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Still waiting for a movie version of Lost Girls

For all its grim 'n gritty reputation, there's actually not that much violence in the comic, and what violence there is gets invariably framed so as to sap its impact. So, if you look at the Comedian's death in the comic, while we're told he put up a fight, we only see him getting pummeled from the perspective of his attacker. This and other visual narrative tricks are crucial to the comic's critique of the genre, both grounding the violence of superhero fights and denying us their pleasure.
The movie, on the other hand, absolutely wallows in sensational violence and overactive sensation. Truly, this is a Watchmen for the Geoff Johns era.

Because every self-respecting comics or comics-related blog deserves its own Watchmen movie thread. The ever-astute Joe McCulloch (source of the quote above, in which I would probably swap Brad Meltzer for Geoff Johns) of Jog the Blog didn't much care for the movie. Neither did the Comics Reporter's Tom Spurgeon. Neither did I --  the idea that this was the Reader's Digest version of Watchmen seems pretty apt, and not in a good way. It was less a compelling adaption of the material and more, "Man, that was a pretty good book, huh? Let's act out some of our favorite scenes!"

On the other hand, Roger Ebert thought it was great. What about you?

Posted by Anthony Ha 

Comments (9)

Mar 10, 2009
Michael DeForge said...
i have the same feelings that tom and jog did, especially re: the focus on violence in the movie.

the fact that snyder used the same gaudy action movie editing techniques in scenes depicting acts of genuine horror (like silk spectre I's sexual assault, the comedian shooting the mother of his child, dr. manhattan blowing up enemy soldiers from the inside) as he did with his fight scenes was particularly off putting

Mar 10, 2009
jenn yin said...
uhh, i, um, enjoyed it? @anthony nice about swapping out meltzer and johns
Mar 10, 2009
Anthony Ha said...
@Michael The violence bothered me a lot less than my general sense that the movie didn't cohere into its own thing with its own unique vision, but I can see where they (and you) are coming from.

@jenn Would you say that you thought Watchmen was a good movie, or that you enjoyed it despite it not being a good movie? I'm not trying to say one or the other is correct (though obviously I have a pretty strong opinion of my own); I'm genuinely curious because I've seen both responses.

Mar 10, 2009
I posted on sheisept's lj post already, but yes indeed Anthony & Michael-- I agree with both of you guys... the movie as a movie was a structural mess, and then on top of that the depiction of violence was a MAJOR problem for me.

This from Tom summarizes my problem well:
"When, for instance, Laurie and Dan go Sonny Chiba on a bunch of stupid street thugs the scene doesn't stand out because it represents a shift in tone from the same scene in the book. The scene stands out because it's crazy and excessive. The scene stands out because it drags into the movie questions of moral equivalency between putting a meat cleaver into someone's head for murdering a child and stabbing a guy in the neck because he wants your $40, and not only doesn't answer them but doesn't seem aware that the question was asked.

The scene stands out because it makes the characters involved seem less human and vulnerable and made me at least much less frightened for them being able to survive their current ordeal. The scene stands out because it loads one side of the argument that perhaps Dan and Laurie retiring was an overall positive despite their unhappiness, that they were originally in it for reasons that might be questioned and that their issues are larger and more significant than wanting to feel like heroes again."

Stuff I actually was really into:
The opening credits, the physicality of Patrick Wilson, a few line deliveries by Jackie, David Bowie, the SNOW OWL costumes and... JFK (can't believe they went there!)). Generally, I left thinking that Snyder both thinks I'm a idiot (me = the viewer) and has the brain of a 14 year old.

Mar 11, 2009
jenn yin said...
okay, so here's the thing, and maybe i shouldn't be so flexible with my movie barometer and it's probably not fair that i go into certain movies with my standard bar of expectations while lowering it to sub-nothing for watchmen (or other comic book movies for that matter). i went in expecting shit. i knew it wasn't going to be good, that it would be tremendously flawed. but i knew it was going to be enjoyable for my own palpable sense of excitement. seeing anything in comics translated onto the big screen, esp with today's technology, is just too fun and irresistibly thrilling. so yeah. i definitely didn't use the same assessment tools that i would for some over hyped indie art house foreign film. does that answer your Q? and you know, visually, it was a lot of fun.
Mar 11, 2009
jenn yin said...
@ryan i agree with you re: all the good parts
Mar 11, 2009
calwong said...
I'm with yin, bar already set low, & I think the good stuff outweighed the bad stuff. It was awe inspiring to see panels ripped right out of the pages on the big screen and Zack Snyder's obvious OCD reverence for the graphic novel. Is it even POSSIBLE that a director with the brain of a 14 year old fanboy be condescending to the audience? I wasn't feeling that.

As for the changes, I approved of most of the big ones-- the "Frameup" ending made a lot more sense than the book's "Giant Mutant Telepathic Squid" Mcguffin. I never thought the Black Freighter comic-within-a-comic added much to the already dense narrative of the comic so I'm relieved they took it out.

Yeah yeah yeah, pacing issues, violence porn, gross sex scene, WEIRD music choices-- you guys gotta admit Rorschach was pretty badd ass.

Mar 11, 2009
jenn yin said...
@calwong, yeah, i think we're on the same wavelength. the music choices were really off and contrived. like, why jimi hendrix when they take off for antarctica? makes me feel like their music supervisor knows nothing. HOWEVER -- inclusion of leonard cohen = pretty effin cool, the "first we take manhattan." and kc and the sunshine band was good. gah. but again, visually, it was candy for mee eyes
Mar 11, 2009
jenn yin said...
oh god won't i shaddup already? i'm also really appreciative of the inclusion of philip glass (yes i love him).

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