I went to the midnight showing at Century and got there an hour early which I guess wasn't early enough because apparently they let people into the theater long before I got there. As a result I sat down in the bottom few rows. I was in the center so the viewing angle wasn't that bad, I just wasn't at the optimum distance. And of course we got the usual dregs of society as theater mates, it being the debut of the latest Hollywood spectacle and all.
I thought the movie was good. Not great. Not anywhere near as great as the book. How could it be? Being confined to under three hours makes that basically impossible. But even the three hour ten minute director's cut probably won't satisfy either. Even putting aside the elements unique to graphic novels that are impossible to transplant, you still have the problem of the shear length and breadth of story and information vital to the work. Truncated, this story is a shadow of what it once was. A shadow that gets part of the point across in an entertaining way, but a shadow nonetheless. I think it would have done better as a miniseries on HBO or something.
Warning! Thar be spoilers in the comments...
I really liked the beginning of the movie in general but more specifically the opening montage of the history of vigilantism to Bob Dylan. Quite a few in-jokes there for readers, but I'm not sure how clear some of the things were to new people.
ReplyDeleteNot enough time on Mars, but I hear there's going to be more of that on the disc. I didn't like Ozymandias in the movie and he was probably tied with Dr. M. as my favorite character in the novel. The casting was bad, he needed to be taller and more obviously athletic and I'm not sure his face was right. And what was up with that douche haircut and that voice? Also, they didn't do nearly enough to establish how he came to the conclusion of his master plan; just a glimpse of the wall of TVs, no real examples of his intellect. And his Antarctic lair, Karnak was neutered as well; no atrium, no enormous halls. His costume should have stayed the same too. And when all was said and done and everything revealed I didn't feel his elation or his sadness. Also, did anyone else think the extended fights and violence were a bad thing? The thing that made the fights so great in the book was that they were few and far between and very fast and short. The fight with Ozymandias was not as cool as in the book.
And no squid? I guess it was quite a bit easier doing it this way. But what, then, was The Comedian balling about? Maybe I need to see it again but if there was no island, how did he find out about Veidt’s plan. And even if that is explained, they completely glossed over the reason The Comedian went suicidal. He feared peace. That was one of the main points of the book.
Anyway, that’s the stuff on my mind right now. Maybe I’ll think of something later. Please share your thoughts too, be they criticism or enjoyment.
I'm not gonna see it for proly another week or so, but i'm still looking forward to it. I'm for sure going into it not expecting all that much, you can't really touch that book no matter how well the movie would have been. The real issue is that picture. SO FUNNY!
ReplyDeleteJust got done watching it. My only gripes were that they used way too many nostalgic 70s music to portray the time. If that's the best way you can to tell the audience the time period, then you probably need to get better at what you do. Well, it worked in Forrest Gump, but I guess that's because the movie is a little more lighthearted. Like the sex scene, where they played Hallelujah, which I thought was perfect for the scene. That fit the movie, but then right after that they cut to Hendrix or whatever it was? That is a horrible transition. Either keep the mood somber or hire a composer to make music for the movie.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Gary. Ozymandius was poorly casted. He actually needed to look like he could fight crime. It's like they casted him and kept him thin to make him 'look' like he was smarter than everyone else. I thought everyone else was casted pretty well, especially Rorshach, Nite Owl II and Dr. Manhattan. I think they worked best because they were relatively unknowns (except for Billy Crudup). I completely retract my gripe with Dr. Manhattan's voice being too plain. It worked PERFECT. It was just so calm and monotone.
I thought the ending was pretty good, especially since I knew it was going to be changed. I thought they were going to make it horrible. It still followed the same necessities of Rorschach dying and Manhattan leaving Earth.
Overall, I thought it was way better than I expected. Plus, the theatre I was at was packed and it wasn't obnoxious at all. Nobody laughed at seeing a blue penis or anything. It might be my best theatre experience. Oh and I didn't see it at an IMAX because they we couldn't find out if it was showing there or not. All it showed on the website was some 3D Dinosaur education thing.
You're right about the problem with All Along the Watchtower being too fast of a transition, Drew. There were other places in the movie where the scene transitions were too rushed like that. A symptom of a movie with too much to cover. Though I suppose good editing should cover that. But, of course, the song was used because it was quoted in that chapter:
ReplyDelete"Outside in the cold distance,
A wildcat did growl.
Two riders were approaching,
And the wind began to howl."
It's an absolutely excellent scene in the book. I could just hear the song playing to my head as Nite Owl and Rorschach ride into a seemingly impossible battle against an old friend. It wasn’t as suspenseful in the movie, sadly. Oddly, they weren't on hover bikes so the quote doesn't work as well. Though now that I think about it, they did that because the movie lacked all the high technology Dr. Manhattan made possible like electric cars and airships (Archie wasn't an airship in the strictest sense like in the book, rather, they made him into a VTOL jet craft). That seems lazy, not completing a world like that.
I posted some of my thoughts on Jared's wall already, forgetting that there was a thread here, but...
ReplyDeleteI didn't like the use of music in the movie, and honestly I wished they had gone with more original score stuff and less recorded music. I know what they were trying to do, but the songs really just took me out of the movie. I thought "Neunundneunzig Luftballoons", the use of Halleluhia during the sex scene, and "All Along the Watchtower" were particularly jarring and made me too conscious that they were being used.
I loved Billy Crudup's portrayal of Manhattan. For me, acting-wise, the guy who played Rorschach totally stole the show. Great performance, I completely believe 100% that he was Rorschach. He was exactly as I envisioned him from the book. They did a good job with Night Owl as well.
All in all I agree with the "very good but not great" assessment. I thought it was a fine adaptation to the book considering how complex the source material is...credit David Hayter and Alex Tse's screenplay for striking a nice balance between detail and expediency. The pacing was nice. The effects and makeup were mostly good, though old Silk Spectre's old person makeup looked like...old person makeup. Liked the costumes. Could NOT look away from Rorschach's mask effect. I thought the compromise with the ending was acceptable considering how bizarre a tentacle monster would have been to most moviegoers, but...in the book, wasn't the reason that peace was reached and the US and USSR stopped fighting was because of the perceived alien threat rather than Dr. Manhattan, like they spun it in the movie? They had to have known that even banding together to fight Manhattan would be utterly pointless, so that was the only part of the ending that make me go, "hrrm".
Disappointing.
ReplyDeleteFelt the philosophies espoused were shallow and contradictory.
Dr. Manhattan apparently had a poor memory if he could see the future. Cancer anyone?
Too many blue whatnots if you ask me.
Didn't like the statist interpretation of world peace. Why did governments need to be the ones bringing peace? Guess it was part of the times.
I would prolly like the book better.
Why oh why did they pick that Hallelujah version...
Thought about it a little more. I still can't believe the soundtrack choices. Matt, you have to add the song from the funeral ("hello darkness my old friend...") and then the old timey bombardment song during the Dr. Manhattan's owning of Vietnam. Those were horrible for the scenes. They seemed super cheesy and why anyone would ever use that song for a sad song after Old School used it, makes no sense. And Boardman, that Hallelujah version is the original by Leonard Cohen, I think. I don't hate it as much as you, but I could do without the choir during the chorus.
ReplyDeleteI don't think the blue penis was a problem at all. I would've been more pissed if they cut it out. It was a part of the character, which showed that he didn't care at all what his appearance was. In the book, they were less aparent, but that might be because we're not used to seeing penis on the big screen.
Another thing I wish they wouldn't have left out was towards the end, when he was talking in the present and future. I know it would've been confusing because it was confusing enough on the pages, where you could flip back and see that it made sense.