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Natalia brings you the latest news on Adele’s interview with Anderson Cooper, Kristen Bell’s interview on Ellen is auto tuned, Ladyhawke’s latest music video and much more!
Natalia discusses what’s new with Pharrell Williams and her thoughts on Karl Lagerfeld’s mean comments towards Adele’s weight. She also shows a roster of animals behaving like humans and, wait until you see the new size of coffee available at Starbucks!
Natalia dishes the latest news on the Juno Awards nominees, the upcoming Spiderman 3D film starring Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield and is Katy Perry hooking up with Tim Tebow? Watch today’s episode to find out.
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The Kooks released a new album called “Junk of the Heart,” and you would think Hugh and Luke would be very excited about it. Well, they seemed rather indifferent to be honest. We spoke about that and why they don’t care about critics.
Natalia dishes the latest in entertainment news on Joan Rivers, Lana Del Rey and a brand new trailer for the movie Hunger Games.
Natalia talks about how Snooki might be pregnant, Nicolas Cage’s Cage Rage, Elisabetta Canalis is dating Steve-O and more for Feb 1, 2012.
Natalia dishes the news on Miley Cyrus breaking her tailbone, a 100 year old woman who plays the Nintendo DS to stay young and Houston, Texas contemplating a statute of Beyonce.
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I saw Watchmen with a friend who had finished Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ masterwork last week, and both of us had the same reaction: what would someone who hadn’t read the novel think of it? It’s a meticulous, impressive-looking movie, directed with obvious reverence for the source material and care for the film being created, but it was impossible for us to be fully engaged by the story, because we kept comparing every shot, every line, every choice director Zack Snyder made, to the comic.
Here’s my theory – someone who hasn’t read Watchmen will be blown away by this film, because it reproduces the comic’s central appeal: You’ve got your heroes, you’ve got your villains, you’ve got your costumes and gadgets and action sequences and grandiose plans to take over the world, all wrapped in a solid noir mystery; but for those demanding more from their literature (and Watchmen is literature – that’s a fact, not an argument), there’s more – literate philosophy, silver-age-style artwork packed with details wrapped in more details, a chilling comic within the comic, and more atomically detailed backstory and alternate history than you can shake (insert obligatory Dr. Manhattan genitalia reference) at.
Much of that is retained in this translation. What’s lost, at least for viewers like me and my friend, is the unmistakable sense that you’ve witnessed art. Finish the book and you know you’ve read a classic; finish the film and you know you’ve seen a great movie (or at least a film made by someone who wanted to make a great movie), but you haven’t seen art.
Here’s what Snyder and his team got right:
- The opening: there’s a reason nearly every advance review mentioned Snyder’s use of “The Times They Are A-Changin’” – it’s brilliant. Backstories are conveyed, characters introduced and alternate history created with a terrific handful of brief, colourful sequences.
- The look: many sets and setpieces, including an iconic newstand, the death of the Comedian (which opens the story), the Nite Owl’s lair, the Minutemen and Watchmen (the superhero teams)’ photo ops, and a character’s stint in prison, appear lifted directly from the comic. Newsreel footage and talk show appearances feel authentic.
- Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan: of the five protagonists, these two are the best reproduced. Manhattan, the only genuine superhero of the group, is played by Billy Crudup, who reuses his quiet tone from the American dub of Princess Mononoke. Rorschach, a vengeful sociopath, is brought to life by Little Children’s Jackie Earle Haley, who puts on a gravelly voice and retains his American accent (the character was originally Polish), and wears an eye-popping inkblot mask that’s continuously shifting.
- The action sequences: there aren’t many, but the ones that exist are exciting and eye-catching, with brutal choreography and Snyder employing his trademark slow-cam for the most bone-crunching moves. Dr. Manhattan may be the only “super” hero, but you’ll know why the others put on their costumes.
- The soundtrack: In addition to “The Times They Are A-Changin’,” Jimi Hendrix’s cover of “All Along The Watchtower,” Leonard Cohen’s “The Future,” and Mozart and Philip Glass (who didn’t compose the score, unfortunately) pieces are perfectly used.
- The sex: much has already been written about Patrick Wilson and Malin Ackerman’s coupling, which is more erotic than anything to grace a screen since… (When was the last time on-screen sex was erotic? The Reader?)
Here’s what (in my opinion) could have been improved:
- Ozymandias: the protagonist given the shortest shrift in the novel is predictably given the shortest shrift in the movie, but he still gets enough screentime to leave an impression. My complaint is that actor Matthew Goode is at least ten years too young for the role (though he does a good job with what he’s given).
- Nite Owl and Silk Spectre: my problem isn’t with the actors (Little Children’s Wilson and The Heartbreak Kid’s Ackerman, respectively) or their ultimate role in the story, but rather with their initial characterization. Much like Martin Sheen’s character in The Departed, Wilson and Ackerman’s initial scenes are cut short (an early fight with a street gang is clumsily intercut with a Dr. Manhattan interview, which is far more interesting), and the overall effect makes them weaker characters. (To be fair, they’re also the least nuanced characters in the book.)
- The score: Tyler Bates scored 300, so it’s more than likely nepotism is involved here, but he’s not exactly lacking in work, and Watchmen cries for a classical soundtrack. What has Philip Glass recorded lately anyway?
- “Hallelujah”: I literally grew up with Leonard Cohen – he’s the first musician my parents introduced me to – and the man’s written at least half a dozen songs that would be perfect for a sex scene. His overplayed hymn to lost love isn’t one of them.
The problem is that as someone who has read the comic, I can only speculate what someone who hasn’t will think; I can never know. Perhaps a Watchmen neophyte will find the story confusing, the flashbacks jarring, and witness the experience slack-jawed, wondering when the story is going to begin (hint: the flashbacks are the story). Personally I think Snyder made the right choices, telling Alan Moore’s tale in broad strokes and cutting nearly everything that didn’t relate to one of the five main characters. Reading other reviews, I suspect my initial theory is correct: those who love the movie haven’t read the comic, while those who have know they’ve witnessed something, but they’re not sure what.
Here’s the other thing: I’m not one of those fanboys who demanded fidelity to the comic. The opening is one of the best sequences because it was one of the only new ones. My favourite sequence in the novel (Manhattan’s meditation on Mars) is one of the slowest in the film. I’m not going to say shifting the lynchpin event to the war on terror instead of Vietnam would have been correct, but it was on the right track. Those who haven’t read the comic may have heard that Snyder changed the ending. The fanboys are wrong: he didn’t change a thing.
Graphic novels are not movies. Sin City, still the adaptation’s high-water mark, worked not because Robert Rodriguez used the comics as a storyboard, but because he turned them into an exercise in filmmaking. Both mediums have their strengths. Watchmen the graphic novel plays to its strengths. Too often, Watchmen the movie does not.
If you haven’t read Watchmen and think you would enjoy the movie, see the movie. Then read the book.
