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Originally posted by DaveBCooper
"I think it would be difficult because, amongst other things, Moore and Gibbons used a large number of narrative devices which were pretty much exclusive to comics – or, certainly, most effective in the medium.
Examples of this would be the overlapping of dialogue and scenes, the prevalence of flashbacks (almost every other chapter of the original work), the use of similar panels for scene transitions from page to page (‘match shots’ are very clever if used occasionally in films, but might look more than slightly gimmicky if used consistently throughout a feature-length film), the use of parallel plotlines and imagery (the pirate story echoing the mental state of one of the characters, though you only really understand that at the end of the story), the background detail about the airships and electric cars (and how they came to be so common), and so many other things like that. And practical issues like casting and special effects."
Overlapping dialogue/scenes is a cinematic technique as is flashbacks very definitly, both work better on film than they do in comics. Similar panels for scene transitions. Far easier to do in film (you even use the word scene, more often connected to film, than comics). The pirate story would be difficult to do and should probably be dropped for a film. As for casting, SFX, that's the same problem any film faces, in terms of sets it would be a lot less complex than say Blade Runner or Judge Dredd and now more than ever the FX are there to do the story.
Narritivly Watchmen isn't that complex. It's a tightly plotted well told story but other than a very good twist at the end it's quite conventional, certainly more conventional than say something like the Usual Suspects. The only problems I can see with the film are it's length and the will to show scenes of carnage on the streets of New York. Technically it's not that problematic and I had always seen it as a very cinematic piece anyway. |
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