Watchmen, Stormtroopers and Pon Farr

Stormtroopers + Prince Charles + Companion Cube + Admiral Ackbar = a motivated designer

I have been really looking forward to the film adaptation of Alan Moore’s and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen. I first read the graphic novel masterpiece back in 1998 when visiting Chema’s home in Villamartin, Spain, and it immediately rocked my socks off. Chema has had a massive influence in my life; he also introduced me to Preacher and Sandman and I ended up doing my MA thesis about the narrative personas of Sandman comics. I remember sitting on Chema’s couch in Sevilla reading the complete Sandman saga in one go. This took several days, which he spent programming (the bizarre preference of old-skool green text on black screen) and listening to Pi soundtrack. I won’t ever forget crying uncontrollably, when I realised Morpheus was going to die. I also transferred from graphic design course to multimedia design in Uni after meeting Chema’s mate Syncro, who showed me how fun making computer graphics can be. Shortly put, Chema has changed my life in more than one occasion.
All this leads to recent fantastic news: Congratulations to Chema & Laura for their first child! Lovely baby girl Angela was born 18th of February 2009. I hope to come and visit you soon!

Back to Watchmen. The film was finally out in Finland last week. After a marathon of changes and delays in production, it was directed by Zack Snyder, previously known for directing Frank Miller’s 300. I was expecting the film to be done in similar style slow motion with limited colour palette, but was I wrong, the film felt nothing like 300 at all!

In the comic book Rorschach had been my favourite character, partly because the story narrative is told through his diary. However, in the film I really enjoyed the love story between the Nite Owl II (Dan) and Silk Spectre II (Laurie). They both had had predecessors they felt inferior to (Hollis Mason being the first Nite Owl and Laurie’s mum Sally Juspeczyk being the first Silk Spectre). In the comic book I merely saw them as weak dorks and sidekicks everyone was bossing around, but my favourite part in the film turned out to be them fighting their way together skillfully into the prison to free Rorschach (in the comic book they didn’t fight to get in, but I am glad they did that in the film).

A big reason why I didn’t relate as deeply to Rorschach in the film was that much of his character development had been left out of the story. Hopefully the extended version shows how Walter Kovacs really became Rorschach. In the film he felt harsh and a bit too much of a sociopath; the comic actually shows his reasons to get a new face – as he calls the mask – and the reader sympatises and understands why he left his old character behind. Another reason for me to look forward to the extended version is that it also contains the animated storyline The Black Freighter. And this is not all: the dvd will also include a documentary-style film called Under the Hood, which will reveal more of the character back stories. I am definately getting the extended dvd the first minute when it is out.

The film succeeded in changing my thinking without giving the feeling that the changes were wrong; the costumes had been upgraded and modernised to look sexy and that made the characters feel more cool. I wonder if Alan Moore would like this feature, since in his comic the characters were deliberately broken and faulty and very human. But then, Moore has said numerous times that he is not going to watch the film anyway, so doubt he will lose any sleep over the matter.

The squidless ending has seriously disturbed some people (see this hilarious video), but I can live with it. I will buy a pint for Zack for a job damn well done, if I ever meet him in person.

Another film I am looking forward to is the new Star Trek, which will be released in May. This new trailer was played before Watchmen and looked great on big screen!

More spice to my forthcoming Star Trek experience was added today by Chicago Tribune – this spring will be all about Pon Farr for me: three Star Trek-themed scents will be released on April 24. Two fragrances are for men, but the third one is where it gets good:

…it’s the Pon Farr perfume that may require a double take. That’s right, it’s for the ladies. Perhaps a great gift for mom for letting you crash in the basement for 50-some-odd years? Maybe not. It actually refers to the Vulcan mating ritual that occurs every seven years. So maybe this one’s only for special occasions?

Yay! I am definately up for some Pon Farr! I don’t even care what it smells like – I will order three bottles of it immediately when it is out. That should be enough for both special and not-so-special occasions to come.