alexsarll | All this, and a baked potato (Reply)

Just once, could we maybe have a season of Skins without cranial trauma?

So anyway, I finally cracked and went to see Watchmen and...it's a weird one, isn't it? At times, like the Harry Potter films, so faithful as to feel more like a theme park ride than a work of art in its own right - but more than those films (or at least, the first three - I've not seen the rest) it at least works like a theme park ride should, and makes you 'woah!' with the awesomeness of seeing that moment larger than life. At others, shudderingly bad. But what really threw me - bits I was sure had been invented for the film, and detracted from it, which are right there in the comic. The Comedian killing Kennedy, Woodward and Bernstein? Yep, that was in the original. Laurie finding out that he's her father on Mars? Yep, and that. The "you're an asshole" and the fisticuffs at the Polar base? Those too.
Rorschach seems to have been the most widely praised performance, and while it took me a while to be convinced by the voice, yeah, he was pretty good. Though the mask, when it shifted - we saw grey. Wrong. There is black, and there is white. No grey. That's the whole point of the mask (oh, and

azureskies - I forget who was arguing which side but no, we never see how Rorschach got the mask). Dan was utterly perfect. Blake too, from what we saw of him, and Dr Manhattan - not just the effects, or the performance, but the way people reacted to him, the sense of how people really would react if (when?) the superman existed. Which is part of what makes the changed ending work; it reminds us that he is as Other as any alien squid, as plausible a common threat around which to unite humanity, because past a certain point the only thing that stops two groups of humans hating each other is having someone else even more hateworthy (by which we mean, different). Oh, and Doug Roth. I know it's not a major role, but he was dead on. Similarly with Silhouette...well OK, I'm not sure how faithful she was to the book, but I'd certainly like to have seen more of her, and you can interpret that however you like.
However...did the gore really need to be amped up like that? Having Rorschach cleaver the kidnapper himself, for instance, is not only unsubtle compared to the book, it's also far too kind.

judge_death has already pointed out the nannyish absurdity of stopping everyone bar Blake from smoking. But the fundamental flaw - they got Veidt wrong. Veidt should have been a megastar among the unknowns, a Brad Pitt perhaps. Failing that, he should still have been inarguably gorgeous, as against this weak-chinned, slightly weaselly-looking fellow, His hair and costume were too dark, his accent too sinister; he wasn't the golden boy. And his strength and agility...if the abilities of the other non-powered heroes strained plausibility, Ozymandias snapped it.
Still, it's probably the best Alan Moore adaptation yet. And hey, if nothing else it means tens of thousands more people are going to read the comic, and some of them are going to carry on from there, and not be put off by Identity Crisis or whatever tat DC try to flog them*, and find the riches the medium has to offer. So like Veidt's plan, for all its horrors, the film is indubitably justified by the Greater Good. Yes, even when we take Nixon's nose and that sex scene into account.

Realised last night that I've not been further than walking distance in a week. Now, given I live in London's Fashionable North London and walk fast, that covers a lot of territory - for instance, Wednesday's New Royal Fam gig was well within it. And very good too, in spite of inexplicable attacks of self-doubt from certain parties. I even managed the 'Rules OK' dance routine, kind of. Local Girls sounded OK so far as I could tell but I had people to talk to down the back, and the inaugural Charley's Classic Covers set as opener kicked arse. After

charleston did 'I'm Straight' I could only wonder if it would be followed by a song about being really tall, possibly 'Empire State Human'. Wrong song but right act - she finished with a storming 'Love Action' guest-sung by

exliontamer who has a surprisingly majestic voice.
But yes, walking distance. I'm on Oyster PAYG at present so it's not like I'm wasting anything, but I still feel I should maybe have an explore further afield today.

edit: In fairness, I've just seen the expanded list of 'After Watchmen' recommendations and more of it is good than not.