Alan Moore may be “spitting venom” all over Zack Snyder’s production of WATCHMEN, one of Moore’s many genius works, but from where I’m sitting, nothing is gonna stop Snyder from making the thing anything less than awesomesauce.
Earlier today, the Twitterverse went a little mad over the new WATCHMEN trailer’s internet debut. Having taken a minute out of the day to finally watch it, I must say it’s worth all the hooha.
The first tease of the filmic WATCHMEN was mind-blowing. The use of Smashing Pumpkins “Beginning is the End is the Beginning”(Blipped for your convenience) was nothing less than perfect. Faithful Viewers noticed scenes from this trailer matched the book shot for shot. I thought Snyder must have blown his wad on making a trailer so kick-ass that the movie had no hope of living up to the hype.
This second trailer has erased all doubt of that. Effective utilization of Muse’s “Take a Bow”(Blipped again), more dialogue hinting at actual story, and enough action shots to overload your average Dead Space player.
Trust me when I say those doubts did not spring fully formed from the ether. I watched as FROM HELL desperately tried to convince me that Heather Graham(the cleanest prostitute in all of industrial England) was worth watching, much less, saving from the infamous Jack the Ripper. I have not read FROM HELL yet but I have read enough of the man’s work to know his style. That movie was not of Alan Moore design.
The LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMAN movie suffered from studio meddling even moreso. The mere act of making Mina Harker subservient to Sean Connery’s Alan Quatermain proved they had no idea of the themes the LOEG book were exploring. We won’t even talk about the idiocy of adding Tom Sawyer to the group.
The V FOR VENDETTA film falls into the same category of not being Alan Moore-esque. Yet it was the most popular of all the previous movie bastardizations. Even I have to admit that it had its good points. This popularity only because it was written with a heavily American slant and had more than a passing reference to the soon-to-be former president’s regime. The only thing British about that flick was the location and a handful of the accents.
It’s no wonder Mr. Moore has nothing but disdain for those who would dare put his works on the silver screen.
Raise all the Roman snake-deities you like, Mr Moore. So far all evidence points to Mr. Snyder making a faithful comic-to-film translation of at least one of your works. Now if only we could wipe all the previous attempts from the world’s collective conscious.
GDN Flashback:
What is Alan moore Doing These Days?
Prisoners of Gravity: Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?*
(via trailer addict, first showing, yahoo movies HD version)
