Ever since reading Watchmen I have been fascinated by the idea of turning it into a film. Terry Gilliam was one of the many directors who had considered it in the past but eventually turned it down because he felt it was too long for a single film. He was obviously right.
Netflix delivered it to us today, and after 30 minutes it was turned off…not forever, just for now. Visually they managed to pull off a few scenes so they looked just like the comic book…oops…graphic novel. But somehow, and the exact details are difficult to explain, they’ve made it dull; boring even. Alan Moore’s seemingly odd hostility to his books being made into films is starting to make sense to me. Even if you could make an accurate movie version of the book, and convey all of the sentiments behind it, what would be the point ? It’s already a visual medium! The visual aspects have already been taken care of by the authors. Now that CGI is such a widespread and accessible technology, the idea of converting a set of hand-drawn graphics to high-res computer graphics seems pretty pointless; especially if compromises have to be made to the plot and characterisation.
So that just leaves the only thing that was missing from the graphic novel: the soundtrack. Frankly, I never envisioned the collection of popular classics present on the soundtrack CD (available from all mediocre vendors) being played in the background while I was reading it. But as long as you buy the CD, you’ll be giving money back to the people that count: the rich and talentless who run the music/movie industry.
Don’t bother.
