{"id":321,"date":"2009-03-06T21:12:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-06T21:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/03\/watchmen-and-the-jar-jar-binks-meme\/"},"modified":"2009-03-06T21:12:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-06T21:12:00","slug":"watchmen-and-the-jar-jar-binks-meme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/03\/watchmen-and-the-jar-jar-binks-meme.html","title":{"rendered":"Watchmen and the Jar Jar Binks meme"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

First<\/a>, Devin Gordon wrote this in his Watchmen<\/a><\/i> review for Newsweek<\/i> magazine:<\/span><\/p>\n

Snyder\u2019s attention wanders when it comes to meat-and-potatoes storytelling, perhaps because he\u2019s never really had to tell one before. He draws performances that range from sublime (Jackie Earle Haley as a bitter antihero named Rorschach) to ridiculous (Malin Akerman, who has a sweet onscreen disposition but is nonetheless the Jar Jar Binks of \u201cWatchmen\u201d).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Then<\/a>, SpoutBlog ran the following picture with an article by Christopher Campbell called \u20185 Reasons a Watchmen Movie Was Unnecessary\u2019 \u2014 an article, I might add, that never uses the words \u201cJar\u201d, \u201cJar\u201d or \u201cBinks\u201d:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And then<\/a>, I discovered that the image below was one of six finalists in Gizmodo\u2019s \u2018104 Ways to Hilariously Ruin the Watchmen<\/i> Movie\u2019 PhotoShop contest:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Well, at least that last item wasn\u2019t necessarily saying that the movie was<\/i> ruined, only that it could<\/i> have been ruined.<\/p>\n

I must confess, I am kind of curious, now, to see if this meme has any sort of staying power. But just for the record, I saw the film myself this afternoon and I do not<\/i> think Akerman is the Jar Jar Binks of this film.<\/p>\n

I am not quite sure just what I do<\/i> think of the film itself, yet, but for what it\u2019s worth, Jeffrey Wells<\/a>\u2018s reaction comes close to my own on several points, and I agree with Heidi MacDonald<\/a> that the pop-song picks on the soundtrack are often \u201cembarrassingly on the nose\u201d.<\/p>\n

Oh, and my favorite exchange from the book \u2014 and one of the book\u2019s pithiest, most significant bits of dialogue \u2014 has been completely recontextualized and given to two completely different characters, in a way that robs the exchange of its full power, I think. I can\u2019t decide whether this is better or worse than, say, the way Harry Potter<\/a> and the Philosopher\u2019s Stone<\/a><\/i> (2001) simply omitted several of the funniest and most character-revealing lines from its<\/i> source material. I mean, at least the Watchmen<\/i> exchange is still in there, somewhere\u2026 but if they\u2019re not going to do it right, then why do it at all?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First, Devin Gordon wrote this in his Watchmen review for Newsweek magazine: Snyder\u2019s attention wanders when it comes to meat-and-potatoes storytelling, perhaps because he\u2019s never really had to tell one before. He draws performances that range from sublime (Jackie Earle Haley as a bitter antihero named Rorschach) to ridiculous (Malin Akerman, who has a sweet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWatchmen and the Jar Jar Binks meme<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"First, Devin Gordon wrote this in his Watchmen review for Newsweek magazine:Snyder's attention wanders when it comes to meat-and-potatoes storytelling,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/03\/watchmen-and-the-jar-jar-binks-meme.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Watchmen and the Jar Jar Binks meme\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"First, Devin Gordon wrote this in his Watchmen review for Newsweek magazine:Snyder's attention wanders when it comes to meat-and-potatoes storytelling,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2009\/03\/watchmen-and-the-jar-jar-binks-meme.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-03-06T21:12:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/SbIEE4IRIpI\/AAAAAAAADBw\/h1AHs-Haq6g\/s400\/watchmen-jarjar-silkspectre.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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