I experienced a sort of love/hate feeling while watching the movie. Alan Moore's world, at least as presented in the movie, is unrelentingly violent and ugly. I found the Daniel and Laurie characters (owl dude and The Chick) boring... definitely would fail the 10 tonne megabomb test* (particularly apt in the context of this movie). While love scenes in many graphic novels and books and movies are often beautiful and add a layer of meaning and subtext, this one just seemed silly. In dark stories, a love story (a romantic one, or even between friends or family members) is often given as a counterpoint to the apparent violence and hopelessness of the world. In this case, I'm not sure if Alan Moore meant it as such... if so, it did not come across in the movie.
But also, I was frustrated by the end of the movie by the moral choices presented to me as possibilities. The apathy of Owl Dude, the Disconnectedness of Jon, the eye for an eye justice of Rorschach, and the egotistical can-do attitude of Ozymandius all left me cold. (I don't know what Hot Chick was supposed to stand for.) There was only one TINY moment I could *be in for*, which is when New York explodes and you see the old white guy and the black kid throw themselves into each others' arms just before dying.
So I sort of hated the movie... though it's the kind of hatred artists are happy to elicit, since I wasn't mad about a poorly made movie, but rather the ideas in it. And my reaction isn't too far from what Alan Moore intended with the comic itself:
"We tried to set up four or five radically opposing ways of seeing the world and let the readers figure it out for themselves; let them make a moral decision for once in their miserable lives! Too many writers go for that “baby bird” moralising, where your audience just sits there with their beaks open and you just cram regurgitated morals down their throat." (1988 interview)But I still hoped that the graphic novel would have a little more depth. A little less people's arms sawed off, a little more depth. And indeed, it's the old white guy and black kid who got cut during the transition to screen, as well as all the other "normal" people. These two characters appear throughout the story, as does the psychologist who interviews Rorschach, a couple detectives, and a few people who visit the old man's newsstand. These are the people who don't have control over how the world is run, but have to figure out how to live in it, and they're the ones with whom I could morally sympathize.
Just before the attack on New York (which in the novel, is by a one eyed psychic squid monster!), we see all the ordinary characters. The old man decides that what's really missing is that people don't connect with each other, and he starts trying to connect with the kid who's been sitting there reading comics throughout the series. Meanwhile Rorschach's psychologist has an argument with his wife, who wants him to stop treating crazy people--and in the middle of it, he runs off to help a woman who's being beaten by her ex-girlfriend. His wife is pissed, and he tells her: "I have to [get involved]. In a world like this, I mean, it's all we can do, try to help each other. It's all that means anything." Then he, along with a couple other characters, try to intervene on the fight. And then they all get blown up by Oymandias' squid.
That's what's missing from the movie. But I'm satisfied that it's in the graphic novel. In fact, I'd even enjoy watching the movie again, this time to just enjoy watching the characters brought to life on screen, without worrying about the moral story.
That, and to enjoy my crush on Rorschach. My favourite joke in the graphic novel is between Rorschach and the newspaper vendor. Ror, carrying his The End is Nigh sign, comes to get his daily newspaper which the vendor holds for him...
Vendor: How's the end of the world comin' along?
Ror: It'll happen today. I've seen the signs. National Examiner reported a two-headed cat born in Queens. Today for certain. ... You'll keep my paper for me tomorrow?"
Vendor: Uhh sure. Sure I will. No sweat.
*Years ago this became the litmus test for whether I enjoy a story--if a bomb dropped on the head of the characters, striking them down mid-plot, would I care? My father has coined this as The 10 Tonne Megabomb Test.
