Guided by the Beauty of Our Weapons
Mar. 8th, 2009 04:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
handful_ofdustSo: Saw Watchmen, twice, and will still brook no hate, since I enjoyed it unabashedly. Yes, the dialogue which comes directly from the comic is often stilted, because comics aren't movies; yes, there are holes and glitches, most of which will be plugged in the Director's Cut (which you know is coming, people, so don't even front. Just like you know Hollis Mason's death-scene was filmed, along with all the normal-people-hanging-at-the-newsstand sections...though, going back over my original run of Watchmen, I find that these are actually the sections which have worn most badly, overall, particularly so in the case of the large lesbian taxi-driver who wants to be both "straight" and "dead"; it was daring at the time, but even then, it was still a truism that comes dangerously close to being a cliche. Sort of like Rorschach's nice, fat doctor and his marital problems with a shallow wife who wants sex on demand and for him to show off for her brittle, stupid friends. But then, anything can be a cliche, if you look at it the wrong way, or for too long...or both...)
And herein lies much of the problem: If you enshrine the original completely, you have to deal with the fallout. The people who'll look at Rorschach and yell: "Sin City rip-off, with extra Saw references!" The people who don't understand why they should care about what 1985 was like to live through, because they weren't born until after that. The people who'll see a huge hole in the middle of New York City and hit the friggin' roof, because that happened, man. That was real. And on, and on, and on.
Stuff I loved: Rorschach, from corners to curbs. Nite Owl II/Dan Dreibeg, for whom the word "adorkable" was coined. Laurie Jupesczyk, who really doesn't suffer much in my world from Malin Akerman's lack of affect, because it helps her comes off like a person who's been drilling maybe ten hours a day since she was roughly ten years old to do a job she's always been embarassed to let herself like, and is finding it understandably difficult to admit she's never found anything else to do which turns her crank quite so hard (though that part, grantedly, might be genetic--from both sides); much like Britney Spears, it doesn't surprise me that she hasn't developed a whole lot of rich, self-reflective interior life, especially since she escaped her vigilante stage-Mommy's clutches by essentially shacking up with God. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, using his innate charm like another weapon, a literal bad joke: Look how you wanna like me! Oops, here comes the stomach-punch! Carla Gugino, the queasy fetishization queen. Billy Crudup's constantly slightly-distracted, nice-guy voice (I stopped even registering the swinging blue dick pretty fast, gotta say), especially when contrasted with Dr Manhattan's fatalistic quantum cat's-cradle of effect-without-cause. All that.
And, guess what?, I basically loved all the various clips and squishes to plot and dialogue, too: The plan plays far more like something a Very Smart Guy would come up with, overall. It hinges on creating visible proof of a vengeful Intelligent Designer, while simultaneously freeing us from the closest thing we've found that's actually like that, in one fell swoop. The final conversation between Dr Manhattan and Rorschach is gorgeously revelatory, in that particular way; little Walter finally getting a chance to complain to the highest authority about how hard his life has sucked, even while still fiercely--proudly--taking absolute responsibility for how he's contributed. "The last will be first and the first will be last", indeed.
Clumsier: Some music cues. Some of the ultraviolence. Matthew Goode's weird accent-shifting, though I came to simply put it down to Adrian watching waaay too much simultaneous TV--a Terry O'Quinn as The Stepfather sort of "who am I here?" tic. Like I said, I trust that Hollis' disappearance from the narrative will be plugged, which makes me trust that the Comedian/Hooded Justice exchange will, indeed, gets its punchline. And I do look forward to The Black Freighter.
But wow, that credits sequence. That's movies, right there.
Yup, I loved it. I want it. I have no complaints. And BOY, it's so nice to be old enough to feel that way! Like the universe keeps on conspiring to give me presents.;)
And herein lies much of the problem: If you enshrine the original completely, you have to deal with the fallout. The people who'll look at Rorschach and yell: "Sin City rip-off, with extra Saw references!" The people who don't understand why they should care about what 1985 was like to live through, because they weren't born until after that. The people who'll see a huge hole in the middle of New York City and hit the friggin' roof, because that happened, man. That was real. And on, and on, and on.
Stuff I loved: Rorschach, from corners to curbs. Nite Owl II/Dan Dreibeg, for whom the word "adorkable" was coined. Laurie Jupesczyk, who really doesn't suffer much in my world from Malin Akerman's lack of affect, because it helps her comes off like a person who's been drilling maybe ten hours a day since she was roughly ten years old to do a job she's always been embarassed to let herself like, and is finding it understandably difficult to admit she's never found anything else to do which turns her crank quite so hard (though that part, grantedly, might be genetic--from both sides); much like Britney Spears, it doesn't surprise me that she hasn't developed a whole lot of rich, self-reflective interior life, especially since she escaped her vigilante stage-Mommy's clutches by essentially shacking up with God. Jeffrey Dean Morgan, using his innate charm like another weapon, a literal bad joke: Look how you wanna like me! Oops, here comes the stomach-punch! Carla Gugino, the queasy fetishization queen. Billy Crudup's constantly slightly-distracted, nice-guy voice (I stopped even registering the swinging blue dick pretty fast, gotta say), especially when contrasted with Dr Manhattan's fatalistic quantum cat's-cradle of effect-without-cause. All that.
And, guess what?, I basically loved all the various clips and squishes to plot and dialogue, too: The plan plays far more like something a Very Smart Guy would come up with, overall. It hinges on creating visible proof of a vengeful Intelligent Designer, while simultaneously freeing us from the closest thing we've found that's actually like that, in one fell swoop. The final conversation between Dr Manhattan and Rorschach is gorgeously revelatory, in that particular way; little Walter finally getting a chance to complain to the highest authority about how hard his life has sucked, even while still fiercely--proudly--taking absolute responsibility for how he's contributed. "The last will be first and the first will be last", indeed.
Clumsier: Some music cues. Some of the ultraviolence. Matthew Goode's weird accent-shifting, though I came to simply put it down to Adrian watching waaay too much simultaneous TV--a Terry O'Quinn as The Stepfather sort of "who am I here?" tic. Like I said, I trust that Hollis' disappearance from the narrative will be plugged, which makes me trust that the Comedian/Hooded Justice exchange will, indeed, gets its punchline. And I do look forward to The Black Freighter.
But wow, that credits sequence. That's movies, right there.
Yup, I loved it. I want it. I have no complaints. And BOY, it's so nice to be old enough to feel that way! Like the universe keeps on conspiring to give me presents.;)
no subject
Date: 2009-03-09 04:02 am (UTC)I am still not sure I am going to see Watchmen—I process ultraviolence much better in words than images—but this is about the fifth rave review I've seen on my friendlist and that doesn't count the ones I've heard from, you know, friends you talk to. And this is good.
(What's with Ozymandias' accent-shifting?)
no subject
Date: 2009-03-09 05:13 am (UTC)Still: Like I said, I've made up enough of a personal fanon hand-wave for it that it stopped bothering me pretty quickly, and let me get back to really important stuff like hardcore pervin' on the tiny, stinky redhead in the blotchy mask.
(Though it does lend a bit of retrocognitive oomph to the fact that I'm currently writing something starring a small, possibly psychotic redhead whose Ma was a whore, doesn't it? But Chess enjoys his life, at least, which is hardly anything you can accuse Rorschach of.)
no subject
Date: 2009-03-09 05:27 pm (UTC)If it helps, I associate Chess much more with 3:10 to Yuma and murder ballads than with Watchmen; I don't think Rorschach even crossed my mind while reading him. I think you're safe.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-09 06:48 pm (UTC)Me: "I find intercourse painful."
Dr Walter Kovacs: "Hurrm. Supposed to be."
Me: "...really?"
Dr Walter Kovacs: "Ugkh. Maybe. (Long pause) From what I've observed."
Cut to him dialling Dan for a second opinion, while Laurie yells at him in the background.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-09 09:11 pm (UTC)*ksnerk*eeeeek*
no subject
Date: 2009-03-11 12:57 am (UTC)Is it also wrong that I occasionally saw Rorschach as a really athletic and violent Nash the Slash? (Off-topic, the guy who did the Saturday Morning Watchmen cartoon also did a misheard-lyrics cartoon of a song I'm guessing is really called Biomechanical Man?)
no subject
Date: 2009-03-11 02:53 am (UTC)As for the other--no idea. I'm not all that familiar with the site, but I'll check it out.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-11 11:30 pm (UTC)