Thanks!
Friday, 1 January 2010
Vote for Tyranny of the Daleks!
Please vote for Tyranny of the Daleks as the best Doctor Who fan film of the last decade.. to vote go to :
Monday, 27 July 2009
Island One - Settlements in Space
A new short film presented by Max Emerson and written by Adam Manning introducing some ideas about the possible colonization or settlement of space. Hoping to do an expanded version with some animations later in the year.
Cheeky Monkey Pictures! .. some notes
Notes about the background of Cheeky Monkey Pictures! by Adam Manning
My friends and I have a common background of a great interest in films, especially particularly spectacular science fiction, fantasy and horror. We were also brought up in the 70s and 80s, a golden age in many ways for science fiction on British television. As a group we also enjoyed fancy dress parties and several of us are keen on role playing games. With an additional interest in computers, graphics, electronic music, video cameras and all manner of gadgets, making a film in many ways now seemed an inevitable progression of what came before.
At a party back in the summer of 2001, our director Matthew McWilliams and I were talking about snippets of film we had seen and the subject of fan films came up. He had heard of some Star Wars ones and I had heard of some Doctor Who ones. Matt was keen to produce a Star Wars one but Lizzie Whiting, his beautiful girlfriend who plays Romana, and I were ardent Whovians and talked him round. If truth be told Matt had been a huge Who fan all along and has gone out and promptly bought huge amounts of video tapes since starting this film. In fact we've all become even greater fans of the series than before since starting this project - it is in many ways an act of love for the series that gives us so much enjoyment.
So that was established: we would try and do a (very) short Doctor Who fan film just for the fan of having a project to work together. But what would be the plot? Somehow it befell me to come up with the idea. I have always been a BIG Dalek fan. They bring out the Doctor's nature to me - pitting the extreme individualism of the Doctor against the collectivized mentally of the Daleks was a wonderful way of illustrating his character. I was always very excited when a Dalek story was on.
It also became clear, without really putting it into words, that I would play the Doctor. I have always been a big fan of Tom Baker's Doctor but there was no way I could play it like him. I don't physically look like any of the proper Doctors either so some sort of imitation was out straight away.
In late 2001 my wife Alison, who plays the Thal soldier Loran, and I went on a sort of second honeymoon to St Lucia in the Carribean. On the trusty British West Indies Airways jumbo over there, I read a Who novel called "War of the Daleks" which I greatly enjoyed although its somewhat convuluted story is rather controversial with the more academically minded Who fans. It was the initial depiction of a huge battle between the Thals and Daleks on a planet populated by an innocent primitive people that excited me.
Another source of inspiration was Lizzie. She once told me that when she had been at university at Oxford, she had belonged to a student organization called F.A.F.; Friends Against Fungi, a somewhat tongue in cheek support group for people who detested mushrooms, toadstools and so forth. So in some way, she insisted, fungi had to feature in the film as evil beings of some description.
Well with those strands running through my mind, I settled down on the beautiful beaches of St Lucia and it was there that the basic plot, involving diabolical machinations from the Daleks, was conjured into life. I didn't think we could manage a huge battle scene, so the extent of the story was scaled down dramatically.
I wrote out an outline for a first episode and Lizzie turned it into a script. We then rehearsed the whole thing a couple of times during the summer of 2002 and shot the whole of The Galentor Incident on one day in September 2002 in the New Forest, England.
Somewhat elated over the whole thing we decided to continue with our little story and finish it off, so we needed a second episode. I wrote it up in script form in early 2003 after getting approval from the rest of Cheeky Monkey Pictures! and then we set about shooting it! So The Galentor Incident became the name for the first episode and the whole story was renamed Tyranny of the Daleks, which was more in keeping with the normal naming for Dalek stories. I thought the word tyranny was very appropriate when referring to Daleks. The aim of the story, if there is one, is to depict the evil of the Daleks and the terrible consequences their plans and deep rooted greed for power can have on those unlucky enough to be in their way, even indirectly.
The following three episodes are much more ambitious and features sets and interior scenes for the first time. Having made one set, I am quite clear why so many fan films are shot in forests - its so much easier!
We had of course watched all of Timebase's films - anyone who is interested in Who fan films will instantly know who they are. Three of them, Steve Palace, Paul Ferry and Neil Johnson, very kindly agreed to help us out by travelling all the way to Southampton to be in our largest day of filming involving over twenty actors. They were excellent performers and we are very excited about seeing them in the three remaining episodes when they are finished.
Filming eventually finished in summer 2005 and now its onto post production. Its a lot of work but the end product makes it all seem worthwhile. We are very lucky to have a number of friends who are happy to get involved and play a role in the film. Filming is a great social occasion and this sums up the whole fan film ethos to me. With fan films, the process of making the film itself is far more important than the eventual film. It is a chance to get together with friends, have lots of fun, do something creative and hopefully, fingers crossed, come up with something you will get a laugh and enjoyment from for years to come. No one should be working to a deadline, no one should be worried too much about the quality of their performance and no one should spend all their money or time making it. To me these are the most important things. The whole activity of making and putting it all together is the most important performance or experience; not the end result.
Which is not to say that we don't like our film - we love it. Its thrilling to see the results of all your hard work on the screen. We are proud of it, although we are novice amateurs and have never done anything like this before.
Episodes 1,2 and 3 are now available to view and Episode 4 should be available during 2009!
Friday, 22 May 2009
Tyranny of the Daleks - background notes
Synopsis
The Doctor, in his tenth reincarnation, wishes to visit an old friend of his named Xafonix on the forest planet of Galentor, far out on the other side of the Milky Way Galaxy from Earth during the 41st Century. When Romana and he land in the TARDIS though, they soon discover that not only are they ridiculously late for dinner but also uncover a convuluted plan by an old enemy seeking new weapons of war!
Continuity
Tyranny of the Daleks takes place shortly after the ending of the Terran led Federation of Planets which itself replaced the older Empire of Earth. Mavic Chen's dynasty have taken hold of the power structure left by the Federation and cohered it into a new "Federal Empire" that is now the dominant power in the Galaxy. It takes place against diplomatic and sometimes military conflict between the Milky Way Galaxy and nearby galactic powers such as Galaxy 5; conflicts of enormous scope in which trillions of sentients perished.
The following information is excerpted from the Encyclopedia Galactica entry entitled "The Galentor Incident".
The Galen Alpha planetary system consists of ten principal bodies, each of which has at least one natural satellite. Unusually it has three major supra-Jovian class planets. The rest are two Neptunians along with five terrestials, two of which (those most immediate to Galen Alpha) are telluric or silicate bodies whilst the outermost three are typical plutinos. There are two insubstantial asteroid belts, one between Galen Alpha III (or Karvtal) and Galen Alpha IV (or Lanetarg) and the other between Galen Alpha V (Mercula) and Galen Alpha VI (Terskan). The system presents as having a high level of matter particularly for one positioned so far from the galactic core.
The Galen Beta planetary system is much less substantial, consisting only of two small sub-Neptunians, each with its own system of satellites. None are considered suitable for settlement without substantial terra-forming. Galen Beta itself is considered a failed main sequence star and without the consumption of Galen Alpha's protoplanetary material may well have concluded at the brown dwarf stage.
The planet of Galentor is the second planet out from Galen Alpha and is therefore also known as Galen Alpha II. It is somewhat smaller than the Terran standard but has a high density and so its surface gravity is 0.9g. It is situated within the inner half of the Terran habitable-zone round Galen Alpha and has a very low rotational tilt coupled with an almost perfectly circular orbit. The surface is 80% ocean and the thinly-spread continental land masses enjoy a fairly uniform temperate climate. The atmosphere is oxygen-rich (30%) and denser than the Terran standard. In many ways the planet is reminiscent of Earth during its Carboniferous period and the overall impression is that of a young, active biosphere.
Great forests cover most of the continental land masses. The native life forms are Terran compatible in accordance with normal theories of astrobiology and include large scale megafauna such as the Mugati. This is a roughly human sized carnivorous mammalian animal that is typically solitary and rarely seen unless disturbed. Another interesting life form is the wide spread fungi called Lumtarg which covers much of the forest floor over all continents.
The land masses are subject to tidal flooding brought about by the surprisingly small orbit of the planet’s only natural satellite, the Io-class telluric world named Tarack.
Despite Tarack’s incessant geological activity (such as having over 500 active volcanoes on a world smaller than Earth’s satellite Luna) it was chosen as the base to co-ordinate the settlement of Galentor from. These efforts were undertaken slowly and surely in an attempt to integrate the settlement efforts as holistically as possible with the indigenous biosphere. The base on Tarack, named F.S.B. John Young, commenced operations in 3937 after a century long survey effort by the Federation Office of Colonization. The most noted personality in the settlement efforts was a celebrated human mathematician named Xafonix, who had recently received the Alpha Centaurian award for outstanding contributions to the field of biophysics before agreeing to take part in the mainly human settelment of Galentor in 3982.
Galentor presented as a very attractive planet to settle but there was a great desire on the part of the Federation to not repeat previous mistakes (particularly in connection with any terra-forming) made in settling a planet with a substantial biosphere already in situ.
The settlement of Galentor continued without incident and with no major threats from the native biosphere or natural hazard at all. The unusually high level of cometary penetration into the inner parts of the system were easily dealt with by the Federation’s automated planetary defence system. Cometary bodies were easy to predict due to their origin in perturbations in the system’s Kupier Belt Objects by the orbit of Galen Beta and were often deflected onto the surface of Galen Alpha I (Lantarg) to start terra-forming efforts, thereby building up a hydrosphere for that otherwise barren Luna-class world.
All contact with the system was lost in 3997 when the Chen dynasty overthrew the Federation and instigated their own regime. The present state of the settlement on Galentor is unknown.
The Doctor, in his tenth reincarnation, wishes to visit an old friend of his named Xafonix on the forest planet of Galentor, far out on the other side of the Milky Way Galaxy from Earth during the 41st Century. When Romana and he land in the TARDIS though, they soon discover that not only are they ridiculously late for dinner but also uncover a convuluted plan by an old enemy seeking new weapons of war!
Continuity
Tyranny of the Daleks takes place shortly after the ending of the Terran led Federation of Planets which itself replaced the older Empire of Earth. Mavic Chen's dynasty have taken hold of the power structure left by the Federation and cohered it into a new "Federal Empire" that is now the dominant power in the Galaxy. It takes place against diplomatic and sometimes military conflict between the Milky Way Galaxy and nearby galactic powers such as Galaxy 5; conflicts of enormous scope in which trillions of sentients perished.
The following information is excerpted from the Encyclopedia Galactica entry entitled "The Galentor Incident".
By the 42nd Century, The Federal Empire controlled more than seventy per cent of galactic space within the Milky Way Galaxy but there were still many outlying systems that remained only lightly settled. One of these was the Galen system, a binary star system on the outer edges of the Galaxy furthest from the Terran capital. Originally observed by the F.S.S. Thomas Stafford in 3827, the system was noted to consist of a primary G1 star named Galen Alpha along with a much smaller red dwarf companion named Galen Beta, the secondary star having a relatively large and suprisingly circular orbit. Ordinarily the orbit of Galen Beta should, according to mathemetical modelling, be where the Oort Cloud for Galen Alpha should be but Galen Beta has effectively swept away the protoplanetary disc of material.
The Galen Alpha planetary system consists of ten principal bodies, each of which has at least one natural satellite. Unusually it has three major supra-Jovian class planets. The rest are two Neptunians along with five terrestials, two of which (those most immediate to Galen Alpha) are telluric or silicate bodies whilst the outermost three are typical plutinos. There are two insubstantial asteroid belts, one between Galen Alpha III (or Karvtal) and Galen Alpha IV (or Lanetarg) and the other between Galen Alpha V (Mercula) and Galen Alpha VI (Terskan). The system presents as having a high level of matter particularly for one positioned so far from the galactic core.
The Galen Beta planetary system is much less substantial, consisting only of two small sub-Neptunians, each with its own system of satellites. None are considered suitable for settlement without substantial terra-forming. Galen Beta itself is considered a failed main sequence star and without the consumption of Galen Alpha's protoplanetary material may well have concluded at the brown dwarf stage.
The planet of Galentor is the second planet out from Galen Alpha and is therefore also known as Galen Alpha II. It is somewhat smaller than the Terran standard but has a high density and so its surface gravity is 0.9g. It is situated within the inner half of the Terran habitable-zone round Galen Alpha and has a very low rotational tilt coupled with an almost perfectly circular orbit. The surface is 80% ocean and the thinly-spread continental land masses enjoy a fairly uniform temperate climate. The atmosphere is oxygen-rich (30%) and denser than the Terran standard. In many ways the planet is reminiscent of Earth during its Carboniferous period and the overall impression is that of a young, active biosphere.
Great forests cover most of the continental land masses. The native life forms are Terran compatible in accordance with normal theories of astrobiology and include large scale megafauna such as the Mugati. This is a roughly human sized carnivorous mammalian animal that is typically solitary and rarely seen unless disturbed. Another interesting life form is the wide spread fungi called Lumtarg which covers much of the forest floor over all continents.
Interesting patterns of symbiosis have been noted between the planet’s life forms including across different phyla. This, it has been theorized, is as a result of a settled climactic pattern and ecosystem subsisting for prolonged geological periods.
The land masses are subject to tidal flooding brought about by the surprisingly small orbit of the planet’s only natural satellite, the Io-class telluric world named Tarack.
Despite Tarack’s incessant geological activity (such as having over 500 active volcanoes on a world smaller than Earth’s satellite Luna) it was chosen as the base to co-ordinate the settlement of Galentor from. These efforts were undertaken slowly and surely in an attempt to integrate the settlement efforts as holistically as possible with the indigenous biosphere. The base on Tarack, named F.S.B. John Young, commenced operations in 3937 after a century long survey effort by the Federation Office of Colonization. The most noted personality in the settlement efforts was a celebrated human mathematician named Xafonix, who had recently received the Alpha Centaurian award for outstanding contributions to the field of biophysics before agreeing to take part in the mainly human settelment of Galentor in 3982.
Galentor presented as a very attractive planet to settle but there was a great desire on the part of the Federation to not repeat previous mistakes (particularly in connection with any terra-forming) made in settling a planet with a substantial biosphere already in situ.
The settlement of Galentor continued without incident and with no major threats from the native biosphere or natural hazard at all. The unusually high level of cometary penetration into the inner parts of the system were easily dealt with by the Federation’s automated planetary defence system. Cometary bodies were easy to predict due to their origin in perturbations in the system’s Kupier Belt Objects by the orbit of Galen Beta and were often deflected onto the surface of Galen Alpha I (Lantarg) to start terra-forming efforts, thereby building up a hydrosphere for that otherwise barren Luna-class world.
All contact with the system was lost in 3997 when the Chen dynasty overthrew the Federation and instigated their own regime. The present state of the settlement on Galentor is unknown.
Saturday, 16 May 2009
Watchmen - a review of the film adaptation
Watchmen
A review of the film adaptation by Adam Manning
The mid-eighties were an exciting period of revitalization for the comic industry, particular for DC Comics, the publisher of titles involving such well known characters as Batman and Superman. The modern approach to Batman received a substantial part of its power in Frank Miller’s, Batman : The Dark Knight Returns. In Crisis on Infinite Earths, the mainstream DC Universe with its array of parallel alternative universes was collapsed into one cosmos and many of the characters and their backgrounds were, to a greater or lesser degree, revised. The accumulated debris of decades of story writing was swept aside to make way for a more rational, leaner setting.
Nowhere was this revisionism more radical than with the last son of Krypton. Superman is the idealization of the masculine West, matching as he does the power of a classical god like Apollo with the intense morality of the West’s judaeo-christian heritage. Kal-el was depowered by several orders of magnitude, which greatly benefited story writing. It is interesting to note that some of the last stories written about Superman before the Crisis was a series by Alan Moore; an imaginary tale about the last days of the Silver Age Superman in which some long term enemies switch from being fairly ineffectual jokers to psychopaths on a murderous rampage, leading to Superman sacrificing all his powers and identity to save his friends and the woman he loves.
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s Watchmen remains as the most extraordinary example of this wonderful period in comics, or as we less embarrassingly refer to them, graphic novels. The most exciting idea from a superhero fan’s perspective was taking the idea of the costumed hero and speculating on what might actually happen if masked vigilantism became real.
Watchmen rightly became a best seller. Its complex, reflexive storyline centres on the Cold War fear of a global nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union. Taking in a lot of the history of the twentieth century, it charts the rise and fall of the costumed hero as the characters accelerate towards Armageddon. The climax is wish fulfilment for all of us who felt trapped in those times in a world with no seeming escape from atomic inferno. The Watchmen’s heroes are not the straightforward types normally depicted in comics; they all have “issues” as we like to say now and nowhere is this more clear than the extraordinary psychological jump that would be required to don a costume and physically embattle society’s worst elements.
Given its revolutionary scope and grown up themes in some ways it seemed inescapably excitingly enough to justify a full cinematic translation. But as the creator Alan Moore decreed, its sheer richness, density of narrative and bubbling list of characters could also make it seem “unfilmable”. It has taken the best part of a quarter century for it finally to come to the screen.
As a long term Watchmen fan I became ensnared in the viral marketing campaign leading up to the release. Fascinated with the transformation into a cinematic production, I eagerly kept up to date with its octopusine internet presence almost to the point of becoming fatigued by its relentless outreaching. After over twenty years, could I really be losing interest as the release date finally approached?
Now that I’ve seen it I’m happy to relate that it is as near a perfect depiction of the comic book on the screen, more or less, that could ever be achieved. Zack Snyder has triumphed in bringing the world of Watchmen to life in a shocking visual and almost visceral experience.
The film effectively starts with the murder of the Comedian in a brutally powerful fight scene. We are instantly aware that though these characters might not be super-beings but are still astonishingly strong. The consistency of the production creates an immersive feel of another world, similar to ours but different. The brutality of the fight does not pull any punches and the audience cannot help but be drawn in.
The first part of the film is a wonderful character exposition using the device, again following the comic book, of the Comedian’s funeral. This is where the cutting back and forth between different periods is used most effectively. By necessity these are a selective short-hand for the equivalent sections in the novel but nevertheless clever choices have been made and this section is perhaps the most effective in the film.
Soon the plot starts to take over again and in some interesting divergences from the book we are shown additional edgings to the characters and their relationships not revealed before. Adrian Veidt seems to be the most different from the book; Rorschach the most accurate. Veidt’s depiction interested me greatly. Here he is portrayed as a hubristic Euro-American with his softened Germanic accent and European fashions. I was reminded of a younger version of the characters the great Richard Lynch used to play in the eighties.
The film moves forward through Nite Owl, the most likeable of the Watchmen. His engaging portrayal allows the viewer into the plot. The changed ending is clever. It is a much more logical and efficient conclusion than the book’s, albeit less colourful. I have always thought Watchmen’s conclusion was more about wishing away the Cold War than providing a clear way out of World War III but still take the view that with the world a hair-trigger away from annihilation any extraordinary occurrence, whether it be the giant squid monster of the comic or the ending shown here, would still be a catalyst for an all out nuclear attack.
The film is most successful when authentically showing important parts of the Watchmen story properly and allowing them the time needed. Rorschach’s jail time is a case in point. At other, seemingly equally crucial, points the narrative is rushed so much I am not clear that anyone not familiar with Watchmen would really follow what is going on. How do Nite Owl and Rorschach so quickly work out that the whole scheme links back to Ozymandias? It is not clear how the Comedian uncovered Veidt’s plot before his killing. The tenement fire rescue scene is forcibly truncated. Nite Owl’s hacking of Veidt’s computer (which must be a Mac – by the way apparently when looking through his computer’s files, one of the folders is entitled “boys”, another hint about Veidt’s obscured sexuality) is treated very quickly. I have never been entirely satisfied with how easily Nite Owl and Rorschach work everything out, but this is symptomatic of the book as well as the film. The world’s smartest man has an important password that is the title of a book near his desk or which happens to be the real name of his superhero identity? It seems unlikely.
Veidt’s motivation or desire to save the world is also not as clear as it might be. In the book he has a long sequence about his life story in which all this becomes clear and in the process illustrates his own character. In the film there is a short sequence in which he describes some of this to a collection of powerful and rather grumpy business men which then leads into the exciting assassination sequence. As such an important part of the plot there simply isn’t enough time spent on Veidt to really get to grips with the man and his role in the world of the Watchmen.
Silk Spectre II is eye wateringly beautiful and her scenes powerfully reminded me how sexy stockings and suspenders are. This is not a film you want to give away as a prize at Sunday School when its out on DVD. The fight scenes throughout are brutal and in particular the scene where Nite Owl and Silk Spectre II are attacked in an alley showed just what fighting someone with the skills and strength of a Batman would really be like. The fighting is of a fairly straightforward style but highly satisfactory with the emphasis on speed and strength rather than exotic or flamboyant moves. It is a perfect depiction of comic book violence with realistic results.
Visually it is a stunning production. There is an interesting interplay between realistic, cluttered sets and colourful superhero costumes all combined with comic book style framing of shots. Archimedes, Nite Owl’s airship, looks wonderful and at times the style of it all almost looks over produced. Doctor Manhattan is stunning to see, although on a few, very minor, occasions, his computer graphic overlay did look a little artificial. The scene where he blows up the tank comes to mind; the movement of the arm is just a shade unreal. But this aside he has been successfully brought to the big screen. I was surprised at the choice to make him glow which is not something that is apparent from the comic book representation. The Watchmen’s only true superhero is cleverly used where the plot diverges from the book.
Doctor Manhattan of course has his big revelation on Mars and these sequences were really some of those that needed to be longer to have the required dramatic impact. Mars reminded me of the planet landings from the original Star Trek which, wonderful though they sometimes looked, often could never quite escape the studio bound atmosphere. There simply wasn’t time enough for sufficient Martian grandeur or for Laurie’s breakdown at her personal revelation or at Doctor Manhattan’s re-affirmation of his interest in life. Thankfully Doctor Manhattan’s origin sequence was wonderfully put together into a stirring sequence about the creation of a man made god.
Another striking thing about this film is the use of music. It’s a film about the twentieth century and as a result has a very twentieth century soundtrack to it. The opening titles use Bob Dylan to good effect; in many ways this is one of the most successful parts of the whole film. Occasionally the use of this music seems incongruous and I couldn’t help finding the love (or rather sex) scene between Nite Owl and Silk Spectre II in the owlship rather laughable especially with its use of the original version of “Hallelujah” as backing.
At nearly three hours though it is a long, long film in accordance with the trend for some years now of lengthy productions. And despite myself, I could not help but notice the story lurch and seemingly stop at various points. For a film about such action packed characters, it was rather slow in parts. It reminded me sometimes of my reaction when watching Batman Returns; whilst I loved the production values, actually following the film occasionally induced a rather awkward, glum feeling brought on by its strange pacing. It was like being on a roller coaster where the ups and down were horribly mis-timed. This, it felt, was symptomatic of simply trying to fit too much into the time allowed.
And speaking of Batman, it’s interesting to compare this film with another recent superhero film, The Dark Knight. Christopher Nolan’s production is overall a more consistent affair. In it, he manages the virtually impossible task of making Batman seem almost plausible in a contemporary setting. This is a film of course that is, unlike Watchmen, built from the ground up and purely within the parameters of cinematic construction. The Batman of Dark Knight is, to my mind, rather different from the one of the comics. In it, Christian Bale’s Batman is starting out on a road that will eventually lead him to Robo-Cop or Iron Man. In making him almost plausible, The Dark Knight distorts the classic mysterious detective of the comics into a technological hero who only works through his gadgetry. Its success is taking the real world (or at least a rather grim and nasty imitation thereof) and trying to fit Batman into it.
Zack Snyder could have taken this approach with Watchmen and indeed there are stories that the movie studios wanted him to set it in a contemporary period with Doctor Manhattan being asked to intervene in Iraq. He could have pruned the plot right down to its essentials and not included the beautiful sections with the original Silk Spectre, Mothman and so forth and given us a somewhat stale, anodyne modern interpretation. Bravely he stood up for his love of the source material and took up the far larger challenge of trying to create the whole world of the Watchmen.
To film the unfilmable Watchmen was always going to be a challenging feat for even a superheroic producer. Thankfully, as someone who has read and re-read Watchmen continually ever since popping into Smith’s one early weekday morning in 1987 to buy it, my view is that Zack Snyder really has brought it’s vision to the screen in a gorgeous, powerful production. I hope somewhere he is having his Ozymandias “I DID IT!” moment.
A review of the film adaptation by Adam Manning
The mid-eighties were an exciting period of revitalization for the comic industry, particular for DC Comics, the publisher of titles involving such well known characters as Batman and Superman. The modern approach to Batman received a substantial part of its power in Frank Miller’s, Batman : The Dark Knight Returns. In Crisis on Infinite Earths, the mainstream DC Universe with its array of parallel alternative universes was collapsed into one cosmos and many of the characters and their backgrounds were, to a greater or lesser degree, revised. The accumulated debris of decades of story writing was swept aside to make way for a more rational, leaner setting.
Nowhere was this revisionism more radical than with the last son of Krypton. Superman is the idealization of the masculine West, matching as he does the power of a classical god like Apollo with the intense morality of the West’s judaeo-christian heritage. Kal-el was depowered by several orders of magnitude, which greatly benefited story writing. It is interesting to note that some of the last stories written about Superman before the Crisis was a series by Alan Moore; an imaginary tale about the last days of the Silver Age Superman in which some long term enemies switch from being fairly ineffectual jokers to psychopaths on a murderous rampage, leading to Superman sacrificing all his powers and identity to save his friends and the woman he loves.
Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon’s Watchmen remains as the most extraordinary example of this wonderful period in comics, or as we less embarrassingly refer to them, graphic novels. The most exciting idea from a superhero fan’s perspective was taking the idea of the costumed hero and speculating on what might actually happen if masked vigilantism became real.
Watchmen rightly became a best seller. Its complex, reflexive storyline centres on the Cold War fear of a global nuclear war between the US and the Soviet Union. Taking in a lot of the history of the twentieth century, it charts the rise and fall of the costumed hero as the characters accelerate towards Armageddon. The climax is wish fulfilment for all of us who felt trapped in those times in a world with no seeming escape from atomic inferno. The Watchmen’s heroes are not the straightforward types normally depicted in comics; they all have “issues” as we like to say now and nowhere is this more clear than the extraordinary psychological jump that would be required to don a costume and physically embattle society’s worst elements.
Given its revolutionary scope and grown up themes in some ways it seemed inescapably excitingly enough to justify a full cinematic translation. But as the creator Alan Moore decreed, its sheer richness, density of narrative and bubbling list of characters could also make it seem “unfilmable”. It has taken the best part of a quarter century for it finally to come to the screen.
As a long term Watchmen fan I became ensnared in the viral marketing campaign leading up to the release. Fascinated with the transformation into a cinematic production, I eagerly kept up to date with its octopusine internet presence almost to the point of becoming fatigued by its relentless outreaching. After over twenty years, could I really be losing interest as the release date finally approached?
Now that I’ve seen it I’m happy to relate that it is as near a perfect depiction of the comic book on the screen, more or less, that could ever be achieved. Zack Snyder has triumphed in bringing the world of Watchmen to life in a shocking visual and almost visceral experience.
The film effectively starts with the murder of the Comedian in a brutally powerful fight scene. We are instantly aware that though these characters might not be super-beings but are still astonishingly strong. The consistency of the production creates an immersive feel of another world, similar to ours but different. The brutality of the fight does not pull any punches and the audience cannot help but be drawn in.
The first part of the film is a wonderful character exposition using the device, again following the comic book, of the Comedian’s funeral. This is where the cutting back and forth between different periods is used most effectively. By necessity these are a selective short-hand for the equivalent sections in the novel but nevertheless clever choices have been made and this section is perhaps the most effective in the film.
Soon the plot starts to take over again and in some interesting divergences from the book we are shown additional edgings to the characters and their relationships not revealed before. Adrian Veidt seems to be the most different from the book; Rorschach the most accurate. Veidt’s depiction interested me greatly. Here he is portrayed as a hubristic Euro-American with his softened Germanic accent and European fashions. I was reminded of a younger version of the characters the great Richard Lynch used to play in the eighties.
The film moves forward through Nite Owl, the most likeable of the Watchmen. His engaging portrayal allows the viewer into the plot. The changed ending is clever. It is a much more logical and efficient conclusion than the book’s, albeit less colourful. I have always thought Watchmen’s conclusion was more about wishing away the Cold War than providing a clear way out of World War III but still take the view that with the world a hair-trigger away from annihilation any extraordinary occurrence, whether it be the giant squid monster of the comic or the ending shown here, would still be a catalyst for an all out nuclear attack.
The film is most successful when authentically showing important parts of the Watchmen story properly and allowing them the time needed. Rorschach’s jail time is a case in point. At other, seemingly equally crucial, points the narrative is rushed so much I am not clear that anyone not familiar with Watchmen would really follow what is going on. How do Nite Owl and Rorschach so quickly work out that the whole scheme links back to Ozymandias? It is not clear how the Comedian uncovered Veidt’s plot before his killing. The tenement fire rescue scene is forcibly truncated. Nite Owl’s hacking of Veidt’s computer (which must be a Mac – by the way apparently when looking through his computer’s files, one of the folders is entitled “boys”, another hint about Veidt’s obscured sexuality) is treated very quickly. I have never been entirely satisfied with how easily Nite Owl and Rorschach work everything out, but this is symptomatic of the book as well as the film. The world’s smartest man has an important password that is the title of a book near his desk or which happens to be the real name of his superhero identity? It seems unlikely.
Veidt’s motivation or desire to save the world is also not as clear as it might be. In the book he has a long sequence about his life story in which all this becomes clear and in the process illustrates his own character. In the film there is a short sequence in which he describes some of this to a collection of powerful and rather grumpy business men which then leads into the exciting assassination sequence. As such an important part of the plot there simply isn’t enough time spent on Veidt to really get to grips with the man and his role in the world of the Watchmen.
Silk Spectre II is eye wateringly beautiful and her scenes powerfully reminded me how sexy stockings and suspenders are. This is not a film you want to give away as a prize at Sunday School when its out on DVD. The fight scenes throughout are brutal and in particular the scene where Nite Owl and Silk Spectre II are attacked in an alley showed just what fighting someone with the skills and strength of a Batman would really be like. The fighting is of a fairly straightforward style but highly satisfactory with the emphasis on speed and strength rather than exotic or flamboyant moves. It is a perfect depiction of comic book violence with realistic results.
Visually it is a stunning production. There is an interesting interplay between realistic, cluttered sets and colourful superhero costumes all combined with comic book style framing of shots. Archimedes, Nite Owl’s airship, looks wonderful and at times the style of it all almost looks over produced. Doctor Manhattan is stunning to see, although on a few, very minor, occasions, his computer graphic overlay did look a little artificial. The scene where he blows up the tank comes to mind; the movement of the arm is just a shade unreal. But this aside he has been successfully brought to the big screen. I was surprised at the choice to make him glow which is not something that is apparent from the comic book representation. The Watchmen’s only true superhero is cleverly used where the plot diverges from the book.
Doctor Manhattan of course has his big revelation on Mars and these sequences were really some of those that needed to be longer to have the required dramatic impact. Mars reminded me of the planet landings from the original Star Trek which, wonderful though they sometimes looked, often could never quite escape the studio bound atmosphere. There simply wasn’t time enough for sufficient Martian grandeur or for Laurie’s breakdown at her personal revelation or at Doctor Manhattan’s re-affirmation of his interest in life. Thankfully Doctor Manhattan’s origin sequence was wonderfully put together into a stirring sequence about the creation of a man made god.
Another striking thing about this film is the use of music. It’s a film about the twentieth century and as a result has a very twentieth century soundtrack to it. The opening titles use Bob Dylan to good effect; in many ways this is one of the most successful parts of the whole film. Occasionally the use of this music seems incongruous and I couldn’t help finding the love (or rather sex) scene between Nite Owl and Silk Spectre II in the owlship rather laughable especially with its use of the original version of “Hallelujah” as backing.
At nearly three hours though it is a long, long film in accordance with the trend for some years now of lengthy productions. And despite myself, I could not help but notice the story lurch and seemingly stop at various points. For a film about such action packed characters, it was rather slow in parts. It reminded me sometimes of my reaction when watching Batman Returns; whilst I loved the production values, actually following the film occasionally induced a rather awkward, glum feeling brought on by its strange pacing. It was like being on a roller coaster where the ups and down were horribly mis-timed. This, it felt, was symptomatic of simply trying to fit too much into the time allowed.
And speaking of Batman, it’s interesting to compare this film with another recent superhero film, The Dark Knight. Christopher Nolan’s production is overall a more consistent affair. In it, he manages the virtually impossible task of making Batman seem almost plausible in a contemporary setting. This is a film of course that is, unlike Watchmen, built from the ground up and purely within the parameters of cinematic construction. The Batman of Dark Knight is, to my mind, rather different from the one of the comics. In it, Christian Bale’s Batman is starting out on a road that will eventually lead him to Robo-Cop or Iron Man. In making him almost plausible, The Dark Knight distorts the classic mysterious detective of the comics into a technological hero who only works through his gadgetry. Its success is taking the real world (or at least a rather grim and nasty imitation thereof) and trying to fit Batman into it.
Zack Snyder could have taken this approach with Watchmen and indeed there are stories that the movie studios wanted him to set it in a contemporary period with Doctor Manhattan being asked to intervene in Iraq. He could have pruned the plot right down to its essentials and not included the beautiful sections with the original Silk Spectre, Mothman and so forth and given us a somewhat stale, anodyne modern interpretation. Bravely he stood up for his love of the source material and took up the far larger challenge of trying to create the whole world of the Watchmen.
To film the unfilmable Watchmen was always going to be a challenging feat for even a superheroic producer. Thankfully, as someone who has read and re-read Watchmen continually ever since popping into Smith’s one early weekday morning in 1987 to buy it, my view is that Zack Snyder really has brought it’s vision to the screen in a gorgeous, powerful production. I hope somewhere he is having his Ozymandias “I DID IT!” moment.
Sunday, 29 March 2009
Tyranny of the Daleks - New Trailer!
This is a fabulous new trailer for Tyranny of the Daleks by the wonderful JE Smith.. incorporating footage from the first three episodes. Look out for Sarah Stoten as the evil Empress of the Daleks, Alison Manning as Loran, brave Thal space soldier and Lizzie McWilliams as Romana..
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