I have little doubt that the creators of the Incredibles were at least partially inspired by the Watchmen graphic novel.
Actually, the Incredibles struck me as kind of a cross between Watchmen and the Fantastic Four. (At least in the inital set up of the story – not where it goes with it.) It’s reminiscent of Watchmen for the reasons you name, but like the Fantastic Four it’s about a family of superheroes, complete with the strong one, the stretchy one, and the invisible one. (The boy from Incredibles also has a very traditional comic book power, superspeed – it’s just not one of the Fantastic Four’s powers.)
Apparently, so. But I want to register that I don’t think it’s relevant whether he took the royalties or not. They are owed to him, the work is derived from his. He can consistently disapprove of the creation of the movie, and at the same time make sure he recieves the money owed to him due to that creation. There would be nothing hypocritical about this.
Alan Moore is pretty much uniformly opposed to having any work adapted into another medium unless that was part of the artist’s original intention. He feels that if it was designed for one medium it works best in that medium and it is redundant and pointless to make it in another.
That’s actually a pretty understandable viewpoint, although it can be an interesting exercise. I understand the Star Wars manga (as opposed to the American GN) is really well done, for instance.
Saw it last night. Loved it. Looked over the comic again this morning and I think they did a good job with only minor changes , none of which detracted from the theme. Rorshach’s moving mask was great. I think he found the right amount of gravel for the voice considering his character. Better than Bale’s Batman and some other similar character.
then I snuck into Push which was extremely so so.
I always wondered why Dr Manhattan didn’t just render the Russian {or all for that matter} nukes ineffective. If you remember the Valiant comics remake of Dr Solar that’s what he tried to do. It seems like a better way than actually blowing millions of people up. Not as dramatic though.
I don’t have time to read all of the replies, but I did want to add my 2.5 cents:
I loved the movie (but that’s not what I came here to talk about) but the soundtrack was tremendous. I suspect the people who put the music together were “of a certain age” like me. And I’m sure the fact that the movie was set in 1985 helped, also. During the movie I had several YEAH!!! moments when certain songs came on. The rock tunes all seemed to be right on (though I can’t remember any one in particular).
The one that REALLY got me, though, was the excerpt from Mozarts Requiem (Lacrimosa? Dies Irae? I don’t know which one). I’m sure it helped that my singing class actually performed the Requiem oh, so many years ago.
I even remarked to my spouse as we were leaving the theater that the soundtrack was awesome.
I feel comfortable saying “this is the best movie I’ve seen this year.”
I just saw the movie and loved it as well, but I actually thought the music in many parts was distracting. When they did Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” I thought it was almost comical.
My friends who had not read the novel (I have) really liked it as well, but they were confused by Bubastis. I told them that it made sense in the novel, but that yeah it seemed kind of odd in the movie.
One thing the move does that the book doesn’t do for me is this: I read the novel over many days and in some sense the emotional impact of that is lessened. But the movie allows you to stay in the story from start to finish. For example, when Rorshach is confronted by Dr. Manhatten in the end I felt that had more emotional punch than it did in the book. However, I may be projecting because I have the book as background.
Well said. I agree. Overall, I’d give the movie a solid “B,” and I’m glad I saw it, even though it wasn’t exactly what I would’ve wanted in every way.
Things I Liked:
The opening credits montage.
The Comedian’s last fight.
Sally’s farewell party photo was arranged like DaVinci’s The Last Supper.
Dan - a convincing schlub pining for SS2, both drawn to and repelled by a superhero’s life.
Moloch - Matt Frewer was great, and those ears!
Rorschach was outstanding - Earle did a great job. Glad they included my favorite line as to who was locked up with whom. Heheheheheh…
51-star flags on Comedian’s comedy and on the walls of buildings during the Police Riots and later near the Times Square rebuilding site. A nice touch.
Andy Warhol and Truman Capote, posing with Andy’s painting of Nite Owl II
JFK - only briefly seen, but a pretty good double.
Rorschach disintegrated before Dan’s horrified gaze - that scene really packed a punch and was actually better than the GN’s version, I’d say.
Archie the Owlship - pure awesome!
Both Silk Spectres were OK. SS1’s old-age makeup was not entirely convincing, though. I don’t think SS2 was nearly as bad an actress as her worst critics would say, and I’m not just saying that because she was totally hawt. Seriously.
Things I Didn’t Like:
The change in the details of Ozy’s hoax. How are the U.S. and U.S.S.R. going to team up against Dr. Manhattan, exactly? I agree with the comments upthread that this didn’t work as plausibly as a world-uniting external threat.
Too damned much gore. The cleaver in the perv’s head, the prisoner’s hands cut off, the Knot-Tops’ compound fractures. It was like Snyder was desperately trying for an R rating. It would’ve worked just as well without all the gore. And while I’m at it, the sex scenes (which I didn’t mind in the least) didn’t have to be so explicit.
Nixon looked like a joke (that nose!) and didn’t sound enough like the original. They should’ve gotten Frank Langella, who totally nailed RMN in Frost/Nixon.
Ozymandias was badly (and late in production, I’ve read) miscast. Too wimpy, too thin, too soft-spoken, too effeminate. I cringed.
“Hallelujah” was just wrong for the Owlship sex scene. At least, that version of it didn’t fit, IMHO.
Crappy CGI for Veidt’s Antarctica base.
Better they hadn’t tried to impersonate real-world journos like McLaughlin, Buchanan, Clift, Koppel etc. Didn’t look enough alike, and just fell flat.
Why mention Reagan rather than Redford at the very end as an opponent for Nixon? The “RR” and “damned cowboy” jokes work even better for Redford.
Lee Iacocca and the others browbeating Veidt. Dumb scene and easily cuttable.
Things I would’ve liked to have seen but didn’t:
The Comedian raising the flag single-handedly on Mount Suribachi during WW2 (storyboarded but not shot, I believe).
Hollis’s death at the hands of the Knot-Tops (scenes actually shot but cut).
Dr. Manhattan turning a missile into autumn leaves (ditto).
Captain Axis and Spaceman, Golden Age foes of Nite Owl I et al. (ditto).
SS1 painted by Norman Rockwell as she stepped on Hitler (ditto).
The blinking red neon sign outside of Moloch’s window - c’mon, that was iconic!
Even a brief explanation of the Kitty Genovese origin of Rorschach’s mask.
No Gordian Knot! C’mon, the guy thinks he’s Alexander the Great - let him have the metaphor!
I agree with Bosstone that having Dr. M. as a sexless Ken Doll would’ve been better than showing his blue glowing junk so much - it was a distraction, even if it was true to the GN.
They had to quote Juvenal’s Satires in an opening title card, or refer to JFK’s undelivered last speech, both of which would’ve better explained the title of hte movie, but they didn’t. Bugger.
More setup for Bubastis - as it was, I would’ve just left the damned critter out entirely.
Incidentally, the Big Figure was played by the same guy who was Kramer’s actor buddy in Seinfeld. I agree with Love Rhombus that, in the GN, Rorschach just drowned him in the toilet.
The Mrs. liked the love scene between Nite Owl and Silk Spectre a lot, but didn’t like the violence and the plot left her confused. (hadn’t read the book)
Why Dr. Manhattan does anything is a bit of a mystery. For instance, he argues that life is uninteresting while knowing he won’t feel that way in the future. He reacts with angry surprise when he’s ambushed in the televised interview, while knowing this is what’s going to happen. His dialogue at times suggests he’s constrained to act out the future he’s already seen, even when it might make sense to use that foreknowledge to make different choices. Or perhaps he could make different choices, but it never occurs to him to do so since for him the future is as real as the present.
In any case, if Dr. Manhattan wanted to disable all the Soviet nukes he’d have to take out most of them before they realized what was happening and launched them. It was stated in one of the document-sections of the graphic novel that if the Soviet’s launched all their nukes at once, Dr. Manhattan could destroy 80% (I think it was 80%) before they reached their target, but that the reminder would still cause widespread destruction and loss of life in the U.S. If I remember right, the “author” of that document was the guy who’d supervised the experiment Jon was working on when he became Dr. Manhattan. He argued that the situation with Dr. Manhattan around was actually worse for the U.S. than before, since without him there was a stalemate, but with him the Soviet’s might eventually decide their situation was sufficiently hopeless that they might as well launch their nukes and let the world burn.
I missed that. I was even looking for some evidence of Vietnam statehood.
Remember how the American Pie ten years ago had to edit out “thrusting?” NiteOwl was thrusting, but not into a pie. Well…not an apple pie.
No doubt. Nixon had NO dialogue in the GN. In fact, I think most of the pictures of him were far aways. I would have had NO impersonations. It felt like an Austin Powers movie when they came on screen.
There is a director’s cut coming (maybe to theaters, but likely to DVD, which will probably include all of this.
I’d say you’ve identified the three most important ommissions here.
Put me down in the “really liked it (read the book, but years ago)” camp.
And I really didn’t think SSII’s acting was bad at all. (nor Ozy’s, in fact I thought the whole cast did a really good job, with Dr. M, NOII, and Rorchach all doing an amazingly good job.)
