Watching the Watchmen
The film version of Watchmen looks spectacular; it's full of images from the original book, realised at great expense and with great attention to detail. But - and this may well be the first time that I've criticised a film for sticking too closely to the book - the respect for the original work has a deadening effect on the story. I watched it as a curiosity and a spectacle, but I wasn't in the least wrapped up in the film, while I've read and re-read the comic avidly.
I interviewed Dave Gibbons last night, the original artist who worked on the book with Alan Moore, and he was full of praise for the film and Zack Snyder. Much as I respect Dave, as an artist and thoroughly nice man, I don't share his opinion of Snyder's work. I thought 300 was ridiculous, and Watchmen suffered from the same taint of slo-mo pomposity overlaid with an insufferably obvious soundtrack. It was clear that Snyder had taken a lot of trouble with the film and this will please fans who feared that Hollywood would make a 12A version of a story that is the ultimate graphic novel for adults. What has happened is that instead of dwelling on moral quandary and how violence (even for noble aims) can corrupt, this film revels in injury as spectacle. As moral compromise and brutalisation are issues dead at the centre of the Watchmen story it seems odd to choose a director who apparently doesn't care.
Some of the characters have translated quite well, the actors playing Rorschach, The Comedian and Dr Manhattan turn in good performances but it's not enough to make the film exciting or poignant. I won't talk about the ending, but to me it reinforced the impression I had, of a basic misunderstanding of what Watchmen is about. This ends up a cautionary tale of how faithfulness to the form of a work can betray its spirit. Read the novel instead.
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As someone who loathes comic books and the world surrounding comic books I was extremely reluctant to even go and watch the film at the week. Even so, I ended up enjoying every single minute of it and on the basis that I can normally tell when there's a bit which probably could have been edited out, the entire thing kept my attention throughout. Well paced, entertaining and dark. I fear reading the original as a result in case it's nothing like my film-experience.
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I think, Thoroughlygood, that we may agree on films to the same extent that we agree about Eurovision...
;-)
Did you like 300?
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I've read the book and watched the film, and i can firmly say that despite it being a good film on its own, it had to be better than good to do any sort of justice to the novel.
The novel was a challenge to people's intelligence especially in the symbolism and the psychology behind the characters. The film is a chopped up, clumsy conversion, keeping as much information as possible on the characters the audience would like. People like Rorshach, Comedian and Manhattan. Nite-Owl has pretty much completely lost his personality. He's just 'some guy'.
Frankly something like The Dark Knight is a more faithful interpretation of the heart of The Killing Joke, than the Watchmen film is of its source material.
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