Who Watched The Watchmen this weekend?
Here's my quick mini-Watchmen review.
Not bad.
That's the best summarize I can offer. I went into this film with absurdly low expectations. This was fed to me from the trailers, my knowledge of Zach Snyder's previous flicks (300, bad, Dawn of Dead, pretty okay), and friends' opinions who had read the comic. After reading the critical reception combined with all these factors I was almost prepared to completely ignore the film, as Alan Moore would likely have hoped, and not seen it at all. But I did and here's what I thought.
Two large issues for me. The first was the style in which it was shot. I knew this would be an issue going in. Snyder likes to film his movies with a "cool" quality. CGI laden action and stop-slow-fast motion cinematography bothers me. I knew that would be an issue and was prepared for it. What I was not prepared for was how pretty the movie was. This was to the film's benefit and detriment. You can film something and have it look good, but this sacrificed a certain amount of grit. Watchmen isn't as well illustrated as other comics and graphic novels, but it had an edge that this film failed to relate. All of the gore seemed to be almost contrived, almost seemed to beg to look dark when it wasn't. To draw a loose comparison, and this is the first thing that comes to mind, Saving Private Ryan. This is a film that hits you when you see the gore, the war, the underlying contempt mankind can have toward each other and disgusts you. The graphic novel made me feel that but the violence in this movie did not. There were many poignant moments within the novel that struck a chord with me that lacked when I saw on screen. Both of these movies had some terrible moments, but The Watchmen fell flat with it's violence and it didn't have anything to do with the fact that one was a complete fabrication while the other was a historical work of fiction. The Watchmen had an ability to dig into you but did not in it's film form.
Issue number two, and this gets into what the film lacked. Much has been made of the lack of the "Black Freighter" storyline from the film. For those whom don't know, it's basically a self sustained comic book written into the graphic novel, telling a story that someone in the graphic novel is reading. It's really intriguing, although I didn't like it as I was reading the novel. However, by the time I was finished reading I really appreciated it. You can tell the story without including this, but one important character is the man who owns the shop where the young lad is reading the story. This man is almost completely left out of the movie and I felt he was far too important to not give note to. He gave the non-superhero, every day average Joe perspective to the goings-on of the story. This newspaper vendor allowed a break every so often to give the audience a personal and relateable perspective that gave a greater amount of credence to what was going on as it was happening. The lack of this type of character really hindered the film and he should have been there.
There's other ommissions and errors within the film. These other things were minor to me, though, and the film did do other things well. The ending was cleaned up and I liked the changes. The soundtrack worked with me more than it didn't. Overall, the movie told the story well but without lacking the subtle nuance that the novel did. Harking back to my first point, the movie failed to paint a disgusting world as well as it needed to. It failed to frighten and horrify. The movie didn't give you that pit in your stomach that the graphic novel did. So on these aspects it failed.
But it wasn't bad. It entertained. It entertained me, a reader, and friends who were non-readers of the graphic novel. So it succeeded there, and that's about the best an "un-filmable" film could do.
Not bad.
That's the best summarize I can offer. I went into this film with absurdly low expectations. This was fed to me from the trailers, my knowledge of Zach Snyder's previous flicks (300, bad, Dawn of Dead, pretty okay), and friends' opinions who had read the comic. After reading the critical reception combined with all these factors I was almost prepared to completely ignore the film, as Alan Moore would likely have hoped, and not seen it at all. But I did and here's what I thought.
Two large issues for me. The first was the style in which it was shot. I knew this would be an issue going in. Snyder likes to film his movies with a "cool" quality. CGI laden action and stop-slow-fast motion cinematography bothers me. I knew that would be an issue and was prepared for it. What I was not prepared for was how pretty the movie was. This was to the film's benefit and detriment. You can film something and have it look good, but this sacrificed a certain amount of grit. Watchmen isn't as well illustrated as other comics and graphic novels, but it had an edge that this film failed to relate. All of the gore seemed to be almost contrived, almost seemed to beg to look dark when it wasn't. To draw a loose comparison, and this is the first thing that comes to mind, Saving Private Ryan. This is a film that hits you when you see the gore, the war, the underlying contempt mankind can have toward each other and disgusts you. The graphic novel made me feel that but the violence in this movie did not. There were many poignant moments within the novel that struck a chord with me that lacked when I saw on screen. Both of these movies had some terrible moments, but The Watchmen fell flat with it's violence and it didn't have anything to do with the fact that one was a complete fabrication while the other was a historical work of fiction. The Watchmen had an ability to dig into you but did not in it's film form.
Issue number two, and this gets into what the film lacked. Much has been made of the lack of the "Black Freighter" storyline from the film. For those whom don't know, it's basically a self sustained comic book written into the graphic novel, telling a story that someone in the graphic novel is reading. It's really intriguing, although I didn't like it as I was reading the novel. However, by the time I was finished reading I really appreciated it. You can tell the story without including this, but one important character is the man who owns the shop where the young lad is reading the story. This man is almost completely left out of the movie and I felt he was far too important to not give note to. He gave the non-superhero, every day average Joe perspective to the goings-on of the story. This newspaper vendor allowed a break every so often to give the audience a personal and relateable perspective that gave a greater amount of credence to what was going on as it was happening. The lack of this type of character really hindered the film and he should have been there.
There's other ommissions and errors within the film. These other things were minor to me, though, and the film did do other things well. The ending was cleaned up and I liked the changes. The soundtrack worked with me more than it didn't. Overall, the movie told the story well but without lacking the subtle nuance that the novel did. Harking back to my first point, the movie failed to paint a disgusting world as well as it needed to. It failed to frighten and horrify. The movie didn't give you that pit in your stomach that the graphic novel did. So on these aspects it failed.
But it wasn't bad. It entertained. It entertained me, a reader, and friends who were non-readers of the graphic novel. So it succeeded there, and that's about the best an "un-filmable" film could do.