The Watchmen

[ZeroKirbyX]

I have midnight tickets so yeah.

[Fortet]

Very much looking forward to it, but I do agree:
Silk Specter = No

Also, I get a giant cardboard standee from my theater because I work there, bitches >:D

[Red Giant]

Saw Watchmen. Spoiler Time.

Bad Stuff;
While the "hidden" references to 300 were irritating, perhaps the most irritating reference of all was the combat itself. Snyders ZOOOM SLLOOOW PHWOOOM POOOW fight scenes feel shoehorned in. The Watchmen are accomplished fighters, but they're not in the ****ing matrix. And violence. Too much stupid needless violence. Mostly all of the violent scenes in the movie are either ridiculously exaggerated or completely fabricated. It was, once again, needless and cheap.

Weeding out all the subplots, as beforementioned, ruined the context of the novel. The novel follows a number of side-plots, some of which reccuring, which track the day-to-day lives of non-super people. It might sound boring, but it brings important focus to normal humanity and how the events of the main story affect them.

Veidt
[spoiler]
was supposed to be a beautiful, chiselled and charming man. An athletic and wealthy aryan masterpiece who nonetheless is unquenchably compassionate. He is SUPPOSED to be attractive. Instead we get this weedy little prick with a smarmy grin and a lofty manner of speech. He's so clearly the villain. And this, ultimately, belittles the moral dilemma he faces.
In the novel, he is a genuinely sorrowful and empathetic character. He is a man who knows what must be done in the name of the greater good, but who is still shaken by the damage he causes. Sure, in the film he pays lip service to self-disgust, but he does it with a cold and unconvincing tone.

It felt like they just missed the point entirely. There are no heroes, nor villains, in watchmen. Each of the characters is flawed, and Veidt can be seen as either the savior of humanity or a monster of hitleresque proportions. The point is that it's your choice. Sure, the film does leave the choice open, but it does it with a few nudges and winks.[/spoiler]

Good Stuff;
Rorshach. He was wonderfully cast and acted, his voice was great and his ever-morphing mask is one of the few things that plainly come across better in film than in print (Although the origin of the mask was removed, making it seem arbitrary) The hard-cut idealism of this right-wing darker-than-dark-knight translated better into the film than the other characters.
In fact, I wanted more of him. Which I guess comes under Bad Stuff. I wanted to see more of his crucial scenes. The one that most readily comes to mind is his lecture to Veidt about his prostitution. And then his subsequent gay comments. What happened to the gay stuff, man?

People say watchmen is faithful. It was faithful insofar as a snakeskin is a snake. Sure, it bears outward resemblence, perfect likeness in some areas, but is missing something deeper. It wasn't a wasted experience. But I don't know if I'd want to see it again.

tl;dr: I'm a whiny bitch, you'd probably like it tbh.

[ThexXtremeXx]

lets look at it in an UN-geeky way.

the movie had alot of talking, i wish it had more fighting, the ending ruined it.

I give it a 3.9 out of 5.

[Moosetroop11]

HERE THERE BE SPOILERS:


I love the comic, it's amazing. The film was pretty faithful except the endrape... And I'm not just talking about them changing Veidt's plot, which was fair as they couldn't have set up the alien thing properly with the artist and everything. They did some really pointless things... Like Rorshach's death. In the comic Rorshach can't deal with injustice so he continues walking despite the fact that he knows he'll be killed, and he dies alone, and no-one really cares. It's the end of the old way. In the film, Dan runs out and watches Rorshach and Dr Manhattan talk, and Rorshach starts crying, and then when Dr M kills him, Dan let's out a hollywood "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" XD I mean, he murdered that bit so needlessly.

My final complaint is with Silk Spectre's actress. She's terrible. Half the time she was supposed to be sounding unsure of herself but she sounded like she'd forgotten her lines >.>

One thing I loved was the comedian. He certainly looked the part, anyway. Every scene with him in was done right.

[lonewolf]

The Watchmen is this any good ?
as i was going to see it with 20 kids next weekend

[SaiKar]

I liked it. You can probably dismiss most of the complaints of this topic as people that knew the graphic novel just being bitter. I didn't and went into the movie cold and liked it a lot.

[Fortet]

Yea, Silk Spectre (I and II) were just... Horrible.
I understand Sally was supposed to... "Hot-for-Teacher"-esque, but they just made her look like a slut. A cheap slut.
And the sex scene in Archie was just so overdone. There was no point to how long it was. It the comic, it was short and got the point across
[spoiler]about how dependent Dan was to Night Owl[/spoiler]

I was geekishly annoyed about how much had been taken out, like the entire Black Freighter subplot, and Dr. What's-his-Face (Walter's Psych).

Other than that, I do have to admit they did a great job making the characters look like they were straight from the comic. Except Laurie. That was just pathetic.

I'm not bashing, BTW. It was still a decent film. I guess my expectations were just a bit too high.

[ZeroKirbyX]

I liked the Watchmen comic.

I liked the Watchmen movie.

The Watchmen movie is not the Watchmen comic, it's the Watchmen music.

People need to get off the trip and just appreciate it for the entirely different thing that it is.

Except the first Hulk movie my god.

Also, the music was a poor choice.

[fruckert]

The Watchmen movie is not the Watchmen comic, it's the Watchmen music.

Might want to fix that

BTW, still haven't seen this
Still want to though

[Red Giant]

They did some really pointless things... Like Rorshach's death.

Know exactly what you mean. You know, most of the problems with this movie come from the submission to movie conventions. The need to force "emotional" scenes like this, or to blatantly point out who you're meant to consider the villain. Throwing in arbitrary violence and fight scenes to keep the airheads happy. I found out recently that Terry Gilliam turned down making the watchmen movie, saying it would need at least a 5-hour miniseries to do it justice. We can only dream.

[Rahl]

I really liked it, got to watch the midnight showing. Other than the fact that it was an absolute sausage fest (with exception of a wonderful scene) and that it seemed a little long and drawn out, I loved it.

[Red Giant]

I liked it. You can probably dismiss most of the complaints of this topic as people that knew the graphic novel just being bitter. I didn't and went into the movie cold and liked it a lot.

What's wrong with that? If they made a movie out of the Great Gatsby without the themes of class and materialism, or One Flew Over the Cuckoos nest without mental illness, it would be abhorrent. It would be blasphemous, regardless of how technically good the movie. Would you "dismiss" critics as being "bitter" over the novels?

[SaiKar]

What's wrong with that? If they made a movie out of the Great Gatsby without the themes of class and materialism, or One Flew Over the Cuckoos nest without mental illness, it would be abhorrent. It would be blasphemous, regardless of how technically good the movie. Would you "dismiss" critics as being "bitter" over the novels?

I'm not saying it's okay to gut the important parts. I'm saying that, no matter how much the movie crew does to try to turn a book or a comic or a play or whatever into a movie, fans of the original media are always going to be pissed about one thing or another. As Kirby sort of tried to say, movies are movies and not books or comics. Things have to get changed for silver screen. If fans expected an exact replica of the graphic novels, word-for-word and scene-for-scene, they were kidding themselves in a rather stupid way.

It happens with every movie like this. Fans complain that this or that isn't perfect. I have no patience for it anymore.

If anything, I'm GLAD I haven't read the novels, because that way the movie can't let down my expectations.

As a fan, shouldn't any sort of movie adaptation make you happy, no matter how much stuff they screw up? At least they're out there, trying to deliver to your more content. And if you decide the whole thing is just irredeemably awful, you can dismiss it as a "well, that's just their take on it. Oh well" kind of thing.

[Ben]

Sai, I agree with you, but since this is the internet, you have voided all e-cred by saying

I have no patience for it anymore.

the soundrtack was used quite poorly.
The DVD release is supposed to include the black freighter, and the ' "Under the hood" by Hollis Mason ' snippets
The ending was a let down, but i expected as much. I have had moistened panties for the book for years now. I expected them to rape the ending. The same resolve was reached in the end though, they cant leave the viewer to assume rorsach died, or some idiot would figure there was gonna be a sequel.

Lets not kid ourselves here though....they did a pretty fuckin' bang up job of everything, considering they had 3 hours to cram it all in. A movie like this is just going to make more people read the book. Ive seen people reading it at the subway station, and at my workplace, SIMPLY BECAUSE OF THIS MOVIE. You cant tell me thats a bad thing.

The music was hooribllleee.
Rorsach was bang on...with one exception. they made him sound like batman. His voice is supposed to be emotionless and monotone...
not angry-batman and monotone. And If you remember, at the end of the book, he throws the same crying hissy yelling spaz as he does in the movie, only in comic panels you cant see tears falling.
It sucks that they didnt go into the masks origins, but thats more content for the DVD fanboy release.

If you want to relive the book in full motion, download a torrent of the motion comic. Its awesome, and rorsachs mask is even better




The Theater release was not for the fanboys, it was for the sales.
The DVD release if for us. Theres going to be nearly an hour of additional content in that.