I just wanted to highlight something I read today in the lunch room at work, our local newspaper the Washington Post had a review of the movie Watchmen on the front page of the Style section today with the title “Blight Watchmen: Graphic Novel’s Edge is Dulled in Adaptation”. Written by Philip Kennicot, it’s an interestingly presented review NOT because it is saying the movie is bad. It’s interesting to me because it feels like the closest thing to comment bait that could exist in periodical print media. The first paragraph of the review reads:
“Watchmen” is a bore. Sad to say, after a wait of more than two decades, the much-anticipated adaptation of the world’s most celebrated graphic novel is long, dull and subject to what might be called the “Lord of the Rings” problem: It sinks under the weight of its reverence for the original.
I don’t believe I’ve ever heard or read anyone else using The Lord of the Rings movies as examples of bad adaptations. I’ll save you much of the trouble and summarize the rest of the review in a few short sentences:
The Watchmen Movie is bad…I hated the Watchmen books also…In fact I simply don’t like Alan Moore’s writing…The Watchmen comics are not worth reading in addition to the movie not being worth the time spent watching it.
I’m not kidding, one of the conclusions of the movie review is that the comics themselves (or perhaps the movie in script form, which is an odd thing to review) are not worth reading. Don’t believe me? Here’s an excerpt from 3/4 of the way through it after talking about the long history of the film’s multiple productions:
“Watchmen” wasn’t unfilmable, it was unreadable.
Really, I can understand the Post wanting to stir up some shit with a review like this, but it didn’t really tell me anything new about the movie based on seeing it other than that the reviewer didn’t like anything about Watchmen even before he saw it.
So, basically the review was “I hated all things Watchmen prior to going into the theater and I’m writing this in the hopes that no one else will go and realize that my opinion is unimportant to their enjoyment of said movie?”
I think the best worst review is the New Yorker review. It ends with
““Watchmen” marks the final demolition of the comic strip, and it leaves you wondering: where did the comedy go? ”
Even if you forgive it for ignoring the entire symbolism of having the COMEDIAN die at the very beginning of the story, you can’t forgive them for ignoring the comic book industry as a whole. You’d think sharing space with the New Yorker comic would have taught them that comics don’t always have punchlines.
Webrunner: Yea, I’m actually shocked to see so many seemingly retarded reviews about Watchmen. Then again, we saw it last night at midnight and I have to say it’s a VERY weird movie and reviewing it is going to be a tough thing to do (so I’ll probably leave it to Dave! 😀 )
That said, I left the movie with almost the exact same feelings I had after first reading the comics, “That was long, and parts of it were REALLY boring, but some awesome stuff happened and I generally like it.” Now the second time I read the comics, I hands-down loved them, because I picked up on a lot more of the nuances of the artwork and especially the writing that I’d completely missed the first time through. I doubt I’ll be seeing the movie again in theaters though, perhaps when it’s not 2-3am it’s more pleasant?
I usually read books and watch movies, but do so in no particular order. If I have not read a book and see a bad movie, I am generally less likely to read the book. This is especially true if I find the plot to be unengaging.
drscotto´s last post: P90X
I read a review of Watchmen where the reviewer accused the director of ripping off the script of The Incredibles. He then complained about continuity because Rorsharc’s mask kept changing. He then questioned the Director’s intelligence because the film showed Nixon as president in ’85.
*sigh* elsewhere on this guy’s blog he accuses The Dark Knight of being a liberal pro-Obama anti-McCain diatribe, because the “Dark” man defeats “white” psychopath.
One more reason why I don’t trust reviews from random people or professionals paid to be inflamatory.
Vulcan Stev´s last post: Vulcan Stev Family Movie Review: X-Files Fight the Future
hmm…I’m still going to see it because I have been waiting to see it for so long.