watching WATCHMEN

Just watched WATCHMEN on 14 March. Going to do so again soon. Why?
Cos its a great movie.

OK this is not a full review, just some thoughts and feelings and feelings of my thoughts on said movie.

Its too short. I have read the book and i will say that the movie only covers half of what the book covers.
HOWEVER I must applaud the director and producer for something. They themselves admitted this, that the movie was too short. Zack Snyder himself said the original script would have turned up a 6 episode mini series or 2 movies. The director and Dave Gibbons(the artist) agreed to cut it down to 1 movie. A single movie of 180 to 200 minutes. Producers thought it was still to long and cut it down to the current 163 minutes. So basically there is at least half and hour worth of stuff cut out.
The good thing is that the director is not just treating Watchmen as a movie, but as an ongoing PROJECT.
Slated to coincide with the DVD release are 2 other watchmen related releases.
1) Tales of the Black Freighter - a anime film adapting the "comic within the comic" that was in Watchmen. It's inclusion is vital to helping develop especially Ozymandias' personal sub-plot and character development as many parallels can be drawn between the Black freighter story and Ozy's.
2) Under the Hood - The original featured a biography of sorts by Hollis Mason(the original Nite Owl) about the first masked vigilantes, how they got together, the trials they faced and how it all ended. Basically an entire history back story setting up the events in the Watchmen present day story itself. This is now going to be presented as a "documentary"(though ya a "false" documentary) recounting the lives of the original "Minutemen" which was a very important sub-plot in the comic.

This movie is just the main course. To have a complete meal, you need the starters, main course, a accompanying drink and the dessert at least.
In other words I recommend watching this movie, then waiting for the director's cut DVD to come out and watching the other 2 features which will be on the DVD as well for the full Watchmen experience

So
In many ways, the book and the film are entirely different things. But in actual fact, they are one in the same to about 95%. Only that certain things are enhanced or dimmed. Most of the flaws are not the fault of the writer or director but rather of the medium itself. A book medium being very different from a movie medium

3 main Things that are dimmed
1) One thing that was dimmed were Dave Gibbon's(the original artist) visual motifs and symbolism.
The book uses a lot of little visual motifs that have a certain symbolism to what is going on. eg: the graffiti images of lovers embracing, the first-person point of view of people moving through rooms and looking into reflective surfaces, the Rorschach blots that turn up in places other than Rorschach’s face etc. All of it is meant to tie people’s lives together, even though some of those never meet, and to tie past and present together in a very metaphysical sense. In the movie, you don't get a chance to slowly scan through each scene and go "ah, wasn't this visual cue seen earlier? What is it's significance? etc etc" the turn back the film and pour through the earlier visual cue. You don't get to do that.
In this movie, some of the visual cues still remain but they require a quick mind to pick up on them. Some of the visual cues have been substituted with dialogue references though.

2)Another thing that was dimmed
Alan Moore likes to use this technique. He sort of overlays events in one location with the sound from another. eg: the sound of a TV broadcast seems to be commenting on a sex scene, or some conversation between prostitutes in the street seems to be a bickering commentary on a fight that is happening, or a scene from the past or future. Everything comments on everything else, and everything is connected. There is no "what happens next" because the book can be flipped forward or back and the connections can be slowly discerned and made, unlike a movie.
addition: Ok, where Alan moore uses this technique in his narrative, Zack Snyder(the director) uses a similar style but employing not narrative and background chatter, but in situ dialogue and songs playing in the background.

3) the back story and sub plots
Ok, the back story will apparently be featured in the "Under the Hood" (mock)documentary to be released the same time as the Watchmen DVD. But that doesn't mean its gone totally in the movie. There are a number of flash backs that re-tell the back stories but they go by so fast that you have to pick it up yourself.
If the back story in the book is like a hundred apples falling around you and you slowly pick up the pieces and eat, the back story in the movie is like a hundred apples being thrown at you in quick succession. You don't catch it, it flies by.
Subplots, like mentioned earlier, probably comes together with the 30+ minutes that was cut from the film


Few Things enhanced
1) The main characters. The characters used to be just analogies. Visual representations of human psychological stereotypes and ways of thinking. Their interactions throughout the book are a analogy as to how those different schools of thought and philosophies would clash or coincide. Now in the movie, they are less as analogies and more as actual characters, actual people. They have been truly humanised. Even the subtle changes to the plot, the ending especially, are all in a bid to give the characters more human expressions and for the "blade to cut deepest", Everything is given a very "personal" feel. I loved this change. The director took the characters and made them so much more. You can think about the various schools of thought, stereotypes and philosophies that they may represent and yet you can immerse yourself in the plot and really feel for what the characters are going through.

2) The ending. I wont spoil it here. But I feel this ending is better. Seriously the ending for the comic was......lame. Create an artificial alien life form, teleport it into New York and explode it killing millions and uniting the rest of the world to combat an alien threat that doesn't exist. Aliens?? Come on!!!!
The new ending allows for less "suspension of believe". It is more logically feasible than the comic ending and it allows for deeper wounds and more personal repercussions.

3) The enjoyment factor
Looking again at the comic, it is not without its flaws. Fight scenes are a single panel or only glossed over or referenced to, shot angles are boring and visually static. The book sometimes reads more like a social commentary than a story. The movie, gets rid of the boring. It is action packed, it is exciting. The social commentary and satire are still there but it is balanced with pure movie fun.


So, was it a good movie?? YES
Was it a good adaptation of the comic?? I don't know. Without having the full experience of EVERYTHING(namely the movie, the cut scenes, the anime and the documentary) it is hard to tell since even the director admits the movie is an incomplete adaptation.

However, with all the backstory and subplots flying in your face, only fans well versed in the comic already might be able to catch all that ball. Only the well versed fans will watch and go "oh my gawd thats sooo just like in the comic" or "woa he rembered that bit of visual reference". Such little things might be lost to the general viewer. So go with an open mind and don't just heck care THE LITTLE THINGS. Cos its the little things that count. Catch everything!! Every bit of conversation has significance to later events, every action, every background sign. Hell even the music has special significance to the scenes.

I shall break down one scene for easy reference. The very first scene in the movie of the murder of the Comedian.
The music playing is "unforgetable".
1) It references later events in which it is show how the Comedian has impacted the lives of our main characters through the years, who the comedian is and why he does what he does. In a way, though he may be dead, his legacy lives on in, making him "unforgettable".
2)Another purpose for that scene is this. If you feel like laughing while the comedian is getting the crap beat out of him and the soulful slow song is playing in the background, as the comedian is hurled through the air ever so gracefully as the song reaches its climax, then that scene has served its purpose. Its only right for one to laugh at a comedian eh?
3) You can see it(the song) as the Comedian's own inner dialogue, as he looks back and reflect on his past, especially about his past with Sally Jupiter(the woman in the picture). And it will make more sense after you find out the events that lead up to his death(revealed later in the film)
4) the lyrics
"Thats why, darling, its incredible
That someone so unforgettable
Thinks that I am unforgettable too"
Also reflect how Sally Jupiter thinks about the Comedian.


THAT is The most interesting thing for me about the movie. the various multiple meanings behind each scene and the hidden significance of the various going-ons per scene. From dialogue, visual cues to hand gestures, recurring visual motiffs and background music

So WATCH THE MOVIE. Its definately worth it.