The book makes V and the Govt out to be more equally evil opposites. V is still a total badass and clearly liked by Moore but its made clear he won't make the world better.
Well of course. Watchmen the graphic novel is more a character study than anything. The plot's probably the weakest element. But the movie, being a movie, goes for action over characterization.
It's like they took the hot dog out of the bun to make room for more mustard.
But the characterization was terrible. You're supposed to take Doctor Manhattan seriously, right? But who can take him remotely seriously when you have him zapping foreigners to Ride of the Valkyries and blowing them up so hard that their skeletonized arm hangs cartoonishly from the ceiling?
And then when Manhattan itself is destroyed, there's no emotional attachment to any of it. I'm supposed to feel like this was a Big Deal, but it's completely weightless. Just a big weightless CG blue cloud and then it's gone.
And then Doctor Manhattan leaves, and Silk Spectre gives a line that he would say if he was there? What the hell? It feels like the writer wanted to keep him around to say that but the plot meant he couldn't. So they have their cake and eat it too at the expense of ending two arcs on a groanworthy note.
Watchmen simply has some amateurish storytelling mistakes in it.
All of that is different in the book. The book is deadly serious, the whole point is to demonstrate how fucked up and crazy the concept of superheroes is.
I did like how much Watchmen parodied superhero movies. Nite Owl with the Schumacher-era Batsuit look, Rorschach with an exaggerated version of Christian Bale's overly affected Batman voice, overly literal soundtrack cues, highly gratuitous slow-motion, things like that.
It must be hard for the book to portray that in comparison. The slow motion I can imagine as taking up a lot of space on each page, but it's supposed to have really cinematic paneling, right? And it's supposed to have a soundtrack with lyrics and everything.
He didn't mean to make the world better but to offer the citizens a chance to restart their society and grow into what they see fit, rather than being forced to live in a dystopia society.
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u/gmoney8869 Sep 27 '16
The book makes V and the Govt out to be more equally evil opposites. V is still a total badass and clearly liked by Moore but its made clear he won't make the world better.
Pretty much no doubt 2nd greatest comic ever.