I loved the whole movie, to be honest. Not since Pulp Fiction has there been a movie for me that was so shot-for-shot orgasmically wonderful that I wanted to turn around, walk back through the auditorium doors and watch it again right away.
But there were lots of little bits which sent me over the edge with delight. Here there are:
Oh, and…
SPOILER ALERT
- The 2 shouts-out to 300 as The Comedian’s glass flies out of his hands and hits the door, and as the shrink’s briefcase-lock resets itself to “300″ and all the rorschach plates come tumbling out.
- The opening credit sequence with the still-life framing and my #3 favourite Dylan song in the background (The Times They Are A Changin’)
- The fact that they went to the trouble to have Bubastis in there at all. I was bummin’ when she wasn’t in the first sequence at Veidt industries.
- Even though I FREAKIN’ HATE the Squid, I did think it was a nice touch to the fanman out there when, during the “transporting the reactor” scene, the name of the project was visible behind Adrien at Karnak. I didn’t get the whole name, but it was an Acronym for SQUID. Cute.
- The fact that the newsvendor and the comic boy got a cameo. I know there was no way to have them integrated into a smoothly flowing film story, but they deserved to be there at least somehow.
- The fact that there was much hooting, clapping and wolf-whistling in my theatre when Rorschach says “I’m not locked in here with you. You’re locked in here with me.” Since that’s my second favourite line of the book, I’m glad it got major play.
- The way Janis’ cover of ‘Me and Bobby McGee’ is so perfectly synced in the Saigon bar. Just as the Vietnamese woman is telling Comedian he must reckon with her and the unborn child you hear “freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose” tinkling in the background noise.
- The way you applaud Comedian’s asskicking of the rioters and then are horrified at yourself as he says “[The American Dream] came true. You’re looking at it.” and you realise that part of the American dream which relishes ass-kicking is both thrillingly bad and wrenchingly sad.
- How I had no idea there was any Leonard Cohen on the soundtrack, and then when the first notes of Hallelujah came through the speakers, I gasped with joy. My husband–who knows what he has married and knew Cohen was coming up–just chuckled and said “yeah.”
- The fact that the ending made more sense than the Squid ending in the book.
- Carla Gugino’s great portrayal of Miss Jupiter at all ages.
- Jeffery Dean Morgan WAS the Comedian. Pure and simple.
- I don’t know if there are any superlatives to describe how well JEH did with Rorschach. There are cliches (like the one I just used for JDM, or saying that he “disappeared into the role”) but I don’t think any of them are adequate. We were locked in there with him, I guess. That’s the only way to describe it.
- The cover of Desolation Row over the end credits is…interesting. I’ve been playing it over and over. I like it and then I don’t and then I like it again.
So even though I don’t make it a habit to review movies I will say that I give this two snaps up in a circle.
UPDATE: Forgot to add, as a ‘Eureka’ lover, how much fun it was to see Matt Frewer and Vincent from Cafe Diem get a piece of face time.
[...] ~ abbigshmail, THIS IS A TANGENT [...]
I went alone to the movies for the first time in… I don’t even remember when. I need to learn to make friends or something. Anyway. I loved it as well for many of the reasons you list above. I’m also remembering the audience reactions to some of the more graphic scenes: the broken arm, sawed off arms, and, of course, the meat cleaver. It was like we were watching some horrific fireworks show, which it was.
And despite Muse’s Take a Bow and Smashing Pumpkin’s The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning not being in the movie (just the trailers) I have them both stuck in my head this morning at the same time. It’s a bit confusing.
I need to learn to make friends or something.
Or convince your wife that ‘Watchmen’ is great art. ;-p
I was really surprised with the soundtrack, to be honest. After all the trailer music choices, I expected stuff more along those lines. To instead get original Dylan and other folk-rock songs was a surprise.
I think much of it made sense for the film. The exception was S&G’s ‘Sounds of Silence’ which seemed to be chosen for the maudlin tune as opposed to the lyrics making any impactful sense. Had I chosen the music I think I would have put Cohen’s ‘Who By Fire’ there, instead. It’s got the same maudlin style, but also has lyrics which are more on point with the action. Of course that would mean TWO Cohen songs. To me that’s not a problem, but I can see most of the audience getting pissy.
Man, I loved Watchmen. It’s one of those movies where I’ll stop at some random point in the day and be sad that I’m not watching the movie right that second.
And I have such a crush on Jeffrey Dean Morgan.