fabes

So yeaaah. Zack Snyder? Touche sir. Some might call you a one trick pony, but I actually respect you for not becoming the next Robert Rodriguez. And David Hayter, you fucking amazing man you. First, you voice one of my favorite bad-asses of all time, THEN, you pen yet another fantastic screenplay of the movie everybody said was unfilmable. Ok, now for the analysis part. Watchmen was a perfect adaptation WITHOUT being 100% faithful to the source material. Sure, comic book movies are usually a huge departure from what is on paper, but in the end you feel like you've watched a retelling of the original. What I liked about Watchmen is that none of the subjects were really watered down. From Sally getting raped, to Comedian busting a cap in a preggo, or even Adrian Veidt killing a whole bunch of people, all the themes that were addressed in the novel were portrayed in the film. For me, what I TOTALLY applaud Zack Snyder for doing was being able to shoot panels from the comic book without being blatant, verbatim shots to the original artwork ala Sin City (though for that movie it worked) and still being able to trigger the part in my brain and laid perfectly over the memory in my head of the image. Considering this though, there were a lot of alterations that irked me initially, but now come to think of it, kinda worked for the movie, and for people that have already read the graphic novel, still made sense. Like, the whole absence of the giant squid/vagina with teeth. In the late 80's sure, a ginormous squid with a devastating psionic blast was cool, and for me gave way to some of the BEST panels in the book. Dead people lining the streets, their blood running over the newly positioned doomsday clock. So of course when they were vaporized by intrinsic energy instead, I was a taaaad disappointed, but considering today's audience, the whole bamboozling of Doc Manhattan's own power was a VERY cool plot device, and I can't think of anything better that could've been done. And when Adrian smugly says, "I did it 35 minutes ago" the same chill went down my spine as it did when I read those same words. Now as far as the revelation when Laurie finds about the Comedian being her real dad, holy fuck was that anti-climactic...in my opinion anyways. In the comic I loved how they bounced back between flashbacks and slowly pieced together dialogue (which finally formed "my own daughter) and that moment in the novel was one of my favorites, and really a moment that ONLY the novel could've provided, so in the movie when it was just one real quick flashback, it was kinda lame. Ohoh, and when Rorschach gets arrested, I loved how in the book you discover how he's just a runt with the platform shoes and all, and in the movie it was just "EW GROSS HE STINKS BWABWAAAA," that was kinda lame too. But the delivery of, "You don't understand, I'm not locked in here with you, YOU'RE LOCKED IN HERE WITH ME!" totally made up for that.

Watchmen is a fantastic movie. I know about all the rumors of the rerelease of it with all the deleted stuff, and among which I hope the argument between Manhattan and Laurie is included, so here's to hoping that happens. I'm not terribly excited for the Black Freighter segments but they BETTER fucking include the scene for when knot tops kill Hollis Mason. That shit was INTENSE.