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Em

Name: Michael Lowry

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March 12, 2009 3:58 pm at some point (probably won't be possible until the DVD comes out), i'm going to watch this movie with the graphic novel in hand, so I can track exactly where the bad taste in my mouth is coming from in the movie...
March 10, 2009 11:33 pm

@ultimatehoratio:

yeah, that whole quote was just not done very well in the movie. i was commenting more on how it was like only the second thing Rorschach said in the film, but yeah, if he had said it a little more gravely (and that usually entails somewhat slower tempo) it would have sent the chill down my spine that it did when I read it.

March 10, 2009 10:20 pm

just because they're different media doesn't mean they shouldn't convey the same feeling or message. Lord of the Rings pulled it off pretty well. i got the same feeling of epicness from both the books and the movies. if they weren't going to make an adaptation that conveyed the same message that the original did, they shouldn't have bothered making a Watchmen movie at all

And yeah, even though typically I say "Let people have their opinion," I sincerely am surprised that more people aren't denouncing this movie. I just can't see why so few people care about the depth and meaning that is lost from Moore's original story.

 And I would LOVE to get Moore's critique. I know Gibbons was ok with it, but that's because he has nothing to complain about with the visual effects. It all looked pretty. that's the one thing I'll compliment this movie on is its special effects. Doctor Manhattan especially (though i wouldn't have minded giving him his thong at least)

Yeah, we still have the book, but from now on everyone will look at the movie and relate it to the book, and they're so different that I just don't think it's fair. That's another reason I'm somewhat outraged that more people don't denounce this movie, is that now everyone who doesn't know enough about Watchmen are going to think that the movie and the comic are just like each other and that's just plain false.

March 10, 2009 9:29 pm why shouldn't I expect a lot? the title IS "Watchmen," is it not? just like my favorite graphic novel? it IS based off my favorite graphic novel, isn't it? so why shouldn't it make me feel at least a LITTLE like my favorite graphic novel does? i just don't see why people think that people like me expect too much.
March 10, 2009 9:08 pm

What about the fact that the movie left out an incredible amount of character development and backstory, and when the backstory they DID include was far too rushed to be anything but neglectable. It's not a matter of this movie being an adaptation for me. As far as I'm concerned, this movie simply neglects way too much of the graphic novel's depth to be even considered an adaptation. A person who reads the graphic novel after seeing the movie will find that the characters are almost completely different people. For example, the movie focuses on Night Owl's feeling of powerlessness and impudency, and in my opinion makes him out to be flat out sadistic in that he gets off by causing criminals pain (as shown by the excessive violence). The graphic novel, however, emphasized Night Owl's reminiscence of the old days, his "romantic" feelings towards the job, as he says in the comic, and makes him out to be something an old retiree longing for the glory days. They BARELY mentioned the fact that Laurie was pushed into the crimefighting business by her mother, who lived vicariously through her, and that was a huge part of Laurie’s character, reflected by how often it’s restated in Alan Moore’s masterpiece. Dr. Manhattan’s monologue of flashbacks, one of my favorite parts of the graphic novel, was so rushed it broke my heart. When I read the graphic novel I was put into awe at his perception of time, and I was moved by how it portrayed his withdrawal from the human race. In the movie they pretty much said “screw the subtlety that made this stuff epic and just use the ‘god’ hammer.” I understand that they used quotes straight out of the books, but they used the really heavy stuff way too fast. The part that made it awe-inspiring was the slower lead-in that the movie left out. I could point out more character symbolism and the like that the movie was missing but I think I’ve made that point.

An people say “Oh well they can’t add all that to a 2-and-a-half hour movie.” Ok, well I’d rather see that than all the excessively long and gory fight scenes that the graphic novel didn’t even really have. And while I’m on the subject of fight scenes: that “6 page long” fight scene of Dan and Laurie in the alley was NOT the focus of those pages. I barely even NOTICED the fight scene in the graphic novel because I was too focused on the meaning of the text that accompanied it. And then there’s the movie that pretty much implies “Oh well we don’t care about depth and meaning, we just want to show people gory excessive violence. Watch this guy’s bone pop out of his skin!” Same goes for the fight with Ozymandias at the end. In the graphic novel the fight scene was used merely to show Adrian’s superiority as he casually fought them off while focusing on talking more. Also, the fight scene at the beginning of the movie was entirely useless. All that time is wasted on trying to appeal to the violent side of viewers. Notice how there WASN’T a fight scene between Ozy and the Comedian in the graphic novel? Yeah, that’s because Moore was a little more focused on depth than he was on action. Take all that time they wasted and put it into plot and character development, THEN they’d have a movie good enough to hold a torch to Moore’s story.

One final thing I HAVE to say: there were too many times to even count when I let out a loud sigh and rolled my eyes at how STUPID the actors sounded when they said some of my FAVORITE quotes from the book. I don’t even know how it’s possible, but they ruined Rorschach’s “I’ll look down and whisper, ‘No.’” It was way way waaayyy too rushed. Not only the actual quote, but also the timing of the quote. It just all happened too fast, before we’re even given a chance to understand where Rorschach is coming from. I don’t have my copy of the graphic novel handy because a friend is borrowing it, but I’m pretty damn sure we got at least a COUPLE more sentences before Rorschach dropped that bombshell of a quote.

I could bring up the newspaper salesman and the kid who always sits next to his stand, but unless people are too stupid to already realize the significance of these characters, I don’t think I need to. (And it was stupid that they just threw them in there when the bomb went off. There was back story to that, and it makes me cringe to think they can just arbitrarily toss that in there)

People say “It’s only an adaptation.” But I mean, COME ON. Adaptations are supposed to be reflections of what they’re adapted from. This is one of the GREATEST graphic novels of all time. You’re not going to hear too many people praising the movie as one of the greatest of all time.

 

March 6, 2009 6:42 am I'm at about 13:10 into the podcast and I simply do not see where you guys are coming from about the casting/acting. I couldn't even count the number of times I unconsciously let out an audible sigh (at which my friend sitting next to me would tel me to shut up) and thought to myself "UGH I cannot BELIEVE they just sounded so stupid saying a line that sounded so epic in the comic." Now, the acting was certianly better than say, the Spirit, but as far as I'm concerned this movie could have been acted out by my old high school drama group and it would have turned out at least as good. A lot of the dialogue sounds rushed (except for Dr. Manhattan's, whose pauses and hesitations midsentence drove me up the wall), and not once throughout the whole movie did I feel as moved by the script as I do every time I read the graphic novel. I don't know, maybe the voice I have in mind when I read is just too high an expectation, but this movie was just a huge letdown for me