Five Reasons Watchmen Will Rock/Suck, Part III
Okay, so I’ve listed reasons why the upcoming Watchmen adaptation could either rock or suck. But what do I think? What’s my prediction? On which side of the rock/suck line will the movie fall? Will it be a worthy rendering or a colossal stinkburger? So, with the understanding that I haven’t seen the film, have no insider knowledge or access to any special information, I gaze into the future and speculate with four little words:
Lord of the Rings.
I think we’re looking at a repeat of the Lord of the Rings films. Oh, not nearly as epic, no, and hopefully fewer whining midgets and androgynous pretty boys (well, Ozymandias, I suppose), but I think as far as book-to-film results, we’re going to see a near-identical result. After all, we’re looking at near-identical circumstances. Think about it, Lord of the Rings was long considered to be unfilmable, has a rabid fanbase of readers, and finally found a filmmaker in love enough with the material, and crazy enough to deal with the fanboys, to tackle the project.
I hadn’t read Tolkein’s trilogy before seeing the movies, despite several heroic attempts. I found the books slow and turgid, and was underwhelmed with his overly flowery prose. But I saw the movies and thought they were damn fine entertainment. I read lots of teeth-gnashing about what was cut out, what was changed, and how it just destroyed the story, but for me, I didn’t notice anything gone, didn’t think the story suffered, and thought this was probably the best adaptation we were ever likely to see.
Watchmen will be the same.
Yes, for us fanboys in the audience, we’ll make note of every alteration, every omission. We’ll snarl at the audacity of Zack Snyder for daring to mess with the established book. But in the end, we’ll realize that this is likely the best we could hope for in a Hollywood adaptation, and that the changes really don’t damage the story all that much. And for those who, like me with Lord of the Rings, never read the thing, they’ll just see a good movie, oblivious to anything different or missing. Maybe be inspired to read the book afterwards. And what could be better than that?
So that’s my prediction. No, it won’t be perfect, or completely faithful to the letter of the source material, but it will be a damn fine flick, one that we’ll all enjoy despite the differences, and be the best possible adaptation we could have hoped for.
Yeah, it’s gonna rock.
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4 Responses to “Five Reasons Watchmen Will Rock/Suck, Part III”
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February 27th, 2009 at 8:27 pm
When it finally comes out Blu-ray so you can watch it without sitting in a room full of douchebags, you’ll have to let us know what you think. Maybe you can be watching it comfortably at home when the film adaptation of The Dark Knight Returns opens in theaters.
Still, at least you’re tempering your expectations by predicting it to be comparable to the Lord of the Rings trilogy. You’re not the cynic I once knew…
That’s what comes from not spending enough time with groups of douchbags in movie theaters.
February 27th, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Let me be perfectly clear: I’m not saying it’s going to be comparable in quality to Lord of the Rings. I’m just saying that there’s parallels between the two as far as book-to-film translation. I think Watchmen will ultimately be a great film and one that does justice to the book, but I’m certainly not suggesting it’s going to be on par with the entire Rings trilogy.
February 27th, 2009 at 10:07 pm
I forget, I spent the first week after Crystal Skull opened trying to convince myself that I wasn’t too disappointed. It took your clarity to talk some sense into me.
March 4th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
I think you’ve raised some really interesting points in all of this and it’s going to be great to see. Tryign to get tickets to get out there on Friday.