I am still skeptical they can turn Alan Moore's masterful graphic novel, Watchmen, into a 2 1/2 hour movie (a three-part TV miniseries would've been ideal, but surely too expensive) but damn if the trailer for Zak Snyder's attempt doesn't look amazing. Everyone apart from Ozymandias looks just about perfect and the tone looks appropriately... apocalyptic. I don't even mind the Smashing Pumpkins song used in it...though maybe there's a few too many slo-mo action shots (which Snyder's 300 overdid).
It's showing before The Dark Knight, but you can watch it now and analyze every frame over and over in pristine Quicktime. (Which allows us to freeze frame the Speilberg/ET-reissue in-joke: MPPA regulations state you can't point a gun at the camera in a movie trailer, so Snyder turned it into a walkie talkie.) Watchmen is also the cover story in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, which you can read online as well.
I am not much into comics and graphic novels, and I understand those who have trepidations about dipping into what seems like a super geeky world, but Watchmen... I can't recommend Moore's 1986 original highly enough. (Get it now.) The Cold War themes that were so timely then make the specifics a bit dated, but it still holds up.
Watchmen hits screens March 6, 2009. One can only hope the midnight screenings will actually be held at 11:55.
MP3: Pop Will Eat Itself - Can You Dig It?
I first heard of Alan Moore in this Pop Will Eat Itself song, which let me know that "Alan Moore knows the score" and namechecks Watchmen too. It's a bit dated too, but I will admit that at the time their 1989 album, This is the Day...This is the Hour...This is This was a constant on my stereo. Frontman Clint Mansell now scores movies, and his theme to Requiem for a Dream is used in more trailers for other films than I can count.
Corgan? CORGANNNNNN!
Posted by: J | Friday, July 18, 2008 at 08:44 AM