What was expected by some to be a pop cultural phenomenon last weekend proved to be something less. Ever since last summer’s teaser trailer, comic book fanboys of various stripes have been anticipating the movie release of the adaptation of Watchmen, the groundbreaking comic book mini-series cum “graphic novel,” of 1986. Before you read my short review, I suggest you go here to read my Breakpoint piece discussing Alan Moore’s original achievement, then return here for the movie review.
Welcome back. When I went in to the Saturday 12:40 matinee, there were not many people in the theater. I noticed two elderly ladies sitting above me, and wondered if they had any idea what they were about to see.
The film opens with a montage of living “snapshots” drawn from the story’s history accompanied by Bob Dylan’s “The Times, They are a Changin’” which I doubt can be used effectively and freshly in any way, so familiar is it, and so obvious is its meaning. In fact, the use of pop songs throughout the film was distracting. When Simon and Garfunkel’s “The Sounds of Silence” plays over a funeral, it jerked me out of the film and reminded me of it’s original cinematic home, The Graduate. Groovy.
The film mostly follows the book as closely as it can except when it doesn’t, which then, depending on how familiar you are with the source, can be jarring. In one scene, the masked vigilante Rorschach, having cornered a child killer in his home, rather than torching the place to leave the man to be incinerated, takes a meat cleaver and uses it on the perp’s noggin–repeatedly, a la live-action Itchy and Scratchy cartoon. Why the change? Did director Zack Snyder find it more “cinematic?” And the ending apocalyptic device was changed to be more cinematically plausible, but a least one analysis found the new device implausible on its own terms. But, if it’s true that page for page adaptations diminish the cinematic potential of a story, then I think many viewers will find themselves less than enchanted, intrigued or any other positive term for liking the film. Yes, there’s a certain type of satisfaction when you see a beloved text literalized on the big screen, but my intuition that the box office will only decline from here on, now that the true believers have made their pilgrimage, was corroborated by this Studio Briefing report that predicted a very small audience for this coming weekend. This is a disappointment that hit hungry and cash poor Time-Warner doesn’t need, but that’s the risk you take when you gamble on what, 23 years ago, was a comic book milestone that subverted about every convention of the genre.
UPDATE: My websurfing son, Benjamin found this hilarious Watchmen parody this morning and it’s perfect.
i just got back from watching Watchmen; in retrospect, the movie leaves me feeling a bit haunted by it’s style and storyline, though in a good way
Comment by coffee — March 14, 2009 @ 8:26 am |
Had you read the book prior to seeing the film? It was difficult for me to experience it freshly only as a film and I can see how you might experience that especially if it was your first exposure to the story.
Comment by Alex — March 14, 2009 @ 11:44 am |
I saw it opening weekend. I liked it a lot. Not as well as I liked Snyder’s 300, although his visual style in this was more arresting. I haven’t read the novel, although I would like to now. I liked the ethical question between Kantian/deontological ethics and Benthamite/utilitarian ethics, and I wonder how many people come away feeling that utilitarian ethics just ain’t all that.
Comment by Cher — March 16, 2009 @ 4:10 am |
I picked up this movie review off the 3story.com website which is a Christian website for building up the spirirual lives of younger people. I am shocked that the person doing the review who obviously is not a Christian or a poor one, does not speak about the graphic nature of the movie sexually and with violence. He even speaks of an actor hacking at someone’s head jockingly. So he gives the impression that Christians who have read the story may not trully enjoy it because it copies the book too much. I think he should question whether or not Christians should ever view such movies at all. I went to see this movie with my son thinking it was in the genre of the XMen movies. I was totally imbarassed and repulsed. I had to apologise to my son for taking him to see such an obnoxious and vile piece of cinematography.
Comment by wayne reed — March 16, 2009 @ 1:30 pm |
Wayne,
Did you know the film was R-rated when you went in?
Comment by Alex — March 16, 2009 @ 3:45 pm |