Great, original review. I would totally read a regular column done this way. I agree with your comments about the movie missing the point. I feel like Snyder himself didn't get it, but thought that if he copied the book as close as he could, the meaning would transfer automatically. That said, I did happen to like the movie a lot anyway.
Daniel, I liked the film more than you and Rorschach did but I completely agree that the film--theatrically at least--missed the point of the book.
My interpretation of the book was not as a deconstruction of superheroes but as a simple idea of "what would a hero comic be like if it were real." While the violence is shocking, it wasn't as powerful as the humanity the book portrayed and I sorely missed that in the film, though there were moments when that humanity shined through nicely.
I love superhero comics old and new but it's sad to see them get bogged down in "cool" only to remain as juvenile as ever. The good ones, like Watchmen, remember to balance the fun of a heroic world with the reality of human nature. Obviously you see that but too many others don't.
I know you aren't interested in doing superhero comics but I wish you'd try your hand at it sometime. The heroes desperately need your insight.
With Daniel's permission, I posted this at ComicsCareer.Com. It was linked in Heidi MacDonald's The Beat and the Robot 6 blog at Comic Book Resources and is now the single most read item in the history of ComicsCareer.Com. Great work, Daniel, and thanks!
7 Comments:
Did this ever actually run in the paper?! I kept looking for it...
also...
You realize that Moore "prostituted his work for money" when he SOLD THE RIGHTS to get Watchmen turned into a movie in the first place. :)
In fact, waaaaaay back in 1986 he actually was looking FORWARD to the movie.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmen_(film)#Moore_and_Gibbons
brilliant...
i wish the film had flopped harder than it actually did...
Great, original review. I would totally read a regular column done this way. I agree with your comments about the movie missing the point. I feel like Snyder himself didn't get it, but thought that if he copied the book as close as he could, the meaning would transfer automatically. That said, I did happen to like the movie a lot anyway.
Daniel, I liked the film more than you and Rorschach did but I completely agree that the film--theatrically at least--missed the point of the book.
My interpretation of the book was not as a deconstruction of superheroes but as a simple idea of "what would a hero comic be like if it were real." While the violence is shocking, it wasn't as powerful as the humanity the book portrayed and I sorely missed that in the film, though there were moments when that humanity shined through nicely.
I love superhero comics old and new but it's sad to see them get bogged down in "cool" only to remain as juvenile as ever. The good ones, like Watchmen, remember to balance the fun of a heroic world with the reality of human nature. Obviously you see that but too many others don't.
I know you aren't interested in doing superhero comics but I wish you'd try your hand at it sometime. The heroes desperately need your insight.
With Daniel's permission, I posted this at ComicsCareer.Com. It was linked in Heidi MacDonald's The Beat and the Robot 6 blog at Comic Book Resources and is now the single most read item in the history of ComicsCareer.Com. Great work, Daniel, and thanks!
hey did you contact INK yet? you really should. Now that Travis jumped ship, I think you'd fit right in.
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