Say What?! - Yeah, About Watching The Watchmen ...
Okay, I may be committing nerd suicide here and I hope I'm not going to be expelled from the community a la the Amish, but am I the only one not hyped to see Watchmen come March 6th?
With FOX winning their lawsuit against Warner Bros. over the distribution rights for the film version of Alan Moore's graphic novel, the original march release date is still on track and fandom is in a furor. Well, most of fandom. I can't bring myself to care very much. I enjoy the book, but I see it as essentially unfilmable. It is very much a novel and uses many of the ideas and schemes that are unique to novels. Translating the work to film will fundamentally change the core of the project and at that rate - what's the point?
So tell me, PK readers - Am I alone in not being excited for this film? I'll probably end up seeing it, but right now I could go or not go just as easily.
Goblin
Posted to Comics, Say What? on 19 January 2009
· Comments (8)
Other stuff like this: Alan Moore, Film, Watchmen
I think it will be fine (kewl FX, neat sets, easter eggs for the fans, etc.), but I also had the pleasure of reading the graphic novels. If there is a shame, it's that a lot of folks will only see the movie and never read the source, so they'll be all like, "yeah, it was okay, but nothing that great" because they didn't get the full effect of Moore's storytelling. It's like it will be a very sweet, strong-tasting, bright piece of candy, but those who read the work as well will know it's actually an exquisite full course meal.
Wow, I love that candy/meal analogy.
I think the book was amazing, but I think it'll make a hideously boring movie. For goodness sake, 90% of the book is ex-superheroes bitching about how impotent and powerless they are, meanwhile a few others go through overly-grand existential crisis.
I'll probably go see it anyway, but I'm not terribly excited.
Plenty of 'real' books have been successfully adapted into movies, so I don't see any reason why this graphic novel can't be.
I think too many fanboys have been drinking the Alan Moore Kool Aid. I think it's lemonade flavored ...extra bitter.
That being said I'm not really hyped for the movie to come out, because (stand back until after the lightning strikes me down) I didn't really care for the book that much.
I'm sort of with you, Gobby, and sort of not. I too agree that much of Watchmen is done in very novel/graphic novel unique ways, but I also think that there is a movie to be had in there. I don't presume to think it'll be the same exact thing, that would be silly, but I think that it may introduce such a seminal graphic novel to a brand new group of readers who may have never heard of Watchmen before seeing the movie.
Case in point: I thought that V for Vendetta was at best a passable action flick, but my excitement for the movie coming out made me go out and buy the graphic novel. Through later research I found that I was not the only one who did this, and that sales of V for Vendetta and a great many Alan Moore titles spiked before the movie. I would not be surprised if sales of Watchmen and, therefore, appreciation of Watchmen follow suit.
That being said, my current gripe is that it sounds like "The Watchmen" is the name of one of the supergroups in the movie. I understand why they do that, but c'mon...
I am not at all hyped. I've been utterly disappointed with every cinematic attempt at Moore's work, and I'm sure this will be no different.
It looks like just another superhero movie, which is sort of against the point of the book, isn't it?
I haven't read Watchmen, so I'm going into this like I did with Harry Potter... it looks cool and after I've enjoyed the movie I'll go read the book. Mostly because books, of any kind, are better than the movies they're based on (IMO), and I don't want to go into the movie expecting anything.