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Last week I found myself in a bookstore while a friend of mine purchased her very first copy of WATCHMEN in anticipation of the upcoming movie. This is like a bar mitzvah for comic book fans, so it was important that I was there.
As my friend slid the graphic novel across the checkout counter, the bored cashier’s eyes lit up and suddenly we were standing face to face with the most enthusiastic bookstore employee I have ever met.
“Ohmygod Watchmen!” he exploded. “Movie! Doomsday! Alan Moore! Sally Jupiter! Owlship!”
He continued spouting random words until he calmed down enough to make coherent sentences.
“I am so excited for the movie!” he shouted as confused customers stared at us. “I guess you are too… obviously!”
I nodded.
“I mean, they’ve stayed so close to the graphic novel, it’s crazy!”
“Yeah,” I said. “I know.”
“No man, I mean they’ve stayed soooooo close. Have you seen the Owlship? It’s like the real Owlship!”
“Yeah…. I know.”
“No man, they’ve stayed soooooo close. Did you know they colour matched the ink from the book to the fabric of the costumes? Except for Ozymandias, but…”
This conversation continued for a good five minutes until the line forming behind us got long enough to shock the cashier out of his WATCHMEN-induced rant.
The encounter served to remind me that while I’ve been mostly concerned with plot (see Where’s Captain Metropolis?), others are still very excited about the way the WATCHMEN movie looks. As I’ve said before, the art of WATCHMEN was just as revolutionary as the story, so it’s understandable that fans want to see Dave Gibbons’ drawings translated to the screen.
Well my friend at the bookstore is in luck, because Dave Gibbons, the original artist on WATCHMEN, has actually been working quite closely with the filmmakers to ensure that the movie looks as close to the comic as possible.
And how does the WATCHMEN movie look in comparison?
It’s pretty darn close… In fact, it’s probably easier to list what looks different from the comic than what looks the same.
For starters, all the background stuff is there. The Gunga Diner is still tucked away in the corner, the airships still make shadows above the heroes, and purple triangles still pop up just like they do in the comic (more on their significance later!) Fans of the graphic novel will probably drive themselves nuts looking for all the background secrets that only they will notice.
Then there are the characters and their costumes. While most of the costumes have been updated, they’re still pretty close in spirit to the comic. There are some minor missteps… I have beef with Nite Owl having such a flowy cape – he’s bound to get that caught in a door or something… and I’m not sure how Ozymandias, the world’s greatest acrobat, is going to do his flips and twirls in all that rubber… But for the most part, the costumes are pretty good. Extra credit has to go to whoever designed the Rorschach mask – the way the ink moves is incredible, and according to interviews, they’ve actually matched the inkblots to the way they’re drawn in the comic.
But the look of the movie goes beyond matching costumes and adding Easter Eggs. They’ve actually blocked the shots to look exactly like panels from comic. Look at the image below. Nite Owl is sitting in the exact same proximity to the frame in the film as he is in the comic. And look at his hands – he’s holding the badge and the glasses exactly like he does in the comic. The lighting’s a little different, and the camera angle has shifted, but otherwise it’s about as close as you can come to bringing Gibbons’ art to life.
None of this should come as a surprise to anyone who’s seen Zack Snyder’s previous comic adaptation 300, which is similarly a spot-on rendering of the original graphic novel. Snyder loves his comic art, and he respects it. What’s more, Snyder has perfected the alternating slow-mo/speed-up camera technique that allows you to appreciate the image while still maintaining the fast-paced feel of the action scenes.
All in all, I give the art direction on WATCHMEN my seal of approval…
But what do you think? What looks wrong? What would you change?
