Preemptive strike
Oh great I’ve just ruined practically any chance I have of enjoying the Watchmen movie by reading the graphic novel. For years, decades, I’ve been hearing that Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s book is brilliant, complex, groundbreaking, a masterwork of ruthless psychological realism. Fanboys, I sniggered and rolled my eyeballs—secretly, because I don’t want to come home to my apartment to find that a truck has been assembled in my living room.
Years pass, the ownership issues are sorted out by competing studios, the movie opens soon, and the portents are not good: the director’s previous movie is the abdominal workout fantasy 300, and Alan Moore has already dismissed the film adaptation. And then I have to go and read the graphic novel, which turns out to be brilliant, complex, groundbreaking, a masterwork of ruthless psychological realism. Blast, screwed my own movie viewing.
Still, the filmmakers might spring a surprise—what are we movie lovers if not optimists with an endless capacity for rationalization. I enjoyed Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead—most of it anyway, until the humans stupidly decided to leave the mall. Or was that a different zombie movie. Billy Crudup’s in Watchmen, naked, except that he’s blue (Dr. Manhattan). Matthew Goode is Ozymandias: I hope he’s awake this time, because in the Brideshead Revisited movie his role could’ve been played with more verve by a two-by-four. (Who cast Ben Whishaw as Sebastian?!!) The only signs of life in that flatliner were Emma Thompson and Michael Gambon, and even they looked bored.
I’m looking at imdb and…there’s going to be a sequel to 300? What, they rise from the dead?
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
February 24th, 2009 at 17:30
I’m not sure if this will do anything to assuage your fears. But I’ve read a sort of review of the movie by someone who worships the book: Lev Grossman, a Time Magazine blogger/writer.
Sample quote:
“For me, Watchmen isn’t a movie at all. It’s a surreal mind-trip the likes of which my 14-year-old self would never have believed. ”
The whole thing’s at:
http://nerdworld.blogs.time.com/2009/02/16/my-own-private-watchmen/
You should have a Watchmen contest! The dang thing is pretty pricey for me. Haha. :)
February 24th, 2009 at 23:25
I’ve only ruined the chance of enjoying a movie twice because I’ve read or reread the book in advance (like just a couple of weeks) before the movie opened.
February 24th, 2009 at 23:30
Okay, stupid Tab + “Enter” key in quick succession! Not finished commenting yet. Hehe.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
I stopped reading/re-reading a book before watching the movie adaptation since then.
February 25th, 2009 at 03:30
If Watchmen fails at the box office, at least it will be a very interesting failure. A few weeks after the film’s release, the Black Freighter segment will be released on DVD. When Watchmen gets released on DVD, it will be a super-extended version–with the Black Freighter animation edited into the main story.
BTW, this movie will be loooong. I’ve checked the movie guides. They list the run time at around 160 minutes long.