Curiosity Inc. wrote:
Those of you who've been following my blog will know that in recognition of my coming birthday, I've recently been using it to list seven movies that changed my life. Naturally, Watchmen made the list. In fact, I had so many stories to tell and so many thoughts to put down that I had to make a two-parter of it.
This one is about WCM.Com.
This one is about the movie itself.
Enjoy!
I agree with most of your points about the movie, although I'm much less lenient. But I don't think criticizing this cast is being nitpicky at all. A better Watchmen movie could be made with a better cast. A lot of my dislike of the theatrical cut came from my dislike of the cast.
Quote:
By and large, the casting is wonderful. Jackie Earle Haley turns in an absolutely flawless Rorschach
I'll also have to disagree with this point. His performance is one that I was initially pleased with, but have grown to dislike. I feel his performance was not as inspired as it could have been, and I think it's missing a lot of the dark humour that makes Rorschach such a great character.
Quote:
Patrick Wilson got the voice and mannerisms of Dan Dreiberg down pat, but he just didn’t quite gel in the role for me.
When I reviewed the movie after seeing it for the first time I said Wilson was adequate as Dan. I've only seen the movie once but his role in this movie doesn't really stand out in my mind. The thing is I can't think of another actor who would nail the role.
Quote:
For example, the original Sally Jupiter seems to have resigned herself to growing old and spends most of Chapter 2 in bed. When we meet Sally in the movie, she’s made up, dressed nice and acting as if she were trying to hold onto her youth. It’s a valid approach to the character, but Gugino doesn’t quite sell it. Meanwhile, Laurie Juspeczyk showed a much wider emotional range in the comic than Laurie Jupiter did in the movie. I think Akerman was trying to make Laurie more stoic, which — again — is a valid approach to the character that she just can’t seem to pull off.
I agree with this point in particular. Both actresses had different takes on the characters than I had in my head (and the same goes for Haley as Rorschach), but both were just miscast. I actually think Gugino would have made for a better Laurie than Akerman. It almost makes me wish Snyder had just used older actors for these roles and just used CGI to make the actors look younger. In fact, since most of the actors are wearing masks in the flashback scenes I think they could have got away with it.
As far as the cast is concerned I think Jeffery Dean Morgan is the only one who I'd still want in this movie.