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Have now seen Watchmen. As usual with superhyped movies, I have no idea whether it was any good. I think too much about what I think to be able to relax, and just experience. I think I thought it was pretty decent - actionpacked, mostly good music, good actors. Can't really say how it deviates from the comic, because it was quite a while since I read that, and I have purposely not refreshed my memory prior to seeing the movie.
- Comic book recreation - this is the big one.
Done better here than in 300 and Sin City - mostly because it was less obvious. Thing is, movies are not comics. The strengths and limitations of one medium are not the same as for the other. So why do they keep making these movies where they try to create exact copies of the comic book pages? That's pointless, the comic allready exists. It was painful in 300 - you'd constantly see people get into position, freeze, and then deliver their lines, as though it was a panel in a comic. Thing is, every panel in a comic contains a certain amount of time - they are not frozen instants, but depictions of a flow, most of which the reader has to imagine. In a movie, you can show the flow, so it's stupid to try to recreate the panels, as the space in which the reader imagines the flow has been removed. It also limits the acting, when the actors are not allowed to interpret the emotions of the characters in a way that feels geuine to them, but are forced to act them out in the way they were originally drawn. Again, that squanders one of the main things movies can do that comics can't. Watchmen wasn't painfully obvious about it, but there were a few scenes where it grated a bit. Someone who was better at cinematography and stuff would probably have noticed a lot more, as viewpoints, framing, lighting, etc, are also forced to mimic a static, drwn, form, rather than being optimized for movies.
- Costume design.
I love how they re-designed Silk Spectre [2], because the original looked ridiculous, quite frankly. But Ozymandias looked so incredibly plastic-y, it was distracting. Nite Owl II's cowl was annoying in it's rubberyness too, but I liked the rest of his costume, and the general look of it, so that was ok. From the original promo-pics, I was worried about Ozymandias and Nite Owl, because Ozymandias looked way too ugly, and Patrick Wilson way too pretty. That was fixed [1] in the movie, but Ozymandias hair looked super fake, and his suit looked super plastic, and it was just annoying. His accent was also weird, and occasionally sounded vaguely German...which was odd.
- The Comedian
Rocked. I've been wondering why Jeffrey Dean Morgan keeps playing guys who die, but this part must have been so much fun to play. He was pretty much perfect.
- Gratuitous gore.
I generally find I enjoy movies more when I can actually bear to look at the screen. Slow-mo closeups of legs bending the wrong way and bones shattering in fountains of blood is not helpful. I spent a lot of time with my eyes strategically closed. I didn't feel the actual fightscenes where misplaced or gratuitous - generally they were pretty cool - it was just the gore that was over the top. The sound effects in the fights were occasionally a bit much too, especially in the first scene.
- Doctor Manhattan
Was not as good as I expected. Digital effects are so friggin good these days, that anything below exceptional sticks out. Mostly the mouth movements were what bothered me - they felt a little lacking somehow, it didn't really feel like the character was talking. And his body was weird - the hip/groin area looked too narrow and too long, like his gear (and yes, you do get full frontals) was attached too far down or something, and at the worng angle maybe? I swear I wasn't studying it closely, but he looked weird.
- Non-hot sex.
When Nite Owl and Silk Spectre finally get it on in the owl-plane, it's one of those posed, groany "this would look good in a magazine" kind of sex scenes. Totally non-hot, because there's no emotion, just a lot of catching the light in interesting ways. Pointless, and just gets sort of uncomfortable to watch. Wasn't helped by the fact that the soundtrack chosen at that point was "Halleluja" (by Leonard Cohen), which caused the guy in the seat next to me to start laughing uproriously. And then the owl-plane shot fire... Yeah, it was pretty painful.
- In no way, shape or form does Jackie Earle Haley look 35. The man is 48, and you can tell.
[1] To be totally objectifying - I feel a little sorry for Malin Åkerman. You're told you're going to get your groove on with Patrick Wilson, and then he shows up looking like this :o)
[2] Except that time they had her lipstick outside her lips - I hate that. It looks really cheap.
- Comic book recreation - this is the big one.
Done better here than in 300 and Sin City - mostly because it was less obvious. Thing is, movies are not comics. The strengths and limitations of one medium are not the same as for the other. So why do they keep making these movies where they try to create exact copies of the comic book pages? That's pointless, the comic allready exists. It was painful in 300 - you'd constantly see people get into position, freeze, and then deliver their lines, as though it was a panel in a comic. Thing is, every panel in a comic contains a certain amount of time - they are not frozen instants, but depictions of a flow, most of which the reader has to imagine. In a movie, you can show the flow, so it's stupid to try to recreate the panels, as the space in which the reader imagines the flow has been removed. It also limits the acting, when the actors are not allowed to interpret the emotions of the characters in a way that feels geuine to them, but are forced to act them out in the way they were originally drawn. Again, that squanders one of the main things movies can do that comics can't. Watchmen wasn't painfully obvious about it, but there were a few scenes where it grated a bit. Someone who was better at cinematography and stuff would probably have noticed a lot more, as viewpoints, framing, lighting, etc, are also forced to mimic a static, drwn, form, rather than being optimized for movies.
- Costume design.
I love how they re-designed Silk Spectre [2], because the original looked ridiculous, quite frankly. But Ozymandias looked so incredibly plastic-y, it was distracting. Nite Owl II's cowl was annoying in it's rubberyness too, but I liked the rest of his costume, and the general look of it, so that was ok. From the original promo-pics, I was worried about Ozymandias and Nite Owl, because Ozymandias looked way too ugly, and Patrick Wilson way too pretty. That was fixed [1] in the movie, but Ozymandias hair looked super fake, and his suit looked super plastic, and it was just annoying. His accent was also weird, and occasionally sounded vaguely German...which was odd.
- The Comedian
Rocked. I've been wondering why Jeffrey Dean Morgan keeps playing guys who die, but this part must have been so much fun to play. He was pretty much perfect.
- Gratuitous gore.
I generally find I enjoy movies more when I can actually bear to look at the screen. Slow-mo closeups of legs bending the wrong way and bones shattering in fountains of blood is not helpful. I spent a lot of time with my eyes strategically closed. I didn't feel the actual fightscenes where misplaced or gratuitous - generally they were pretty cool - it was just the gore that was over the top. The sound effects in the fights were occasionally a bit much too, especially in the first scene.
- Doctor Manhattan
Was not as good as I expected. Digital effects are so friggin good these days, that anything below exceptional sticks out. Mostly the mouth movements were what bothered me - they felt a little lacking somehow, it didn't really feel like the character was talking. And his body was weird - the hip/groin area looked too narrow and too long, like his gear (and yes, you do get full frontals) was attached too far down or something, and at the worng angle maybe? I swear I wasn't studying it closely, but he looked weird.
- Non-hot sex.
When Nite Owl and Silk Spectre finally get it on in the owl-plane, it's one of those posed, groany "this would look good in a magazine" kind of sex scenes. Totally non-hot, because there's no emotion, just a lot of catching the light in interesting ways. Pointless, and just gets sort of uncomfortable to watch. Wasn't helped by the fact that the soundtrack chosen at that point was "Halleluja" (by Leonard Cohen), which caused the guy in the seat next to me to start laughing uproriously. And then the owl-plane shot fire... Yeah, it was pretty painful.
- In no way, shape or form does Jackie Earle Haley look 35. The man is 48, and you can tell.
[1] To be totally objectifying - I feel a little sorry for Malin Åkerman. You're told you're going to get your groove on with Patrick Wilson, and then he shows up looking like this :o)
[2] Except that time they had her lipstick outside her lips - I hate that. It looks really cheap.