Notes On Black Freighter and Under The Hood

The Watchmen: Tales of the Black Freighter came out Tuesday on DVD and Blu-Ray, so we Geekanerd HQ held a late night screening. We watched everything on the disc, most notably the film adaptations of the Black Freighter pirate comic and a fake documentary based on the prose passages at the end of each chapter of the Watchmen graphic noel. AKA, the stuff that n00bs don't even read.

Even though this disc is being billed as "BLACK FREIGHTER! feat. Under the Hood" I was way more impressed with Under the Hood than the 'toon. Here's why:

Matt Frewer As Moloch
I am ashamed I didn't recognize Matt Frewer right away, since the man has so much Geek Cred: he's Max Headroom for godsake. He's great in the movie as Moloch, an ex-villain who's keeps pace with Dan Drieberg when it comes to being sad and washed up. Even with those silly ears, he gives what might be the most subtle and real performances in the film. So it's awesome to see him show up for a sit-down interview with the crew of Under The Hood. My favorite part on the whole disc occurs when he, in a completely non-book piece of dialogue, explains that he got out of the villain biz because once Doctor Manhattan came on the scene, he was afraid of the severity of what villains would have to do to compete. This sad observation is a piece of foreshadowing that I think Moore might have approved. Well, probably not. I approve, though.


Production Design

Under The Hood is fashioned after a 70s news magazine program, so there's lots of file photos and old footage of heroes from various eras.

Dollar Bill posing next to a revolving door....IRONY!

Poor, poor Mothman.

Silk Spectre glamor shots. You can tell this is in the past, because she's smoking, which is now against the law in photographs.

Silk Spectre on the plane that bombed Hiroshima. Symbolism!


Bernard the Newspaper Guy
From the first time he came on screen I was thinking, SAY IT....and he did. "Inna final analysis!". The collection of minor characters centered around the newsstand are one of my favorite things about the Watchmen, and it was unfortunate that they couldn't be incorporated in the movie. So it's fun to see Bernie actually get to do a little pontificating on camera. The only downside is they give him some pretty cheesy lines, at one point basically restating the Comedian's groaner of a line about how awful it would have been if America had lost in Vietnam. Hey, dramatic irony. I see what you did there.

Jupiter Family Snapshots
This is hilarious, and perfectly sums up this unfortunate mother-daughter relationship.

Over all, Under The Hood is just as good as all the awesome viral material that was released in the run-up to the film. Sure, there's some silly dialogue, a few performances by actors who were clearly cast only for their resemblance to Dave Gibbons drawings, but over all, it feels like a very high quality fan video that a bunch of die-hards put together out of love for their favorite comic. That's actually pretty much how I feel about the Watchmen film in it's entirety. But Under The Hood is shorter, and that's always a good quality in fanvids.

PS: Oh yeah, Black Freighter. Kinda looked like it was animated on Flash, though it wasn't. Must be the digital coloring. The weirdest thing is that unlike the panel-for-panel accuracy of the film, the look of Black Freighter is totally different than the book - no crazy Dave Gibbon colors, instead it looks like they just picked one of those ready-made Photoshop palettes and called it a day. Why did they venture away from the look of the book only to make it LESS visually interesting? Strange decision. Also the sharks during the shark look kind of cute. The animated gore is positively tame compared to the snuff-fest of the rest of the film. Still worth watching for the story itself, solid-to-impressive voice acting, and Nina Simone singing Pirate Jenny over the credits, which is much more chilling than anything that precedes it.

Hitler weighs in on the Watchmocalypse

If you thought Watchmocalypse madness hadn't set in yet, well you obviously haven't seen this youtube clip. Even history's greatest history's-greatest-monster has an opinion... and its not far from what you and I were thinking. Who'da thunk that I'd agree with Hitler on something besides stylish facial hair.

Saturday Morning Watchmen!

Dying to know what we thought of Watchmen? Us too! We promise to get you "detailed" "analysis" of some geeky and/or nerdy fashion as soon as possible. But while we're mulling over our thoughts, enjoy this video from Harry Partridge in the meantime! Its the intro to the hit 80's saturday morning cartoon Watchmen! What, you don't remember it?

Doc Ock Saw The Watchmen on Opening Night!

Thursday night was going to be a big night for the G'nerd staff, as we had tickets for a midnight screening of Watchmen... Unfortunately, we all came down with a mysterious illness (possibly caused by a day spent trying to perfect our blue milk recipe) and had to send our new field correspondent, Doctor Octopus, in our stead. Here is his report.
"Greetings, nerds! This is Doc Ock, reporting live from a theater somewhere in Manhattan. You have fifteen minutes to find me or everyone in the building will die! Hah! I'm only joking! You are incapable of understanding my superior sarcasm skills!"

Continued after the jump...
"Who are these insignificant fools? Why are they in front of me in line? Don't they know I used Fandango?"
"These ignoramuses thinks it's cool to dress up like a runty, greasy, withdrawn psycopath who gets nervous around women. Someone should tell them their infantile game of dress up is an excercise in redundancy! Hah!""I'll take a box of Milk Duds, three bags of Sour Patch Kids, and all the Twizzlers you have, and I'm not paying for them, for with a mere thought I could CRUSH YOU with my super strong octopus arms! Hello? Why is there no one here?"
"WHAT!!? How DARE this decrepit establishment insult me so!?""I, the great Doctor Otto Gunther Octavius, DEMAND to be helped at the upper level concession stand! I will not lower myself (get it? Hah!) to use the 'main' stand! I am holding every one of these nerds hostage until I am... Ooh, they're letting us in!""Hah! Perfect center! Nailed it! No one has a better seat than Doctor Octopus! No one will witness this visionary adaptation of the greatest non-Doc Ock-starring comic book series of all time from a more advantageous position! NO ONE!""WHAT?!! Leather seats!? Who are these peasants feigning superiority to the greatest criminal mastermind of all time? This affront shall not stand!"[offscreen murder]"Ahh, I feel much better now. The lights are going down! WOOOOOO!" [Clap clap clank clap clank clank clap]

"My expert review: An admirable attempt at adaptation, though falls far short of other great comic book films, like Spider-Man 2. That effeminate imbecile Adrian Veidt, the laughably-labeled "smartest man in the world," hatched a plan that would have been amusingly adequate if not for the unfortunate side effect of establishing a lasting peace. And I really miss that beautiful squid monster. 2 out of 8 appendages up."

So that's the Doc's report... Um... We probably won't send him out on assignment in the future.

The Watchmocalypse Is Almost Upon Us!

Repent, fanboys! The time of the Watchpocalypse is at hand! The unfilmmable tome has been put forth to celluloid and we of this earth must bare the consequences.

The Geekanerd crew will be attending the midnight screening at the 34th Street Lowes in Manhattan - if you see a bunch of nerds not wearing costumes, that's us. I'm going in with measured expectations...the book is layered with meaning in ways the film will not be, but the film also has a chance to take a pass at interpreting difficult parts of the story that I've always found a little tough to buy. Snyder, "visionary" though he may be, has never struck me as a particularly insightful director, but if his contribution to the project was only the opening credit sequence, which I was lucky enough to see at New York Comic Con, he will have given Moore fans something to savor for all time. Here's hoping the rest of the film rises to that standard.

PS: That sweet graphic is by Das Chupa, it was his entry to the Art Jumble blog's current Watchmen Theme. Boy, speaking of Watchmen art, I really shudder to think of all the upcoming Watchmen fanart that will be based on the film cast. Oh well, as long as there's room on Deviant Art for stuff like this:

The First 18 minutes of Watchmen at NYCC '09

For a giant-sized handful of lucky fans at comic con yesterday, WB screened the first 18 minutes of the Watchmen, as well as an additional scene which has yet to be screened anywhere else. It just so happens AHR and myself happened to be among the lucky few. Now, at this point, I feel like an ass saying "*Spoiler Alert*"... I doubt there are even a few among you who don't know exactly how the Watchmen ends. But for those who don't, or at least for those who want to keep the movie fresh, stop reading.

As an added treat, Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons introduced the film clips. Even though Alan Moore may not be behind the project, Gibbons certainly seems to be. He had nothing but glowing praise for the film and the people behind it. Of course you have to take that with a grain of salt, but to be honest, after seeing the open... I have to say I'm pretty impressed. I've been expecting disappointment-I enjoy keeping my expectations low, but unfortunately that may be a challenge now.

Anyway, let's get to it. The film opens on Blake chilling in his swanky apartment and a series of news clips on tv about escalating Cold War tensions and whatnot. There's a brief Nixon press conference and a few other clips not featured in the comic. I'm always wary of added material, but I'm really enjoying all of this era specific news footage; plus their Nixon is the perfect amount of cartoony Nixon characterization... not too goofy, but just evil enough to be a caricature.

Blake's fight with the shadowy assailant is now a full on scene, not just a series of flashbacks as it was in the comic. The fight sequence is impressively choreographed... though it's a bit dancy for my tastes (in its defense, AHR loved it). I just pictured that fight as a bit more desperate and brutal-no fancy moves or anything, just a good old fashioned ass-whoopin. But it is a superhero movie, and those Hollywood fight coordinators have to do something with their time. There was some impressive knife play, I'll give it that.

Immediately after Blake is tossed out the window and we've held on the requisite falling, blood-stained button; we go into the title sequence. And here is where the brilliance begins; this is what truly impressed me. Set to Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'", the title montage is made up of beautifully composed, nearly frozen in time moments of this world's history. Starting with a happy photo of the 1940's Minutemen, the montage slowly devolves into the grimmer reality of the "present day" Watchmen universe. Things were happy during WWII (I mean, who wouldn't be happy punching Nazis?), and then everything went to hell.

A few images worth mentioning: a recast version of the classic V-Day celebration photo of the sailor kissing the woman in the street... now its the sexy Silhouette kissing that lady... hooray for lesbianism. Even though I might find it hard to believe that these times were so forgiving as to celebrate lesbians in the street, I'm not one to ever complain about lesbians. So I won't. The excesses of the 70s are humorously covered as well-one shot features Andy Warhol showing off a Marilyn Monroe-esque print of the night owl. Another features a smug Ozymandias walking into a lavish studio 54. Of course the sad fates of the original Watchmen is covered, as well as some particularly sad shots of a young Walter Kovacs.

Ok, we're past that brilliance. We were lucky enough to see the scene following the titles as well-Rorschach inspecting Blake's apartment and discovering his alter ego as the Comedian. Despite a few well muttered "hurm"s, I have to say I'm skeptical of Jackie Earle Haley's Rorschach voice... its basically an impression of Christian Bale's Batman voice... and I was never really sold on his Batman voice to begin with. I wish he would have gone with a more monotone, emotionless take on the voice as opposed to the gravelly goodness of the Dark Knight.

After the open, we were blessed with the chance to see the cafeteria scene of Rorschach in prison. I've been trying to keep my fanboy cool, but this sucker had me gushing. It was pretty damn badass; despite the fact that if you closed your eyes, you could hear Batman yelling "I'm Not Locked Up In Here With You, You're Locked Up In Here With ME!" But here is where you really see how perfectly Jackie Earle Haley fits the role. He looks perfect (even if he doesn't sound it).

After the screening, Dave Gibbons answered a few brief questions. He guaranteed people that Doc Manhattan's nudity would remain explicit, he apologized to "cephalopod lovers" and broke hearts when he announced there would be no squid monster at the end (though he reassured us that though the MacGuffin may be different, the ending is still the same)... Lastly, he touched upon an interesting point. In response to a question about the potential for the film to change the superhero film genre, he expressed disappointment in the direction comics took after Watchmen. Together with the Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen heralded one of the darkest ages in comicdom (both in theme and quality) Apparently, back in the day, both Gibbons and Moore joked that if they were to work on another DC property, they would have loved to work on Captain Marvel; a decidedly happier and lighter character than any of the others. Gibbons expressed hope that the Watchmen movie wouldn't have the same effect on superhero films. Though it is interesting to note that timing wise, the movie coincides with the darkest Batman movie to date-and one that has already promised to change comic book movies. Hopefully the success of Iron Man and Spiderman will keep things balanced in the future. The last thing the now blossoming superhero movie machine needs, is another early 90's era dark age.

To end on a "positive" note, here is another awesome viral video for the Watchmen, courtesy of The New Frontiersman.

Great Watchmen News Program-Viral Marketing at its Best!

If you haven't heard, the legal troubles concerning the Watchmen movie have finally been settled... So the original release date of March 6th is still on! Hurray for timely disappointment! Anyhow, a short week after the legal troubles were settled, this "authentic" news program from the Watchmen universe's 70s appeared on the net. And its pretty cool-check it out for yourself! One more note, we commented in an earlier post that the shot of Doc Manhattan disassembling the tank looked pretty cheesy... well it looks considerably better on deteriorated film on 70s era video.

Japanese Watchmen Trailer Makes The Movie Look 50 Times Better, Spoils Ending

SPOILER ALERT: The Japanese Trailer for Watchmen(or WOTCHMENRU, as I believe it is being distributed) totally spoilers the ending. Moreso than the American trailer.



Theory: Japanese culture is uniquely awesome because it is at once instantly appealing but fundamentally incomprehensible to Western audiences. A good example of this paradox is the new Japanese Watchmen trailer, presumably cut to appeal to specifically Japanese sensibilities. And it's BONKERS. Still, had I not read Watchmen, this trailer presents a movie I would actively want to see, a quality I think is lacking in the American campaign.

If you read any other nerd movie blogs you've probably seen it already, but did you really SEE it? Reactions and observations after the jump....

0:06...Starting out with the Zapruder Footage?! Okay, you've got my attention!
0:11...Positively zany Nixon make-up. He will be back later.
0:13...Castro! Does he know he's in this movie?
0:17...Terrorism!
0:41...Whip crack SFX over Silk Spectre flipping her hair around? Why not?
0:43...Note that the Knot Top gang have fu-manchu mustaches and look vaguely samurai-esque on film. Maybe that's why they're featured here.
0:49...YES! Dan Dreiberg looking old, fat and ugly! This is what Warner Brothers (Fox?) DOESN'T want you to see, America!
0:54...More Nixon in what appears to be a deliberate Dr. Strangelove reference.
0:58...The most grisly part of the Zapruder footage...I half expecting the cam to zoom in on Doctor Manhattan in the background NOT DOING ANYTHING.
1:12...More Nixon in the War Room. These are invented scenes! No Panel To Panel comparisons here. Kind of exciting!
1:18..."I say when doomsday is approaching!" This is so cheesy and hilarious. Why do the Japanese love/hate Nixon so much?
1:24...YES. DIES IRES! For overly dramatic trailer music, this is second only to Camina Burana.
1:36...This kind of vaporization probably carries a slightly different weight in Japan.
1:46..Spoiler Alert! New York gets blowed up!

Okay, so Albo has pointed out to me that you see the New York vaporization in the American trailer too...but they don't DWELL on it like that! Plus here you see that things are actually being decimated - the American shot just looks like an electric pulse that kinda chips up some buildings.

Let us question why the Japanese market is being sold this movie with an eye towards American political history. Was Frost/Nixon a really big hit in Tokyo?

In all seriousness, it seems that Watchmen is being billed in Japan not as a Superhero Movie, but as a Disaster Movie. I think you'll find this trailer shares it's advertising strategies with movies like The Day After Tomorrow and Deep Impact. Disaster movie trailers make a big deal about ticking clocks and panicked governments, and make no attempt to hide their money shots of destruction, because that's the point of the whole thing. So in the Japanese Market, is the Watchmen fundamentally a movie about the atomic bomb? About nuclear paranoia? Seeing as the Japanese had an ACTUAL atomic bomb dropped on two of their cities by a certain North American country, perhaps they are more interested in the dramatic possibilities of a story where that same North American country gets blown up itself than a story about a bunch of dudes in rubber suits?

I'm just theorizing. Either way, I'm now more genuinely interested in seeing The Watchmen. But enough about me; what do yall make of this thing?

More Watchmen Movie to Comic Comparisons

Another Watchmen trailer has hit the webs, as well as some extra footage shown at the Scream Awards, so I suppose it's time for another exhaustive Geekanerd Watchmen Movie to Comic Comparison! Check out our previous Watchmen comparisons here and here.

BEWARE HUGE SPOILERS

The Comedian's MurderTONS more of these, plus analysis after the jump.

The moment the famous bloody smiley is born...
Rorschach InvestigatesSomething to note here is that in the comic Rorschach uses his grappling hook but still has to scale the building. In the movie, it's more of a Batman thing where he just gets whisked up to the window no problem. An example of the apparent "flashy-ing up" of the story.I find it pretty funny that the police would put "Police Line - Do Not Cross" tape on a high rise window. I guess the police in the movie world are hip to building climbers like Rorschach.In the comic, The Comedian's little cabinet is somewhat humble and sad, with his outfit on a simple wire hanger and his deflated mask (with a distinctly "sad" face) evoking the emptiness Blake felt in his later years. In this movie clip it's generic superhero hidden room.I bitched a lot when Patrick Wilson was cast in this film. I was convinced that he was way too hunky to play the dumpy, washed up Dan Dreiberg. But looking at him here I've decided I'm A-OK with it--they've done a great job of dialing down Mr. Wilson.
Rorschach walks down the street and is solicited by a prostitute in red.

The Comedian's Funeral

It's Hard Being Dr. Manhattan
Dr. Manhattan gets pretty upset during a TV taping when confronted with the news that he might be giving people close to him cancer. Notice his slightly darker color, which he changed when the producer told him his regular light blue color was no good for TV.

Dr. Manhattan proves himself. Why take apart guns and blow up tanks when you can combine them and take apart tanks? Not to nitpick, and I'm sure these effects aren't done, but that tank looks like it was pulled from Battalion Wars.The Comedian has just gotten a bottle to the face from the Vietnamese woman he impregnated and abandoned. After shooting her, he confronts Dr. Manhattan with the fact that he could have stopped it if he actually cared about human life--which he doesn't. Hence, "God help us all."

Rorschach is Cornered

Dreiberg and Lorie
Dreiberg's apocalyptic wet dream.Makin' it in the Owl Ship.Lorie realizing The Comedian is her father.

Showdown in the Arctic
Oh man, I was so worried that Nite Owl's adorable Snowy Owl outfit wouldn't make it into the film, but if you look closely at that movie still, it looks like he's wearing it! Hoorah!
Adrian Veidt's Arctic fortress.Manhattan's return.

The End
Wowee. Way to spoil the ending, folks.Dr. Manhattan and Lorie survey the damage. Notice the full frontal in that movie still. Good to see Snyder isn't shying away from that.

Questions and Observations
Ooh, ooh, click this one for high res and notice the banner in the lower right "USA Welcomes Vietnam as it's 51st State." Another small detail that it's good to see the filmmakers thought was important enough to include.What scenes are these two stills from?The Superman-esque effigy is pretty cool.Look how short Rorschach is. He's like a child next to the others!