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The Watchmen
6 March 2009 15:06Fairly spoiler-free but not entirely. Read at your own risk.
Question: Who watches the Watchmen?
Answer: I do.
At the midnight showing at the Rio last night, I was proud to attend the premiere of The Watchmen, the new movie directed by Zack Snyder based on the seminal 1986 graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. I wanted to catch the midnight screening premiere before impressions from the rest of my friends started flooding in. Even knowing that it was three hours long didn’t stop me.
The sold-out audience at the Rio last night had a hundred of my friends mixed in with them, including the projectionist. There was a costume contest to kick off the show and the winner was a guy dressed up as a grumpy Alan Moore. Witty. As the lights went down, the guy in front of me put his X-Men comic back into its plastic bag and settled in to watch the show. That alone let me know that I was with my tribe in a neighborhood theater, ready to watch the show.
I was tired and the experience was like a dream. I am here today on my lunch hour on the day after, sunshine coming in the window, and I’m reflecting.
I was in The Watchmen. I was an extra in the riot scene where Nite Owl and The Comedian come down and start shooting into the crowd. I didn’t see myself in the background but the scene went by pretty quick. I’ll frame-by-frame it later on DVD. My friend Lori Watt played Rorshach’s mom. That was awesome. I’m pretty sure another acquaintance played Andy Warhol during the opening credits. I’m glad that they used a lot of Vancouver talent in the film seeing as it was shot here. Almost all of the exteriors were built on one giant lot here in Vancouver and for three glorious nights, I was suited up in late 70s gear and rioted underneath the Archimedes owl ship. Seeing the movie, I recognized almost all of the exterior locations from that one giant set.
Being an extra in that movie was like starring in a geek porno. Seeing it on the screen was an almost metaphysical experience.
I can appreciate the choices that Zack Snyder and the studio made. The fact that so much of the comic actually did make it to the screen is a testament to brass balls and power struggles that probably took years off of Zack’s life. I’ve read the screenplays that have been written over the last twenty years in the various attempts to bring this film to the screen. In one, the movie opens with super-heroes battling it out on the head of the Statue of Liberty. In various versions they’ve tried to cut out Mars, Rorschach, the Black Freighter, any sex, setting it in the 80s, and the ending. They’ve tried to add a list of other characters and plot lines to make it more digestible or contemporary for modern audiences. They all failed and never made it to the screen.
Thank God. As my friend Alannah New Small summed the experience of watching this film up perfectly when she said, “It was way better than I feared it would be.”
I need to say that I agree with the choices movie-makers made. When the movie doesn’t get it right, it’s at least attempting to get it right. When the movie does get it right, it hits it out of the fucking park. For that alone I’m grateful.
The criticisms I’ve heard so far are valid. It’s bloated and clumsy in places as it struggles with the source material, the makeup on Nixon and Carla Gugino is a little overdone, and the CG on Billy Crudup suffers from a little ‘uncanny valley’ action. Malin Ackerman, Mathew Goode and Carla Gugino turn in performances that are less that vibrant and oddly stilted. And while I like the tweaked ending, (or at least recognize the simple necessity of it from a screenplay standpoint) I know that it’s going to rankle the purists.
I’m going to watch it again, probably twice, and then I’m going to watch the DVD extras and the interviews and the Black Freighter and the Under the Hood documentary and read the graphic novel again. Then I’m going to wait for the super-special deluxe DVD Box set edition and watch that.
I think it’s a laudable attempt at getting it right and probably the best attempt that I’m likely to see in my lifetime. Thank you, Zack Snyder. You’re going to be attacked mercilessly over the next year for this movie but I’m on your side.
tags
Question: Who watches the Watchmen?
Answer: I do.
At the midnight showing at the Rio last night, I was proud to attend the premiere of The Watchmen, the new movie directed by Zack Snyder based on the seminal 1986 graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. I wanted to catch the midnight screening premiere before impressions from the rest of my friends started flooding in. Even knowing that it was three hours long didn’t stop me.
The sold-out audience at the Rio last night had a hundred of my friends mixed in with them, including the projectionist. There was a costume contest to kick off the show and the winner was a guy dressed up as a grumpy Alan Moore. Witty. As the lights went down, the guy in front of me put his X-Men comic back into its plastic bag and settled in to watch the show. That alone let me know that I was with my tribe in a neighborhood theater, ready to watch the show.
I was tired and the experience was like a dream. I am here today on my lunch hour on the day after, sunshine coming in the window, and I’m reflecting.
I was in The Watchmen. I was an extra in the riot scene where Nite Owl and The Comedian come down and start shooting into the crowd. I didn’t see myself in the background but the scene went by pretty quick. I’ll frame-by-frame it later on DVD. My friend Lori Watt played Rorshach’s mom. That was awesome. I’m pretty sure another acquaintance played Andy Warhol during the opening credits. I’m glad that they used a lot of Vancouver talent in the film seeing as it was shot here. Almost all of the exteriors were built on one giant lot here in Vancouver and for three glorious nights, I was suited up in late 70s gear and rioted underneath the Archimedes owl ship. Seeing the movie, I recognized almost all of the exterior locations from that one giant set.
Being an extra in that movie was like starring in a geek porno. Seeing it on the screen was an almost metaphysical experience.
I can appreciate the choices that Zack Snyder and the studio made. The fact that so much of the comic actually did make it to the screen is a testament to brass balls and power struggles that probably took years off of Zack’s life. I’ve read the screenplays that have been written over the last twenty years in the various attempts to bring this film to the screen. In one, the movie opens with super-heroes battling it out on the head of the Statue of Liberty. In various versions they’ve tried to cut out Mars, Rorschach, the Black Freighter, any sex, setting it in the 80s, and the ending. They’ve tried to add a list of other characters and plot lines to make it more digestible or contemporary for modern audiences. They all failed and never made it to the screen.
Thank God. As my friend Alannah New Small summed the experience of watching this film up perfectly when she said, “It was way better than I feared it would be.”
I need to say that I agree with the choices movie-makers made. When the movie doesn’t get it right, it’s at least attempting to get it right. When the movie does get it right, it hits it out of the fucking park. For that alone I’m grateful.
The criticisms I’ve heard so far are valid. It’s bloated and clumsy in places as it struggles with the source material, the makeup on Nixon and Carla Gugino is a little overdone, and the CG on Billy Crudup suffers from a little ‘uncanny valley’ action. Malin Ackerman, Mathew Goode and Carla Gugino turn in performances that are less that vibrant and oddly stilted. And while I like the tweaked ending, (or at least recognize the simple necessity of it from a screenplay standpoint) I know that it’s going to rankle the purists.
I’m going to watch it again, probably twice, and then I’m going to watch the DVD extras and the interviews and the Black Freighter and the Under the Hood documentary and read the graphic novel again. Then I’m going to wait for the super-special deluxe DVD Box set edition and watch that.
I think it’s a laudable attempt at getting it right and probably the best attempt that I’m likely to see in my lifetime. Thank you, Zack Snyder. You’re going to be attacked mercilessly over the next year for this movie but I’m on your side.
tags