On Watchmen, Rose-Only-Got-Four-Hours-Of-Sleep-And-Can't-Think-Right-Now Edition

[missroserose]

I give it a solid B+, which, given the approach they took, is pleasantly surprising. sigma7, you should enjoy it just fine.

And now, because somebody absolutely had to go see the midnight showing despite the fact that it was a school night, I'm going to go back to huddling over my coffee. Rest assured that I will definitely get into the subject later, though - this particular film was odd in that what I liked about it and what I didn't like about it was fairly clear-cut from the beginning. Usually I have to mull it all over for a while before I can sort it out; I think in this case, the story was so familiar (and make no mistake - saying they used the comic as a direct storyboard for the film is absolutely true) that it wasn't hard to pick out what worked and didn't work for me.

But, as I said, more later. Now I have to pretend to be awake and working. Hurrah.

Comments

[sigma7.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm going to have to miss Batman and BSG to see it tonight, but am looking forward to it.

It's just funny, because I haven't seen anything resembling consensus on any level by any criteria -- reactions seem mixed across every stratum. Those who've read it love it or hate it. Those who haven't read it love it or hate it. But I haven't seen much approaching apathy yet.

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

I think part of the polarization, especially among those who haven't read the original graphic novel, probably stems from the sheer complexity of the story. I didn't have any problem following along because I'm familiar with the story, and I think the movie does a fairly decent job of keeping the various plotlines straight, but even when I was first reading the book I remember being stunned at how much was going on under the surface in every scene. This isn't a bad thing, as it makes the second reading that much richer for possessing the understanding, but given how intimidating it is in a self-paced medium like a book, I can only imagine how it comes across in the rail-shooter medium of a movie, where you don't have the option of flipping back through the pages to catch the reference you missed earlier. Some people have the sort of mind that enjoys the challenge of keeping everything straight and seeing how it all fits together, but some people get annoyed when they have to actually think about what's going on, especially in a comic-book movie when they're expecting easy entertainment.