http://www.deadline.com/2010/03/gods-the-star-in-3-d-creation-tale/#more-27826

Eh, sort of.

I better finish this comic fast before it actually happens.

Labels: God(tm), movies

For anyone who actually reads this blog, for the past month or so, its been Watchmen Watchmen Watchmen. This, hopefully, might be the very last thing I'll have to write about that bloody film.

* * *

The interesting thing about die hard Fanboys is that they'll buy stuff they do not like so they can complain about it. A Fanboy will religiously go to the comic shop on Wednesdays, buy their issue of X-Men and complain about it on a forum. They will continue to buy X-Men every month until they find a girlfriend. Perhaps this habit exists because they enjoy being miserable. Maybe with their lives, maybe with fiction.

When it was announced that the Watchmen movie will show Dr. Manhattan's penis, Fanboys were happy because it was accurate to the comic. And because they love the comic book, anything accurate to the comic book will be as good, if not better, on the big screen.

Be careful what you wish for.

I come from an art school background and there was a time that I saw a naked person almost everyday. Plus I've been to Burningman, so I've seen plenty of limp penises. It only mildly phases me. When I saw Watchmen in the theater, teenagers were giggling at the naked shots. This, of course, drew my attention to Dr. Manhattan's crotch area. And since I have friends who work in production, these thoughts came to mind after the movie:

In large budget movies for 3D, most likely, you're modeling the big toe of the right foot of a dinosaur or something. Which means someone had to 3D model Dr. Manhattan's penis. Is he going to put it on his demo reel?

Did he just look at one penis for reference, or is it a composite of several penises? Did he look at his own, or ask a co-worker to pull their pants down?

When he sculpted the penis, did he have a meeting with the Art Director, Director and Actor? Were they over his shoulder, discussing how big or small it should be. Were they arguing over it, telling him to tweek thing that ultimately won't make a big difference. Was there something in the Actor's contract about the depiction of his penis? Circumcised or uncircumcised? Girth or length?

If the guy who 3D modeled the penis wasn't gay, was he starting to question his heterosexuality? Did he fear getting an erection while he sculpted the penis? Did he use ZBrush or Maya? Was he starting to get in the habit of staring at men's crotches when he walked out in public?

Was he hired because he used to work at the dildo factory?

Plus, you also had the guy who animated the penis. I've been to enough figure drawing classes to know when a penis isn't animated right. It moved too slowly. It was all wrong. Another reason why too much of my attention was put on it.

Obviously, the guy who animated Dr. Manhattan's penis wasn't gay at all. But if he was, the penis would've animated better.

What about the guy who rigged it? Was it just one bone? (Yes, I know how that sounds, but this is the sort of terminology in 3D)

I'd like to imagine that I'll find the demo reel of the guy who worked on Dr. Manhattan's penis. In his demo reel, along side monsters and zombies he did for a video game and the big toe of the right foot of a dinosaur, there's also a close-up of Dr. Manhattan's glowing man-crotch, moving slowly as he walks, for about five seconds.



















penis.

Labels: blog, movies, Watchmen

I'm not going to get into how much I love the original masterpiece. Its obvious. I mean, my work is viral with the Nixon and the Hostess and all.

But by the end of that movie I walked out of the theater disappointed. I was tempted to walk out when Laurie was talking to her mother about her real father, but I stuck around hoping it'll be saved in some way. It was too late, but the shot of New York being reconstructed was a nice touch which could've been used in the comic.

Almost all the changes, I felt were valid. Pacing is important in a film. Some parts they had to shorten or take out. I'm not one of those fans yelling: "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE PIRATE STORY??!!!"

The chemistry between Nite Owl and Silk Spectre II didn't exist at all. The actress who played Silk Spectre II wasn't mature enough for that role. I could live with having a younger person play that role, but she needs to be a better actress.

Nite Owl was good enough. I think his non-heroic voice made up for Nite Owl not looking silly.

The Comedian was okay. I think they could've done something to his voice so he sounded older. But he looks too much like Robert Downey Jr.

Rorschach was perfect. Dr. Mahnattan was good. Ozymandius -- wasn't villainous enough, he couldn't pull of the moral dilema that he had.

I was okay with the fact that this film lacked subtlety. In the comic, the sentence "The Comedian is Sally's father" was never said, it was implied. In the comic, the sex scenes had a sort of subtlety to them. More like having real sex than watching porn. The slow motion shots-- like when Veidt got shot-- I could live with that, but too many.

Some scenes, like the opening sequence and Nite Owl & Silk Spectre fighting in jail, I didn't like when I saw them on youtube. But put into context, they were fine.

BUT!!!!

Putting the blame on Dr. Manhattan didn't make sense to me. Even though Dr. Manhattan was blamed for destroying millions on US and Russian soil, Russia would still jump the gun and immediately send their nukes to the US. Hell, the entire world would blame the US. When people get pissed, they need to blame something. And when they blame something, they'll do something about it. There would still be a nuclear war.

I don't care if there wasn't a giant one-eyed vagina squid creature, but the thing that saves the world needed to be an alien threat! It had to be! Its what brought everyone together in "Independence Day".

That part made me cringe. Everything to that point, I felt-- "Okay, this is a nice tribute to Alan Moore's and Dave Gibbons's work. This is like a high budget fan film." But the ending-- the ending made me cringe!!!!

V for Vendetta still stands as the best Alan Moore inspired film.

I understand your pain, Mister Moore.

PS... Attempted rape isn't as fucked up as actual, or at least implied rape. This movie could've been more cynical. That's why the comic was great.

Labels: Alan Moore, comics, movies, review, Watchmen

I love the Watchmen. I actually have original Watchmen issues-- I think up to issue 3. I read all of Watchmen when I was about sixteen. I can explain to you why Watchmen is a great piece of Superhero Deconstructionist Literature and exactly how it deconstructs superhero archetypes.

So why haven't I watched the Watchmen?

Well, for the past couple of weeks I've been swimming in it. I went to WonderCon and there was Watchmen! I made a great piece, that sold by the way, and it was basically me drawing (and sometimes tracing) Dave Gibbons's style. I go to the bookstore: Watchmen. I go on my favorite websites: Watchmen. I look outside, Watchmen.

My dad even wants to see it, which is weird, like he'll understand something of my subculture.

I want to take a breather from Watchmen. I will see it soon, just not this week.

-----

But since we're on the subject of Watchmen, its sort of weird that its surfaced. That this thing that was "in the know" is out now. Something very important in my little comics subculture is out in public. A lot of people have read Watchmen now.

That's really weird. I first read it when I was sixteen. A kid in my class saw me read it and looked at the price of the trade paperback-- sixteen or seventeen bucks back then, and said, "are you crazy? sixteen bucks for this?"

But for me, shelling out $16 for a graphic novel was like someone normal buying a record.

I rarely buy records, and if I do, they're songs you don't hear on the radio-- at least American radio.

Anyway, back when I read it when I was 16, it was very slow and very boring to me. I did like Dr. Manhattan's chapter, Rorschach's chapter and the end. But I didn't think the book was a masterpiece until I came back to it when I was 22 or 23. When I read it when I was older, the dialog yelled out to me. I could hear it, in my head.

So when people read Watchmen and say its boring, I use that as a barometer on how mature they are. Its as if their brain is a sixteen-year-old brain.

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I've noticed a lot of Watchmen fan art that makes them into a parody. Like baby Watchmen or Watchmen Saturday Morning cartoons. I've also added to this meme.

I think its because Watchmen was a deconstruction of what started out to be a genre for children. Thus, making the superhero genre something adult. And by making Watchmen childish, then we're further deconstructing a deconstruction. Or rather, a sort of reconstruction.

--I think.

--I could just be talking out of my arse.

But one great thing about Watchmen is that its boosted people's interest in comics. Average non-comics readers, after reading Watchmen, ask "what else have you got?"

More people reading comics is a good thing-- at least for me. Hopefully I can make a comfortable living off of it.

Also consider, back in the days of the Depression, comics were the biggest form of entertainment. Now we're heading into, possibly, another Depression.

Hopefully, there'll be work for me.

Labels: Alan Moore, blog, comics, movies, Watchmen

and the making of:

Labels: found on the floor, movies, video

I know what I'm doing September 12th.

Labels: movies

I am pretty excited about the new WATCHMEN movie that's scheduled to come out next year. It's based on the groundbreaking superhero mini-series by Alan Moore. It might very well be the only movie based on an Alan Moore book that doesn't suck. I'm not saying Alan Moore will like it, but at least Dave Gibbons is working on it.

Although, to the uninitiated, they're going to say "The plot was stolen from that Pixar movie! Why don't I feel happy?! I shouldn't have brought my kids here!" Although I did enjoy Brad Bird's take on superhero reconstructionism, and I mean no disrespect to this man's talents and work, we gotta take into account who the real genius is.

Labels: Alan Moore, animation, comics, movies, Watchmen