Already committed to see a movie three times, without even knowing if it's worth having seen it once? Ballsy.
I could've gotten out of those, but I'm definitely seeing it again based on how much I loved it last night.
And there was enough to go around. I want to know who's job that was to make sure the penis looked realistic...
Watch out for spoilers, all ye uninitiated. Okay, so here goes:
It takes the necessary steps to separate itself from the novel and work on-screen without compromising too many important elements, as far as I can remember. They had to cut corners to keep the pacing moving at a brisk pace, and I'm sure that'll change with the Director's Cut, so that's hard to comment on.
First, I'll start with my gripes, which are relatively minor. The fight scenes use the slow-mo pretty liberally, and I didn't mind too much... they definitely bring out the expert choreography on display (it makes the Batman fight scenes look even more like dogshit.) However, the choice to make everyone have these superhuman fighting skills rubbed me the wrong way. It made for more exhilarating fight sequences, but kind of went against a few of my pre-conceptions coming from the novel. Seeing Laurie and Dan beat the shit out of the knot-tops and the guys at the jail though? FUCKING HARDCORE. I cannot stress this enough.
Also, the reveal that the Comedian is Laurie's father doesn't carry that much weight, especially since that scene where they meet after the disastrous
Crimebusters Watchmen meeting is relegated only to the "big reveal montage" on Mars. Again, this may have been cut for time, so we'll see how this goes.
There's also added scenes with Nixon in this
Strangelove-esque war room that didn't really work for me. It was mainly due to the make-up and basic caricature performance... guy's no Frank Langella.
I could list the other minor changes, but I will say this, and I know this has been mentioned in other reviews... I prefer this ending to the one in the book. The squid's pretty awesome and a great comment on the ridiculous nature of supervillain plots, but it felt kind of tacked on to me, especially upon the second reading. This new ending shifts a few scenes around, but it makes perfect sense once you see it.
Now that brings me to what makes this movie fucking incredible. In short, everything else.
They nailed every character and left in all of the bits that I loved, like Rorschach's backstory, Manhattan's transformation set to the Philip Glass score (easily my favorite part of the entire film), The Comedian in 'Nam and crying in front of Moloch... great stuff.
While she's not awful, Laurie's the weak link here... more of a combination of the character itself and the actress than one specifically. She's still good though. And the choice to have Ozy have this odd suppressed German accent was a nice character touch. Another change in the ending involves an added beatdown between him and Dan, which was my favorite Ozy part of the movie and it wasn't even in the novel, so there's that. The Comedian, Rorschach, and Manhattan are fucking pitch perfect. The only gripe with The Comedian is that he's not in the movie enough, but he virtually disappears from the comic after the first issue or two anyway, so that's forgivable, I guess.
And the score/music choices ranged from fucking rad to awkward. The score was incredibly evocative of Vangelis' work on
Blade Runner and a little of Tangerine Dream. Hell, the entire mood and atmosphere of NYC reminded of
Blade Runner, which ain't a bad thing. The Philip Glass score is perfect, which makes the "Times They Are-A Changin'" titles choice look even more fucking perfect. Holy shit. Have fun playing Spot the Famous Figure during that sequence... here's a hint: Fucking Aladdin Sane is in there. "The Sound of Silence" at the funeral scene and "All Along the Watchtower" during the beginning of the 'Two Riders' section work pretty well. "99 Luftballoons" was Laurie and Dan meet again at the restaurant is goofy, but endearing. "Ride of the Valkyries" during the Vietnam sequence was a great nod to
Apocalypse Now. The other ones are fine, except My Chemical Romance completely massacring "Desolation Row," good thing it's during the credits, I guess.
Can we get an OH GOOOOOOD FOR YOU for Zack Snyder, please? I wasn't a huge fan of
300, and expected his stylistic tendencies to overpower the film, but he really puts on a show here. The scenes all play out like the most epic scenes ever... they all carry so much weight and work well in context, something that made the Yahoo! clips look like shit without. It was such a thrill seeing the story unfold on-screen, I almost forgot that I knew what was going to happen later. Compelling shit, this movie is... hmmmmm. This is an absolute spectacle and definitely has the goods to back it up. It may be so good that deep may even like it.
Take this with a grain of salt, since I'm in Hyperbolic Mode right now. If you have any more questions, I'll try and answer them.
Holy shit, I can't wait to see this again on Friday.