About the Watchmen trailer.

11 Comments | Posted: July 17th, 2008 | Filed under: Thinking About Comics | Tags: ,

1.
I’m pretty sure that any “faithful” film version of Watchmen is going to be not-for-me because I think that the story told is deeply, deeply rooted in its native medium. Moving it to film requires a lot more than a simple transposition of scenes: it necessitates a ground-up revision of the work, perhaps commenting more on cinematic clichés and how the form speaks to its audience versus using the comic book as a storyboard.

2.
I’m also pretty fucking sure the guy who made Dawn of the Dead and 300 ain’t gonna do that.

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11 Comments on “About the Watchmen trailer.”

  1. 1 keith said at 5:20 pm on July 17th, 2008:

    Yes, yes, and one more yes for good measure.

  2. 2 standardman said at 5:29 pm on July 17th, 2008:

    Very well said.

    This trailer is a slow motion music video with costumes that remind me of Batman and Robin.

  3. 3 groonk said at 5:32 pm on July 17th, 2008:

    i’d be happy if it didn’t get LOEG-ed or From Hell-ed.

    i’ll give Snyder the benefit of the doubt.

  4. 4 Tom Spurgeon said at 5:42 pm on July 17th, 2008:

    I don’t know, it looked pretty fun to me. The big stylistic shift to use modern movie superhero design as basic reference instead of 1970s Charlton Comics seems smart. I like Billy Crudup just fine. It might be pretty good; it might suck balls. Who knows? If you could trust trailers, the best popcorn movie of all time would be Casshern and my girlfriend wouldn’t have looked over at me after Phantom Menace and said, “Fuck you.”

  5. 5 max said at 8:10 pm on July 17th, 2008:

    Not even in the face of Armageddon. No Compromise.

  6. 6 nik said at 9:09 pm on July 17th, 2008:

    Amen brother. I do get a kinetic charge out of seeing such cool looking images as if they crawled right out of the book, and the fidelity to the overall look is quite good. I also quite like Billy Crudup as Dr. M.

    That said, the whole herky-jerky fast-slow motion action crap that annoyed the heck out of me in 300 has no place here, and I expect this to be like a finely wrought photocopy of the original – looks purty, not real filling.

  7. 7 Mike C. said at 9:10 pm on July 17th, 2008:

    Despite the bad omens of the Batman and Robin-esque costumes (I think they actually looked a little better in the trailer than in the initial pictures) and that Smashing Pumpkins song from the Batman and Robin soundtrack (WHY are they reminding people of this?), this looks like it might not be as much of a trainwreck as I
    originally feared. Whatever the case, Jackie Earle Haley is going to tear shit up…..he’s come a long way since the Bad News Bears.

  8. 8 Rjackson said at 11:00 pm on July 17th, 2008:

    Yeah, I sort of dug it. I don’t know how its going to turn out, but it’s got some great acting chops behind it with Crudup, Haley, Christopher Goode (see the Lookout, not Match Point), and Patrick Wilson (Hard Candy, Little Children with Haley).

    Seeing the Comedian riding the Owlship over that crowd was pretty badass – it’s my favorite panel from the series and it just looked GOOD on film.

    I won’t pre-judge . . .yet.

    And as to the Smashing Pumpkins song – I agree, don’t quite get it, unless its a Warners licensing thing.

  9. 9 HCE said at 11:38 pm on July 17th, 2008:

    You know what I would love? If there could be a Watchmen movie that managed the revision you discuss in #1. It’ll never happen, I’m sure, but damn if it wouldn’t be incredible to see.

  10. 10 Jayunderscorezero said at 6:37 am on July 18th, 2008:

    I do agree with your first point somewhat. A friend of mine and I – Moore fans both – have a running joke where we try to imagine how in heck a screen adaptation of Alan Moore’s Promethea would work, complete with mobius-strip panels, pull-out poster issues and all.

    The same point could be made for LoEG, wherein – I thought – the best parts were those written in prose, like the original, literary source material that much of it was referencing (plus, Moore’s take on Shakespearean prose was just amazingly fun to read). Although something has to be said for 3D specs.

  11. 11 William O'Brien said at 4:24 pm on July 18th, 2008:

    Just to throw it out there (from http://www.watchmencomicmovie.com/021408-zack-snyder-watchmen-interview.php):

    “I think that for me, it’s about adapting that great work into a movie, but it’s also certainly about making a film that does hopefully to the cinematic superhero genre, what the book did to the comic book world. It’s my hope and my intent to shine a light on the current state of superhero movies and what they mean to pop culture, and what they mean to people who enjoy them, and comic book fans.”

    So at least the intent seems to be there. I thought the last bit of the trailer with Rorschach’s great line followed by the crystal palace on Mars worked very well. The Manhattan stuff in general is pretty nicely done. The stylized action makes me a little concerned but I’m more hopeful than I was before the trailer.

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