Julian's Journal, March 12 2009
Saw Watchmen last night. Hrrm.
As you might be able to tell from the previous post, I'm a bit of a Watchmen fan, so I've been waiting 20 years for the film to come out, and I think it was worth it. If you haven't seen the film then be warned - ahead be spoilers.
First off, the casting was great. Each of the main characters was pretty much spot on. Jackie Earle Haley was excellent as Rorschach, Patrick Wilson was great as Dan Dreiberg and Malin Akerman was just right as Laurie Jupiter.
While the film for the most part stuck to the story and structure of the comic, a lot had to be cut away to fit it into 150 minutes. All the sub-plots were stripped away, which pretty much meant the ending had to be changed. All of the newsstand scenes were removed, so that meant that all the stories of the newsstand customers were gone, along with the parallel story of The Black Freighter. The newsstand is there in the shots of the intersection, but we only really see the newsstand owner and the comic-reading boy right at the end.
Visually the film follows the comic pretty well. Little things like the neon sign outside Moloch's apartment stood out, and, like Snyder's previous work 300, frames from the comic continually stand out.
I understand that The Black Freighter will be included with the DVD, and a film version of Under The Hood (you know, after all these years I just got the joke that Hollis Mason is a mechanic as I typed that). I'm not sure how The Black Freighter will fit in without the newsstand scenes as context.
Overall I really enjoyed the film and I'm looking forward to seeing it again to catch more of the little details and references. I think Dr Manhattan would give it a 4 thumbs up.
I know Alan Moore is not associated with the film, but without him there would be no Watchmen.
As you might be able to tell from the previous post, I'm a bit of a Watchmen fan, so I've been waiting 20 years for the film to come out, and I think it was worth it. If you haven't seen the film then be warned - ahead be spoilers.
First off, the casting was great. Each of the main characters was pretty much spot on. Jackie Earle Haley was excellent as Rorschach, Patrick Wilson was great as Dan Dreiberg and Malin Akerman was just right as Laurie Jupiter.
While the film for the most part stuck to the story and structure of the comic, a lot had to be cut away to fit it into 150 minutes. All the sub-plots were stripped away, which pretty much meant the ending had to be changed. All of the newsstand scenes were removed, so that meant that all the stories of the newsstand customers were gone, along with the parallel story of The Black Freighter. The newsstand is there in the shots of the intersection, but we only really see the newsstand owner and the comic-reading boy right at the end.
Visually the film follows the comic pretty well. Little things like the neon sign outside Moloch's apartment stood out, and, like Snyder's previous work 300, frames from the comic continually stand out.
I understand that The Black Freighter will be included with the DVD, and a film version of Under The Hood (you know, after all these years I just got the joke that Hollis Mason is a mechanic as I typed that). I'm not sure how The Black Freighter will fit in without the newsstand scenes as context.
Overall I really enjoyed the film and I'm looking forward to seeing it again to catch more of the little details and references. I think Dr Manhattan would give it a 4 thumbs up.
I know Alan Moore is not associated with the film, but without him there would be no Watchmen.
