What I think is really interesting about this video, though, is this kid’s movements. Very quietly, he makes the noises for every weapon, almost to himself. He replicates the firing and reloading animations with uncanny accuracy. Watch the way his hand trembles when he’s holding the plasma pistol - at precisely the same angle as it is animated in the game.

There’s more: when he reloads, he takes the clip down to his belt and just vaguely touches it there before putting it back in the gun. Of course, when you’re playing Halo, you can’t see where the MC stashes the empty clip, or where he takes the next clip from - it’s out of frame from your POV, and it’s not detailed when you watch someone else do it. So there’s nothing for this kid to replicate - even though a real Master Chief would actually have somewhere to put empties and take new ammo from.

Watch him kneel down with the Battle Rifle - instead of kneeling down naturally, he goes to some lengths to imitate the particularly smooth and uniform action that the Halo 3 animations have. He even teabags an imaginary dead foe. When he turns around with the battle rifle, he keeps one leg almost fixed in place, and pivots around it with the other one, making him look like he’s on a turntable. It’s exactly the unnatural, frictionless turn you get when you watch someone scanning the horizon in Halo.

For the Sword, he holds the sword in his right hand, and holds his left out in front of him - keeping the angle of his hand to his chest consistent, even when he bends over. Just like the animation from the player’s POV.

This is interesting. This kid is pretending. But he’s not pretending to be a cybernetically augmented human in a future battlefield. He’s pretending to be a video game model of such a soldier.

Nite-Owl: Rorschach…? Rorschach, wait! Where are you going? This is too big to be hard-assed about! We have to compromise!

Rorschach: No. Not even in the face of Armageddon. Never compromise.

The trailer makes it look like they’re trying to fit everything in; character backrounds, the city-destroying stuff, even the wierd bit on mars. So much happens in the graphic novel that they’re going to have to cut down somewhere…

Still, I am very excited. Watchmen is up there with GitS, Dark Knight Returns, Transmet and Appleseed on my list of favorite graphic novels!