I wish that I could've referenced the Doomsday Clock and titled this post something awesome like "Five minutes to midnight" but at that very time I will, in fact, be only moments away from seeing Watchmen with so many other drooling fangirls and boys (and you kinda lose that cool double meaning when this wasn't actually published at 11:55, you know?)...
When we started reading the graphic novel in American Graphic Media, I'd heard of it but I really had no idea what I was getting myself into... A single-story comic series that you can study in depth for several weeks? Not possible, right? Needless to say, I was mistaken.
It's funny because the last issue of Watchmen came out a month after I was born. Yes, that's right - it's taken the lifetime of a college student for this groundbreaking graphic novel to finally be made into a film. And, like most epic cinematic productions, there was much squabbling, except this time it was for the very right of this film to exist. As any student of American pop culture knows, any publicity is good publicity and a legal battle just fueled the hype fire even more. Ultimately, Fox prevailed, but the whole dispute had a lot of fans holding their collective breath that the one movie that would never be made would really never be made.
Even after the film release had the official green-light, there was one more major issue to deal with: ... was this movie even going to be any good?
Well?
And now we have our answer, it seems. Rotten Tomatoes, my favorite movie website in the entire galaxy, has Watchmen at a respectable 66% approval (with 89 positive reviews out of 135), making it "Certified Fresh" for now. "But Devan," you may be thinking to yourself, "anything below 60% is considered 'Rotten' - is Watchmen teetering on the edge of annihilation?!" Fear not, reader... Believe it or not, this is not the first time in history that a highly-anticipated movie has had people scratching their heads. And if ever there was a headscratcher, it's Watchmen. But then, that's no real surprise is it? Pure, distilled psychological angst in film-form? It's not the type of thing that agrees with everyone.
From what I've read, it seems that the main complaint so far is that Watchmen is pretty (that's never an issue) but boring. Or, pretty but confusing. Or pretty but (and this is the one that really hurts to read) soulless. Ouch. Aesthetic considerations aside (we all know from 300 that Zack Snyder is a formidable director), a film that's lost its feeling can be the worst of all, leaving the audience feeling disappointed but also vaguely heartbroken without really knowing why.
I have to say, I blame the purists. "Make it the right way," they command, "it has to be perfect."
I wonder though, is there really any value in constructing a film that so neatly matches up with each panel in its source comic? (Except, that is, to get the DVD later and sit around with your friends holding your graphic novel up to the screen and going, "Whoaaaaa...") Since Sin City back in 2005 when Robert Rodriquez proved that it was possible to make a panel-by-panel rendition (and fantastically so) even from a highly-stylized starting point, people have begun to identify this level of precision with a kind of gold standard for "accurate" representation. The novel itself is pretty dense already for its medium and to then meld those many asynchronous pieces together is tricky at best. And, after all that work, to have your movie just not... connect? Even with the die-hard fans who are just excited to finally SEE a movie? Yeah. That's rough.
The other main gripe is, unsurprisingly, that it's just too bloody weird and complicated; the "uninitiated" won't get it. My response to that, as usual, is something like: "Uhhhhh...?" Not having any background in something - isn't that what the title given to those people connotes anyway? Yeah... I don't know a whole lot about sports so there's a reason why I don't go to football games and say, "Well, if you don't know anything about football, this game really makes no sense at all."
... Yeesh!
All of that aside, Watchmen also now officially holds the record for the largest R-rated opening since The Matrix Reloaded in 2003. I guess we just have a soft spot in our hearts for really complicated storylines and graphic violence in a the quasi-familiar dystopian ultraverse... Woohoo! :)
Not that there was any other option, but I'm proud that Watchmen is standing up to criticism, even if Alan Moore himself could care less about its success. You can't really blame him - it must be a bit unsettling to have to deal not only with a film release but also with suddenly seeing a graphic novel that probably contains a little (or HUGE) piece of his soul sitting in the window of every book store in America... Eh, c'est la vie, I suppose - maybe he should stop writing brilliant fiction that develops cult followings.
In any case, however this movie ultimately establishes itself in American cinematic history and whatever I think of it myself when I see it tomorrow, I'm glad it happened and, more importantly, that it had a chance to happen.
Oh, and one last thing:
If you're really offended about how this film turned out and you just can't seem to get any peace, I encourage you to take a moment to think about Spider-Man 3...
Feel better? I thought so.
:)
When we started reading the graphic novel in American Graphic Media, I'd heard of it but I really had no idea what I was getting myself into... A single-story comic series that you can study in depth for several weeks? Not possible, right? Needless to say, I was mistaken.
It's funny because the last issue of Watchmen came out a month after I was born. Yes, that's right - it's taken the lifetime of a college student for this groundbreaking graphic novel to finally be made into a film. And, like most epic cinematic productions, there was much squabbling, except this time it was for the very right of this film to exist. As any student of American pop culture knows, any publicity is good publicity and a legal battle just fueled the hype fire even more. Ultimately, Fox prevailed, but the whole dispute had a lot of fans holding their collective breath that the one movie that would never be made would really never be made.
Even after the film release had the official green-light, there was one more major issue to deal with: ... was this movie even going to be any good?
Well?
And now we have our answer, it seems. Rotten Tomatoes, my favorite movie website in the entire galaxy, has Watchmen at a respectable 66% approval (with 89 positive reviews out of 135), making it "Certified Fresh" for now. "But Devan," you may be thinking to yourself, "anything below 60% is considered 'Rotten' - is Watchmen teetering on the edge of annihilation?!" Fear not, reader... Believe it or not, this is not the first time in history that a highly-anticipated movie has had people scratching their heads. And if ever there was a headscratcher, it's Watchmen. But then, that's no real surprise is it? Pure, distilled psychological angst in film-form? It's not the type of thing that agrees with everyone.
From what I've read, it seems that the main complaint so far is that Watchmen is pretty (that's never an issue) but boring. Or, pretty but confusing. Or pretty but (and this is the one that really hurts to read) soulless. Ouch. Aesthetic considerations aside (we all know from 300 that Zack Snyder is a formidable director), a film that's lost its feeling can be the worst of all, leaving the audience feeling disappointed but also vaguely heartbroken without really knowing why.
I have to say, I blame the purists. "Make it the right way," they command, "it has to be perfect."
I wonder though, is there really any value in constructing a film that so neatly matches up with each panel in its source comic? (Except, that is, to get the DVD later and sit around with your friends holding your graphic novel up to the screen and going, "Whoaaaaa...") Since Sin City back in 2005 when Robert Rodriquez proved that it was possible to make a panel-by-panel rendition (and fantastically so) even from a highly-stylized starting point, people have begun to identify this level of precision with a kind of gold standard for "accurate" representation. The novel itself is pretty dense already for its medium and to then meld those many asynchronous pieces together is tricky at best. And, after all that work, to have your movie just not... connect? Even with the die-hard fans who are just excited to finally SEE a movie? Yeah. That's rough.
The other main gripe is, unsurprisingly, that it's just too bloody weird and complicated; the "uninitiated" won't get it. My response to that, as usual, is something like: "Uhhhhh...?" Not having any background in something - isn't that what the title given to those people connotes anyway? Yeah... I don't know a whole lot about sports so there's a reason why I don't go to football games and say, "Well, if you don't know anything about football, this game really makes no sense at all."
... Yeesh!
All of that aside, Watchmen also now officially holds the record for the largest R-rated opening since The Matrix Reloaded in 2003. I guess we just have a soft spot in our hearts for really complicated storylines and graphic violence in a the quasi-familiar dystopian ultraverse... Woohoo! :)
Not that there was any other option, but I'm proud that Watchmen is standing up to criticism, even if Alan Moore himself could care less about its success. You can't really blame him - it must be a bit unsettling to have to deal not only with a film release but also with suddenly seeing a graphic novel that probably contains a little (or HUGE) piece of his soul sitting in the window of every book store in America... Eh, c'est la vie, I suppose - maybe he should stop writing brilliant fiction that develops cult followings.
In any case, however this movie ultimately establishes itself in American cinematic history and whatever I think of it myself when I see it tomorrow, I'm glad it happened and, more importantly, that it had a chance to happen.
Oh, and one last thing:
If you're really offended about how this film turned out and you just can't seem to get any peace, I encourage you to take a moment to think about Spider-Man 3...
Feel better? I thought so.
:)
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