I fail at pessimism.

[20thcenturyvole]

I'm trying to be cynical about Watchmen, but the new footage is giving me nothing but inappropriate levels of joy and excitement at how right everything looks. Even rumours that they've changed the ending to make it more upbeat are failing to give me more than a brief feeling of horror, since while I am a great lover of Alan Moore, changes to

Comments

[selenak]

I'm excited and pretty optimistic. The only reason for pessimism I can see is that Zack Snyder did 300, but going by the interviews and what we've seen of the film so far, this does not seem to lead to, say, Rohrschach's political views being endorsed because he's our detective through the narrative, or the Comedian becoming a misunderstood woobie. (Since they keep the scene where he shoots the pregnant Vietnamese woman.)

[20thcenturyvole]

I'm very glad of that, since half the fun of reading Watchmen is going, "Jesus, these people all need therapy or a prison cell or both." Not that that will stop hordes of fangirls from writing goo about what a misunderstood woobie the Comedian is or hideous Rorschach/Mary Sue stories, but as long as the film doesn't tend that way, I'll be happy. I like not knowing quite how I feel about these people; it's one of the rare occasions where not completely liking any character actually wins me over instead of turning me off.

[madripoor_rose]

There's already quite a bit of Bishie-Rorschach/Nite-Owl slash out there. Stumbled across it in the hopes that there'd be some serious plotty gen stuff. Ah, fandom....

[20thcenturyvole]

Heh, I know about that - there was even a Rorschach/Nite Owl fanart picspam on scans_daily a while ago, which prompted equal responses of "My eyes! My sweet, virgin eyes!" and something gleefully pornographic. I can kind of understand it, in a "someone else's kink" way - I found the slight Rorschach/Nite Owl subtext in the novel to be kind of hilarious and slightly endearing, in the way that I found all of Rorschach's terrifyingly insane interactions with the world hilarious and endearing. Er, possibly this says more about me than it does about the characters.

[madripoor_rose]

Passing lurker reading DevilDoll's friendslist.

I'm optimistic. The footage released has been incredibly close to the original art...that kind of attention to detail has to count for something. And I agree that a slightly altered ending isn't the worst thing in the world as long as it still works in the context of the story.

I've seen some complaints that the costumes aren't identical to the comic/graphic novel...but personally I like the fact that it's updated to a visual reference to the blockbuster superhero movies.

I do have some concerns about Patrick Wilson as Dan Dreiberg...I'm a little worried that they're going to Hollywood Hunk him up when the storyarc of dorky, middleaged and gone to seed Dan is one of my favorite elements of the book.

[20thcenturyvole]

Well, yeah, that's why I'm excited too - the sheer faith to the artwork has really impressed me. I even like the change to Laurie's costume, because I think it hangs a lampshade on the generic skin-tight superheroine togs by making a costume that really is pure fetish fuel.

I thought the shots of him in-costume looked a little too slim, but that shot of him naked with Laurie reassured me a little - I thought he did actually look kind of middle-aged and double-chinned there, at least by Hollywood standards. I'm holding out hope. If I'm disappointed, I figure I can always mail a bag of flaming poo.

[madripoor_rose]

that shot of him naked with Laurie...from the extended trailer on the Scream awards? I've seen that floating around the net, but either the resolution was poor or it was just too dark for me to get a good look. (eye trouble)

That's a good sign.

[everysecondtues]

My best friend is looking forward to it, to the point that I'm getting really curious. I'm supposed to have the comic shoved at me at some point in preparation, I think.

[20thcenturyvole]

It is very good; it was written at the height of the Cold War and it's as much about that (in a spectacular alternate-universe way) as it is about deconstructing superhero psyches. The little details are mind-boggling, and make it a fairly dense read; I'd recommend doing it twice, just to see what you missed the first time around. Er, that is, providing you liked it, of course. :)

[kageygirl]

I feel like I should be all wary and nervous, but the trailer looks so fantastic that I'm just kind of slightly breathless with anticipation. I don't want to have my heart broken, but it looks so good...

[20thcenturyvole]

Exactly! That's precisely how I feel about it, like I should be cynical but I'm just failing at it because WOW, shiny! Ah well, if we get our hearts stomped on we have no-one to blame but ourselves. *g*