The Mindscape of Alan Moore (2003)

To me, this movie is perfection.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

One can say that a movie has a different impact on every person, and I agree with that, and i do realize that this is not a very well-made documentary per se, but it caused a major impact on me, very much because i wasn't expecting such a tremendous amount of information when i first thought about watching it.I was, in fact expecting to see some kind of biography and a scratch on the surface on Moore's most popular comic books, and that documentary really have these features, but eventually it becomes a rare piece of modern philosophy and a way to relate with the world that at least for me was entirely fresh and new. A view on the subject of magic that totally made sense to me, and a reflection on our day and age that is realistically terrifying.Yes, you'll watch a 80-minute monologue by Alan Moore, but I highly recommend it, because if you pay attention, this can be a very enriching experience after all.

Basically all this film manages to do is prove how superior Alan Moore feels to everyone. Early in the movie he comments about his already huge ego as a 17 year old, and it seems that balloon has continued to become over-inflated throughout the intervening years.Moore does go into some detail about his childhood and how horribly bleak the world around him was - how he was saved by comic books and set about to write comics of his own. Interesting, but really of no value to anyone wanting to know 'how he did it'.The entire second half of the movie is Moore waxing poetic about magic, how he is a magician, how science knows and can prove nothing, and how much better his own ways are. He even goes so far as to quote a few others who he believes are "in the know" and then either overtly takes credit for their ideas or usurps them into a twisted notion he claims is his answer to life the universe and so on.Essentially, Moore seems to be trying to set himself up as a latter-day Alistair Crowley, rather unsuccessfully. As he goes on about his theories of meta-physics, pseudo-science, amateur psychology and spiritualism, it becomes quickly apparent that Moore not only wants, but craves attention - strange for a man who claims early in the film to have no use for his own celebrity.When I watched this film I thought I would get a look at how Moore created such amazing tales as V for Vendetta, From Hell, The Watchmen and others - instead, it just left me wondering how the poor fellow could have become so deluded about the world and his place in it.It will not surprise me to hear Moore has attempted to start his own cult, I just seriously doubt many people will be lining up to hear his brand of new-age meta-physical strangeness.He should have just stuck to comics...

This man is one of the authors I absolutely admire. His thoughts are complicated, yet quite clear. His comics are full of action and in the same time full of deep underlying messages.However, he is sometimes very ... controversial. In this document, he tries to explain his thought on magic, his thought on the modern, commercial world, and he talks about how he became a comic writer.This document is strong in moments, when there is only Alan speaking and telling his story. But when the author of documentary tries to use his own approach, the film became boring. So yes, we will see Rorschach on the roof - and it is the most boring Rorschach I have seen. The music is also inappropriate and special effects are laughable (yes, there are special effects in interview. don't ask me why.) But the interview with Alan is really worth watching this documentary or buying it on DVD.

First I must confess that I am a huge fan of the works of Alan Moore, with which if you are not familiar include works such as Watchmen, V for Vendetta, From Hell, and Promethea. If you are familiar with his works only through the Hollywoodization of them, then I'm afraid you don't know Alan Moore very well. Every single adaptation of his works to film so far has stripped the 'Moore' out of the stories to make them palpable to, i don't know, commercial audiences. I recommend that you seek out the original comic formats for the stories to see the added depth that Moore put in the originals.However this movie isn't recommended for only those people interested in comic books. In fact people who don't know who Moore is, but are interested in Philosophy, Art, Aesthetics, Literature, Magic, and Religion should also watch this movie. For it is about the mind of a man who has in a manner chosen to live slightly to the left of convention, and observe convention, and then write about convention.His ideas are in my opinion, those of a modern day philosopher. A philosopher not in the relegated academic sense of the word, but a philosopher who found himself to be one through the life that he had lived. Moore prefers the term magician. But the distinction is arbitrary, and i think Moore would agree with me.