Simon Draskovic (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} simon_draskovic) wrote,@ 2009-03-07 19:51:00 |
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Watchmen
I saw "Watchmen" this morning. I'm still not sure if I like it or not. I'm leaning towards no, because...
- It reminded me some of the Harry Potter movies in that it was basically "Look! A scene from the book! Look! Another scene from the book! Check this out! A scene from the book!", while not doing enough to tie it all together into a cohesive story on it's own.
- The music. Dear God, the music. I can understand wanting to remind us that it's an alternate 1985, but there are better ways of doing that than adding Dr. Manhattan to the "Ride of the Valkyries" scene from Apocalypse Now, or playing "99 Luftballoons" right before what is supposed to be an intimate dinner at a formal restaurant. A soundtrack should draw me into the movie, not jar me out of it.
- Malin Ackerman cannot fucking act.
- When I read "Watchmen", Dr. Manhattan has a Voice of God and is, for the most part, very impassive. Like, Darth Vader meets Goliath from "Gargoyles" meets Don LaFontaine. Not Billy "dubbed version of Ashitaka" Crudup.
- Matthew Goode as Adrian Veidt looks like the "before" picture of the Veidt Method, not the "after".
- Overwrought Makeup Nixon. Seriously.
- The changes to the scene where Laurie realizes who her father is were unneccessary, and kind of hamhanded, in my opinion.
- Bullettime / speedramp fights.
- While I understand the removal of the squid*, the destruction at the end should have been made more visceral and personal, to give greater oomph. As much as we saw people exploding in bits of gore earlier on, to reduce the superweapon's effects to ruined city with a chunk scooped out of the ground is pretty underwhelming.
- Bubastis just sort of shows up, walks around, then gets disintigrated.
On the other hand:
- Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Patrick Wilson were all great. Just awesome.
- A lot of the set and prop design was great. I haven't seen a 3.5 floppy in years.
- He did it thirty-five minutes ago.
I'm guessing I want to like it, and am rationalizing. And there's a large part of me that's saying, "Yes, but imagine how much worse it COULD have been. How so very, awfully, terribly worse."
*The squid was a pretty sharp, out-of-nowhere turn in the book, all things considered. As someone in the Awful Forums put it (specifically regarding the virtual nonexistence of any mention of psychics prior to the end), "If just one fantasy element established early on gives you license to throw in damn near any ridiculous thing right at the end, you may as well have aliens swoop in at the end of Lord of the Rings."
I saw "Watchmen" this morning. I'm still not sure if I like it or not. I'm leaning towards no, because...
- It reminded me some of the Harry Potter movies in that it was basically "Look! A scene from the book! Look! Another scene from the book! Check this out! A scene from the book!", while not doing enough to tie it all together into a cohesive story on it's own.
- The music. Dear God, the music. I can understand wanting to remind us that it's an alternate 1985, but there are better ways of doing that than adding Dr. Manhattan to the "Ride of the Valkyries" scene from Apocalypse Now, or playing "99 Luftballoons" right before what is supposed to be an intimate dinner at a formal restaurant. A soundtrack should draw me into the movie, not jar me out of it.
- Malin Ackerman cannot fucking act.
- When I read "Watchmen", Dr. Manhattan has a Voice of God and is, for the most part, very impassive. Like, Darth Vader meets Goliath from "Gargoyles" meets Don LaFontaine. Not Billy "dubbed version of Ashitaka" Crudup.
- Matthew Goode as Adrian Veidt looks like the "before" picture of the Veidt Method, not the "after".
- Overwrought Makeup Nixon. Seriously.
- The changes to the scene where Laurie realizes who her father is were unneccessary, and kind of hamhanded, in my opinion.
- Bullettime / speedramp fights.
- While I understand the removal of the squid*, the destruction at the end should have been made more visceral and personal, to give greater oomph. As much as we saw people exploding in bits of gore earlier on, to reduce the superweapon's effects to ruined city with a chunk scooped out of the ground is pretty underwhelming.
- Bubastis just sort of shows up, walks around, then gets disintigrated.
On the other hand:
- Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Patrick Wilson were all great. Just awesome.
- A lot of the set and prop design was great. I haven't seen a 3.5 floppy in years.
- He did it thirty-five minutes ago.
I'm guessing I want to like it, and am rationalizing. And there's a large part of me that's saying, "Yes, but imagine how much worse it COULD have been. How so very, awfully, terribly worse."
*The squid was a pretty sharp, out-of-nowhere turn in the book, all things considered. As someone in the Awful Forums put it (specifically regarding the virtual nonexistence of any mention of psychics prior to the end), "If just one fantasy element established early on gives you license to throw in damn near any ridiculous thing right at the end, you may as well have aliens swoop in at the end of Lord of the Rings."
