awesome there.
3) All the nods to "Dr. Strangelove". Well, you know. All two of them. (Nixon's War Room, and I'm pretty sure a scene of it was on one of Adrian's TVs).
3) There's a lot of talk about the change in the last scene between Jon, Walter, and Dan, and it is heartbreaking, and I loved it in that aching, wrenching way, but I think my favorite Rorschach/Nite Owl II moment is when Rorschach first walks off and both Ozymandias and Dr. Manhattan stare after him and Night Owl is all "Don't even think about it." Aww.
4) One other little thing I loved: when Dr. Manhattan reaches in and breaks the glass of the ceiling to get to Ozymandias, and the glass starts falling all over the place, in the corner you can see that both Dan and Rorschach have tried to cover Laurie's body with their own, as if to protect her from the glass. Rorschach! Dirty-whores-and-retarded-children-in-abattoirs Rorschach, protecting someone with lady parts who dresses kinda slutty! My god! But it does genuinely fit with Rorschach's attitude toward Laurie in the GN: he does at the very least respect her, if not like her. I think that he does appreciate her, though; those little moments of "Shame Miss Juspeczyk couldn't join us" and "Never cared much for your costume, miss. No offense." say a lot for someone like that. (On a side note: another thing that I was kind of disappointed to lose was why Sally went with "Jupiter" as opposed to "Juspeczyk"; it was one of those realistic little touches I liked about the GN).
5) Not so much a little thing but I've got the numbered list format going so why not stick with it. Here's the thing about GN's: the people aren't people. I mean, yes, they are, and in the best case scenarios they are complex and twisty and interesting and human, etc. But you don't see them the same way as you see characters in movies, or even the same way you imagine them when you're reading books. GN's are kind of the intermediary there: you see stuff happening, so you don't really have to imagine it, don't have to picture it. Don't have to come up with your own mental scene of what's going on. In that sense, I think, it creates a distance; the people, what happens to them, doesn't quite hit you as much, or at least it doesn't hit me as much, or in the same place. Which is something that surprised me, but I liked it. Rorschach who, in all honesty, I didn't see all the fuss over when I read the GN (I mean I didn't hate him, but apparently he's the sort of fandom hero), I really felt for more, even while finding him just as darkly hilarious. Ozymandias, too, I feel like I understand a lot better for having seen him. And Dan...aww, Dan. He is such a sweetheart, in his middle-aged badassery. But I loved that about him even before, so that's not much of a change. Laurie was a little off-putting to me at times, in between sometimes looking like Dr. Cameron on House and sometimes looking like Demi Moore. Odd. But giving her the line about "Nothing ends. Nothing ever ends."? I think I rather liked that.
Anyway. Totally got a bit carried away with all this. The point being: good movie, dudes. Will definitely be renting it, if not buying it, when it comes out on DVD.
So I read the GN before watching the movie. It's not like an integrity thing; I've got none, really, and hey, I saw V for Vendetta, own it, even, and have no desire at all to read the GN. But I liked it; liked it a hell of a lot more than I was expecting to, really. It's uneven, in terms of things I appreciate (certain storylines I find pointless and cliche), but the things I loved about it I really loved, so I figured, the movie's probably going to be pretty okay, given that everyone says it sticks pretty close to the book.
And the movie is pretty okay. More than, because it cut some of those things that I found pointless and cliche (although it added a couple, but nothing's perfect). The title sequence, though, was one of my absolute favorite things, although I'm not quite sure how much people who haven't read the GN would have appreciated. But just the style of it was amazing; the song choice, the montage of not-quite-stills, all of it. The "Happy Retirement Sally" or whatever it was, with the table set up like the Last Supper? Loved it. Want it as a wallpaper, almost. And the look of all the characters then was just amazing; I was particularly fond of Silhouette, I have to say, and her girlfriend. Even though the poor girl doesn't get so much as a panel in the Graphic Novel (as far as I remember) I was always kind of intrigued by her and...well, there's something about seeing people as these characters that's even more affecting. But I'll get to that in a minute.
One of the few things that made me a little sad was how small a role Hollis had it in, but I think it's understandable; the movie was long as it was, and they managed to make all the little sessions he and Dan had not as necessary. And it did after all save him from the fate he gets in the GN, which I was incredibly thankful for. Because I adored Hollis in that way you come to adore grandparents or older people you become friendly with; you realize that they're a little racist, a little set in their ways, but good people, basically, and have to appreciate that about them.
One of the things that I found utterly, kind of hilariously, fantastic, was just how damn slashy the whole thing was. I mean, the Nite Owl/Rorschach stuff is mildly there in the GN, even though as I've heard it said, Walter loves Dan too much to want to have sex him. But oh my god, the movie. Not even just the Nite Owl/Rorschach stuff (which aww, in a sense, and *sniff*, in an other because of the end), the Dan/Adrian?! My god! That scene in the office? Slasher's gold, my friends. Totally out of left field. But yeah, all of them. Doin' it. Poor Laurie.
What else, what else? Oh yes. I'm a fan of little moments, in general. Not things that are big, plot-driving events, just a look here and there, little snarky reference to something, poke at current events, that kind of thing. One of my favorites in the GN, which didn't make the movie (or maybe did, but you wouldn't have heard it over the sound of Bob Dylan) was when Dr. Manhattan met JFK. JFK asks him what it's like to be a superhero; Dr. Manhattan in turn tells him that he ought to know. That gave me the warm and fuzzies, I won't lie. And I got marginally fonder of Alan Moore because of it. Anyway, the point being: there were a couple of those minor moments in the movie that I really did get a kick out of.
1) The "Ride of the Valkyries" for the Vietnam sequence. Apocalypse Now references are sometimes over done, but I liked it.
2) The joke about Ronald Reagan running for president at the end; in the GN, which was published in the '80s, the joke was about Robert Redford running, and the line was about "No one wants an actor as a president", because Reagan had just won. Now the line's about "No one's going to want a cowboy in the White House" because of, um, well. Y'know. That dude. For one thing it's a little ironic kick, for another it's interesting to see how a joke evolves, and for a third, somewhat irrelevant level, there's the recurring theme of "RR"s that show up here and there, that they managed to make fit in. So awesome there.
3) All the nods to "Dr. Strangelove". Well, you know. All two of them. (Nixon's War Room, and I'm pretty sure a scene of it was on one of Adrian's TVs).
3) There's a lot of talk about the change in the last scene between Jon, Walter, and Dan, and it is heartbreaking, and I loved it in that aching, wrenching way, but I think my favorite Rorschach/Nite Owl II moment is when Rorschach first walks off and both Ozymandias and Dr. Manhattan stare after him and Night Owl is all "Don't even think about it." Aww.
4) One other little thing I loved: when Dr. Manhattan reaches in and breaks the glass of the ceiling to get to Ozymandias, and the glass starts falling all over the place, in the corner you can see that both Dan and Rorschach have tried to cover Laurie's body with their own, as if to protect her from the glass. Rorschach! Dirty-whores-and-retarded-children-in-abattoirs Rorschach, protecting someone with lady parts who dresses kinda slutty! My god! But it does genuinely fit with Rorschach's attitude toward Laurie in the GN: he does at the very least respect her, if not like her. I think that he does appreciate her, though; those little moments of "Shame Miss Juspeczyk couldn't join us" and "Never cared much for your costume, miss. No offense." say a lot for someone like that. (On a side note: another thing that I was kind of disappointed to lose was why Sally went with "Jupiter" as opposed to "Juspeczyk"; it was one of those realistic little touches I liked about the GN).
5) Not so much a little thing but I've got the numbered list format going so why not stick with it. Here's the thing about GN's: the people aren't people. I mean, yes, they are, and in the best case scenarios they are complex and twisty and interesting and human, etc. But you don't see them the same way as you see characters in movies, or even the same way you imagine them when you're reading books. GN's are kind of the intermediary there: you see stuff happening, so you don't really have to imagine it, don't have to picture it. Don't have to come up with your own mental scene of what's going on. In that sense, I think, it creates a distance; the people, what happens to them, doesn't quite hit you as much, or at least it doesn't hit me as much, or in the same place. Which is something that surprised me, but I liked it. Rorschach who, in all honesty, I didn't see all the fuss over when I read the GN (I mean I didn't hate him, but apparently he's the sort of fandom hero), I really felt for more, even while finding him just as darkly hilarious. Ozymandias, too, I feel like I understand a lot better for having seen him. And Dan...aww, Dan. He is such a sweetheart, in his middle-aged badassery. But I loved that about him even before, so that's not much of a change. Laurie was a little off-putting to me at times, in between sometimes looking like Dr. Cameron on House and sometimes looking like Demi Moore. Odd. But giving her the line about "Nothing ends. Nothing ever ends."? I think I rather liked that.
Anyway. Totally got a bit carried away with all this. The point being: good movie, dudes. Will definitely be renting it, if not buying it, when it comes out on DVD.