In my review, I acknowledged something of an appreciation of the movie’s spectacle — heck, I gave it three stars, almost for spectacle alone (so I’m clearly leaning towards liking the film rather than disliking it…for whatever that’s worth). It’s hard to fully succeed on the strength of spectacle alone, though, particularly in a post-digital age.

I think you’re probably right about “deconstruction through excess” — I woudl say this aspect is definitely present in the comics, but some of it was lost in the transition to film. The whole thing just felt far more deadly serious than it should have. This is compounded somewhat, I think, by Miller’s insistence on having a clear distinction between heroes and villains in every storyline — a provision that serves to undermine the amorality he strives for. (Again, I think this could have been helped if they had chosen to focus on a single story, rather than trying to cram three into a two-hour film.)

I actually said “cannibalistic cartel,” not “cabal.” For what it’s worth, I just looked both words up, and I think you could make the case that two people could, in fact, constitute a “cabal”…but not so much a “cartel.” So I guess I struck out on that one. In any case, I was merely trying to be succinct in my phrasing. Shrug.

There is no cannibalistic cabal; it’s just a priest and Elijah Wood.

Finally, even if a movie is a shot by shot recreation, it’s going to be a completely different experience than it would be if it was on the page. This movie is all about spectacle. You can bash spectacle if you want – plenty of people have – but I personally love a good spectacle. And as great as Miller’s art is, it brings a whole new dimension when the characters are 20 feet tall and the sound effects are audible.

I saw and liked both this movie and 300, because I basically bought into the movie’s overall premise: Seeing the comic-book realized on screen.

I imagine that Alan Moore, creator of “V For Vendetta” , “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” and the upcoming “Watchmen”, saw this film and was both satisfied and depressed at the same time… Satisfied because people liked a film that saw someone else’s work taken frame-for-frame and put on the screen, and depressed because… well… for pretty much the same reason.

And with the exception of “V For Vendetta”, a frame-by-frame re-telling of “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” would’ve been WAY better than the piece of (crap) we ended up seeing in the theaters.

Mahalo,
James