Watchmen the comic is so amazing but Watchmen the movie is iffy (part 1)
July 28th, 2008
I just got through issue #5 a few minutes ago of Watchmen and my mind is going crazy with everything. I know this is an older comic, but as I said before, it’s something I’ve been meaning to read for a long while and I’m really glad I started today.
I don’t think I need to explain the plot, because really you need to go out and read this some way or some how if you’re interested. Alan Moore’s genius spans generations and probably dimensions. And yes, this is just more and more praise to an already infamous and critically acclaimed graphic novel/series but hot-dog-diggity damn is it good.
Now, I can’t judge completely whether or not this will be a good movie or not because I haven’t read all 12 of the issues, but from what I can tell, it’s on the fence.
On one hand we have an amazing story. I mean, wowzer. There are great characters to build the story and the great hinted back story is just as cool, but this could be the downfall for the movie. The way Alan Moore has written his hints at the background of characters and a lot of the story is so ‘comic-book-y’ that it’s almost too sporadic to be accepted by movie-goers. The story has been written in a way that you can only understand from panel to panel in a comic book and no other medium could tell it as well as how it is presented.
I can’t wait to see how the story ends and after that, I’d like to see Zack Snyder pull off this comic book as a movie. I know his work with 300 was good, but the fact of the matter is that Frank Miller (the author of the 300 comic) is a straight forward writer and definitely much easier to portray on film for that reason. In my mind, I could see the Watchmen movie get butchered by the screenplay writers. This movie had better have a bunch of narration or I will be pissed… but as I said, I want to see Zack Snyder pulls this off.
It should be fun.
Now, I want to finish these comics ASAP (I actually might finish them tonight) and I’ll let you know more of what I thought… then maybe I’ll get back to X-Treme X-Men… hehe
I read an article about Snyder’s Watchmen, and it’s supposedly going to be better than any script other aspiring directors wrote (including Pi/Requiem for a Dream/the Fountain director, Darren Aronofsky).
However, Alan Moore doesn’t seem to like the idea of making this graphic novel into a movie, he even took his name off of the credits!
Crazy, huh?
The more I think about the film, the more skeptical I get. But I’m still looking forward to it.
[Reply]
Comment by erikaszabo — July 29, 2008 @ 4:11 pm
I’m on part 6 right now. I’m skeptical if they can make this into a good film. There is a lot of narrative in the comic and lot’s of flashbacks. To me it would be better if they tell the story in a chronological fashion. Also, Will Dr. Manhattan be wearing pants? Or will they show his balls like they do in the comic book?
[Reply]
Comment by alegion — August 4, 2008 @ 11:31 am
I was wondering the same thing about Dr. Manhattan. From what I see in the trailer, at one point, it appears he doesn’t have pants, but is blocked from view by another copy of himself. Then, in another part, he is hovering in the cafeteria and I don’t see pants, but he looks about as anatomically correct as a Ken doll. Finally, in the part with him in Vietnam, he has a little black speedo looking thing on.
[Reply]
Comment by Nick Nelson — August 4, 2008 @ 11:46 am