‘Watchmen’ Out Now!
Friday, March 6th, 2009
Watchmen, Zach Snyder’s feature film adaptation of the graphic novel by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons, is finally here! Have you watched the Watchmen? Let us know what you thought!
Beware of *SPOILERS*!!
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Book of the Month
Y The Last Man Vol. 5In this final Deluxe Edition hardcover collecting Y #49-60, Yorick and Agent 355 prepare for their ultimate quest to reunite the last man with his lost love, while the person, people or thing behind the disaster that wiped out half of humanity is revealed. Then, Yorick Brown's long journey through an Earth populated only by women comes to its dramatic, unexpected conclusion.
I thought it was fantastic! My only minor complaint was some of the altered stuff at the ending. Not the major thing but the stuff after that. (I’m hoping this counts as spoiler-free)
Spoilers are okay here. I put op a spoiler Warning. So go nuts :)
Oh, i missed that :)
I really liked it, I thought the things they changed for the ending made more sence as a movie.
Most of the things they changed or left out was fine by me, I always found the black freighter storyline unnessacary, the news stand guy and the boy had their cameo, I cant think of anything else right now.
I think MOST of the complaints iv heard about this movie being mediocer are from people who wouldnt be happy with anything that isnt the comic.
As close as you’re gonna get to the comic on screen. As a movie, it was great. I think Snyder succeeded in the fact that people that haven’t read the book will want to read it and those who have read it will read it again.
My thoughts exactly!
I loved the film. I have every intention of seeing it once or twice more while its in theaters. The ending was different, but I didn’t have any problem with it. The squid would’ve generated giggles if it came up onscreen, if you ask me
I loved the movie but I think the decision to remove the squid creature (which I think was a good idea) had a bit of a ripple-effect on the rest of the ending. The explosion that left no bodies meant that Silk Specter II wasn’t horrified as much when she returned with Dr. Manhattan and that means her and Night Owl don’t make love which would have distracted him from seeing Rorschach blown up etc. etc.
The altered ending wasn’t bad but it just kinda bugged me; especially since it could have stuck more to the graphic novel without a problem and been better (in my opinion).
Im with nick on this one, I think the squid would have been laughed at and leave a bad taste. Even if ity was a squid I doupt they would of let you see any bodies.
It really didnt bug me that Night Owl seen rorschach die, and I personally seen enough sex scenes.
Well to each their own :) (and it didnt have to be a sex scene just a kiss and pan the camera away all tasteful-like :) )
I don’t think it matters whether or not there’s squid vagina at the end of the film. It’s a sort of an arbitrary plot point. But I don’t see why everyone is so confident in declaring that it cant’ work in a movie. Do y’all have some specific reason for thinking that or did you just wake up one day with an epiphany “they have to change the ending of Watchmen!”.
I think what people mean by “it can’t work” is that “it would be safer not to try”. I agree with that. But safty rarely makes for great art.
Galactus as a storm cloud; Same argument.
I loved the movie but I did feel that the new ending had a very different tone from the rest of the film that I wasn’t crazy about.
It has a massively different tone. The New Frontiersman epilogue in the movie plays like the scene at the end of Friday 13th where it Jason’s not dead. Instead of being a moral challenge to the audience it’s the teaser for Watchmen II… ugh.
In general the ending has a more upbeat tone that is not at all surprising but no less inappropriate.
And how can anyone not be bothered by Nite Owl in Rorsharch’s death scene?!
Where do directors get this common and totally bizarre idea that they can make a scene more dramatic by having a character scream “nooooooo!”?
A character dies an annonymous death in the snow at the hands of a god, because he refuses to compromise… how can we fix that to make it more dramatic? Got it! We’ll have Nite Owl there screaming “noooo! Then Rorsharch leaves behind a commically large blood smear.
Are you fucking kidding me?! How do you even shoot that scene? I bet some cut some where had a wacky sound effect in it.
Anyone who saw this movie before reading the book fucked up. Congradgulations you’ve ruined the discovery of one of the great works of the 20th century. It’s impact will be obscured from you forever.
I didn’t hate the movie so much as I found it pointless. At best its major accomplishment is too shovel as much detail from the book into itself as possible. It’s facile. It aspires to “get it right”. It’s for people who watch films with a clip board and a red pen to mark down all the mistakes and then add up the score; for those people this will be their new favorite movie, everythings that’s supposed to be there is, everything missing must not be important.
There is not one element of the story that is not rendered better in the book. Not one facet that is really nailed in the movie. If you’ve not read the book the movie is senseless, if you have it’s redundant.
I don’t want to oversell my disregard for the movie so I’ll say some positive things about it. The credit sequence is good. The ballsy soundtrack choices were mostly successful even when it rubbed me the wrong way. Jackie Earl Haley and the voice work of Billy Crudup managed to convince me that somewhere in the multiverse there’s a Watchmen movie I might like.
I loved that Elenor Clift and Pat Buchanen are characters. I expected it to chicken out of a major revelation on mars and it didn’t (although I’m not sure it makes much sense in the context of the film).
I reread the book prior to the midnight showing which is a mistake. Throughout the movie I was making comparisons to the book, which lessened my enjoyment and prevented me from getting into the movie as much as should’ve. I’ll probably go see it again next week from a more open perspective.
Not having read the comic, I thought it was just mediocre. The movie was extremely slow in some parts and the Rorschach diary was really cringe inducing much like Christian Bale’s Batman voice.
I also didn’t understand Dr. Manhattan’s need for nakedness, why he put that symbol on his head or why he would even need the other watchmen since he’s pretty much this all powerful being that can pretty much do anything he wants.
BTW Scott, doesn’t locking this:
http://www.geekshow.us/menu/forums/movies-television-1/watchmen-post-release/
defeat the whole reason of even having the forums?
In week or so, this article will be off the main page and the conversations will end because of it. :(
I agree. What if we want to talk about the Watchmen movie long after the article has been bumped off the front page?
@Kingquat – No. Go here instead:
http://www.geekshow.us/menu/forums/movies-television-1/watchmen-out-now/
I saw Watchmen last night, and I really liked it, but I didn’t love it. If I had to give it a grade, it would get a B. Jackie Earle Haley was awesome, and I really liked Patrick Wilson’s portrayal of Dan Drieberg. I thought the movie dragged a bit at the beginning, but then it picked up steam once the funeral sequence started. The ending bugged me a bit, more in the execution of it rather than the concept itself. I didn’t like some of the music choices for the soundtrack (although several choices were really good), and I thought the movie overall had too many songs in it rather than using a score.
Overall, I liked the movie a lot. I did have problems with it, though. My main problem was Veidt. I don’t think he was cast right at all and they really didn’t do his character justice. I also feel that the changes to the end were fine in concept, but it seemed a little rushed.
Opening credits, Roarshack, and Nite Owl were all amazing.
************Spoilers to follow************
*************************************
*************************************
I had no problem with Nite Owl seeing Rorschach die. It makes sense; why wouldn’t he follow his best friend to try and talk him out of doing anything rash.
I’m totally the opposite of pretty much everything Rusty said. I thought the movie was totally relevant and I thought even did some things that the graphic novel couldn’t, just in terms of the differing natures of comics and film.
Contradicting what I said above, I do agree with RJ on the soundtrack; brilliant. Just, absoloutly perfect. Did anyone notice Tears For Fears “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” playing during the Adrian photo shoot?
Also, the Andy Warhol cameo was amazing.
So you think have Nite Owl there screaming “nooooo!” was an improvement over Rorsharch’s anonymous death in the book? Or baring that, you don’t think the scene would be better if he weren’t there?
@ It makes sense; why wouldn’t he follow his best friend to try and talk him out of doing anything rash.
Who says he was doing something rash? Do you believe Rorsharch was wrong? Would you have stopped him? Nite Owl and the other characters were paralyzed by their moral malaise which Rorschach is immune.
Either way, the problem isn’t that the plot doesn’t make sense now. The problem is that now a character walks in on the middle of the scene. Screams “noooooo!” and then goes back inside.
I literally just got back from the theater and initial judgment: I’m kind of in the middle.
Complaints:
1) The Silk Specter 2’s wig was awful. I kept staring at it whenever she was on screen. Her performance was also really meh which kinda ticked me off as she is the only real female character. Also didn’t care that her feminism was really downplayed.
2) I am very upset that they cut out a lot of the ambiguity behind Sally Jupiter and The Comedian’s relationship (and also the end of her attempted rape where she gets told to cover herself up.)
3) Did anyone else have a lot of kids in the theater with them? There were WAY too many kids in mine and it made the movie very uncomfortable to watch. I couldn’t believe that parents brought small kids to this.
Positives:
1) I loved the way they did the back story on Dr. Manhatten, beautifully shot and cut together.
2) Jeffery Dean Morgan and Jackie Earl Haley were put on this planet to play The Comedian and Rorschach. I was pleasantly surprised by Cudrup and Patrick Wilson too.
Overall I thought it was all right, not great but not awful. It did feel very fan made and didn’t detract nor add anything to the book. The ending definately felt more anti-climatic but… whatever. And it felt like there was about forty mins chopped out.
One of the legitimate complaints about the book is that it could be said to have a streak of misogyny. Laurie Juspeczyk is a noticably less developed character than the rest. She doesn’t even really have an ark the way the rest do. Her story is really about convincing Jon to care about humanity again, which she does by begging, pleading and ultimately being a wrek.
She’s perpetually being used by others. Her mother, Jon, the gov. She definitely has that 80’s coke whore wiff about her. I think you’d have to force a feministe theme out of her storyline with goons and power saws.
Now see, I’ve never read it that way. And this has always been a continuous back and forth debate in a lot of Alan Moore’s work.
I will admit, that as a female reader I normally instinctively look at the female characters as identifiable, and with more intrigue. I’ve always loved Laurie’s journey of hating The Comedian and change to aceptance. And her realization that things in this world are more complicated than black and white. And yes, she does hop from one man to the next very quickly, but that’s who she is. And I’ll clarify what I mean by “feminism” in movies. I’m not talking repackaged “girl power” crap- I just mean a rounded non-stereotype character who has more than one characteristic. And I firmly believe in the book she does. Her and her mother are there in the book to mirror what female superheroes are generally used for: sexy costumes. The difference being that whilst Sally reveled in being a sex symbol, Laurie was left uncomfortable by it. It’s a mirror for the different feminism of the time- the 40’s version saw power in being sexy, whilst the 70’s/80’s flavor of it rejected the idea of sex appeal.
I had no problem with Nite Owl screaming “noooo!” at the sight of seeing his best friend blown away by another good friend. I liked the version in the book but also didn’t have a problem with the film version.
Rusty, I had no idea you had a deep, seething hatred for people in movies screaming “Nooo!!” You must despise Empire Strikes Back
@ “Nooo!!” You must despise Empire Strikes Back
That is not in Empire Strikes Back. That is in Empire Strikes Back The Special Edition. Also [spoiler] Han shoots first.
And yes, I do dislike that version.
@ Sunshineyness- This woman in front of me bought some tickets for her (not present at the time) children who were all under 15 and I actually talked her out of it. I told her about the sex and the rape and gore and whatnot. She got her money back and got tickets for Coraline instead. Pretty good trade-off I’d say.
The thing was it was LITTLE kids too, like 6/7 years old. I get why teenagers want to see it and stuff, but I couldn’t even imagine kids LIKING IT or even remotely getting what was going on. And, you know, I can see a parent not knowing and going with them, but after 10 mins in I couldn’t believe they didn’t rip the kids out and get a refund.
I’m usually not one to go on a tirade about what kids should or shouldn’t watch (after all, I watched all kinds of R rated movies as a kid) But I just can’t imagine a kid even getting anything out of it. And hearing a little girl go “no! mot the blue guy!” When she thought Doc Manhattan died was a little unnerving.
Yeah, how much under 15 (arent you like 17?). It makes a big difference. I read the book when I was 13 and it really struck a chord with me, and a lot of my friends read it at about the same time. But I’ve recently talked to some kids about that age who tried reading it and found it daunting.
A lot of these ideas about “protecting” “kids”(15, that’s not exactly a kid) from certain things really exist for the benefit of adults. We like to nurture this idea of fragile innocence in children that’s sort of true but mostly a lie.
And while the book is very violent and adult the movie really isn’t. Zach Snyder instinctively made a pg-13 film action film with a few “adult” trappings added in out of a sense of obligation to the novel (although it’s a misguided obligationwhich doesn’t have any hillarious sam raimi-esqu gore. The book has violence). Ironically, the film would’ve been improved if it cut itself back to a pg-13.
Of course I agree with Sunshine above. I can’t imagine a really young kid getting much out of it, it’s not age appropriate in subject matter or theme. Although it’s certaintly being advertised as something kids might like. Lots of bright colors, movement, action and funny costumes.
Oh, and just a stylistic complaint- I don’t care for Snyder’s use of speeding and slowing the frames down during action sequences. It’s very film school kid-ish- with no real purpose other than it “looks cool.”
I think what snyder was trying to do with the slowing down was to make it look like comic book frames… The thing about this movie is… its not watchmen, It could never be watchmen and it never will be watchmen. at least, not to the people who keep telling themselves that. There was no possible way that they could have made the film just like the graphic novel. I honestly only liked the film a little less than the book, and I LOVE the graphic novel. so therefore I thought it was a pretty kick-ass movie. if you go into a movie ready to tear everything apart, you won’t like it.
haha the kids are going to have nightmares about blue penises for the rest of their lives…
Yeah, I really like the Snyder, slow-down, speed up thing. It was actually the way it played out in my head when I read the book, particulally the alley/gang fight scene
And yes Rusty, I am 17.
I’m a slow reader so I was hoping the whole thing would be in slow motion.
And which was Watchman, I never figured that out. Was it the blue guy? Caused he fixed watches, amirite?
Since you’ve degenereted into a petty insult machine, I’ll just assume this conversation has reached its end
I think he’s angry that I removed his status as the edgiest person in the Geekshow verse
He’s not so much “edgy” so much as he is “angery”
Rusty James: The guy at the party who tells a joke, than is the only one to laugh at it to hide the awkwardness.
You mean Will Rithcie?
I enjoyed it. They did a pretty good job in the fact that people we went with had never read the book yet still were able to follow it and understand it.