Live Action Watchmen

Alan Moore has done more than refuse to attach his name to the film, he's also put a magical hex on the thing. He's a fascinating guy, would fit right in at RS. Check out the documentary "The Mindscape of Alan Moore" on Google Video.

 

With relief, with humiliation, with terror, he understood that he too was a mere appearance, dreamt by another. - Jorge Luis Borges, The Circular Ruins

That looked terrible.Just some just some fast food BS with an underlying tone of patriotism and masculinity. But hey, its not my cup of tea.

Considering it was written in the 80's, it loosely predicts future, "foundational" events, such as 9/11. IMHO, it's the best use of the comic medium out there, and is surprisingly deep. People read it 10+ times & keep finding something new. The Comedian is not the hero. If anyone's the hero, it's Rorschach, but he's also batshit nuts, so who's to know? As was said, read it before passing judgment. It doesn't praise America's foreign policy, but rather impartially critiques it.

 

With relief, with humiliation, with terror, he understood that he too was a mere appearance, dreamt by another. - Jorge Luis Borges, The Circular Ruins

For how simple I am, you made my comment so complex! And maybe I haven't quite grown up yet, because I still get graphic novels from the library frequently! Daniel clowes is good. Also if you like more mature comics check out,

I Am Legend

http://comicbooks.about.com/od/comicbookreviews/fr/iamlegendgn.htm

The Walking Dead

http://www.amazon.com/Walking-Dead-Book-1/dp/1582406197/ref=pd_cp_b_1?pf...

Propaganda Anonymous

Alan Moore is one of the best. Anyone ever see his obit-rendering for the late Robert Anton Wilson?So Good and So Real.

Why is it that whenever Alan Moore's books get turned into movies they generally suck?

'Extraordinary League of Gentlemen,' gag me with a spoon man. Yuck, so frikkin crappy.

'From Hell' was aiight.

I hope this movie is better. BTW, Was that Natalie Portman? Wow! All the more reason why I kick myself for never approaching her in our highschool hallway and saying anything, haha.

My question is, How in the high heavens do these movie adaptations get made without Alan's permission? Man that would irk me to no end. Alan deserves more, me thinks. (Rim shot please)

Lastly, when is 'The Invisibles' movie gonna get made. Grant Morrison better be involved in that if it ever gets off the ground. Otherwise I'm throwing hexs and the Hollywood sign like molotovs. 

PRop!

I was very surprised to see this show up on RS. I read Watchmen a few years back and it remains one of my favorite novels. Alan Moore is an uncompromising artist, and his masterwork shows great depth and very complex themes. The basic psychological profile of a regular person who chose to become a masked vigilante could easily be interpreted as an analogue to the kind of disillusioned, conscious activist that we need more of today. Aspiring to be more than a typical flesh and bone human is a very relevant theme in the book, and the character archetypes are remarkably accessible.

Dr Manhattan, once a young scientist without a functional sense of self, becomes the all-powerful blue deus ex machina that defines the politcal landscape in Moore's alternate history. He shows a complete separation from the conventional sense of reality after experiencing universal oneness and choosing to reform himself as he saw fit. The universe bends to his will, and he begins to see human affairs as trivial and meaningless. Rorschach is the uncompromising paleoconservative-type survivalist, who believes that good and evil exist in absolutes, and that evil must be punished regardless of the cost to himself or the world. The Comedian sees the modern world as a joke, and takes every secret government position available in search of the overall punchline. His overtly sociopathic behavior earns him an early grave after he gets in on one joke too many. Ozymandias is a pure human will to power, evoking classic occult imagery with his golden costume and affluent decorations after cashing in on his title as "the smartest man in the world".

I'm a little annoyed that so many of you seem to write it off as a kid's book with patriotic sentiment before even bothering to look it up or read it. Ignore the movie, it's directed by the same imbecile who coughed up "300". The graphic novel is a good read for anyone that needs a distraction with formidable meaning.

Watchmen is a seminal work that is still an amazing read today. The movie has spurred a huge upswell in sales of the novel, which means many people outside of comics enthusiasts like myself are being introduced to Moore's genius. That is a very good thing, culturally, and so I'm happy the movie was finally made.

However, that may be the only positive thing to come out of it. Terry Gilliam, who endeavored to adapt Watchmen, termed it "unfilmable" and I'm inclined to agree with him. The book has this amazing intimacy, depth and scope to it - to me, these are its prime virtues, not the characters necessarily, or the story even, though these are excellent as well. I don't believe that which I love about it will - can - be replicated in a feature-length movie. It's just not enough time to spend with these people and events. We are living in a golden age of mature, sophisticated episodic television - why oh why could that not have been the melieu for this masterpiece?

After recently releasing my vitriolic skepticism that this upcoming rendition would be anything other than a profound disappointment, I was reminded by my comic-book author friend that of course it won't be like the novel because it's a completely different medium. That, if in fact it is a failure, it won't be because it isn't faithful to the book but because it doesn't embrace the reality that it can't be that comic-book on screen. It will be its own thing. It will be a movie.

My friend is right, of course, though the truth is that for long-time fans of the graphic novel, we have this two-faced thing with this particular work. On one hand we've been itching, dying and praying for a motion picture version of Watchmen since we got our grubby little hands on it. On the other, we suspect, perhaps know, that the very thing that we hope to experience either cannot be achieved on film or is so hard to create in a satisfying way as to be functionally impossible.

That being said, I find myself making an effort to forgo my cynicism and accept that adaptations like this have to be taken, by perforce, on their own terms.

That being said, I still think it's going to be sucky.

That being said, I really hope it won't be. 

I tend to agree with Moore's statement of "hollywood and coughed up worms". Perhaps these works do thier most powerful transformations when left to seed inside minds rather then be translated into an easier form to grasp. I SHUDDER to even think the thought that the Invisibles should be made into a movie. Morrison's work (in that form) is a handbook. I am totally for a heathly dose of, "work for what you want to learn".

Thanks, David S