Another movie I haven't watched. I'm really curious about this one, but people who didn't read the comics before watching the movie are a little disappointed, I've been hearing. "Minor action, movie is too long" and things like that, I mean.
Another movie I haven't watched. I'm really curious about this one, but people who didn't read the comics before watching the movie are a little disappointed, I've been hearing. "Minor action, movie is too long" and things like that, I mean.
Watchmen was a comic first? That explains why everyone seemed to be excited about it. I'd never heard of it before the movie (which i haven't seen)
Watchmen was a comic first? That explains why everyone seemed to be excited about it. I'd never heard of it before the movie (which i haven't seen)
It wasn't just "a comic". It was and is THE comic. I will not shy away from the statement that Watchmen is to comics what Citizen Kane is to film. Both are masterpieces, yes, but they're more than that. In their respective fields, Citizen Kane and Watchmen are the culmination and expert use of technique of the medium and others. Citizen Kane used sound extremely effectively due to Welles' radio career, and likewise Watchmen takes several techniques from film and applies them to comics.
Watchmen is the comic medium used as effectively as possible to tell a story that is dark, mature, and intelligent. Due to this, it's flabbergasting to realize that it achieved ANY level of notoriety, but miracles apparently DO happen from time to time. It's really the antithesis of every fault that plagues the comic world. This is no infinitely going serial with no end in sight. It is free of all the cliches of Superhero comics, because it really is not a superhero story at all. At least not anywhere near what you'd get from the likes of the DC and Marvel pantheons.
The film is nowhere near bad. I'd say it's as good of an adaptation as one can ever expect. There are things about the execution of Watchmen that enrich and fill the experience that simply cannot be rendered in film, and the entire ending is changed in a drastic way that...I can honestly understand and respect, because it works for the timeframe and the medium they had to deal with.
A lot of the costumes were toned down, which probably overall works for the color palette of the film, but also in some cases and to a lesser extend on a broader level completely miss the point.
But really, Watchmen is not something that can be adapted into film. Not in its entirety. Watchmen is something special, something so uniquely and perfectly suited to and tailored for the medium that any adaptation cannot help but lose some elements of its depth, meaning, and power. The experience is simply MEANT for comics. This is not one of those cases where, if they'd added more time, split it into multiple movies, or changed some details, they could "fit it all in". There is just TOO MUCH stuff that just CAN'T be translated, simple as that.
Still, I thank the Watchmen film. For being so tasteful, for cutting out so comparatively little, for being as good as a film adaptation of the comic probably could be.
What I'd expect from Sherlock Holmes and Mr. Watson is to find clues, face tragedies, solve mind-boggling puzzles and make police arrest the bad guy. Explosions? A boxing scene? That jumping out of the window down to the river scene... Huh? I get that they try to make the movie dynamic, but Holmes is NOT dynamic, and that makes the atmosphere of it. I'm sorry, you guys will get a great action movie next year, but that'll be quite a disgrace to the name of Sherlock Holmes, if you ask me. I repeat, I believe this will be a great ACTION MOVIE with great visuals and explosions, but it won't be a good HOLMES movie. It'll be more like, you know, James Bond: Sherlock Holmes. Most of the Bond movies actually don't have "James Bond" in their names, so I can say I kinda do have a doubt...
I'm curious, Falanca. How much of the Canon have you read? There is actually enough to support a more international-intrigue style use of Holmes, especially when you take His Last Bow into account. As to the boxing, Holmes actually is a rather physically capable man. His cerebral style just tends to overshadow it (and results in most people seeing him as an older figure). The first story, A Study in Scarlet, established Holmes is "an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman" and in the next, The Sign of Four, a prizefighter said to Holmes "Ah, you're one that has wasted your gifts, you have! You might have aimed high, if you had joined the fancy." Case in point, there's a clip from the Jeremy Brett adaptations where Holmes goes all Queensbury Rules on a pub drunk that's faithful to the original story.
Basically, Holmes is a lot more physically capable than most people believe. If Guy Ritchie's movie tries to turn him into James Bond or Jack Bauer, it will grate, but if the action is properly balanced against the intellect and the neuroses (basically, the character) of Holmes, it'll be fine. I reserve judgment until I see it.
Another movie I haven't watched. I'm really curious about this one, but people who didn't read the comics before watching the movie are a little disappointed, I've been hearing. "Minor action, movie is too long" and things like that, I mean.
Well, I haven't read the comic, haven't seen the film in cinema when it came out and still enjoyed it a lot when I watched it on DVD last week...
Now James Cameron just needs to hurry up and finally start working on Battel Angel, which I've been a fan of since the mid-90s...
I'm curious, Falanca. How much of the Canon have you read? There is actually enough to support a more international-intrigue style use of Holmes, especially when you take His Last Bow into account. As to the boxing, Holmes actually is a rather physically capable man. His cerebral style just tends to overshadow it (and results in most people seeing him as an older figure). The first story, A Study in Scarlet, established Holmes is "an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman" and in the next, The Sign of Four, a prizefighter said to Holmes "Ah, you're one that has wasted your gifts, you have! You might have aimed high, if you had joined the fancy." Case in point, there's a clip from the Jeremy Brett adaptations where Holmes goes all Queensbury Rules on a pub drunk that's faithful to the original story.
Basically, Holmes is a lot more physically capable than most people believe. If Guy Ritchie's movie tries to turn him into James Bond or Jack Bauer, it will grate, but if the action is properly balanced against the intellect and the neuroses (basically, the character) of Holmes, it'll be fine. I reserve judgment until I see it.
I admit I'm not that informed when it comes to Sherlock Holmes. I've read only several of his short stories and I liked them for their calm tone and classic feeling. The trailer of the upcoming movie was, well, had none of those. It had explosions, gags (that I found a little forced), and that now-cliché "orchestrated movie song". I'm not sure, but I expected something a little less... hyping? You know, a slow melody from some stringed instruments, maybe even a little near the noir side...
Capability doesn't mean necessity, and that "woo I'm jumping out of the window" scene totally looked unnecessary. Well, there may be a part of plot that backs up this act of him, but it can also be even more pointless. I also didn't find it necessary to add a full scene of boxing to the movie. Some hints of him being a good boxing sportsman scattered through the movie would be a nice jest maybe, but it seems like it'll have a big importance in the movie's plot. Holmes is a detective, and if his job had overshadowed his capabilities like this for years, a full-length movie based on this character should've been a little more strict about that, in my opinion.
Also, Robert Downey Jr made a great Tony Stark and the visual resemblance is a great factor on this. I, well, couldn't fit his appearance into the classic ol' detective... stereotype.
I got a single volume with all the Conan Doyle Holmes stories in it for my birthday yesterday. I'll actually get to clear up my foggy Holmes memories, yay! Good thing the binding on this one isn't like those large-bound books that fight against being opened at anything resembling something greater than an unbearably acute angle.
Comments
Watchmen is also great!
Another movie I haven't watched. I'm really curious about this one, but people who didn't read the comics before watching the movie are a little disappointed, I've been hearing. "Minor action, movie is too long" and things like that, I mean.
Watchmen is the comic medium used as effectively as possible to tell a story that is dark, mature, and intelligent. Due to this, it's flabbergasting to realize that it achieved ANY level of notoriety, but miracles apparently DO happen from time to time. It's really the antithesis of every fault that plagues the comic world. This is no infinitely going serial with no end in sight. It is free of all the cliches of Superhero comics, because it really is not a superhero story at all. At least not anywhere near what you'd get from the likes of the DC and Marvel pantheons.
The film is nowhere near bad. I'd say it's as good of an adaptation as one can ever expect. There are things about the execution of Watchmen that enrich and fill the experience that simply cannot be rendered in film, and the entire ending is changed in a drastic way that...I can honestly understand and respect, because it works for the timeframe and the medium they had to deal with.
A lot of the costumes were toned down, which probably overall works for the color palette of the film, but also in some cases and to a lesser extend on a broader level completely miss the point.
But really, Watchmen is not something that can be adapted into film. Not in its entirety. Watchmen is something special, something so uniquely and perfectly suited to and tailored for the medium that any adaptation cannot help but lose some elements of its depth, meaning, and power. The experience is simply MEANT for comics. This is not one of those cases where, if they'd added more time, split it into multiple movies, or changed some details, they could "fit it all in". There is just TOO MUCH stuff that just CAN'T be translated, simple as that.
Still, I thank the Watchmen film. For being so tasteful, for cutting out so comparatively little, for being as good as a film adaptation of the comic probably could be.
So yeah, it was a comic first.
I'm curious, Falanca. How much of the Canon have you read? There is actually enough to support a more international-intrigue style use of Holmes, especially when you take His Last Bow into account. As to the boxing, Holmes actually is a rather physically capable man. His cerebral style just tends to overshadow it (and results in most people seeing him as an older figure). The first story, A Study in Scarlet, established Holmes is "an expert singlestick player, boxer, and swordsman" and in the next, The Sign of Four, a prizefighter said to Holmes "Ah, you're one that has wasted your gifts, you have! You might have aimed high, if you had joined the fancy." Case in point, there's a clip from the Jeremy Brett adaptations where Holmes goes all Queensbury Rules on a pub drunk that's faithful to the original story.
Basically, Holmes is a lot more physically capable than most people believe. If Guy Ritchie's movie tries to turn him into James Bond or Jack Bauer, it will grate, but if the action is properly balanced against the intellect and the neuroses (basically, the character) of Holmes, it'll be fine. I reserve judgment until I see it.
Now James Cameron just needs to hurry up and finally start working on Battel Angel, which I've been a fan of since the mid-90s...
I admit I'm not that informed when it comes to Sherlock Holmes. I've read only several of his short stories and I liked them for their calm tone and classic feeling. The trailer of the upcoming movie was, well, had none of those. It had explosions, gags (that I found a little forced), and that now-cliché "orchestrated movie song". I'm not sure, but I expected something a little less... hyping? You know, a slow melody from some stringed instruments, maybe even a little near the noir side...
Capability doesn't mean necessity, and that "woo I'm jumping out of the window" scene totally looked unnecessary. Well, there may be a part of plot that backs up this act of him, but it can also be even more pointless. I also didn't find it necessary to add a full scene of boxing to the movie. Some hints of him being a good boxing sportsman scattered through the movie would be a nice jest maybe, but it seems like it'll have a big importance in the movie's plot. Holmes is a detective, and if his job had overshadowed his capabilities like this for years, a full-length movie based on this character should've been a little more strict about that, in my opinion.
Also, Robert Downey Jr made a great Tony Stark and the visual resemblance is a great factor on this. I, well, couldn't fit his appearance into the classic ol' detective... stereotype.
I hate you now. (Do you ever read it, or just stare at it lovingly?)