| Author |
 Topic  |
|
Demisemicenturian 
"Four ever European"
|
 Posted - 03/12/2009 : 02:45:01
|
If they are going for realism on Mars then she should probably also wobble around from the lower gravity and immediately start (and within seconds finish?) freezing to death! Anyway, never mind. At least it's in the comic: that makes it good enough for me.
I forgot to mention the music: I liked it! I almost never take in the music in a film so I had meant to mention that as something of note. |
 |
|
|
demonic
"Cinemaniac"
|
Posted - 03/12/2009 : 03:23:55
|
A great score can change my opinion of a film dramatically. From average to good, and from good to great - I've noticed this more and more, so I tend to pay attention to the music all the time.
When you sau you liked the music... do you mean the score (which I don't recall at all) or the dreadful use of songs so famous and jarring they took you immediately out of the context of the film? I get that he was underlining with a great fat marker the reality of the world, but not only were they strange choices - either way-off period (Hendrix), infantile use of symbolism (Simon and Garfunkel at... a funeral... no!), inappropriate ("99 Red Balloons" - wtf?) or very silly... "Hallelujah" for a sex scene, please. The best music was the ever popular use of Glass' "Koyaanisqatsi" score for the Manhattan origin. Great music... just... overdone! Didn't mind Dylan on the flashback credits, or Nat King Cole on the Comedian being battered to a pulp, but even that idea has been done so many times before a lot better ("Somewhere over the Rainbow" over a Face/Off shootout springs to mind). There was a sneaky remix of a Vangelis "Blade Runner" theme in there which didn't pass me by. I think careful choices of mid-80s music would have been great, like in "Donnie Darko" (hinted at in Adrian's office - a lift muzak version of "Everybody wants to Rule the World" - one of the only subtle cues in the film), or just a decent orchestral score. As I said, Snyder is basically a cretin let loose with a lot of money and a great comic book. |
|
|
|
Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
|
Posted - 03/12/2009 : 03:34:14
|
| The songs. I can appreciate that if you care about music then the choices may seem all the things that you say, but I don't. |
|
|
|
demonic
"Cinemaniac"
|
Posted - 03/12/2009 : 03:56:35
|
Okay. You don't have to be interested in music, but you are film literate, and to hear music already firmly fixed in the mind to films like The Graduate, Koyaanisqatsi, Apocalypse Now (admittedly a film pun) and Blade Runner, and using songs already used well in Grosse Pointe Blank, Withnail and I, even Shrek is just bizarre, particularly when they don't illuminate the scene in a meaningful way.
He might as well have bunged in the Star Wars theme and "I Will Always Love You" - they're popular pieces of music too.  |
|
|
|
Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
|
Posted - 03/12/2009 : 04:09:16
|
Most of those associations don't exist for me. I only remember Hallelujah being in Shrek and that was a different version, surely? I know as a piece of trivia that Simon and Garfunkel did The Graduate but I don't know which songs feature other than Mrs Robinson. Was that in this? I love Withnail & I and sometimes watch it twice in a row, but I have no idea what the music is like. Stuff from 1969?
I'd never say that anyone shouldn't find a film's music a problem, but I don't think I ever will. |
|
|
|
demonic
"Cinemaniac"
|
Posted - 03/12/2009 : 04:24:50
|
No, "The Sounds of Silence" was in Watchmen ("hello darkness my old friend..." etc.), and was the opening and closing song of "The Graduate" - have you seen it? And yes, the songs in "Withnail" are all from the film's era.
It was a different version of "Hallelejah", you're right, but more people were probably either thinking of Jeff Buckley or Alexandra wassername from the telly at that point anyway. And there I was trying to concentrate on Malin's naked form without that dreadful song fouling it up.
I just remembered another one crammed in... when a major character dies at the end of the film we have... Mozart's "Requiem"! Honestly, it's like the soundtrack decisions of a 14 year old. |
|
|
|
Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
|
Posted - 03/12/2009 : 12:27:00
|
Yes, I've seen The Graduate and know that song, but I didn't put the two together.
Is Hallelujah behind the sex scene between the 'geek' and the Comedian's daughter? That does seem a bit trite, but is the song religious or does it just use that word? If the former, then it's good to undermine it by such usage. And I cannot say that it distracted me from that scene. Wilson looks absolutely magnificent in it. Please God don't let it be a body double. |
|
|
|
Conan The Westy
"Father, Faithful Friend, Fwiffer"
|
Posted - 03/12/2009 : 12:46:28
|
quote:
Originally posted by dem9nic
I think careful choices of mid-80s music would have been great, like in "Donnie Darko" (hinted at in Adrian's office - a lift muzak version of "Everybody wants to Rule the World" - one of the only subtle cues in the film)...
I remember whispering to my wife with a wry smile, "Tears for Fears" & the song title when that bit of music came on. |
|
|
|
silly 
"That rabbit's DYNAMITE."
|
Posted - 03/24/2009 : 02:05:19
|
quote:
Originally posted by Salopian
Is Hallelujah behind the sex scene between the 'geek' and the Comedian's daughter? That does seem a bit trite, but is the song religious or does it just use that word?
That is the original Leonard Cohen version; it has been covered by nearly 200 other people so yes, the song has probably been overplayed in pop culture a bit. The original song took Cohen a year to write and had 15 verses; he recorded another (more sexual, less religious tone) later.
All Along the Watchtower matches the name for the chapter where they plod through the snow ("Two Riders were Approaching") but I think in the novel they properly credit Dylan with the credits. Since they used him in the opening perhaps they thought best to switch to the other version?
I dunno about the Garfunkel tune; perhaps that was supposed to be foreshadowing (words of the prophets are written on subway walls)
I've only seen the movie once and I'm on my second time through the novel, but I'm picking up little things all the time that make it more fun to experience.
Not to include specific spoilers, but it seems especially the Comedien and Dr. Blue have had quite an effect on American politics and therefore changed history as we know it now.
One detail I loved (in the movie especially): Dr. Blue has helped us create electric cars and other fantastic things, yet all the televisions have dials to tune them, everyone writes things down, the clothes (gentlemen wear hats), flashbulbs on cameras, etc. And hey, still fighting with Russia. Everything old is new again?
|
|
|
|
Beanmimo 
"August review site"
|
Posted - 03/25/2009 : 13:42:33
|
| Yes a world without The Internet or Mobile phones... (i think)!! |
|
|
|
RockGolf 
"1500+ reviews. 1 joke."
|
Posted - 03/25/2009 : 15:47:00
|
| The novel gives a number of other examples of differences caused by Dr Manhattan's existence/Veidt's riches. Nuclear powered blimps. Indian cooking dominating US fast food. Bizarre gumball-sized filters on cigarettes that apparently eliminate toxins. Superhero comics were replaced with "pirate" comics. some were explained, others not. |
|
|
|
GHcool
"Forever a curious character."
|
Posted - 03/25/2009 : 17:51:37
|
| It seems Watchmen started a trend. There's another movie coming out featuring a naked, blue CGI character. |
|
|
|
damalc
"last watched: Sausage Party"
|
Posted - 07/16/2009 : 18:12:37
|
"Watchmen" director's cut available on dvd next week.
i always find myself wondering 'WTF did you leave out?' when the director's cut comes out for a film that was in the 3-hour range, like "Return of the King," when it ran in the theater. |
|
|
|
silly
"That rabbit's DYNAMITE."
|
Posted - 07/16/2009 : 22:05:12
|
quote:
Originally posted by damalc
"Watchmen" director's cut available on dvd next week.
i always find myself wondering 'WTF did you leave out?' when the director's cut comes out for a film that was in the 3-hour range, like "Return of the King," when it ran in the theater.
Oh, yeah, the Unrated Edition will probably have more violence.  |
|
|
|
randall 
"I like to watch."
|
Posted - 09/27/2009 : 16:03:42
|
I was underwhelmed, but that's because I've already seen this movie about ten times -- in reading the graphic novel. While it's very faithful -- more in a moment -- that means the live action added nothing for me, nothing except sound. The original story is awash in cinematic effects: smash cuts, dollies, zooms, etc. And since a movie is nothing but a series of still pictures, the persistence of vision effect was even heightened for me in print: my imagination supplied the missing material. In fact, some scenes worked better for me in print: for example, Rorschach's prison-cell victory against the bad[der] guys.
I missed the pirate-comic subplot, too, but I understand why it was cut: at 2:45, the "director's cut" I saw is still way too long. What's gone is something much subtler. The careful interleaving of the comic with the main story adds nuance, pace and commentary, which the movie necessarily discards. It's like one dimension of the story is just...not there. I know they animated the pirate comic, and I fully expect to see a mega-extended version with that footage folded back in where it belongs. But I don't have 3:30 to "read" the book again.
The actors did what they had to. Jeffrey Dean Morgan was especially good, but most of the others looked and sounded like they were standing in front of a green screen or looping mike. Good for a rental to see what the fuss was all about, but if you really want to know, you have to go back to the graphic novel.
One more thing: anybody who is obsessing over realistic physics on Mars evidently hasn't noticed the giant guy with blue skin who can teleport there. Nobody promised you realism; that's an unfair beef. |
|
|
|
Topic |
|
Watchmen (2009)
