Jul 21 2008
Watchmen Trailer
Who watches the Watchmen?
So, I watched the Watchmen trailer and it’s promising.
The characters and the clips shown in the trailer are almost identical to some of the pages in the comic…so, again, promising.
But Zach Snyder, the director of Watchmen, was a professional director of commercials before he ventured to film. I expect a good trailer from someone who’s learned to film the best parts of the product in order to get optimum interest. Remember how good the trailer for 300 was?
What I can’t predict is how Zach Snyder’s interpretation of an Alan Moore comic will turn out…Hollywood has a pretty poor history of translating Alan Moore’s stories to film (with the exception of V for Vendetta, which was filmed as more of an Alan Moore idea, than an Alan Moore story).
I know Alan Moore always has his name taken off the a project once it goes to Hollywood, and I don’t know if it’s before or after he’s seen a script. But after seeing what the film industry’s done to his works, it’s probably wiser to preemtively run from any association. Look at The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. That was an amazing graphic novel and an amazingly awful movie. Swamp Thing was Alan Moore’s, but the movie wasn’t anything like the books. From Hell, actually, may have all been Heather Graham’s fault.
I guess I can’t blame everything on the directors and studios. As much as I usually love Frank Miller’s stuff (The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City, etc…) I read bits of his 300 comic, and the dialogue and story is just as dumbed down as it was in the movie. The comic was just as much about the visuals as the movie was, so, for what Zach Snyder was given to work with for 300, I guess he did a pretty good job.
I’m curious to see what Zach Snyder can do with a story from an extraordinarily intelligent author. Will he make the cut in the time consuming visuals in order to allow the time consuming dialogue and plot?
There are a lot of layers to Watchmen and I’m afraid of what will be sacrificed. I doubt they’ll trim some of the gratuitous action for story…not when a director and cinematographer have a chance to show off and get paid for it.
But, I have hopes.
It sounds like it was a good film. I’ve not watched it yet, but I’m not convinced it’s a flick chick or even a girlie movie. I think my hubby would like it. Nice blog.
I haven’t read Watchmen in over fifteen years. It still sticks in my mind as one of the best I’ve read. We don’t go to the movies as often as we’d like anymore either, some of my kids are a little too young to fully appreciate it. But the hubby and I love a good superhero flick. I’m gonna go check out your Hellboy review.