Watchmen - The Review

I'll admit it, I have not been a fan of Watchmen for a really long time. I actually picked it up and read it because of the movie. I saw a trailer for it when I saw The Dark Knight on IMAX. After that, a fairly large portion of people that I knew were talking about whether it was even possible to make a good movie out of the best comic of all time. I'd heard of Watchmen before, because I have read V for Vendetta, but I'd never actually read it. How "important" could a comic about super heroes really be? But there was something captivating about the first trailer I saw for the movie last year, something that caught my attention and made me sit up and lean forward in my seat. I took notice. Then the people started talking, conjecturing about the quality of a movie based on this book that seemed to have attained some sort of legendary status. Everybody was talking, not just a few here and there, but everywhere I turned people were talking about Watchmen. And when it was made known that I had not read it, I was admonished and told to read it immediately.

I did get around to purchasing the book. I procrastinated, I dithered about. I finally sat down to start the book. 

It was an ideal setting. Snow falling outside, a mug of hot cocoa steaming merrily in my hand. A blanket on the couch. This yellow-covered book, a smiley face with a blood spatter, sitting in my lap. Could it really be that good, I asked myself as I opened to the first page. 

Truth be told, I was captivated from the first frames, the viewpoint pulling back from the image of the being blood hosed off the sidewalk. Farther back until we can see the two detectives talking about how it happened. How does a man as well built as the victim end up falling through a plate glass window?

From there on, I was utterly absorbed by this book. It had absolutely everything I look for in any work of fiction: intricate and complicated characters who are developed well, a deep plot rich in subtexts and social commentary, lots of detail to absorb about the world itself, and an ending that left me agape and to this day hasn't strayed too far from my thoughts. As I wrote on this blog after I read the book, this is one of the most important pieces of fiction ever written and ranks very high on the "best books I've ever read" list.

Since then, I've been getting people to read the book in preparation for the movie. I haven't seen my copy of the book in months, as it has been making the rounds. Yet, all along, I was wondering how this could be made into a really good movie. Is it possible that Zack Snyder could succeed where even the ever-brilliant Darren Aronofsky (among others) failed?

After seeing the movie and having thought about it all weekend, I can say with certainty that yes, he succeeded. And in a really big way.

I described it to a friend earlier today, "The movie succeeds on so many levels, it's hard to put it all into words." That statement remains true, but I'm going to try anyway.

The opening scene of the movie is the fight between the Comedian and mysterious bad dude (whose identity I will not reveal here for the sake of those who have not seen the movie nor read the book). This is one of the most beautifully filmed fight sequences ever. The camera angles, the music, the tastefully implemented slow-mo work, it all came together so wonderfully. I knew the movie was going to be good from this moment.

Speaking of camera work, this movie is chock full of awesome camera angles and perfect shots. It's completely obvious that Snyder worked very hard on setting up his shots so they captured the feel of the comic book. Some of the shots came right out of the comic, others probably should have been in the comic.

The introduction credits also need to be noted for their artistry and superior execution. In the book, Moore and Gibbons have a long time to show the reader this altered imagining of the 1980s where Nixon breaks the 2-term rule and America actually won in Vietnam on the backs of Dr. Manhattan and the Comedian. This is a world where costumed bad guys duel with costumed good guys until Nixon outlaws masked "vigilantes". It's a staggeringly complex world, the details of which are doted upon in the novel. Snyder and company have considerably less time to expound upon viewers the vast differences between the Watchmen world and the real world. This is a feat they accomplish through the opening credits. Set to Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin'", the opening credits show us through a montage of pictures and short filmed sequences the history of this version world, what happened to the original Minutemen, and a slew of other small details to look out for. Plus, the music is so completely out of place for this type of movie (one one hand) but still completely fitting (on the other).

Speaking of music, it must be said that this movie has some of the best music choices ever. Snyder and friends really put a lot of work into licensing music that fit the scenes and did a great job of including music that was mentioned in the novel as well. Examples of this include Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" and ""All Along the Watchtower" by Jimi Hendrix. I won't tell you where these come up, because half the fun is the surprise at hearing these songs where you might least expect them. :)

Brian Tyler's score was memorable and sounds like something pulled right out of that era. Kudos to the whole team behind the music, for you all did a really stellar job.

Casting. This is one of the points that I've debated with many people about over the course of the weekend. I think it was spot on. The first and most stand-out casting choice is Jackie Earle Hayley as Rorschach. This can only be equated to Heath Ledger's Joker character. Hayley is Rorschach. Period. This is how I saw Rorschach in my head when I was reading the novel. This is how I heard him, this is how he moved, and they even nailed his face, which was so important in the book. He is Rorschach, and that's one point everybody I know seems to agree on.

Billy Crudup plays Jon Osterman, aka Dr. Manhattan, the only hero in the movie with actual super powers. This must have been a very difficult role to play, as the simple fact that he does have powers, that he is a god for all intents and purposes, has caused a rift to develop between him and humanity. He can no longer sympathize with humanity's emotions or drama. As with Hayley's Rorschach, Crudup nails this role. He comes across as nearly emotionless, as is required of the character. It's hard to watch sometimes, because D. Manhattan truly is removed from the plights of society.

Patrick Wilson (also in Hard Candy, another very good movie) plays Dan Dreiberg, or Nite Owl. Yet again (I'm starting to feel like a broken record here), he looks and acts the part to near perfection. Dan's timid nature and impotency that's slowly shed as he allows his Nite Owl persona to consume him is brought to life by Wilson. This guy's really good. Hopefully he lands some more roles in the near future.

There was much controversy over the end. Once it was announced that the end would be changed from the version penned by Moore and Gibbons, the Watchmen community was on fire with speculation and early criticisms. Yet, after watching it, I teeter on the brink of saying that it was, in fact, better than the ending in the novel. It fits perfectly while still accomplishing what Moore and Gibbons set out to do. Yet it is somehow more plausible but allows for the same reaction from society. Bravo to Snyder for taking this huge leap out of the box and making it work.

As a whole, the movie experience really flows well. At no point in the movie did I stop to consider that the movie was almost 3 hours long. At no point was I bored or did I find myself paying attention to other things. I was engrossed from start to end in this movie, a movie that can very seriously be described as a masterpiece, a monumental achievement. This is a movie unlike movies that are made today or at any point in Hollywood's past. This is a movie far ahead of it's time, and I think people will be talking about it for a long time to come. If this weekend is any indication, anyway. I spent the entire weekend with people filing in and out of my place talking about this movie. It's interesting to see what other people pick up on.

Anyway, there's the review. This movie is awesome, epic, monumental, a true masterpiece. The unfilmable book has been filmed, and it was done very well. Even with all these words here, I still feel like I haven't gotten across just how unbelievably good this movie is. So, do yourself a favor if you haven't already: go watch Watchmen. 

A Review of Watchmen in my Stead

Chris over at The Knight Shift wrote a truly spectacular review of Watchmen over hyah. It's much better than I'd do at the moment, so do yourself a favor and go read it. It nearly encapsulates my thoughts on the film, and it's well-written to boot. :-)

Stuff

I was planning on writing an extensive review of Watchmen by now, but the weekend has been... topsy-turvey. I've been sick, tired, and there's been a ridiculous amount of ups and downs. It seems to be just the beginning of a long road ahead. I'm definitely up to the challenge, and willing to take it on, but it means less time to do things like blog. Work, take care of shit, sleep. 

I will eventually have a review up, because Watchmen was easily the best comic-to-movie adaptation of all time. I could go on and on about its sheer brilliance right now, but I'm exhausted and need to try to sleep. Try being the operative word there. I'm sick and worried, so it likely won't come easy. Anyway, go see the damn movie if you haven't already. Trust me, especially if you've read the comic, it's worth it.

Lots to Say Today

I've got a ton of stuff to hit on today. I feel like writing a lot. So, here goes.

First, Watchmen. I'm going to see it tonight in 13 hours, 37 mintues. My blood is pumping, and I am completely ready to see this movie. Adrenaline, excitement... I haven't been this pumped for a movie release since The Dark Knight, perhaps not even quite this much then. The single most important comic book in history, one of the most important pieces of fiction in history, is in movie form, and having read a few reviews, it's supposed to be AMAZING. Too long to wait.

Moving on. 

I was exploring the wide world of Facebook this morning when I happened upon a quote on somebody's profile. This person was recommended to me as a person I may know. Reading over his profile, it became clear to me that I definitely did not know this person, and that he is very pro-soldier. That's a good thing mind you. I have all the respect in the world for the men and women who are out defending our freedom. Do I necessarily agree with the foreign policy stances that our government takes or the lies that get us into our wars? No, not particularly, but that's another matter entirely. What I do support, however, are the brave folks who are over there doing something that I would never have the guts to do. Standing ovation for that.

... 3 hours later...

Anyway, as I was reading this fella's page, he has a story posted under his Quotes section. It reads as follows:

A United States soldier was attending some college courses between assignments. He had completed missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. One of the courses had a professor who was an avowed atheist and a member of the ACLU.

One day the professor shocked the class when he came in. He looked to the ceiling and flatly stated, "God, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform. I'll give you exactly 15 minutes." The lecture room fell silent. You could hear a pin drop. Ten minutes went by and the professor proclaimed, "Here I am God. I'm still waiting." It got down to the last couple of minutes when the soldier got out of his chair, went up to the professor, and cold-cocked him knocking him off the platform. The professor was out cold. The soldier went back to his seat and sat there, silently. The other students were shocked and stunned and sat there looking on in silence. The professor eventually came to, noticeably shaken, looked at the soldier and asked, "What the hell is the matter with you? Why did you do that?"

The soldier calmly replied, "God was too busy today protecting America's soldiers who are protecting your right to say stupid shit and act like an asshole. So, He sent me."

Interesting story. It raises an interesting point while being completely laughable at the same time. First, it points out what I talked about a few posts ago in that the soldiers are over there fighting for our freedom to express our opinions and such. But, secondly, it goes against those same principles. Decking somebody because you don't believe the same thing as that person is exactly what the soldiers are not overseas to protect. One of these days, perhaps, people will learn to tolerate those with opinions that differ from their own. No offense to you, but Christians are among the worst of the lot when it comes to spiting people who disagree with them. This story is a perfect example. 

There is nothing so powerful a divider as religion. Religion carries the air of exclusivity. Religion preys on those that need to feel superior to others. And before you argue with me, think for just a moment on the principles of heaven and hell. Most organized religions have the idea of heaven, a place you go to in your afterlife for believing as you are told to believe. To site Christianity one more time, Jesus says (in the Bible) that the only way to heaven is through him. Meaning that you have to believe what you are being told to believe to make it. Heck, even differing sects of the same religion say you must believe our specific version of things in order to make it to heaven. And for those who don't believe the exact same thing, well, you're all going to hell. Sometimes listening to religious debates reminds me of schoolyard teasing. "I'm going to heaven and you're not... neener neener." It's ridiculous. 

I've written before about how religion serves an excuse, as a scapegoat, and this doesn't change any of that. Religion is just many things to many people. Or, put better, religion is whatever a believer needs it to be.

Moving on to more important things... 7 hours, 10 minutes and counting!

I read an article on IGN today proposing that Final Fantasy VII might be overrated. Rubbish. At one point today, I wanted to comment at length about this, but now I have lost my motivation. FFVII is awesome, not overrated. Those who say it's overrated are merely looking of something to bitch about or looking for a way to stand out from the crowd of people who know its awesomeness.

5 hours, 43 minutes.

I've been reading the rotten tomatoes reviews of Watchmen and I find myself seeing many holes in the logic (or lack thereof) used by the people who are spouting them. The cool thing with Watchmen is that it is very dense, very deep, very intellectual. This is not a light movie, this movie doesn't give any hope. It's dark and gritty and intelligent. You might have to think about it for a while before you get it. Yet these reviews are akin to those that frustrated me with The Dark Knight. "It's too dark" or "it's too liberal". For anybody calling this movie too liberal, I'd advise you to go watch it again. It is most certainly not liberal. In fact, the story's villain is quite liberal in his motives. 

My personal favorite: "excrement on celluloid." Please tell me how this is useful to anybody. It's not. There's simply no reason why critics need to devolve to this level of immaturity, nor is there a reason this person should be paid to write about his/her opinion on things, because they obviously don't go much past the kindergarten level.

Another review that I just read misses the entire point of Watchmen altogether. I'm going to post it right here for your convenience. Here's the link for credit purposes.

Zack Snyder's adaptation of theWatchmen graphic novel takes place in the mid-1980s, after America won the Vietnam war and just before Richard Nixon's fourth term. The U.S. won that war by enlisting the help of Jon Osterman, a former scientist who was involved in a nuclear accident that, naturally, turned him into a god-like blue man who lives simultaneously in the past and the future. As near deity, Jon is able to do almost anything he wants, like asking people to call him Dr. Manhattan or zapping Vietcong with a wave of his hand. New York is also populated by a second generation of costumed heroes, normal people who fight crime like their parents did in a prior post-war era. But the world is on the brink of nuclear war with the Soviets, so many of these crusaders have retired or gone underground. Modern threats have rendered masked heroes quaint.

Snyder’s previous film, 300, was about a big, strong Spartan who pummeled the effeminate Persians against the wishes of a corrupt security council. The political slant of Watchmen is only slightly less transparent. Both films lavish attention on violent individuals who deliver justice as they see fit, on men who are principled brutes, and on women who are sexy, strong and secondary. Each film’s overarching view is that war is productive and weakness is not. The interest in sheer power is as strong as the interest in human bodies, and where the two intersect, Watchmen seems to vibrate with delight. We see the flesh of a female calf ripped by a bullet, the intestines of a splattered victim dangling from a ceiling, a prisoner’s skin melted by a basketful of frying oil (can baskets be filled with oil?), and two arms sawn off because they block access to someone who needs an ass-whoopin'.

The film’s obsession with bodies in conflict has a counterpoint in Dr. Manhattan. Gently voiced (and partially faced) by Billy Crudup, he stands naked, ripped, glowing and dispassionate through most of the film. Neither the attentions of his beautiful girlfriend-heroine nor his research into unlimited energy can raise his flaccid member. He has lost interest in the whole of the earth.

The film's id is an inky-masked character named Rorschach who metes justice with his fists and talks with a throat full of gravel, like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino, who might very well be the inky one’s uncle. Rorschach, not the disengaged blue god, is clearly the film's ideal. But Dan, a character who shifts between those two poles, is the audience surrogate, a geeky but muscled guy who can’t get it up until he re-dons his Nite Owl costume and, along with a female partner, saves a bunch of kids from an apartment fire. The two of them cap their evening with a mutual orgasm of flame.

Unlike the typical superhero movie, Watchmen is a film of big ideas, and one of them is that mass carnage can usher in an era of peace. The major characters disagree only in the particulars. Dr. Manhattan makes a point of neither condemning nor condoning the film's most controversial, world-altering event, because his head is in the clouds. (He looks as if he’d rather be clearing brush.) Nixon and Kissinger, huddled in a war room, are only slightly more grounded; in their worst-case nuclear scenario they'll write off New England as collateral damage and even see the loss of Harvard liberals as a silver lining. The folks behind Watchmen may have taken the wrong lesson from Dr. Strangelove.

Furthermore, this gang doesn’t seem to realize how brief a violence-born peace may be. Remember when we were all New Yorkers? The assumption of the film is that a moment similar to the post-9/11 pause, if inflicted deeply enough, could blanket the globe with peace indefinitely, and if it happens during Nixon's reign it might preempt and best even Ronald Reagan who, as we know, single-handedly defeated the USSR in our real world.

Snyder never seems to consider the problems of macho justice. My advice to the entire naive lot—to the blue god, Rorschach, the geeky-sexy couple, the effeminate liberal (there's always an effeminate liberal) and Snyder himself—is this: Do not overestimate the longevity of global unity or the productiveness of violence, on any scale.

Keeping in mind that I have not yet seen the movie, this review strikes me as simply ludicrous. It takes the entire work out of perspective. First off, he blames Zack Snyder for the content and themes of Watchmen, even though those weren't Snyder's doing. Remember that this is based on a graphic novel. Second, he seems to think that the movie/book condone the use of one monstrously violent act to unite the world. Again, this is just wrong. Remember that the character responsible for this is the bad guy. Also, there is no one central character in the movie. They all have their stories, and the novel goes out of it's way not to choose sides. Yes, the end is written with a "this is wrong" slant, but come on, it is. But for the rest of the actions that are taken, the judgement is left up to the reader. And it's reviews like these that really make me think that the people who aren't liking this movie are the ones incapable of seeing past the facade to see the true story that lies underneath.

So much for intelligent criticisms.

Anyway, 5 hours, 18 minutes. I'll see you after the movie.

Watchmen in three, two...

Two days left until Watchmen! Well, until I see it anyway. I'm sitting at work staring at my tickets for Friday night, 10:15pm on IMAX. For any of you in the Colorado Springs area, I'll be at the Cinemark on Powers.

It's going to be a great movie, no doubt about it. Like I said, I'm sitting at work right now, but all I can think about is seeing Watchmen. It doesn't help that everywhere I turn I see Watchmen advertisements, including right on my company's home page. Could we make this any more difficult for me?

Anyway, I should be posting a review immediately after the movie finishes, so stay tuned.

The Best of 2008

I what's become a bit of a tradition since I started my fist blog on myspace, I've compiled a list of the best things I've done since the dawn of 2008. Video games, books, and movies, all ranked for my pleasure, below.

Best Movie

Uh, The Dark Knight. There is no question here. Not only was it one of the best movies I've ever seen, it easily takes the cake as the best movie this year. 

Runners Up: Cloverfield, The Wrestler, Ironman

Best Movie Score

Same as above. Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard scored The Dark Knight perfectly. From the pumped up action sequences to the simple yet chilling theme for the Joker, there was not a better soundtrack to come out all year.

Runners Up: Cloverfield (yes, it only had one original song, but it was badass), The Wrestler

Best Book I Read

It certainly didn't come out this year, but Watchmen takes this cake. Again, one of the best books ever, so it;'s easily the best book of the year.

Runners up: Nothing was even close to this good.

Best Movie I Watched That Did Not Come Out in 2008

That would have to go to V for Vendetta. It's one of those movies that I can watch again and again and again and it gives me the chills every time. It takes a special talent for an actor to make an audience sympathize with a man whose face you never see, and Hugo Weaving does a fantastic job of it. Put that together with a drop-dead amazing score, plus great acting from the supporting cast and a very powerful, relevant story, and you have one hell of a movie.

Runners up: Prime, Running Scared, The Da Vinci Code

Best Video Game

I had to think long and hard about this particular one. There were a ton of great games that came out this year, so I had to find a way to narrow the results. After much thought, I narrowed the list to 2 games, but I just could not decide which was better, so I've decided to say they are both the best game of 2008. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and Dead Space. I wrote about how great The Force Unleashed is here. A review of Dead Space is forthcoming. They are both phenominal games in their own rights, and they set a standard for what gamers should be able to look forward to from the future of video games.

Runners Up: WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2009, Rock Band 2, Fallout 3

Best Video Game Score

Yet again, there were a metric ton of great scores for video games this past year. I could prattle on and on and on about how great a year it was for video game soundtracks and even longer about how much time I've spent listening to them. Again, this was a very hard list to narrow down, but in the end, the award goes to only one. Steve Jablonsky (who also had my favorite movie score from last year with Transformers) gets the nod this year with Gears of War 2. As I said in my short review, I'm not much of a fan of the game itself, but the score is just mind-blowingly good. The themes Jablonsky creates, coupled with the grandiosity of the soundtrack as a whole make it one of the most compelling listens of the year.

Runners Up: Too Human, Infinite Undiscovery, Fallout 3, Dead Space, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Best Album

Death Magnetic, by Metallica. Easy one here. None of my favorite bands came out with anything particularly great this year, but Metallica released a CD that renewed my faith in their music writing skills. After the tragedy that was St. Anger it was refreshing and relieving to hear guitar solos and drums that sounded better than a baby beating on mommy's pot collection. 

Runners Up: Cartographer (Piri Reis Remixes) - E.S. Posthumus

That covers my list of the most awesome of the awesome from 2008. Cheers to a very happy and healthy new year to everybody reading this, and everybody who hasn't discovered it yet. 

Watchmen Trailers

Just so you don't have to look very far for your Watchmen fix:

Trailer 1

Trailer 2

Very Important...

...is Watchmen. Not since 1984 have I read a book so horrifying in its premise, and never have I read a book with more thoroughly realized characters or plot. Alan Moore's comic sucked me in from page 1 with its rich dialog, its subplot upon subplot, its mesmerizing style of prose that is so good it defies description. 

The comic book or graphic novel genre is often associated with cartoonish characters and childish themes - especially by outsiders looking in. Avid comic fans will talk for hours about the mature themes and characterizations to be found in the medium. The recent comic book movie fad has certainly shown the world a darker, more mature side of the graphic novel. Spider-Man has shown us what it means to be human in the face of rejection and it has shown us that we can take the characters behind the mask seriosuly. The Dark Knight is perhaps one of the darkest movies of our time, but it shows us how hard it can be to stay on the side of right in the face of nearly insurmountable evil. 

It was with this mindset that I set about reading some of the novels of Alan Moore, a man about whom I'd heard much, never a bad word. I started in the world of V, the masked vigilante that runs amok in facist Britain. How terrifying a premise, yet how elating it is when good prevails. I have read both the novel and seen the movie. I believe the movie accomplished what it was after far better than the novel, though the novel is appreciable in many more ways.

I moved from Britain to Gotham after seeing the Dark Knight. I have said many a time here on this blog that the Joker's psychology, or lack thereof, fascinates me. Moore's The Killing Joke goes boldly where no graphic novel had gone to that date: into the deranged mind of the psychopath, and what resides therein is at once engrossing and disturbing.

Yet, nothing prepared me for what awaited behind the yellow cover with a smile and a splotch of blood. Nothing prepared me to the journey on which I was about to embark, into this world rich in detail and depth, layered with plots and subplots, driven by characters who are almost more real than my hand in front of my face. It was a slow process, reading Watchmen. I found myself drawn to the page, exploring the art as I read the text, finding the nuances throughout. What is often overlooked, I believe, by the public at large, is the illustrativeness of the graphic novel. I certainly went through my days reading the kiddy comics, where the pictures were more filler than anything. But in Watchmen, every picture has a purpose beyond just illustrating a frame. The effect of absorbing both the written word and the illustrated picture is almost hypnotic. And yet, what it comes down to is the characters and how their actions define the story, and looking back on it, how those characters have influenced characters that came after (Saw's entire premise is based upon one scene in Watchmen, and that one scene, which took maybe a minute to read, is more appalling than the entire 2 hour movie experience).

It is on the backs of these characters that the story is driven. The deeply imagined characters come to life through the creative talents of Alan Moore. Each one is alive and has such a deeply realized psyche, it's hard not to imagine Nite Owl sitting right here next to me. Each character is a super hero, but at the same time, each is flawed and human and pained and real. 

The picture that this story paints is at once abhorrent and thought provoking. The end will leave you stunned, gasping for breath, your mind completely numbed. It will leave you questioning your morals, what is right and what is wrong. It will leave you asking: was it worth it? And the best part? Moore leaves it up to the reader to decide what's right and what's wrong. The door is wide open, and we are free to choose for ourselves. And, believe me, it's something that any reader will likely think about for a long, long time after turning the final page. 

The movie comes out soon, and I'm more excited than ever. I cannot wait to see what becomes of the characters when we see them on the big screen. I hear rumors that the ending is being tweaked, and that makes me truly nervous. I cannot imagine a more fitting end than the one penned by Mr. Moore.

In conclusion, I daresay that this might be in the top 5 most important fictional works ever written - a pretty big leap for one of those childish comics, eh? But in all seriousness, this book ranks easily among the best I've ever read, and I'd strongly recommend to anybody who hasn't already: read it now.

Randomness

What a strange week.

I'd like to start off by thanking all the people who went out to vote. In Colorado, 90% of registered voters made it out to make their opinions heard, and that is just amazing.

In other news... Rumor has it that there is going to be a movie made based on the board game Monopoly. Yes, you read that correctly. Not sure what kind of storyline you attach to a board game about greed, but hey, why not? Hollywood's out of ideas anyway, right?

On second thought, perhaps you could make the movie a metaphor for our current floundering economy because of greed. But nobody watches those things.

Obama toured the White House on Monday with Bush. They played at being civil while, in the back of his head, Bush laughed like a drunken orangutan over the fact that he was handing off one of the worst economic situations in the country's history.

Anyway, I just started reading Watchmen, the supposedly brilliant graphic novel by Alan Moore. After seeing previews for the movie that made me drool in anticipation, I figured I'd give the novel a whirl before seeing the film. I'm not terribly far into it, but I am thusfar impressed.

I recently finished reading The Killing Joke, also by Alan Moore, because I have a fascination with The Joker. Putting aside the silly things that the Joker does in other, more cartoon-y comics and movies, there are very few works - novel, comic, movie, or otherwise - that take the time to really explore the psyche of this villain, and I think that's a damn shame. Too often, people just resort to senseless violence and stupid humor when writing about Joker, and that seems wasteful to me. Here is one of the more intriguing bad guys in modern literature, and his character is so often wasted on piddly contrivances and shallow characterizations. The Dark Knight was the first work I saw that truly explored the nuances of Joker's character and what it is that makes him tick. After doing some research into the matter, I stumbled across The Killing Joke, which, upon reading reviews, was attempting to do exactly what I was looking for: delve into that twisted mind. And it did an admirable job. Another graphic novel, The Joker, just came out. I'm eagerly anticipating reading that, as it too is supposed to cast off the cheery, hollow facade so many other authors use to portray Joker and show us a truly dark side. I can't wait.

One of the most developed bad guy characters in literature is Hannibal Lecter. I saw Silence of the Lambs on VHS (whoa, what's that?) when I was about 7. It took me weeks to get the image of the skins hanging off the cage, backlit by the white light that made them look angelic out of my head. That one scene started a deep fascination with the character Hannibal Lecter. Through the course of 4 well-crafted and meticulously researched books (and 4 movies which were not, generally, up to the same standard), Thomas Harris brought the character to life, gave him flesh and bones, twitches and peeves, but most importantly, he showed readers the true psyche of the man. For those of you that have only seen the movies, you have done yourself a great disservice. As great as Silence of the Lambs was, and as horrible as the rest of the movies were, they just do not go into the depth that the books do. Without the depth, many of the actions taken by Hannibal do not make any sense. They seem random an unplanned. Say what you will about the depraved and viscerally horrifying things that Hannibal did, but there would be no denying the sheer brialliance of the execution.

Some of you may read that and label me prime serial killer material, but I assure you I have no intentions, deisres, needs or otherwise to kill people. I am merely fascinated by the things that push the mind (particularly the brilliant mind) into territory that dark.