Regarding (a), I’ll take your example. In the movie, I could see how the rape story may have seemed gratuitous. In the comic, it was crucial to understanding Rorschach’s warped psyche and where it came from. Seriously, the book (#6) that holds that scene is a masterpiece in itself. That other events in that issue (such as the significance of Kovacs’s mask an how he got it) were missing may have made it seem pointless. From my perspective, Rorschach wouldn’t be the same without that experience and other experiences that surround it.

Given your complaints about the movie, it’s unlikely that you would really enjoy the comic book much. The violence and grit are there, too, and the overall theme is the same in its nihilism and amorality.

I guess you hit it on the head, to me to create a world where all of the heroes are just people making futile attempts at life is pretty pointless… in some way I can see the genius behind it, since it goes above and beyond to be so opposite of what a comic book hero is supposed to be and represent.

If I would have seen the material as a young boy I might have seen it as cool to be opposite and envelope pushing. Now as an adult, that movie with all of its filth its just not palatable. I love action movies, violence for the sake of violence just makes me sick to my stomach. I guess rape and children being murdered are the two most disgusting things in my frame of morals and just not something that I want to see presented in the way it was. Same as I hate the movie that zeroes in on an assailant’s gun when it should have been a detailed I picked up, my face being rubbed with blood to illustrate that humanity can be disgusting its not appealing to me.

I am curious about the source material and want to see how much of it is the movie medium just not being able to translate the message. I have seen how forgiving some people can be when the source material is near to their hearts even if the re-invention of it is pure crap.

I guess what I have been trying to say the whole time is that when I go to see a movie I want to be entertained or at least moved in some way, no problem here with shedding a tear. Being disgusted by seeing the half eaten leg of a child dragged by a dog is just not something I want to pay for because I believed that and many other things added nothing to the movie.

Wook may have been wrong about the type of movie that you were expecting to see, but I think that he was right that a large part of your discontent is that the movie you went to see was different than the one you saw.

It is almost like their flaws are being inflated and the painted on top of a canvas mirroring our current paranoia and divisiveness. It is not that the heroes have gone bad, it is more like the heroes were never good.

In large part it seemed that way because it was. It was a paranoid Cold War piece. Indicative of a time when the world seemed completely out of our hands and out of control and people are left as impotent as Dan Drieberg. And even when they try to take control over events, it’s fruitless or dangerous. It’s not just depressing. It’s nihilistic. Rather than these being things that are wrong or bad about the work, they’re precisely the things that I loved about it. It told a story that I’d never heard before and the comic book at least did a great job of it.

Being a fan of the comic book, it’s impossible for me to evaluate the movie from an outsider’s perspective. So your complaints about weak characterization may well be on-the-mark. I went into it already knowing more about the characters than the movie has time to tell its audience. Even then, it took a couple re-readings of the comic book for me to actually fully appreciate it, transitioning from “This is bizarre” to “This is unique” to “This is interesting” to “This is genius”.

I also came into the movie prepared for the blue penii. I find it interesting that (adult) people were so bothered by it. The guys behind us at the theater were obviously squirming. I guess I squirmed a bit too when I first read the comic, but I attributed that to being 15 years old. Maybe I would have been squirming, too.

To others, if you really liked the comic book you will probably enjoy the movie. Whatever its flaws, it’s an awesome experience to see a lot of the scenes out to screen. It betrays little of the original work. It leaves stuff out, of course, because it has to. It actually gave me a new appreciation of at least one of the characters that I always hated in the comic.

After talking with John during lunch and not reading his review prior, it was very clear to me his hopes were based on “Superman” and “Spiderman” rose colored glasses of movies.

LOL, here you go again making blanket statements when you could have asked for details.

I went in with expectations of finding a “dark” movie about people wearing masks. Instead I got a movie that did not tell me much about people or really showed me why they made the decisions they made. Every single character was very simplified. I knew this was no Superman or Spiderman movie and I expected entertainment not buckets of gore, and penises and ass. If I wanted to see a bunch of blue penises I would have looked for a XXX Smurfs movie.

And BTW, DO NOT TAKE YOUR KIDS TO THIS MOVIE. I saw at least 2 sets of parents with children under 10.

Also, Rorschach was based on Mr. A (or the Question, probably both), Night Owl was based on the Blue Beetle, not Batman. The Comedian was based on Peacemaker, and Ozymandias was based on Thunderbolt. None of the main characters were based on villains. Originally they were going to use a bunch of old Charlton Comics characters, but the editorial staff decided that the story would ruin the original characters.

One thing I take issue with, though, is the assertion that The Dark Knight was the only good comic-book movie to come out recently. Iron Man was excellent.

Hope you’re doing great these days. I have to catch up on your blog posts.

I agree with your statement that the superhero genre is getting over saturated. As for your review of WATCHMEN, you have convinced me more than ever to skip it. I was reluctant to go see it in the first place. But you honestly thought that THE DARK KNIGHT was the only good superhero movie in recent years? With that crappy last half hour? Huh. To each his/her own, I guess.

I can say that as a fan of the original material, I tend to be either very hard or very forgiving of movies based on my favorite books/comics.

Says it all, my friend. Nice review.

I have my own issues with movies based on comics, so I would not have gone to see it, but the mention of multitudes of blue penises sealed the deal.