Moore on Watchmen

"You get people saying, 'Oh, yes, Watchmen is very cinematic,' when actually it's not. It's almost the exact opposite of cinematic.[...] Frankly, I didn't think it was filmable. I didn't design it to show off the similarities between cinema and comics, which are there, but in my opinion are fairly unremarkable. It was designed to show off the things that comics could do that cinema and literature couldn't."

- Alan Moore, writer (Watchmen, Batman: The Killing Joke, V for Vendetta, Lost Girls)

c/o The Greatest Sci-Fi Movies Never Made by David Hughes

More on Watchmen

I briefly brought up the film adaptation of Watchmen, and I thought I would add a few more thoughts now, over writing anything substantial.

Two main things that are evident from the trailer which differentiate it from the book, other than living, moving people with sound.

Oh, and I should mention that Watchmen, the comic, was itself a sly commentary on the medium of comics and the superhero comic in particular. That being the case, I have also read an unsourced internet comment claiming the director Zack Snyder mentioned the film would likewise be a commentary on the superhero movie. My points kind of support that thesis.

1) The Smashing Pumpkins' track "The End is the Beginning is the End." The big tie-in song for the atrocious Batman and Robin was the Smashing Pumpkins' "The Beginning is the End is the Beginning." The version here is an alternate version with a slower tempo (and more?) that closes that films soundtrack and might have also been over the closing credits. Thusly it implies a darker take on what was essentially camp.

2) Nipples. There be nipples on Ozymandias' molded suit armour. Just like Batman (and Robin) in, yes, Batman and Robin. This makes sense as the Batman franchise had devolved into giant toy commercials by that point and in the comic, Ozymandias was always the most commercial of heroes, having built an industry on his image and if I remember correctly (and I believe I do) selling his own Ozymandias action figures (pet lynx Bubastis toy sold separately).



Sort of related (had I not titled this point "Nipples") is the sort of modern rubber suit that Nite Owl II wears over the more traditional spandex (Batman-esque) costume he wears in the comic. This is an obvious references to the sort of costumes the movie Batmans have worn.

Hype: Most Anticipated 2008+

Having now seen The Dark Knight, what am I looking forward to next?

A brief aside on The Dark Knight first. Amazing. It was truly a film. Not a superhero movie. More than that. A crime drama. I remember hearing beforehand (mostly likely based on the opening bank heist scene that was released last December) that it would be Heat-esque. But about halfway through the film, I thought to myself for a moment, this is kind of reminding me of The Departed. This is a crime epic. An ensemble. And so many great moments. I can't wait to see it again.

A lot of big movies, and not just superhero movies, but action movies, summer blockbusters just feel like a bunch of set pieces tied together. Like they have the budget for 3 big set pieces, and the story is kind of built around that and services that. Iron Man felt a bit like that, but thankfully was able to overcome it on the strength of the acting and what the actors had to work with. The Dark Knight did not feel like that. It felt breathless. Never letting go. Constant momentum. I'm sure some enterprising soul could still break it down as a series of set pieces. But The Dark Knight did not feel like that.

That aside, what's next. Originally I was just going to bring up Che, which I hope comes out this year, but there was also a Watchmen trailer that was just released. And while I'm sure it can never live up to the comic book (ahem, graphic novel), it is looking good. Here's the direct link to the trailer in Quicktime. That shot of Mars gives me chills.

Now the Che that I'm talking about is really two movies: The Argentine and Guerilla, both directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Benicio del Toro as the titular Ernesto Guevara. These films played as one at this year's Cannes but last I heard had no current North American distribution. Together they're supposed to account an 260-minute epic. But I've heard it described as a masterwork and am thusly excited.