Chatter Of The Squirrel

Movie: The Watchmen

July 2, 2009 on 11:10 pm | In Movies | No Comments

The DVD is out!! (Well, at least the DVDrip is…)

But the Director’s Cut is coming out on the 21st. You can pre-order on Amazon. Get it now! We’re promised the death of Hollis Mason in the director’s cut.

BUYITBUYITBUYITBUYITBUYITBUYITBUYITBUYIT

I never got around to blogging about this amazing movie, which I enjoyed MOST IMMENSELY. (And which I’ll be enjoying again tonight if all downloads go well…) Watched the movie with a girl, and she didn’t fall asleep. The movie was THAT good.

I’ve only ranted about the graphic novel in passing several years ago… And I’ve reread it again since. Alan Moore pushed an entire industry into a whole new level. The graphic layer has multiple layers, and each person reads a different layer with each different reading. I’ve read it more than once, over several years, and there’s still a good chunk of it that I’ve only skimmed over and never read.

It’s a seminal work of fiction that is well remembered and homaged by many. Some ha-ha-funny. Some a I-don’t-know-if-you’re-crazy funny. Some looney-funny.

First of all, I loved the opening credits. It was brilliantly executed and gets you immediately into the feel of the story. I’ve never had a tingle like that since seeing the Shire for the first time on the silverscreen. It’s a tingle more powerful than a first kiss. The credits condensed the backstory beautifully, and the haunting lyrics of Bob Dylan immerses you into the right era to put the rest of story in context. Best. Opening credits. Ever.

The graphic novel was thought to be unfilmable. Definitely true. Not without some big cuts. But I think it turned out alright. The pirate story was omitted, but it was made separately into a cartoon (Tales of the Black Freighter) voiced by King Leonidas. The lovers’ quarrel on Mars was condensed. That was the part in the novel that really made me see Manhattan’s transcendency over time. The space-alien ending was changed from the comic, and I have no complaints about that. I think that was a good move, cos there wasn’t time to build up that conspiracy thread, and surprising viewers with a giant tentacle monster at the end will be a rude shock.

But a lot of has been very well translated over. The grittiness, the tragedy, even the comical impotence.

This is literature. It’s 10x better than the 101 iterations of Pride & Prejudice movies all put together.