I think part of what made me inclined to like it was reading about how much the studio wanted to change it (http://io9.com/5165227/the-version-of-watchmen-the-studio-wanted). After reading that, I realized that this is probably the best Watchmen movie we could have gotten. For as underdeveloped as the characters seemed in the movie as it was made, they would have been unrecognizable in the studio's version.
That said, I agree it still had problems. My personal "minute detail" issue was that for everything else they left verbatim (seriously, some of Rorshach's journal just didn't sound right as a voiceover), they changed "I did it thirty-five minutes ago"?! That was my favorite line of the book...and "triggered" just didn't have that gut-punch to it.
I thought the soundtrack was God awful. I know they were trying to keep it in the time period there... but it was just terrible. I really hated Hallelujah, it was awkward and did not work at all. I mean, on it's own - great music. As the soundtrack for Watchmen? Not so much.
We'll have to agree to disagree on the music, I guess. It was jarring, at first, to have such familiar music, and it almost intruded on the story for me a little. But it also made the story more real for me, brought it into the real world, so to speak.
All the scenes with Laurie and Dan... awful and awkward. Whoever played Laurie sucked as an actress and all her scenes were filled with this soap-opera level acting.
Dan and Laurie...see, I thought they were awkward in the book, too, and that was part of the charm. That very human awkwardness that Jon is pulling away from.
The soap-opera acting -- I think Zach Snyder was trying to parody movie cliches the way the book satires comic book cliches, but wasn't able to quite get there.
It definitely had its issues, but I don't know that it should have never been made. Partly that's because I want to have the option to watch the story, rather than try to read it. I struggled through the book, because I didn't know how to read comic books. And I don't think a straight novelization would work either, because some of the visual impact is crucial to the story. So I think the movie works on that level, also.
ETA: For your Aunt Beth, the movie got her interested in reading the book. So that's another plus for it.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2009-03-14 07:19 pm (UTC)That said, I agree it still had problems. My personal "minute detail" issue was that for everything else they left verbatim (seriously, some of Rorshach's journal just didn't sound right as a voiceover), they changed "I did it thirty-five minutes ago"?! That was my favorite line of the book...and "triggered" just didn't have that gut-punch to it.
I thought the soundtrack was God awful. I know they were trying to keep it in the time period there... but it was just terrible. I really hated Hallelujah, it was awkward and did not work at all. I mean, on it's own - great music. As the soundtrack for Watchmen? Not so much.
We'll have to agree to disagree on the music, I guess. It was jarring, at first, to have such familiar music, and it almost intruded on the story for me a little. But it also made the story more real for me, brought it into the real world, so to speak.
All the scenes with Laurie and Dan... awful and awkward. Whoever played Laurie sucked as an actress and all her scenes were filled with this soap-opera level acting.
Dan and Laurie...see, I thought they were awkward in the book, too, and that was part of the charm. That very human awkwardness that Jon is pulling away from.
The soap-opera acting -- I think Zach Snyder was trying to parody movie cliches the way the book satires comic book cliches, but wasn't able to quite get there.
It definitely had its issues, but I don't know that it should have never been made. Partly that's because I want to have the option to watch the story, rather than try to read it. I struggled through the book, because I didn't know how to read comic books. And I don't think a straight novelization would work either, because some of the visual impact is crucial to the story. So I think the movie works on that level, also.
ETA: For your Aunt Beth, the movie got her interested in reading the book. So that's another plus for it.