Congeries of cross connected concepts
I need to go see the Watchmen movie. I bought the comic book graphic novel back in the late 80s and quite liked it. I never believed the ending but hey — artistic license. I do have to agree that none of the characters are really likeable, although I disliked Rorscharch and Dr. Manhattan the least, with my preference going to the latter. I do think it’s funny that Rorscharch is generally the favorite, given how clearly Moore tried to make him unpleasant. Unfortunately, Moore made the other chacters (except the Dr. - he’s cool) even more unlikeable.
Well, I did kind of like The Comedian. He may have been scum, but he was forthrightly scum. He was a nihilist but he knew he was and accepted it, unlike so many of the modern day nihilists who try to pass as liberals.
| Ali Choudhury Wednesday, 11 March 2009 at 18:55 |  |
Rorscharch’s popular because of his sheer guts and his absolute refusal to compromise. His line about the other prisoners being locked in with him is one of my favourite comic book moments. Dr Manhattan was too weird to form any kind of fondness for. I did like Ozymandias’s sneaky bastardness. He is simultaneously the hero and the villain of the story.
| David Cohen Wednesday, 11 March 2009 at 20:24 | |
Took my son to see it Sunday. It’s pretty bad. As he said, a violent chick flick. Basically, everyone just sits around and talks about their relationships. Rorschach does come across best. Plus, as someone on the Internet pointed out, the basic animating idea of the comic — that confronting the Soviets was insanely dangerous and making peace with them best for humanity’s future — has been shown to be completely wrong.
| Annoying Old Guy Wednesday, 11 March 2009 at 21:02 | |
Mr Choudhury;
My favorite Rorscharch moment doesn’t have him in frame. Instead, Silk Spectre and Nite Owl are talking about him encountering a “super villian” who enjoyed getting beat up. “What ever happened to him?” asks SS. “He ran in to Rorscharch and Rorscharch threw him down an elevator shaft” replies Nite Owl. So much of MAL reminds me of that.
As for Ozymandius, I like his understatement when confronting Nite Owl. “You couldn’t really do that, could you?” Nite Owl asks and Ozy just smiles.
Hey, I just thought — is the scene from The Incredibles when Syndrome has launched the attack an homage to the same point in Watchmen when Nite Owl uncovers Ozymandius’ plot?
Mr. Cohen;
Yes, but the Co-Dominium theme was completely wrong when I first read as well, so that doesn’t bother me. It wasn’t any more wrong than Ozymandius’ plan.
| cjm Wednesday, 11 March 2009 at 21:23 | |
the real whole in the plot is the idea that mankind would all come together to fight an external threat. the leftsists would immediately try and make common cause with the “invaders” and help tear down civilization.
| Annoying Old Guy Friday, 13 March 2009 at 09:54 | |
I wasn’t actually thinking of that. There was some other story that I can’t remember the name of where aliens show up and while superficially the humans unite against them, in reality every faction is scheming to be the first to get their hands on some alien technology and conquer the rest of the world, then take on the aliens. It seemed by far the most likely scenario.
