I'll hopefully be, ah, accompanying the eldest to see it this weekend. Not going for myself, oh no. of course not.
The original comics/graphic novel are intensely British in style and in all the references, so I'm interested to see what Hollywood has made of it: I've read a novelisation (the book of the film of the comic, oh my) and this seems quite faithful, with the changes making it tauter and less surreal so easier to film or for an unfamiliar audience to grasp.
OK, I admit it, my reading of choice is decidedly low-brow genre.
Also very interesting is the updating of the timeline, and how well it fits. The original is set mid-1990's: Britain veered leftwards after removing Thatcher earlier than happened, unilaterally disarmed and US nukes were removed, and hence we largely escaped the nuclear war which damaged the rest of Eurasia (and presumably the US). The neo-fascists came to power after this, but still had to contend with the economic collapse.
Whereas the film is set in the near-future of today...
Of course, Alan Moore seems incapable of poor plotting in any case.
And I love his original foreword to the GN, in the UK in 88 at the peak of Thatcher's triumphalism... "It's cold and it's mean spirited and I don't like it here anymore."
p.s. Unbelievable. I googled to check the exact foreword since my copy's boxed up somewhere. Found it elsewhere (got the year right anyhow), but also the wikipedia entries... clearly written by a fan <gg>
en.wikipedia.org
en.wikipedia.org
I'm not saying this makes it superior to Britannica - but I'm impressed! |
