I'm glad I saw this overall. . .I thought the first hour or so was brilliant, had some issues with the ending (I still like the original ending better but I'm not sure it could be translated either to movie screens or to 2009).
And Rorschach was PERFECT -- worth the price of admission alone.
I find Ozymandias regrettable for the reasons you mentioned, though I think it's less about the casting (which didn't help) and more the way he's presented. In the comic, Veidt first appears as a sellout and a lightweight; I don't know about anyone else, but I never suspected him of mortal sins because his venial ones were pretty apparent. Here, we first see him in his earnest philosopher mode and ALSO as Dan's dear friend (a scene that seemed to be in there only to justify me people in writing backstory slash about them). And later in the movie, we lose both the intricate and insane genius behind the space squid plan (which like I said would be hard to translate to screen but which also tells us things about how Adrian's brain works that we lose in the film). And we don't get the humor and almost childlike naivete of the later scenes -- his "wow, I didn't know if that would work!" re: disintegrating Jon and catching the bullet, or his literal Hiro Nakumura- style victory arms when the plan works. Also, Laurie gets the final scene with Jon that ought to be Adrian's.
None of that ruined the movie for me, but there are things I would have done differently. And now that you've said it, I'm really enjoying imagining Pitt as Veidt. Not that he would have *done* imagining his lines about saving the world delivered in that goofy half earnest stye. (And speaking of smiling blond actors, the one thing that made me howl in protest was the change of the Robert Redford joke in the final scene :-/).
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branchandroot
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Date: 2009-03-07 04:26 pm (UTC)And Rorschach was PERFECT -- worth the price of admission alone.
I find Ozymandias regrettable for the reasons you mentioned, though I think it's less about the casting (which didn't help) and more the way he's presented. In the comic, Veidt first appears as a sellout and a lightweight; I don't know about anyone else, but I never suspected him of mortal sins because his venial ones were pretty apparent. Here, we first see him in his earnest philosopher mode and ALSO as Dan's dear friend (a scene that seemed to be in there only to justify
mepeople in writing backstory slash about them). And later in the movie, we lose both the intricate and insane genius behind the space squid plan (which like I said would be hard to translate to screen but which also tells us things about how Adrian's brain works that we lose in the film). And we don't get the humor and almost childlike naivete of the later scenes -- his "wow, I didn't know if that would work!" re: disintegrating Jon and catching the bullet, or his literal Hiro Nakumura- style victory arms when the plan works. Also, Laurie gets the final scene with Jon that ought to be Adrian's.None of that ruined the movie for me, but there are things I would have done differently. And now that you've said it, I'm really enjoying imagining Pitt as Veidt. Not that he would have *done* imagining his lines about saving the world delivered in that goofy half earnest stye. (And speaking of smiling blond actors, the one thing that made me howl in protest was the change of the Robert Redford joke in the final scene :-/).