Comments on: The Watchmen having been watched http://tygerbox.com/2009/03/08/the-watchmen-having-been-watched/ It is as they say: Just another WordPress weblog. Sun, 22 Mar 2009 23:56:09 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 By: tygerbox http://tygerbox.com/2009/03/08/the-watchmen-having-been-watched/comment-page-1/#comment-66 tygerbox Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:27:02 +0000 http://tygerbox.com/?p=223#comment-66 You're right, some of the violence did get to be a bit much. I wasn't expecting to see the inside of that guy's arm in the street fight scene for example. But as noted before it IS a "dark and violent story". My point was that it was not over played, and not played for gratuitous entertainment. It was heavy-handed, but still measured, so it got your attention when it happened. And I don't really have a problem with that - I would prefer that than seeing heaping helpings of watered down violence as entertainment fodder. A while ago, I heard an interview with David Cronenberg. No big secret that his films can be pretty heavy-handed in that regard as well. But when asked about it, he came back with a very humanistic response. Paraphrasing: violence done unto human beings is a terrible and horrible thing and should be depicted as such rather than being trivialized. I liked that. So that's why I was OK with rougher content in Watchmen since it was to the point and not over-played (I thought). No real argument about the freeze-framing the action being sort of gimmicky. Blame The Matrix I suppose. You’re right, some of the violence did get to be a bit much. I wasn’t expecting to see the inside of that guy’s arm in the street fight scene for example. But as noted before it IS a “dark and violent story”. My point was that it was not over played, and not played for gratuitous entertainment. It was heavy-handed, but still measured, so it got your attention when it happened. And I don’t really have a problem with that – I would prefer that than seeing heaping helpings of watered down violence as entertainment fodder.

A while ago, I heard an interview with David Cronenberg. No big secret that his films can be pretty heavy-handed in that regard as well. But when asked about it, he came back with a very humanistic response. Paraphrasing: violence done unto human beings is a terrible and horrible thing and should be depicted as such rather than being trivialized. I liked that. So that’s why I was OK with rougher content in Watchmen since it was to the point and not over-played (I thought).

No real argument about the freeze-framing the action being sort of gimmicky. Blame The Matrix I suppose.

]]> By: revme http://tygerbox.com/2009/03/08/the-watchmen-having-been-watched/comment-page-1/#comment-62 revme Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:35:50 +0000 http://tygerbox.com/?p=223#comment-62 I just saw Watchmen, too, mainly for the same reason (I had a bunch of tabs open with stuff I couldn't read yet and really wanted to!). I really dug it -- and I liked the Manhattan-ending-change; the squid was OK, but basically the US+USSR going to war against God was basically cooler anyway...8) I definitely enjoyed it. Some of the violence DID get a bit much, and I got _really sick_ of the slow-down-speed-up fight scene gimmick. (It'd be OK once in a while, but like, 500-times-per-second-of-fight-scene was a bit much.) I actually thought the Book-Versus-Film article in the AV Club was dead-on. (Nite Owl & Silk Spectre II seemed to get too-into the fighting and kicking people's asses thing.) Rorschach was just about perfect, and Nite Owl did a really good job acting, too. Silk Spectre II can't act at all, unfortunately; and I thought Ozy was a little TOO sinister; I think kind of the important point is that he MEANS well, even if he's bein' basically evil. In the comic, he seemed to realize the exchange he was making a bit more (and it was hit a bit harder with all of the street scenes) -- in the movie, it was more of an anonymous 15 million (or whatever the figure was), and there was a throwaway line that he'd seen all of the dead folks' faces, but it didn't really seem to matter much to him, and you figured he was just SAYING that because it sounded good. But he DID totally look like Bowie, which was kinda awesome. I just saw Watchmen, too, mainly for the same reason (I had a bunch of tabs open with stuff I couldn’t read yet and really wanted to!). I really dug it — and I liked the Manhattan-ending-change; the squid was OK, but basically the US+USSR going to war against God was basically cooler anyway…8) I definitely enjoyed it. Some of the violence DID get a bit much, and I got _really sick_ of the slow-down-speed-up fight scene gimmick. (It’d be OK once in a while, but like, 500-times-per-second-of-fight-scene was a bit much.) I actually thought the Book-Versus-Film article in the AV Club was dead-on. (Nite Owl & Silk Spectre II seemed to get too-into the fighting and kicking people’s asses thing.)

Rorschach was just about perfect, and Nite Owl did a really good job acting, too. Silk Spectre II can’t act at all, unfortunately; and I thought Ozy was a little TOO sinister; I think kind of the important point is that he MEANS well, even if he’s bein’ basically evil. In the comic, he seemed to realize the exchange he was making a bit more (and it was hit a bit harder with all of the street scenes) — in the movie, it was more of an anonymous 15 million (or whatever the figure was), and there was a throwaway line that he’d seen all of the dead folks’ faces, but it didn’t really seem to matter much to him, and you figured he was just SAYING that because it sounded good.

But he DID totally look like Bowie, which was kinda awesome.

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