Sean, that was my feeling exactly. Alieann's forest/trees analogy is pretty much dead on.

(Oh and my complaint to MM is that I can't read his whitefont because I can't highlight text on my phone. My personal css displays the spoiler class as grey. )

I wonder if I loved it mostly because it could have been so much worse. Way back when MM was dream casting Gibson as The Comedian I was casting Tim Robbins as Night Owl.

Okay, I apologize for the old skool spoiler font.

You kids today and your newfangled css and autogyros. Back in my day we threw carved tablets at each others faces and called *that* the Interwhatevers.

Okay, back on my computer with the magical power of copy-paste.

The build up to the novel's moment of [spoiler] had me going "GUHWHAAAAHHH JESUS!" the first time I read it and still leaves me a little kind of breathless with every re-read, whereas in the movie it was "Heh."

So very much THIS. Also the movie version had me going, No Adrien, you must have launched AN HOUR AGO BECAUSE THAT'S HOW LONG YOU'VE BEEN FUCKING STANDING HERE TALKING.

And it was annoying to me how every hero was [spoiler]

This too. It worked in 300 because that was the entire movie and those guys were legendary warriors. These guys are not. (Which was just one of the many points from the book that apparently went right over Snyder's head in a fucking awesome slo-mo arc and then splattered gloriously onto the wall.)

Speaking of splatters, that was another thing that bugged. I always envisioned Dr Manhattan's "you die now" power as a wave of his hand and, poof, your particles cease to exist. Maybe there's a little boom from the spatial displacement of removing you from the universe, maybe there's a big explosion because explosions are cool, but the splatter porn we saw here was Right Out.)

If I've linked to either of these already, forgive me. Between Twitter, Facebook, Livejournal and here, I sometimes lose track,

Anyhoo, DH's reviews of Watchment in Giant and Film Journal:

[link]

[link]

And it was annoying to me how every hero was [spoiler]

Yeah, I didn't remember that from the book, but it...looked cool? Same with the splatters.

I don't know. I liked the movie, and I was surprised how well many scenes translated to film (like the non-linear sections), and Jackie Earle Haley brought Rorschach to life in a way I thought impossible, and Billy Crudup's soft-spoken Dr. Manhattan won me over even though I always imagined him to have more of a booming, commanding, godlike voice, and there were a lot of neat details, but, hey, maybe the book really is unfilmable.

Speaking of splatters

Heh. It's LJ all over again...

I was just looking at the graphic novel again and when Manhattan asplodes Rorschach there's a great deal of blood spattered all over. When Manhattan invades Moloch's vice den ("The morality of my activities escapes me.") he's blowing a guy's head up and while there's no big ol' splattery splatter of splattery blood, there's the implication that there will be a headless corpse quietly spurting in the corner as Manhattan walks on.

The movie went overboard with that, though, what with the limbs hanging from the ceiling and shit. I was all "What the...Jesus, Doc, fucking pick up after yourself! Were you disintegrated and reintegrated in a fucking barn?!"

HOWEVER, I agree with you, Jess. It always seemed to me that, for the most part Doc Manhattan's "You die now" (and I'm stealing that, by the way) was...cleaner. And, this is a "just me" thing, but it always felt to me that when he blows up Rorschach real good the bloody effect was on purpose on Manhattan's part...a strange tribute in a strange way, a way of saying to Rorschach "You deserve to have a mark left behind, some evidence that you were alive and human and not just a...thing...that I can unmake and disregard.

But I may be reading a LOT into that there.

hey, maybe the book really is unfilmable

I keep hearing that. Anyone want to chime in on why so many have thought so (without, you know, spoiling)? Is it length, complexity, nature of the characters, or what?

I'm still going to try to be a test subject for those who see the movie without having read the novel, hopefully this week.

Also, did anyone see Blindness? Wow, talk about grim. And ... weirdly good and bad.

Is it length, complexity, nature of the characters, or what?

Yes.

It really is a very lengthy, complex book with complex characters of difficult natures.

But I have to agree with one of Ethan's reviews: I don't think it's unfilmable. I have NO IDEA how *I* would do it (except as a very expensive twelve-part miniseries on, like, HBO or Showtime or something), but I think it can be done. I just don't think Zack Snyder was the guy to do it perfectly. He did okay. I guess. But it wasn't as OMGWTFBBQ as graphic novel fans and non-fans alike were expecting, I think.

Ah. There are books like that.

Still can't wait to see it. And it's not (completely) about how much I love Jeffrey Dean Morgan, or how interested I am to see pendulous sapphire wang.