Continuing from the previous blog post, I believe that Alan Moore should see Watchmen. As a comic book adaptation and a comic book adaptation, it succeeds on two fronts:
1) It is faithfully adapted, all the way to the grim ending.
2) It is a good movie.
Number 2 is an obvious requirement for all film adaptations, but even Number 1 is crucial in the case of Alan Moore, because his stories are unusual, even for standard unusual fiction. Let's take a look at his bibliography:
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen- at heart, this is an adventure series with no ongoing plot. To turn this comic into a movie would require a trilogy or even a miniseries, since only three books have been released so far. And there are NO cars in 19th century literature, no matter what the adaptation claimed.
Lost Girls- an experiment with the erotic adventures of Alice, Wendy, and Dorothy in their respective books. You could only make this in Japan, to be honest, because of the subject matter involved.
V for Vendetta- a political adventure about anarchy vs fascism. The only problem with the movie was that they made complicated villains simple and created a conspiracy theory. Other than that, this was the first good Alan Moore movie, which is a plus in my book.
Swamp Thing- again, an ongoing series, this time horror with a history of bad movies. Leave it alone, or turn it into something fantastic.
To be honest, filmmakers should leave graphic novels alone (unless they plan to animate them) and work with short stories so that they can implement as much creativity as possible.
0 Comments