What's The Plural of Deus Ex Machina?

[debitha]

I went to see Watchmen tonight. I had just read a rant by someone who had been to see it was enraged by the gender politics, so maybe I was in the wrong frame of mind, but still.

I'm going to put the rest under a cut for spoilers.


Given the ease with which I become enraged myself, I was prepared to be fuming. What I wasn't prepared for was being bored. The cinematography lacked the brutal beauty of Sin City, the plot was contrived and ridiculously complicated for such a simplistic world view.

I am told that you need to have read the comic to appreciate the film. To me, that means that the film adaptation has failed even before you get into the theatre.

I remember there being bits I thought at the time were pretty cool, but almost all of them were overshadowed by how dumb the whole thing was. I like a bit of gratuitous violence at least as much as the next person, but I found the fight scenes to be pointlessly overblown and ridiculous. Also, just how much blood comes out of a person who falls from a great height? I ask, because that was an almost comical amount of blood. I wasn't horrified by the violence, I was bored by it.

As for the characters, I think Daniel was supposed to be our entry point into the story, but he was such a pathetic wet blanket that I found myself siding with Rorschach, the complete sociopath, most of the time. Or maybe I was supposed to. It's kind of hard to tell. I certainly didn't give a damn about the chick. Her only purpose seems to have been to inspire the blue guy to come back to earth by virtue of her mother not hating the man who almost raped her so that he could save the world. Which he doesn't actually do. So I call DEM on both of them, because the only purpose the blue guy serves is to provide the method of destruction in the first place. He also completely fails to be interesting. Moloch was almost interesting - a former nemesis to whom the dead anti-hero turned in his darkest moment, the only one who left flowers at the funeral. And what was up with the ears? But ultimately he's a method to both give info to Rorschach and betray him, and then he dies. DEM.

There was no cohesion to the background. Are they actually superheroes with superpowers, or are they average people (aside from the Silver Surfer blue guy)? Because most of them seem not to have superpowers, but boy genius seems to be able to catch a bullet in his hand, so which is it?

The whole World Peace thing was just pathetic. Even without the diary, it would probably have taken about a week for everyone to have remembered that the blue guy was claimed as being both god and American, at which point the US gets nuked by the entire world. Which, if boy genius was half as clever as everyone made out, he could have worked out and saved himself the trouble. Also, the willing sacrificial scapegoat thing was done in The Dark Knight, and done about a billion times better. Probably because Batman actually gave a shit unlike anyone in this film, bar Rorschach the sociopath.

I will say that The Comedian's funeral was filmed beautifully; boy genius' line about not being a comicbook villain was brilliant; and whoever timed and blocked out the big dramatic sex scene in the Owlmobile has a promising future in comedy.

I'm left with the conflicting sense of having missed something and therefore not "got it", and there having been nothing to get. By comparison, the trailer for Lesbian Vampire Killers looks like a good bet for entertainment value. At least it probably has a sense of humour.

Comments

[zephfi.livejournal.com]

all the advertising for Watchmen refers to them as 'superheroes' when they are really 'caped crusaders'/'masked heroes'/vigilantes (apart from Dr Manhattan). that being part of the reason that it's pretty easy for the government to ban them, because they don't have superpowers.

i recall that Ozi (boy genius) faked bullet-catch in the comic? haven't seen the movie yet, so can't comment on what happened in that.

[debitha.livejournal.com]

That was what I thought, but the bullet-catch doesn't seem to be faked in the film. There is an actual crushed bullet in his hand. Which I suspect is symbolic of the main problems with the adaptation. Too hard; didn't film.

I'd be interested to know what you think when/if you do see it.

[zephfi.livejournal.com]

i remembered this morning that i read a quote from the director in which he said he made the film for fans of the comic-book first and foremost, but that he hoped others would enjoy it as well.

the Ozimandis character (in the novel) is basically pulling strings and setting up a lot of stuff all the way through (which isn't revealed til near the end), so i'll be curious to see whether bullet-catching is related (i.e. if it's in the context of faked assassination attempt then it might be that the director meant to imply that he had the bullet on him to begin with, in the same way that someone might have a fake blood capsule on their person because they are about to fake being shot). but obviously i'll need to see it first :)

Jas is about 50% thru the novel now. we'll go see it when he's done so i'll let you know.

and i appear to have imagined bullet-catch from novel. at least, i have from the part i thought i recalled it from. :P

[debitha.livejournal.com]

Heh, unfortunately I think he has proven Hollywood's point about not making films just for fans. Which I actually think is quite sad, but basically the trend seems to be that if you haven't read and enjoyed the comic you won't like the film.

The shooting is post conspiracy-reveal. I think it is Chicky. I know the bit you were thinking of, but he just dodged all of those bullets. As one does.

One thing that has really started bugging me is, what was actually wrong with the "solve the fuel crisis" cover story? It actually seems like a much better plan than the weird, complicated and ultimately futile "sacrifice millions for the greater good" plan.