(Copyright 2009 Sam Levine)
It's been a while. Been very busy finishing up a great pilot for Nickelodeon among too many other things. Glad to have a chance to push pixels again...
Just got the Ultimate cut of Watchmen on Blu Ray. Inititally I was going to do a version of the original graphic novel lineup and then do the movie version for comparison. But then I realized what a kickass job Zach Snyder and his team did adapting and perfecting the original colors to the screen. Such an amazing palate. John Higgins' use of secondary colors in the comic really grounded the screen adaption as an off center version of a superhero reality. Purple and yellow baby.
Really love this movie, though it's far from perfect. I'm not sure that geeks of the world realize how good they got it.
The extended cut is a bit much. The inclusion of the Black Freighter anime is interesting, ranging from passable to intrusive to really jarring. They may call it an ultimate cut, but it's far less successful than the theatrical version. I guess I have to watch the extended cut (without The Black Freighter) to see if that's any good. I appreciate the added detail of deleted live action scenes, but I'm opposed to filmmakers releasing multiple cuts. I believe there should be one version of a movie, period. Hear that Peter Jackson?!
Regarding the animation of TBF, I don't get the stylistic choice. It's trying very hard to be Frank Miller/300-esque, but not succeeding. I found Dave Gibbons' original style so evocative and grim and it would have fit so well with Zach's movie. (see the Watchmen Motion Comics) Why didn't they just do it in that style? What's there is not very strong and certainly feels out of place with the richly realized live-action film it's supposed to integrate with. It's interesting to watch, but it doesn't really work as part of the Watchmen movie.
