Best Alan Moore Adaptation?

[4thWallBreaker]

With Killing Joke being made into a feature soon, I was wondering what everyone's favorite adaptation of his is.

I choose V for Vendetta. Powerful stuff.

 

[Batmannerism]

Hmmmmm..... okay clearly Watchmen and V for Vendetta are the
best by a long way, with LOEG being the worst by far.

I suppose we should included animated versions of Alan Moore stories.

I believe that Superman TAS had an adaptation of "For the Man who has Everything" which was also adapted for Supergirl last month.

Anyway, I'm going to say Watchmen, because I believe it was a much bigger task to bring it to the big screen - and I am a big fan of the 4 hour cut.

V for Vendetta is indeed a pretty powerful film and was nicely updated for the 21st century, but I'm going to give Watchmen a slight edge, based on the chill I got when the opening credits rolled - an entire world unfurled in 6 minutes to Dylan's lament.

While Killing Joke gets a lot of props, I remember Moore saying he wasn't quite satisfied with it. To be honest, I bought it when it first came out, and neither was I - found the ending too anticlimactic. The artwork is beautiful, Bolland at his best and the story is incredibly creepy - the Joker origin bits are great, but the whole torture of Gordon and Barbara....well I feel like Batman needed to not be so okay with that. But that's just me.

So to be honest, I'm not that excited about an animated version.

Sorry, big digression there....so yeah, Watchmen by a nose !

 

[BH/HHH]

I know it's not a film but for me it's the JLU Episode 'For The Man Who Has Everything' which is my favourite adaptation of his.

But if we have to go live action I'd go wit V For Vendetta

 

[DA_Champion]

V for Vendetta was atrocious, so Watchmen by default.

 

[The Joker]

V for Vendetta by a long way.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Tough one between V and Watchmen, had to vote for the latter though as the directors cut is so damn good! Theatricals I would have probably gone for V

 

[Fallen Angel]

Watchmen.

 

[Forever Evil]

Watchmen.

 

[4thWallBreaker]

I'm not too surprised Watchmen is winning, especially with Black Freighter tagging along. People forget that the people whom disliked it were just the loud mouths. Tons of people loved it. I really enjoyed it.

 

[Drz]

Watchmen

 

[Jake Cassidy]

Watchmen

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

I'll never get the love for Watchmen.

While some of the adaptation was page for page in other ways the tone was waaaaay off.

It's a decent movie but is it worthy of one of the greatest graphic novels in history? No way.

While the V for Vendetta took plenty of liberties, I can feel confident telling someone to watch it instead of reading the graphic novel if they're short on time.

I would never recommend the Watchmen movie over the graphic novel, not under any circumstances.

 

[DA_Champion]

I'll never get the love for Watchmen.

While some of the adaptation was page for page in other ways the tone was waaaaay off.

It's a decent movie but is it worthy of one of the greatest graphic novels in history? No way.

While the V for Vendetta took plenty of liberties, I can feel confident telling someone to watch it instead of reading the graphic novel if they're short on time.

I would never recommend the Watchmen movie over the graphic novel, not under any circumstances.

I hadn't read either comic before watching the movies.

V for Vendetta, I was watching it and it was clear that they were making a heavy-handed criticism of George W. Bush. It was so simplistic (I'm on the far-left btw) that I was offended. I looked it up online after watching the movie and found out Alan Moore had the same opinion I did, he said they made his comic into an "American Liberal fantasy".

Watchmen, I took it on its own, without reference to the comic I had not read. I liked that it was slow and philosophically deep. It had a huge amount of courage, for example it showed the superheroes committing war crimes in Vietnam, you don't expect that from an American movie, contemporary Hollywood movies mostly show Americans as being the victims of the Vietnam war. For example in Bryan Singer's Days of Future Past, Vietnam is presented as a war that victimized Americans, and nothing else.

In later years I found out that Paul Greengrass was a competitor to Zack Snyder. He wanted to do to Watchmen what was done to V for Vendetta: to make it about George W. Bush. I'm glad he didn't get the job.

I now realize that this is another avenue in which Snyder is distinct from other blockbuster directors: he actually likes and is interested in history. He's made 300, Watchmen, Sucker Punch takes place in the 1960s (and other periods), and so on. His first instinct is not to be completely ignorant of the past and to study the present in isolation of any historical context.

 

[Batmannerism]

I hadn't read either comic before watching the movies.

V for Vendetta, I was watching it and it was clear that they were making a heavy-handed criticism of George W. Bush. It was so simplistic (I'm on the far-left btw) that I was offended. I looked it up online after watching the movie and found out Alan Moore had the same opinion I did, he said they made his comic into an "American Liberal fantasy".

Watchmen, I took it on its own, without reference to the comic I had not read. I liked that it was slow and philosophically deep. It had a huge amount of courage, for example it showed the superheroes committing war crimes in Vietnam, you don't expect that from an American movie, contemporary Hollywood movies mostly show Americans as being the victims of the Vietnam war. For example in Bryan Singer's Days of Future Past, Vietnam is presented as a war that victimized Americans, and nothing else.

In later years I found out that Paul Greengrass was a competitor to Zack Snyder. He wanted to do to Watchmen what was done to V for Vendetta: to make it about George W. Bush. I'm glad he didn't get the job.

I now realize that this is another avenue in which Snyder is distinct from other blockbuster directors: he actually likes and is interested in history. He's made 300, Watchmen, Sucker Punch takes place in the 1960s (and other periods), and so on. His first instinct is not to be completely ignorant of the past and to study the present in isolation of any historical context.

Yeah, I think Snyder did a brilliant job of bringing back 1985 in Watchmen - he certainly captured the paranoia and fear of the cold war, which I remember from my childhood. I liked that there was the cinematic release which condensed the bare bones of the story, and the director's cut which fills in some of the bits that fans are looking for (like the murder of Hollis Mason). Snyder may not be a Spielberg, Scorsese or Soderbergh, but he's still very capable.


On the V for Vendetta note, well I think it had to be updated. I mean, while Thatcherism, which is what VfV was a reaction to, was an enormous issue in the 70's and 80's, those days are long gone - so while the setting and context changed a little, I think the key ingredients of Moore's story remained. The absolutely brilliant sequence of Eve's transformation, after her captivity (probably the most significant moment in the story) is still there and done well.

I prefer the film version of Eve, as in the comic she is really just a pawn. In the film she has a bit of backbone. Also, it's easy to get lost in all the side plots and minor characters of the comic ( something Moore toned down a bit for Watchmen).

But that's just me of course.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Watched the DC of Watchmen again last night, I just don't get the hate. I love it as both a movie and an adaptation of the GN. The cast were damn good and some sequences were literally perfect.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

I hadn't read either comic before watching the movies.

V for Vendetta, I was watching it and it was clear that they were making a heavy-handed criticism of George W. Bush. It was so simplistic (I'm on the far-left btw) that I was offended. I looked it up online after watching the movie and found out Alan Moore had the same opinion I did, he said they made his comic into an "American Liberal fantasy".

Watchmen, I took it on its own, without reference to the comic I had not read. I liked that it was slow and philosophically deep. It had a huge amount of courage, for example it showed the superheroes committing war crimes in Vietnam, you don't expect that from an American movie, contemporary Hollywood movies mostly show Americans as being the victims of the Vietnam war. For example in Bryan Singer's Days of Future Past, Vietnam is presented as a war that victimized Americans, and nothing else.

In later years I found out that Paul Greengrass was a competitor to Zack Snyder. He wanted to do to Watchmen what was done to V for Vendetta: to make it about George W. Bush. I'm glad he didn't get the job.

I now realize that this is another avenue in which Snyder is distinct from other blockbuster directors: he actually likes and is interested in history. He's made 300, Watchmen, Sucker Punch takes place in the 1960s (and other periods), and so on. His first instinct is not to be completely ignorant of the past and to study the present in isolation of any historical context.

The V for Vendetta graphic novel was a heavy handed criticism of Margaret Thatcher so I'm not sure what's so terrible about updating it to be a criticism of George W. Bush.

Also, as Batmannerism mentioned, Evey, the female protagonist was actually improved. Instead of being a clueless 16 year old street walker, she had a job with the media, was sophisticated and actually had quiet resentment for the government since they persecuted her parents. This made her transformation more believable and gave it more weight.

Then you have the ending where V isn't just starting a riot, he is actually inspiring the public to become principled freedom fighters the same way he was.

Ultimately the movie did a fantastic job making V for Vendetta relevant and inspirational for this generation.

 

[Mjölnir]

V for Vendetta is the best for me. Hugo Weaving make a pretty iconic voice performance in an overall fun but dark, "comicbooky" satire. Unfortunately I've never read the original graphic novel so I can't compare to that though. That people above are saying they updated it to a new political situation sounds great to me. That makes the movie even more worth making since it then brings a new idea.

I did read Watchmen, and watched the motion comic, before seeing the movie and that probably hurt it. There are plenty of things that are really similar, which is very nice although somewhat flat since I've experienced the story in two different mediums already (not really the movie's fault though), but everything that was changed was for the worse imo. It felt more flashy, which does not suit Watchmen, some actors didn't do that well (I remember my countryman Malin Åkerlund as downright bad) and it just felt like a lesser experience.

I think I would like V for Vendetta more regardless but the comparison is skewed due to my previous experiences, or lack thereof, with the source materials. V is not quite as ambitious but fires on more cylinders.

 

[Guts]

Should Constantine be on here? Even though the movie isn't based on a comic that Moore wrote, he did create the character.

 

[Adhesive Boy]

V for Vendetta is the most well made movie, and adaptation, out of these.

 

[Boom]

V for Vendetta.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

V for Vendetta is the only one that is actually good.

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

V For Vendetta is a movie that I'll usually watch when it's on TV, if only for a few minutes.

 

[Batmannerism]

The V for Vendetta graphic novel was a heavy handed criticism of Margaret Thatcher so I'm not sure what's so terrible about updating it to be a criticism of George W. Bush.

Also, as Batmannerism mentioned, Evey, the female protagonist was actually improved. Instead of being a clueless 16 year old street walker, she had a job with the media, was sophisticated and actually had quiet resentment for the government since they persecuted her parents. This made her transformation more believable and gave it more weight.

Then you have the ending where V isn't just starting a riot, he is actually inspiring the public to become principled freedom fighters the same way he was.

Ultimately the movie did a fantastic job making V for Vendetta relevant and inspirational for this generation.

Agreed, I thought it was a very good update. Particularly Evey's journey - in the comic V manipulates and molds her into his successor, but in the film he wants her to be separate from his, as she represents the everyday moral person - once her eyes are opened he doesn't want to twist her into another version of himself, well that's what I think. At the end she's become her own person, influenced by V, but able to make her own decisions - which is what V's offer, of the decision whether to destroy Parliament or not, to her.


Maybe that's the difference between the context, Thatcher's Britain was more of an economic version of fascism, whereas Bush's was about the removal of freedom via subservience to fear (kind of a lower key version of 1984, with the perpetual war approach).

Moore likes leaving things highly ambiguous, but I think that a film version of VFV required a little less anarchy at the end - I actually prefer the mass rally, which was kind of surreal as the (dead) victims of the regime are seen amongst those gathered, kind of representing that they were a part V's struggle to bring the regime to it's knees, and his courage in rebelling was part of them.

The first time I saw it I was on a plane, but it really made me sit up and take notice.

Anyway, that's just me.

 

[Doctor Jones]

V For Vendetta. Even though a lot of it is different as an adaptation, it's still a good movie for what it is, even though I disagree with what was changed.

Maybe some day though, someone will actually understand Alan Moore's works and adapt it and make the right concessions to make it cinematic. It's possible, even if Moore disagrees.

 

[4thWallBreaker]

Should Constantine be on here? Even though the movie isn't based on a comic that Moore wrote, he did create the character.

Thought about it, but no, I don't think it should be. That movie came across as more a Garth Ennis and Warren Ellis touch. But yeah, it really isn't attached to any specific writer with how ambiguous the amalgamation of elements were.

I'm not too surprised that Watchmen is winning, but thought for sure V would take it. So many people out there crap all over the Watchmen adaptation. Like it's there job and they get paid overtime. Heh.