Presenting the Minutemen

[thehefner]

I fucking love it.

There are some people who will think they look ridiculous. These people miss the point entirely.

Not only does it look like one of the old Batman/Republic serials, but one commenter on the CHUD.com message boards made this observation: "The thing that truly sells the picture for me is the looks on all of their faces. The costumes look ridiculous like they should - but that's not hard. Get a decent costume designer to exactly replicate what's in the comic and it's done. The faces though, betray a lot of character and do for the the costumes what the actual cloth can't accomplish. With each face, you can see the slight embarrassment that is a subtle undertone in the book. There are (perfect) exceptions - the comedian looks like he couldn't give a shit, hooded justice just looks slumpy, un-photogenic, and uncomfortable, and night owl looks like he's dove into this thing head first and is bound to take himself seriously. I can't get over how absolutely fantastic the look on Dollar Bill's face is."

More than ever, I know that if WATCHMEN fails, it won't be for lack of honest effort and passion on Zack Snyder's part.

Comments

[kiffie.livejournal.com]

Hollis is adorable. It's CLEARLY all srs bzns.

This will be glorious eye candy, if nothing else.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I now have no doubt that Snyder will, if nothing else, absolutely capture the visual style of WATCHMEN. But nothing of his previous work indicates that he has the substance to back up his style. I don't doubt his commitment, just his abilities.

[eliyes.livejournal.com]

Oh, that is awesome.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I just can't stop smiling whenever I look at it.

[tompurdue.livejournal.com]

I just started reading Watchmen... the photo is gorgeous.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Neat! I'll be very interested in your thoughts when you finish!

That said, I doubt you'll be blown away. WATCHMEN suffers from a bit of CITIZEN KANE worship, if you know what I mean. Part of it is to remember the time it came out and the influence it had. That said, I reread it every year, and there's always something new I notice each time. It holds up to repeat reads excellently. Still, I'd be totally interested in your thoughts.

[tompurdue.livejournal.com]

I'm enjoying it thus far. I still have a bit of an issue with graphic novels in general: I don't know how the pages work.

Perhaps that sounds stupid, but it's part of the language of graphic novels that you have to learn. It's essentially equivalent to scene shifts in movies. There's a convention for what sorts of things happen to indicate different times and places, shifting of story lines.

In graphic novels, they usually (but not always) occur at page breaks (but not all page breaks).

In film, they can play with that, the gradual dawning of where you are in a scene. I don't know the language well enough to play that kind of game.

It definitely bears repeat readings. It's got enormous scope in both time and cast, and deliberately doles information out.

Perhaps you can answer me one particular question though: is there intended to be any sort of connection between Jon Osterman and J'onn J'onzz? Perhaps it was just because I'd recently seen Justice League: New Frontier (the best of those I've seen yet). The characters aren't identical, by any means, but there's enough similarity that the names struck me.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

I've actually heard that before, and while it sounds strange to me, I think I can understand that. It doesn't help that sometimes the actual artists don't know how to pace a story, and that can fuck up even us experienced geeks.

There's a connection, but not to J'onn. The WATCHMEN characters are analogues of the Charlton Comics characters, a superhero publisher that went defunct, the rights of whom were bought by DC. Alan Moore originally wanted to use the Charlton characters, but DC forbade it, which in the end is for the best. I love the Charlton characters, and they'd never have been able to be used again. Rorschach is the Question (Spider-Man co-creator Steve Ditko's awesome Ayn Rand-ian vigilante), Nite Owl is the Blue Beetle, and Osterman is based upon Captain Atom:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Atom

You saw and liked NEW FRONTIER? Cool! The book's very worth reading, especially as one of the main criticisms of the film is that it reads like a Cliff's Notes version of the story. While I dearly wish it had an extra hour and a bigger animation budget, I definitely dug the NF movie.

[tompurdue.livejournal.com]

NEW FRONTIER started off very well. Towards the end it did what the other ones did: a big scary monster beating up heroes, and then heroes beating up the big scary monster.

Superheroes actually fighting things almost never interests me. That's what's making Watchmen so interesting: the vigiliantes are for the most part just costumed people, and when they get into fights there's real chance of getting beaten up. And you can identify with it when they do.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Actually, I agree with you on this, at least to a large extent. Fights with big scary monsters are one of my least favorite classic traits of superhero stories. I'm far more interested in the characters themselves. That's what I really disliked about the first couple seasons of JUSTICE LEAGUE: the characters never took off their masks. They were just superheroes fighting bad guys and big scary monsters, nothing more. Thankfully, the show vastly improved.

At least with NEW FRONTIER (where the monster was easily my least favorite part of the otherwise-wonderful comic, which is far more fleshed out than the film), Darwyn Cooke created the big scary monster as a metaphor for communism, in that it's a big faceless threat. He thought the metaphor would be too obvious, when instead no one got it at all.

[jackolantern.livejournal.com]

These characters look better than the old superhero serials, all of which had costumes that looked like the actors had to make their own. Silk Spectre's outfit looks much better than the one in the comics (as does her daughter's), and Silhouette's... it just kills me, knowing that she plays for the home team.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Word, they do look better, but they capture the spirit beautifully. Just as the modern Watchmen costumes seem to capture the spirit of modern superhero movies. More and more, I'm starting to think Ozymandias is intentionally based off Schumacher's Batman costumes.

Also, god, yes. Can Silhouette be my lesbian sidekick, please please please?

[droidboy010101.livejournal.com]

I'm just... wow... wow.

Oh I have fear pee over this thing, and yeah I Citizen Kane'd it a little much, but Watchmen is something special. I hate seeing decent works get ruined in whatever format they are adapted too.

Still, wish it were a mini-series rather than a flick. Would make the payoffs all the more satisfying (especially for those who have never read the story.)

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I think what they're going to do with the DVD is, in many ways, the ideal approach to this story:

http://chud.com/articles/articles/14885/1/YOU039LL-WATCH-THE-WATCHMEN-MANY-TIMES/Page1.html

WATCHMEN wouldn't work as well in a directly linear story, but by filling the DVD with supplemental material that fleshes out WATCHMEN's world, this might be the best possible way to bring the story to life.

Of course, another hour or two added to the film's run time couldn't hurt either...

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

...
...
...

Duuuuuuuuuuuuude!!

Man, I don't think I've been this psyched for a non-pixar movie since I was twelve or something and Harry Potter came out. Glee!!

~Sor

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

hee.

Me, I wouldn't say I'm "psyched," because WATCHMEN would be an incredibly hard film for any director to pull off, much less Zack Snyder, who so far has been all style (great style, mind you) and no substance. I'm holding off on "psyched" until we see a trailer and a couple reviews from my trusted geek sources.

THE DARK KNIGHT and, to a lesser extent, X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE, on the other hand... crazy psyched.

[princessebee.livejournal.com]

it looks amazing. They do look ridiculous, and it's intentional. I love Watchmen, but who doesn't? lol. It was such a brilliant critique of the superhero mythos and its flaws.

[kosher-jenny.livejournal.com]

That...that looks good. Really good.

Was that sound I just heard the sound of my hopes rising? NO, MUST MAINTAIN CYNICISM AT ALL TIMES. MUST KEEP MY EXPECTATIONS LOW. This could still be another V for Vendetta, but with an even shinier wrapper.

Another good thing about this picture is that when you compare it to the photos of the modern costumes it's now clearer that the latter designs are sending up the Batman Forever style movie superhero costumes.

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

So you too remain at-least-not-fully-impressed by the V movie? I thought it was a lot better than it could have been, even pretty darn good on its own merits, but it suffers so hugely in comparison to the book. And I'm not even the world's biggest fan of the book! I think it's excellent, but it doesn't strike the personal chords that, say, WATCHMEN does. Meanwhile, it bugs me that so many people love V but will likely never read the book.

I know, right? I think it's brilliant that they play off the Schumacher costumes, making commentary on superhero movies the way the book did on superhero comics.

[kosher-jenny.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when I take it as it's own movie, it's a nicely-done film. But so much of the spirit of the original and its characters (V especially, shoot pretty much all of the characters) was altered for the sake of coolness points and an awkward updated political metaphor that there's no way that I can call it anything but a poor adaptation. And normally I am very forgiving about adaptations (see icon).

And it is weird to see so many latch onto V who are probably only familiar with the movie character. Like Anonymous and the Scientology protests (although the V mask also has another meme meaning for the 4chan crowd). Though I have to say that the photos featuring tons of protesters in V masks does amuse the hell out of me.

I know, right? I think it's brilliant that they play off the Schumacher costumes, making commentary on superhero movies the way the book did on superhero comics.

Using the rubber nipples for good!

[thehefner.livejournal.com]

Much as I do enjoy Hugo Weaving's take on V, it feels rather like the softer, cuddlier version of the character, which is very much against the point. He shouldn't be all, "I'm sorry I had to do that, Evey, but don't you see, it had to be done!" No, he's "I did it, I'm right, and you'll see I'm right." Much creepier, bolder, and more challenging. But again, I speak as one who's not a particular fan of the story, just speaking on principle.

What constantly bugs me about the V movie is how it didn't go far enough, particularly because it DID go so very far! It already crossed the line into controversial-land, why did it just stop when it could easily have gone all the way without any cost to them? It's endlessly frustrating for me.