Two more reasons to go see the Dark Knight

Jul 09, 2008 23:02

The Watchmen and Terminator trailers are showing before The Dark Knight.

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steeves July 10 2008, 04:57:57 UTC
Oooooooo. As if there needed to be more encouragement.

Have you seen it yet? I have not.

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laurabaura18 July 10 2008, 08:00:54 UTC
omg i didn't know they were making a movie out of the watchman!

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steeves July 10 2008, 08:08:58 UTC
Want to see the Costume Test Photos? :)

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laurabaura18 July 10 2008, 08:26:57 UTC
that is awesome!!! I was worried about how they'd look. the book was never "HERE IS MY BULGE - AWAY WE FLYYYYYY!!!" the guy writing that post made a point to notice that he didn't like Ozymandus' costume, because he felt the colours didn't *pop* enough. Personally I like the result they've come up with. in fact i think the bottoms ar almost *too* purple. The lines of the suit whisper back to Egyptian Styling, without being campy or over bearing. The colours - if brighter - would have most certinally made the costume feel out of line with the other characters'. The theme of hte movie is alot more... gray... than your average hero movie.

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steeves July 10 2008, 08:35:37 UTC
My problem with the Ozymandias costume is actually that it's way too clear that--

SPOILER!

--he is "the bad guy."

Both because it shouldn't be clear that the dude is the guy behind everything, and also because is the dude a bad guy? If he's dressed in that black costume with the eye makeup and everything, the signals it's sending is YES. The guy should look like a shining paragon or virtue.

Anyway, that's my $0.02

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steeves July 10 2008, 08:42:50 UTC
Oh, and otherwise, I am actually pretty pleased with their costumes. Night Owl especially there's definitely more of a sexed up Hollywood bent, but I can live with it.

The direction I've been trying to come at the whole thing from is that it's just a completely new thing that bears some resemblance to the book. It just can't be the book, it's going to, necessarily, be very, very different. The book was specifically made to show what comic books can do that movies just can't, after all.

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laurabaura18 July 10 2008, 08:55:47 UTC
ooo your point is right. having read the book i'm looking at it from a view point of I know who does what in their role in the book. but i remember being all "NO WAY" the first time I read it, which is an effect they will probably not get.

yeah I know they'll try to stick to the book - but there will definitally have to be some differences I believe. Must.Find.Old.Copy.And.Read...

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steeves July 10 2008, 09:13:08 UTC
Good idea! :)

It's a great book. Everybody should totally give it a reread. If you haven't read it recently, you should buy beg or steal a copy and do so. :)

And heck, it is still a comic book, after all -- you can read it pretty quick. It might be a super-dense comic book, but it's not rereading a novel.

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telemergion July 10 2008, 15:25:34 UTC
My big thing is how they're gonna unravel the plot and universe. What made watchmen (and just about anything Moore does) great is how he leads you along with breads crumbs, then either expends the world or creates the illusion that he's doing so around you so you're left with a sense of "holy crap, this is bigger than I imagined. I am so intrigued and don't know what's going on!"

That's gonna be the hardest thing, imo, for a movie to sell in a 2 hour format.

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naive_charm July 10 2008, 18:25:24 UTC
Considering the theatrical cut may be 3 hours, and the dvd cut may be 4 1/2... Black Freighter may not be in the movie, but it'll be anime-style on the dvd and narrated by Gerard Butler. Sweetness.

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steeves July 11 2008, 14:14:35 UTC
The biggest problems for me are things like rapid cuts from one scene to another for pages on end after only a few lines of dialogue, developing four separate stories simultaneously. You are simply not going to get the same intricately layered experience; it would be a jumbled mess on the screen. If they can somehow do it, it will revolutionize the medium.

There are so many things like that, (the entire book that is a reflection of itself?) that it really makes me ask the same question he has, Why are they adapting this book into a movie? I mean, why try? It's not going to be Watchmen the book that Moore wrote simply moved to the screen. It's going to be a different thing.

It's like V for Vendetta, it was a perfectly acceptable movie, but as Moore says, if they had any balls they would have written their own story and left his book alone. They wouldn't have to make a radically different movie to be legally safe.

It's not like this is the first adaptation that's raised these specters, far from it, it's just that in this case, one of ( ... )

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steeves July 11 2008, 14:28:47 UTC
Oh, and if anybody's wondering about Alan's stance on this kind of stuff, he talks about it a bit here, in Part 3.

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naive_charm July 11 2008, 15:33:48 UTC
Steeves, please don't take your rage out on me, it shakes me to my delicate core.

But yeah, what you said is basically on everyone's mind. But it sounds like they're at least trying to stay true to the story and keep in things that fans will like, which has helped in movies like Iron Man and Incredible Hulk. Once studio heads start getting their slimy little paws on stuff and taking away the essence, you get shit like Daredevil rocking out to Evanescense or Elektra fighting magical ninjas in the woods. Previous scripts sounded absolutely wretched, like placing it in the present or completely re-writing the "overly complicated" ending. I have very high expectations and hopes for this movie, and am still a little sketchy on some stuff, but all in all I think they're at least taking a somewhat right approach (considering how it could have ended up) to filming a comic that's considered unfilmable.

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steeves July 11 2008, 15:57:17 UTC
I will take my rage out on whomever I damn well please!

/snap piece of spaghetti in two
/pout
/storm off to lecture to children at the park about boating regulations
/get mad at monkey bars for not being serious
/attack monkey bars with monkey wrench
/deliver lecture on irony to police officers
/wake up
/wonder why head and bottom hurt

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jonolith July 12 2008, 03:18:29 UTC
I don't really disagree with any of that, and I don't think I ever will, and I really am in the same boat as you thinking that it may be another hollywood money grap ( ... )

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steeves July 12 2008, 11:25:16 UTC
And that's a lot of my reasoning for even attempting to look forward to the movie.

The keys to my feelings on the subject are that the original is a tribute to the medium of comics over film specifically, and author doesn't want it done.

I acknowledge that there may be ways to overcome the first one (to my satisfaction, certainly), but it's still a pretty deep confliction.

The book stands as one of my favorite pillars of my favorite medium, when somebody comes along and decides it's time to cash in on it in ways that both the work and author don't support, I might not be overwhelmingly approving.

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