Another day another set of Watchmen movie posters – Comics Continuum has six individual character posters up with the principal cast members. Doc Manhattan has his clothes on for this one, the Comedian and Rorschach look pretty good, Nite Owl I’m not so sure about and Ozymandias – well, is it just me or does his costume here make him look a bit like he sneaked out from the Batman and Robin movie? Although to be fair, translating costumes that work in the four-colour wonder of a comics page to something that works in a film isn’t easy and I doubt sticking to the original comics version would have worked either. But the Silk Spectre one… The head looking back across the shoulder, posed so the shape of her chest is prominent and her PVC-clad bum is even more prominent…
I don’t know – Malin Akerman is undoubtebly a ravishing fantasy figure here, but at the same time it feels more than a little exploitative, especially given none of the male cast are posed in such a manner. The strap line “I am used to going out at 3am and doing something stupid” in conjunction with that image doesn’t make me think of her fighting crime, more like she is out looking for a good late-night PVC fetish club… Then again in the book Alan does have her comment about how revealing her costume is too, so maybe I shouldn’t be critical, maybe its deliberate, but given how often the superhero side of comics get criticised (often rightly) for their unrealistic depiction of women (and to be fair, men too) it does make me wince a bit. And if I’m totally honest, while wincing and thinking exploitative there’s another part thinking wow and how did they just spray that costume directly onto Malin? Talk about conflicted. Well, sexy doesn’t necessarily mean being exploited – ah, you make up your own minds on this one, folks! Meanwhile on the official movie site’s blog there are links to the trailer which aired at the recent Spike Scream awards and a new entry in the video journal.
November 12th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Well, I think the “something stupid” she is doing at 3AM is pretty clearly depicted in the poster. My worry is it seems such a lame line – couldn’t they have come up with something better. As a poster design i can’t say i care for it very much at all or any of them really. They seem so lacking in anything very creative in design terms and only the Rorscharch one even has enough genuine wordplay based on the character to carry any real irony or humour. I do like the look of Veidt’s gen manipulated Lynx tho’.
November 12th, 2008 at 11:15 am
I thought you weren’t a cat person :-)?
November 13th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Yep, it’s her arse that’s the selling point here. I was disappointed with what happened to Journal in Ex Machina too: she had potential to be an interesting character, then she was turned into prurient t&a in her last few panels.