...is live, and you can read it here.
I'm amazed by how negative many of the reviews are, and I actually feel bad for Zack Snyder having to read both that his movie doesn't work because it's too faithful to the source material and that it doesn't work because it's not faithful enough to the source material. Damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. I'd love to hear what you think.
I also caught up with the Clive Owen-Naomi Watts thriller The International, which I thought was much better than the reviews would lead you to believe, and I saw an Indian horror movie called 13B, which is not to be confused with District B13. And you know what? I liked it, too, even though there were no lavish production numbers for restless ghosts.
I'm just Little Miss Sunshine this week... or maybe I'm the pod Maitland.
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3 comments:
Yeah, that kind of stinks that he would have to read that. I saw the movie last night, I was blown away. I loved it. While I was watching the movie, I noticed it was exactly the same as the novel, page for page, except for the final act, but even that wasn't even a big change. They probably used the book as the story board itself! So what if it was? I loved it. I can't wait to see it again (IMAX maybe?). I thought Jackie Earle Haley did an awesome job as Rorschach, perfect casting. His emotions and glazed look in the scene in the jail with the shrink. Whoever said this movie isn't faithful to the novel must be off their rocker. There was so much deeper meaning in the film that regular audiences would probably not comprehend it. Anyway, great movie. Loved the beginning credits also. I thought it was stylish and clever with the Bob Dylan song.
After seeing the film I can sort of see how Snyder can be charged with taking too may liberties with the source material and being too tied to it at the same time.
You're never going to please fanboys. It's NEVER going to happen. Does that make their concerns irrelevant? I wouldn't go that far but you have to know that any little change is going to get picked by people who have spent hours pouring over every panel of the graphic novel. You fall in love with the material and when someone dares cut something or even add to it, it's not how they remember it and on instinct they resent it.
On the other hand, if you read the graphic novel, the film doesn't add much to it. The cast is great and it's a thrill to see Rorschach taking down the cops who have him cornered, but the sheer amount of material leaves little time to breathe and a lot has to be rushed just to get the exposition by. This leaves some scenes as if the characters just going through the motions to get to the meatier stuff.
Ironically what worked best for me was that credit sequence. The haunting words of Bob Dylan's "The Times They are a-Changin'" mixed with images, some right out of the graphic novel, is as powerful, if not more so, then some of the dialogue scenes. It reminds us most of the graphic novel, but seeing it on the screen gives it a higher resonance. I can't tell you how much it pained me to see Dollar Bill and Silhouette's murder scenes. That's something you never got with the graphic novel and for that I applaud Snyder.
Also Jack Earle Haley rocked as Rorshach. It's no easy task to bring such an iconic character to life and make it your own. In my mind he succeeded admirably.
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