UPDATE 3: Click here to see the trailer in HD. I’ve watched it a few times and I’m liking it more and more (even the song … sigh).
UPDATE 2: I think Empire took it down until tomorrow. Watch this space.
UPDATE: The trailer’s up. Go here to check it out!
I just got back from a screening of The Dark Knight (I’ll have my review up by Friday, but in a word: WOW) and was lucky to catch the teaser trailer for what is now my most anticipated comic-book adaptation: Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen. Zack Snyder, of 300 fame, is directing — and he might as well be holding the geek community’s baby. We love this book more than our moms (just kidding, Mom!)
Devin Faraci at chud.com posted a really accurate description of the trailer, but I’m throwing my own two cents in after the jump. But I’m not a republic serial villain, so I’ll try to keep things spoiler-light …
1. The trailer is cut to the Smashing Pumpkins’ “The Beginning is the End is the Beginning.” I hate the Smashing Pumpkins, and I hope they’re nowhere in the final film — they didn’t help the last superhero movie they were in (although it’s sort of deliciously meta for Snyder to use another version of the same song).
2. Dr. Manhattan (above) is spot-on. You can sort of tell he’s still in early stages (I hope), because he looks a little too glowy and unreal. But I will say that he doesn’t just look like a blue Silver Surfer or T-1000. He looks just like Jon but with Billy Crudup’s face. And yes — you see Jon get blown up in the IF-Chamber, and you get a glimpse of him after he’s put himself back together in the commissary (but it looks like they skirted the nudity issue, possibly due to MPAA restrictions on trailers?). The shot of him kissing Laurie looks amazing. Basically, he looks great and it’ll only get better as they work on him more, so I’m psyched.
3. The movie looks slick — maybe a little too slick. Most of what’s in the trailer is action-oriented stuff, and all of it looked very good. That photo of Laurie (Malin Ackerman) in the burning tenement is in here, and she looks fantastic.
4. I don’t recall seeing Dan Dreiberg (Patrick Wilson) in his civilian clothes, just as Nite Owl. But Dan’s suit looks great — I really hated it at first but it looks good moving. Also looking good: The Owlship! Archie looks badass coming out of the river, and has extra directional jets to help propel it up and out — but they look good and fit the overall design.
5. Jeffrey Dean Morgan looks good as the Comedian (who we also see get tossed through his apartment window in slo-mo).
6. Speaking of slo-mo, it’s in the trailer. Nite Owl kicks somebody and the time slows down to show the impact before going to regular speed again — but it’s really brief and I didn’t hate it. I think.
7. You don’t see much of Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) at all. However, you do get a back-lit close-up of his face, and you can sort of make out the inkblots shifting very slowly, sort of like a lava lamp. And his voice is really great — raspy but not cheesy or overly creepy. It’s hard to explain.
8. I won’t reveal Rorschach’s single line out of respect for people who want to wait. But I will say it’s a really good one — one of my favorites — and that it sounds great.
9. The final shot — Jon and Laurie on a rising glass castle on Mars looks a little unreal — similar to the look of 300, but that could be because the effects aren’t done. So I’m withholding judgement on stuff like that for now.
10. Please no Billy Corgan in the final movie. I’m serious.
Final thoughts: This is a good teaser — it’s not a trailer, it doesn’t give away anything narrative at all. Just a bunch of images. The main thing being sold were two things: It says it is based on the most celebrated graphic novel of all time (to which I’d like to add the word “superhero” in front of “graphic novel”) and that it’s directed by Zack Snyder of 300. And I think those are two appropriate selling points this early in the game. I can’t wait to see a scene with dialogue or a more narrative trailer. But so far, so good.
6 responses so far ↓
Adrian // July 17, 2008 at 1:06 am |
Man, when I first saw what Rorschach looked like in the movie, I peed myself a little.
Hipsters United // a blog about the Smashing Pumpkins » Blog Archive » “Watchmen” trailer set to “Batman and Robin” b-side // July 17, 2008 at 10:30 am |
[...] picture Batman and Robin has been given a fresh new lease on cinematic life. Here’s blogger Chuck Kerr on his first look at the trailer for Watchmen (links are Kerr’s): The trailer is cut to the Smashing [...]
Booman22 // July 18, 2008 at 7:32 am |
Hate The Smashing Pumpkins? Get a clue. It is great to hear a b-side version of the song snaking through that great trailor. Billy is not always understood, but his musicianship and ability to write great alt-pop-rock can’t be denied.
CA // July 18, 2008 at 11:14 am |
Dude, a traditional orchestral score just doesn’t work well in films like these. If an orchestra is used in anyway it should be used in a non-traditional score. A John Williams-ish epic just doesn’t suit this movie.
p.s. I like the song in the trailer. The songs the Pumpkins wrote for Batman and Robin were the only redeeming parts about that movie.
Chuck Kerr // July 20, 2008 at 6:58 pm |
Booman22: Sorry my Pumpkin-dislike offends. You’re right, though: I don’t understand Billy Corgan. However, his alt-pop-rock writing abilities actually have been denied: http://www.metacritic.com/music/artists/smashingpumpkins/zeitgeist?q=smashing%20pumpkins
Chuck Kerr // July 20, 2008 at 7:06 pm |
CA: Nobody, especially me, wants John Williams or a similarly heroic score for Watchmen — and I don’t think that’s what we’ll get. I think my mistake was using the word “traditional” without explanation. I meant traditional in terms of instrumentation — much like how Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard used the orchestra in non-traditional ways for The Dark Knight.