Ok, I am dreadfully sorry for taking forever to write this review. I recently got involved in making a video game and this need to pick only adaptations and animations, as well as the constant work load, has kind of screwed up my reviews. So for now, Watchmen will be my last Ani-Country review. I will still post my weekly movie reviews that I'm doing for homework, but these will be of anything and so, warning ended.
Watchmen is a really good movie, with great pacing, great editing, and great writing. I know that sounds redundant, but frankly, if you've seen this movie, you either love it, don't like all the gore, or hate the ending because you think adaptations should be perfect copies of the source material. Again, being a little over the edge, but let's cut to brass tax.
The movie is about politics and how government should be run. That's not implicit or even a subtle symbolism. That's how it is. Ozymandais is a Socialist, Rorschach is an extreme Libertarian. Dr. Manhattan is an isolationist, and Night Owl and Silk Spectre are pretty comfortable with government their government however it is.
And at the top if it all is the Comedian, who seems to both despise and revel in his country's corruption.
The movie uses wonderful editing, making each shot feel like it was taken directly from a comic book page, which is saying something since the movie takes, scene for scene, every shot from the original source material. The only difference between the comic and the movie is what everyone who's a hardcore Alan Moore fan thinks is the ultimate sin in movies.
The movie's plot goes as such: The Comedian, a deranged sociopath and Anti-hero has been murdered and no one knows who did it. It turns out, in this universe, super heroes left the pages of comic books and real people started wearing costumes. These superheroes got involved in Wars a lot as well, including Vietnam.
The cold war is still going on and while Rorschach is trying to figure out who killed the Comedian, Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandais are trying to stop nuclear holocaust by stopping the energy crisis by creating infinite free enemy. Dr. Manhattan is slowly driven to exiling himself to Mars and Rorschach realizes that [spoilers]Ozymandais killed the Comedian and is planning to blow up hugely populated cities using bombs made from the energy that Dr. Manhattan is made of. This causes the Soviets and the U.S.A to stop fighting each other and unite under fear of Dr. Manhattan.
Now, in the comics, Moore wrote that Ozymandais used Manhattan's energy to teleport giant squids into cities to fake an alien invasion. Now, while this makes some sense, I find that the Manhattan ploy is the smarter outcome. With a fake Alien invasion, should humanity ever go into the stars, we would be very antagonistic towards aliens and probably be very hostile to new life. And should we ever find an alien race of giant squids, we would probably immediately go to war with them.
But with the Dr. Manhattan ploy, there's one specific target, who knows the sacrifice of what he's done. There won't be anything a human can do against Dr. Manhattan since he's pretty much Omnipotent, so the world is basically united under a banner of fear that will never be broken because they are basically uniting under the face of God.
Now, this is a personal opinion, many will say otherwise. Many will say that you should try recreating a perfect film version of something or not even bother, but then, why? Isn't it better to want to use new ideas and to explore alternate possibilities?
The characters are all wonderful and the acting is amazing. Dr. Manhattan especially, with all of his CGI, the man is basically giving a perfect performance with small facial twitches and expressions that are hardly noticeable, but clearly visible if you pay attention. And the argument between Libertarian and Socialism is very interesting, even if they just rule the inevitable answer as Socialism wins, "for now".
And the music. My god. The sound track is masterfully edited together and I really cannot think of a major problem the movie had.
Friday, February 14, 2014
Wednesday, February 5, 2014
Agents of SHIELD- Episode 13- An Adaptation review
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE4h9650EGk
Made the first video blog entry, tell me in the comments what movie you want me to review for the special
Made the first video blog entry, tell me in the comments what movie you want me to review for the special
Monday, February 3, 2014
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) - An Adaptation Review
This might be a my biggest and most biased review as of yet since I LOVE this movie. I grew up with this movie. This movie has framed many of my personal loves in fiction. From an Ensemble cast of public domain characters, to steampunk design, to the use of the red heron. Everything this movie has has influenced me in some way.
SO, to make sure that this review is fair, I will discuss everything that is bad or wrong with the film first.
First, the pacing: It's pretty bad a lot. scenes change really fast and it makes it hard to be invested in the situation. Like in the beginning, when the Phantom was trying to be menacing in Germany, he just walks in and blows a bunch of dirigibles. You need to show him more. The guy clearly isn't the hide in the shadows of the camera kind of guy, so why are you only showing glimpses of him. I understand the the movie has a lot happening, but it is only an hour and a half. There's plenty of time to show him. Linger more on him. They guy isn't a quite guy, but he only shows up to talk in three scenes. His attack in London, his attack on Germany, and his attack at Dorian's house.
Another problem I have is Dr. Jekyll. He shows up hardly ever at all. He seems to be in the background more often than not, which the opposite of the Phantom, but still equally treated as such. He seems to all of a sudden have a thing for Mrs. Mina Harker. I mean, i understand, it fits with his personality, but those who haven't read the original book, or the graphic novel, or watched the movie a hundred times, it's going to be really hard for a new audience to get it.
Like I said with the pacing, it's too short in a lot of the scenes. And my biggest complaint is in the introduction of alan Quartermain. It is way too short of a sequence. Events happen way too fast that end up making things feel whiplash now and then. I feel like we, the audience, need some breathing room.
But aside from the pacing, that's kids stuff. You want me to touch on the big issues. You want me to touch on the source material.
Now, I actually read the first volume of the series. I made sure to read it before I did any of these reviews in case I ever tried to make a Review blog like this and end up reviewing this movie. Now, this movie take a LOT of liberties with the cast. Quartermain is portrayed as a sort of aging Idiana jones instead of a drug-addicted louse. Mina Harker is a Vampire. Skinner isn't a unlikeable rapist. And frankly, everything that was changed, I felt it was for the best. People went on about how so many of the Silk Specter's lines and deeds were cut from the Watchmen, but Mina Harker was actually upgraded from flimsy Damsel to a bloodthirsty killer. They made it clear that this was a different Invisible Man, not the same one from the comics, and I LOVED the portrayal of Hyde in this. Still my favorite character in the story.
The thing is with League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is, none of these characters are original. Alan Moore never really uses original characters. V is the closest I've seen to an original Moore character. He either straight up takes character from public domain like Lost girls or League, or he adapts characters, like in Watchmen. And Since he didn't create these characters, this really doesn't deserve Moore's name on it. I know ... I know Moore refused to put his name on it, but really, the guy I feel is being way too arrogant to assume that this story is some great original work deserving of his name. The movie would have been fine with or without the graphic novel. I didn't even know there was a graphic novel until five years after seeing the movie.
Now, let's look at the story. Very different from the original source. I'll be sure to keep spoilers at the end since I want to discuss the Phantom some more. The original graphic Novel had the League being formed together as a sort of Black Ops team to shut down the Fu Manchu, an Opium selling Chinese Drug Lord in London. They get enlisted by M to take him out, only for it to be revealed to all be a trap set by Moriarty to kill both the League and Fu Manchu.
Now, the movie does a very different approach. The plot is, a mysterious man known as the Phantom is threatening to start World War 1 so that he can profit by selling munitions and machines to both sides. The man known only as M, enlists Captain Nemo from 10,000 Leagues under the Sea, Alan Quartermain, from some English adventure novels I'm not aware of, Nina Harker, from the Dracula story, and Rodney Skinner, a Gentleman thief who stole the Invisible Man's invisible formula. They go to enlist dorian Grey to their cause, meet the Phantom, and get Tom Sawyer, who works as a Secret Agent for the US in this story. Then they capture and enlist Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and they travel to stop the Phantom from blowing up a secret conference in Venice to needed to stop the world War from happening.
Now, here comes the spoilers, so instead, go watch the movie before I reveal the big spoiler, it's a great movie, but in order to discuss the film's themes and techniques I need to bring him up. Throughout the film, dissension is spred even through the audience. So many characters are hinted at being spies or bad guys. Skinner plays the Red Heron for the longest bit until it is finally revealed that Dorian Grey is the traitor and M is the Phantom who is really Moriarty.
The movie does excellent foreshadow as well, with Quartermain using a double to keep the rabid fanboys away from him. M being accused of "theatrics" upon first meeting him. And the idea of giving the Phantom a very pronounced speaking voice, not often given to characters who are meant to later be revealed as disguises. If this were any other film, the Phantom would lurk in the shadows and M would appear sneaky and deceptive and ultimately reveal his betrayal, but here it is a genuine shock.
Trust is a huge theme in the story. We have a large cast of people who barely know each other, everyone has a dark secret or a troubling personality flaw and everyone is at everyone's throat. Jekyll can't trust his mind, Quartmain can't trust his experience, Skinner can't be trusted at all, Dorian betrays everyone's trust, and Ishmal's undying trust in his captain up to his untimely execution.
Another huge theme of the movie is the Future. With the lead hero being a grizzly old war hero/hunter while the villain being a young capitalist. The advancements in technology constantly being used by both the heroes and villains.
In my honest opinion, the movie is a beautiful piece of art. It might not have aged perfectly, but it is still a wonderful film to watch.
SO, to make sure that this review is fair, I will discuss everything that is bad or wrong with the film first.
First, the pacing: It's pretty bad a lot. scenes change really fast and it makes it hard to be invested in the situation. Like in the beginning, when the Phantom was trying to be menacing in Germany, he just walks in and blows a bunch of dirigibles. You need to show him more. The guy clearly isn't the hide in the shadows of the camera kind of guy, so why are you only showing glimpses of him. I understand the the movie has a lot happening, but it is only an hour and a half. There's plenty of time to show him. Linger more on him. They guy isn't a quite guy, but he only shows up to talk in three scenes. His attack in London, his attack on Germany, and his attack at Dorian's house.
Another problem I have is Dr. Jekyll. He shows up hardly ever at all. He seems to be in the background more often than not, which the opposite of the Phantom, but still equally treated as such. He seems to all of a sudden have a thing for Mrs. Mina Harker. I mean, i understand, it fits with his personality, but those who haven't read the original book, or the graphic novel, or watched the movie a hundred times, it's going to be really hard for a new audience to get it.
Like I said with the pacing, it's too short in a lot of the scenes. And my biggest complaint is in the introduction of alan Quartermain. It is way too short of a sequence. Events happen way too fast that end up making things feel whiplash now and then. I feel like we, the audience, need some breathing room.
But aside from the pacing, that's kids stuff. You want me to touch on the big issues. You want me to touch on the source material.
Now, I actually read the first volume of the series. I made sure to read it before I did any of these reviews in case I ever tried to make a Review blog like this and end up reviewing this movie. Now, this movie take a LOT of liberties with the cast. Quartermain is portrayed as a sort of aging Idiana jones instead of a drug-addicted louse. Mina Harker is a Vampire. Skinner isn't a unlikeable rapist. And frankly, everything that was changed, I felt it was for the best. People went on about how so many of the Silk Specter's lines and deeds were cut from the Watchmen, but Mina Harker was actually upgraded from flimsy Damsel to a bloodthirsty killer. They made it clear that this was a different Invisible Man, not the same one from the comics, and I LOVED the portrayal of Hyde in this. Still my favorite character in the story.
The thing is with League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is, none of these characters are original. Alan Moore never really uses original characters. V is the closest I've seen to an original Moore character. He either straight up takes character from public domain like Lost girls or League, or he adapts characters, like in Watchmen. And Since he didn't create these characters, this really doesn't deserve Moore's name on it. I know ... I know Moore refused to put his name on it, but really, the guy I feel is being way too arrogant to assume that this story is some great original work deserving of his name. The movie would have been fine with or without the graphic novel. I didn't even know there was a graphic novel until five years after seeing the movie.
Now, let's look at the story. Very different from the original source. I'll be sure to keep spoilers at the end since I want to discuss the Phantom some more. The original graphic Novel had the League being formed together as a sort of Black Ops team to shut down the Fu Manchu, an Opium selling Chinese Drug Lord in London. They get enlisted by M to take him out, only for it to be revealed to all be a trap set by Moriarty to kill both the League and Fu Manchu.
Now, the movie does a very different approach. The plot is, a mysterious man known as the Phantom is threatening to start World War 1 so that he can profit by selling munitions and machines to both sides. The man known only as M, enlists Captain Nemo from 10,000 Leagues under the Sea, Alan Quartermain, from some English adventure novels I'm not aware of, Nina Harker, from the Dracula story, and Rodney Skinner, a Gentleman thief who stole the Invisible Man's invisible formula. They go to enlist dorian Grey to their cause, meet the Phantom, and get Tom Sawyer, who works as a Secret Agent for the US in this story. Then they capture and enlist Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and they travel to stop the Phantom from blowing up a secret conference in Venice to needed to stop the world War from happening.
Now, here comes the spoilers, so instead, go watch the movie before I reveal the big spoiler, it's a great movie, but in order to discuss the film's themes and techniques I need to bring him up. Throughout the film, dissension is spred even through the audience. So many characters are hinted at being spies or bad guys. Skinner plays the Red Heron for the longest bit until it is finally revealed that Dorian Grey is the traitor and M is the Phantom who is really Moriarty.
The movie does excellent foreshadow as well, with Quartermain using a double to keep the rabid fanboys away from him. M being accused of "theatrics" upon first meeting him. And the idea of giving the Phantom a very pronounced speaking voice, not often given to characters who are meant to later be revealed as disguises. If this were any other film, the Phantom would lurk in the shadows and M would appear sneaky and deceptive and ultimately reveal his betrayal, but here it is a genuine shock.
Trust is a huge theme in the story. We have a large cast of people who barely know each other, everyone has a dark secret or a troubling personality flaw and everyone is at everyone's throat. Jekyll can't trust his mind, Quartmain can't trust his experience, Skinner can't be trusted at all, Dorian betrays everyone's trust, and Ishmal's undying trust in his captain up to his untimely execution.
Another huge theme of the movie is the Future. With the lead hero being a grizzly old war hero/hunter while the villain being a young capitalist. The advancements in technology constantly being used by both the heroes and villains.
In my honest opinion, the movie is a beautiful piece of art. It might not have aged perfectly, but it is still a wonderful film to watch.
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