Wow, I’m not impressed at all. I was really looking forward to this film. Now? Not so much. The CG looks cheesy, the music sucked and I F***ing hate the slow mo. Watchmen is already a 12 issue graphic novel, so screen time shouldn’t be wasted on visual masturbation, my suppressed fears about the director of 300 just might be confirmed here. I really appreciated what Zack Snyder was saying about the comic and the project but I’m dubious now. Watchmen is a deeply psychological work full of rich subtext and just slo-moing scenes directly from the comic is not the way to go.
Here’s What Alan Moore recently had to say about Snyder:
When asked by Entertainment Weekly if he was curious about Snyder's version of his story, he replied: "I would rather not know."
Moore, who previously disowned the Warner Bros adaptation of his comic V For Vendetta, voiced his disapproval of Snyder due to his involvement with 300.
"He's the person who made 300. I've not seen any recent comic book films, but I didn't particularly like the book 300," Moore said.
"I had a lot of problems with it, and everything I heard or saw about the film tended to increase [those problems] rather than reduce them: [that] it was racist, it was homophobic, and above all it was sublimely stupid."
Furthermore, the comic scribe insisted that he hadn't been in contact with studio Warner Bros regarding the Watchmen adaptation: "No, they've all been told not to. They get the message... I don't want anyone who works for DC comic books to contact me ever again, or I'll change my number."
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I’ve been absorbing I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets, which collects all the Golden Age comic stories by Fletcher Hanks. It’s one of the weirdest things I’ve ever read. At first these stories almost seem like a joke or a 60’s, underground comic parody, but these bizarros were actually published. The art style is akin to a crossing of Robert Crumb and Basil Wolverton but with less talent than either. The narrative of these odd gems is hard to describe other than to say that the heroes tend to abnormally torture the villains by the end after some ridiculously grand scheme. This collection is the naked lunch of comics.
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Overdroid is in town and we met for a quick get-together yesterday. He brought along a copy of the Arkham Horror board game, which I’ve been itching to play. Well, it was a hell of fun time. We were quickly overwhelmed by the machinations of Nyarlathotep. OD was killed when the crawling chaos manifested after only a few turns of play and I didn’t last much longer in a head to head fight with Nyarly. In fact, OD told me that it was the shortest games he’s ever played, which ended up being OK because we didn’t have a lot of time anyway. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had losing, but then this is a horror game after all.
Overdroid also had a copy of Basic Roleplaying. I was a surprised how huge it was. Due to our short schedule, I didn’t really have time to look through it. Maybe Diamond Distributing will see fit to send me the copy of Basic Roleplaying that I ordered.
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I came across a great list of literary takes on superheroes via NPR’s website here. Check it out.
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Arkonbey made a joke about me cutting down on comics now that Swinebread Jr. is on the way, but I do need to cut down. I’ve been surprised how many comics, especially trades, I order and then wonder what the hell was I thinking when I signed up for this. The only kink in the plan is that a significant amount of items that I have ordered, many months ago, have not shown up and now, with budgets tightening, I might be in a rough spot. Oh well, I’ll figure it out…
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Speaking of Swinebread Jr, now he really could come at any time... I can' t wait to be a Dad, but I guess I will have to wait for a little longer.
-Swinebread
11 comments:
We have a completely different take
Until I saw the trailer i was all like "they can't make this movie" now i am hopefully optimistic.
I know a movie is different than a book and all that but...
I'm still having trouble getting over how young the cast is! Their age is an important aspect of the original story and it makes me wonder how Snyder is interpreting it. Will this movie have any sort of depth or will the Watchmen just being saving the world.
wow, a swinebread jr...i guess there really WAS some "atomic romance"?
boy, alan moore sure does come across as angry...but i have to give him credit, he completely disassociates himself from these projects. he doesn't take the dough and then badmouth them after the fact...i'm not sure i totally grok his beef, but he certainly does stick to his beliefs.
and yeah, i actually thought Watchmen looked cool...i assume the slow-mo is just for the trailer, since so much of the audience has never seen these characters before?
Watchmen: AndreZero and I had the same horor-struck discussion. Snyder is a copier. He can't create, he can only emulate. Thus his penchant for copying exactly what was on the page rather than creating his own vision. Damn shame. The initial stills looked so good...
Stardust: Isn't he something? Now HE needs a movie!
Swinebread Jr= pigletmuffin?
I'm so glad I never went to see/read 300.
At this point I'm sure I never will.
I'm still working on Pigmuffin's costume design...
I'll try and send you some sketches and you can tell me what you think.
Dude, we had the most fun sitting out on the deck with you on the speaker - phone drinking scotch, smoking good cigars and talking geek stuff. At least we had the scotch and cigars.
Overdroid and I saw the Dark Knight last night and they had the Watchmen trailer. We both laughed when they put up the title "from the visionary director of 300."
The thoughts of me and the Missus are with you and the SO this week.
New name - 301.
Pido – I’m interested, what did you like about the trailer?
Becca – me too, I understand Zack rationale for have younger’s folks for the flashbacks but the 1985 versions of the characters look pretty f-ing young. Maybe, Zack’s statement was just a fake out. I guess we gotta get the kids into the seats.
Rob – heh heh… thanks man! And yes it was quite explosive…
If comics have a diva, it’s Alan. He’s a talented guy and I like how sticks to his guns but I think he is a wasting a little too much energy on being upset about Hollywood. Crappy adaptions are not unique to him.
Arkonbey – Your totally right. The slow-mo is there for him to say see, I can’t make it look just like the comic!
A Stardust movie would be quite a psychedelic trip I bet… the comic sure is…
Doc smoke – Well, you can watch it as a joke… It was on cable a while ago and that’s what I did. It’s pretty funny if you don’t take it seriously, and believe me with all the mutants and CG there’s not way to take it seriously, if you did you would have to be mentally ill or fascist.
I really appreciate your work on pigmuffen, sorry I haven’t been so attentive to your blog.
Dean – It was great to talk to both of you, it was like I was really there. Technology is wonderful. Thanks for the good vibes…
Snab – Come again?
The "Watchmen" trailer looked pretty good to me!
Doc, you're such an optimist!
Swine
What I liked about the trailer was it looked like it caught most of the book to me.
Now I will say after rewatching it it seems he may be making them more heroic than they are in the graphinc novel but seeing Dr Manhattan walk through Vietnam blowing people up on film did it for me
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