Sunday, November 16, 2008
Watchmen (2009) Trailer 2
OK here's the second trailer for Watchmen, like the use of the Phillip Glass Koyaanisqatsi music in the trailer. Not too keen of the From the visionary Director of 300 part, I mean Zach Snyder has directed 3 movies including this, a remake of Dawn of the Dead which was OK, and 300 which relied heavily on the stylistic cues from the Frank Miller graphic novel on which it was based, and now Watchmen which looks at times to have used the Moore/Gibbons graphic novel as a storyboard, so I'd hardly call the guy a visionary really.
Still it looks like it could be a cool movie from the trailer...but so did Indy 4 :)
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35 comments:
Might want to edit that to Moore/Gibbons:)
To be honest I think it looks really bad, the visionary bit is pretty laughable too.
Apparently, Snyder uses the comic books as a storyboard up until the "problem" of the original ending and then come up with something a lot less interesting. It's a real shame since the original ending tied in with a lot of the story threads.
Ah that's the fella Paul, I always get those two mixed up !!!
I seen the first trailer a while back, it all looked very arty and music video-esque, bit put off as every shot looks like it was in slow motion, this trailer is better but nothing to write home about still.
Hmmm.
Don't most 'visionary' directors rely on the 'stylistic cues' of artists and the work of script writers?
Scorcese, David Lynch, The Coen Brothers, Miyazaki, David Cronenberg, Ridley Scott, David Fincher amongst others have done original projects that they put a real unique stamp on, even though they're aided by the full ensemble of production crew. Had 300 been an original movie based on the story of the Spartans then Zach Snyder's film could have been described as visionary, only most of the shots people remember were lifted straight from the graphic novel, so it's more Frank Millers vision, same as Watchmen is Gibbons.
That's not saying Snyder didn't do a great job of 300 and the shots I've seen from Watchmen look great at times, I think it just seems a bit bigheaded of the studio to call this guy a visionary when he's not really made anything that hasn't been based on someone elses material,not so much from the story side of things because all directors do that at some point, just from the artistic side of things. It would be nice if the next film he does really reflects his ideas and cinematic style, he decides how a shot should be framed instead of just copying a graphic novel.
Well from the story side of things they all work from a script. but from the rest of what you're saying most 'visionary' directors before they shoot a foot of film have the film scripted, storyboarded and visually realized by artists... that's the same process for the graphic novel (with the exception that the graphic novel then has to be adapted). And looking at many of the shots, they're not shot for shot sequences, I mean a lot more has gone into those shots than was originally realized. No different then to Syd Mead providing concepts and Scott shooting footage for Blade Runner based on those concepts, surely?
Syd Mead's work like Tony Masters for 2001, or H.R Giger's for Alien or Ralph Mc Quarrie's for Star Wars were just concept art, they were just there to help visualize a mood or a world, some were used and some discarded, but on the whole it was Scott, Kubrick and Lucas had the true vision to bring those elements to fruition, Snyder is just taking that step one step too far, and should we blame him ? Because if he didn't film 300 like he did or follow the stylistic cue's of Gibbon's comic book panels then people would seriously give the guy a hard time no doubt, he become a victim of the material he working from, unlike Christopher Nolan in Dark Knight who frames the shots how he wants. How many directors do you know who work from storyboards that they already haven't approved, a board artist doesn't just show up and say "Hey Ridley I say this is what the shots should look like so like it or lump it !!" Spielberg often draws his own stickmen boards to give to the artist and Scott drew nearly all the boards for Alien himself.
So basically adaptation aren't visionary?
Not really, Scott usually boards his own films and I think Mead would have worked from these and I'm sure Scott had a lot of input into what he did. Mead was, before Blade Runner, a very "clean" futurist, I think Scott pushed him into the more grungy look he was after.
I can see what Andrew is saying about Snyder. 300, and from the looks of it, Watchmen are sticking very closely to the look and feel of the comics.
Who's to say,not in my opinion when the artistic material they're based on was the visionary part in the first place !
But from what you describe no filmaker could be described as a visionary as they had Art Directors, Costume Makers, Cinematographers and another 500+ crew helping them out, so the term Visionary Director is a load of bullshit then ?
I means just because its a graphic novel, its not like its job done. The concept artist then have to work from that, the designers, and even the storyboard artists (didn't Snyder board on this too?). He's got to then take that and stick it on the screen, and you make it sound like a relative walk in the park. It may be that Moore wrote it and Gibbons drew it first, but we're talking a 9 panel grid format 12 issue comic book series. It's a heck of a body of work that has to be unraveled and taken apart before its put back together again. It does take some vision to translate that to the big screen.
"But from what you describe no filmaker could be described as a visionary as they had Art Directors, Costume Makers, Cinematographers and another 500+ crew helping them out, so the term Visionary Director is a load of bullshit then ?" Not when you consider that my point is it takes vision to pull everything together. No, not at all.
"I means just because its a graphic novel, its not like its job done."
This is the point where I turned into Popeye.
I suppose you could say the 'Visionary' part came when Zach Snyder decided to stick as closely as he could to the look of the graphic novel of 300, if that was the case then he succeeded with his vision and we should all be happy.
I suppose everybody has a different idea of what makes a good director and what makes an original director, as I'm not knocking his actual work, just the wording of it on the trailer.
2:14 they're burning a Superman effigy hanging from a noose.
Okay...time to chime in here...I never liked the Watchmen graphic novel. Everyone said it was ground breaking, but when it came out, I really hated it. Now, as I watch the trailer, I find myself even less excited about the movie because it looks a lot like the movie. Yay to Zack for making the movie look like the G.N. but I personally never got into it. I hope the movie does well because it looks a lot different than what we have become used to seeing on the big screen (tho there did seem to be a lot of slo mo-and I could do without that)and hopefully when it comes out on DVD and I watch it I will enjoy it.
I think it's a little early to describe Snyder as visionary, as he just doesn't have sufficient body of work to demonstrate it.
There was nothing particularly original about his Dawn of the Dead remake, and 300 had a strong visual theme, but that was it.
To describe him as "visionary" on two such slight films really is the marketing department talking -- and since the phrase is entirely without attribution I would bet that's where it came from.
My own problem with 'visionary' in this case is that it's based on 300, a film I really didn't like, and certainly not something that felt new enough to be called 'visionary'. But then it's not really meant, it's just a fairly hollow marketing term, that's trailers for you.
Fraser Lovatt said..."To describe him as "visionary" on two such slight films really is the marketing department talking"
Blogger paulhd said..."it's just a fairly hollow marketing term"
It's a job description followed by a job title.
Imagine a Minority Report style advertising campaign in the future, where you step onto the tube and you're retina scanned by a nearby commercial. The marketing tag lines ticker - "From the crap director of a film you thought was shit."
I think my brain does that already anyway.
Or how about "You think it's shit, but we got to your six year old kid with the marketing first, so you're going to see it anyway. Click here for tickets!"
Nice. :)
http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/12/is-watchmen-dir.html
That article warms my cold bitter heart.
Thanks Iman!
F
Just what Fraser needs at this time of the year too !! :)
Hey, I celebrate Christmas! Just like I still dress up at Halloween even though I don't believe in witches.
When was Christmas ever about religion anyway? Surely it's just about buying stuff, eating stuff and getting quietly drunk in front of one's favourite films?
Next up: The Day the Earth Stood Still. Yes, the real one.
Haha, my pleasure! As soon as I saw the headline, I knew I had to pass it on to you guys. :-)
Whenever I see something about this, I think of this post, and you guys. Two more things:
Making-Of featurette that mentions Snyder as a visionary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U845DCDPO_s
And Dave Gibbons (the artist of Watchmen) answering this question: "Wired.com: About the movie ... Warner Bros. is marketing Snyder as a visionary director, but he's using the most famous comic of all time as a storyboard. Is that jumping the gun?": http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/12/archaeologizing.html
You just like to pop in here every so often and wind us up, don't you Iman?
I just wish they'd release the film - not because I'm going to see it, but because then we can get it all over with and it can be forgotten. Until "Watchmen 2: Watch With Mother."
Yes, apparently the actors' contracts mention a sequel.
Haha. Well, I keep seeing things that remind me of this discussion; maybe I should just write my own post about it and update it there! ;-)
I think it's a pity that when people post on an older post they don't get bumped up to the top post like they would on a forum, often people post on older threads on my blogs but only I really know unless other posters have an e-mail alert, it would be nice if now you've posted on here again it became the top thread automatically !!!
That's very true -- I have an e-mail subscription to this thread's comments, but you're right that most other people probably won't know that there's still a discussion going on here. I know on some blogs, there's a "Recently Commented On" list of posts in the sidebar (MacRumors.com is an example); do you know if there's some sort of Blogger equivalent?
Then you would probably have to rename your blog to "A bunch of bitter people go on and on about how crap a film is that's they've no intention of seeing and isn't even out."
Haha. In other words, it should be called "The Internet"?
;-)
The thing is, I'm actually really excited for the film; I've been impressed with how well they've seemed to capture the feeling and look of the graphic novel thusfar. The more I see, the more my hopes are buoyed that they might actually be doing a really spot-on adaptation of the book.
Whether or not Snyder should be called a visionary is a separate question; though it's interesting to see that Gibbons actually does.
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