Watchmen

[Sean Malone]

Anyone really looking forward to this?

I knew about Watchmen from an old college buddy that was a big fan 20 years ago, but never read them myself. I find it somewhat ironic that movies such as The Dark knight, Sin City and supposedly Watchmen receive such critical acclaim with their dark, morality messages, social statements, etc when the reality is that they are based on comic books. When a Batman movie is too mature for a 10 year old, is it not really a Batman movie? Now there is the R rated movie Watchmen. Granted these particular 'comics' or 'graphic novels' are not aimed at people under 13 (guessing), but I find the irony rather curious.

I won't see it in the theater but I will get it on DVD.

[eiregosod]

Anyone really looking forward to this?

I knew about Watchmen from an old college buddy that was a big fan 20 years ago, but never read them myself. I find it somewhat ironic that movies such as The Dark knight, Sin City and supposedly Watchmen receive such critical acclaim with their dark, morality messages, social statements, etc when the reality is that they are based on comic books. When a Batman movie is too mature for a 10 year old, is it not really a Batman movie? Now there is the R rated movie Watchmen. Granted these particular 'comics' or 'graphic novels' are not aimed at people under 13 (guessing), but I find the irony rather curious.

I won't see it in the theater but I will get it on DVD.

always amazes me that grown adults are entertained by a guy flying around in a cape. :eek:

[Sean Malone]

always amazes me that grown adults are entertained by a guy flying around in a cape. :eek:

You're referring to Superman I assume?:D He's a'ight, but he isn't as tormented as the bat.

[Insomniac]

It's in IMAX. :)

[swift]

http://www.geocities.com/icr2@rogers.com/watchgomer1.jpg

[Dvdb]

kinda dug Sin City. Good nakedity by Carla Gugino

[nrc]

Just so you understand, here's a portion of the invite I sent out to some friends to round them up for the movie.

Gentlemen,

As you know, the Epic Motion Picture The Watchmen directed by 300 director Zack Snyder, based on The Greatest Graphic Novel of All Time and one of Time Magazine's Top 100 American Novels of All Time, The Watchmen, opens this coming weekend. It is required that all nerds good and true shall view this film in a movie theater. Non-nerd significant others should be encouraged to attend for their own cultural enrichment.

To assist you in this endeavor I propose that we should enjoy this masterwork in the splendor of The Arena Grand's reserved seating section. The pleasure of their comfy balcony seats and convenience of not standing in line with "Dr. Manhatten" (actually a heavy set young man painted blue with nothing on but a blue thong) will set you back $13 per seat.

So yes, I'm looking forward to it. :)

The Watchmen really stands head and shoulders above the rest of the genre as a work of fiction. It's less about "grown men flying around in capes" than about the psyche of grown men (and women) who would fly around in a cape. What if, in the real world, there were men and women with capabilities beyond the average person and they were able to roam around and dispense justice at will because they felt it was their calling? If a grown man sworn to "serve and protect" would beat the crap out of a 15 year old girl on video what would a masked vigilante do?

The Watchmen examines the superhero archetype in a way that nobody had done before and nobody has done as well since. The story is so well told in graphic form that the movie was for a long time considered unmakeable. If Snyder sticks as close to the story and imagery as he did with "300" he may pull it off.

[Sean Malone]

Just so you understand, here's a portion of the invite I sent out to some friends to round them up for the movie.


So yes, I'm looking forward to it. :)

The Watchmen really stands head and shoulders above the rest of the genre as a work of fiction. It's less about "grown men flying around in capes" than about the psyche of grown men (and women) who would fly around in a cape. What if, in the real world, there were men and women with capabilities beyond the average person and they were able to roam around and dispense justice at will because they felt it was their calling? If a grown man sworn to "serve and protect" would beat the crap out of a 15 year old girl on video what would a masked vigilante do?

The Watchmen examines the superhero archetype in a way that nobody had done before and nobody has done as well since. The story is so well told in graphic form that the movie was for a long time considered unmakeable. If Snyder sticks as close to the story and imagery as he did with "300" he may pull it off.

I enjoyed 300 very much. Sin City not so much. V for Vendetta much better than Sin City.

Reading the wikipedia entry for the Watchmen graphic novels is as heavy philosophy as third year psych class material. The fact that it has long been considered unmakeable and the 'Citizen Kane' of graphic novels has really piqued my curiosity for this one. It's gotta be better than Wanted (last weekends 'Saturday Night DVD movie'. BTW we watched Wall E last night in BluRay (yes, I broke down and bought one) and thought it was fantastic.

[G.]

BTW we watched Wall E last night in BluRay (yes, I broke down and bought one) and thought it was fantastic.All except for the nagging girlbot.

I'm about done with the movies where the girl nags the boy into correct behavior.

I'm already married.

Now if they could just perfect the girlbot...

:gomer:

(then no one would go see The Watchmen)

[stroker]

kinda dug Sin City. Good nakedity by Carla Gugino


+1

[Gnam]

<--- waiting for the prequel :gomer:

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/8382/watchmenbabies300x223.jpg

Sometimes ignorance is bliss. I didn't even know 300, SinCity, or V for Vendetta were comic books and liked the movies. I read all of Asimov's Foundation books and as a result hated Will Smith's I, Robot movie.

[nrc]

[minor spoilers for those who have read the book]

We went tonight and I loved it. Maybe not "25 years worth of anticipation" loved it, but it was much better than I really expected that a movie of this book could be.

The characters were pretty much spot on. Rorschach and The Comedian were better than I thought they could have been done while Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias were a little flat.

I thought they did a really good job of trimming the story down to a length workable for a movie. It looses some of the growing sense of doom from the book but does a good job of moving the story along the same arch as the book in a logical fashion at a good pace. Many of the details that are cut from the story are clearly still going on off screen as they're alluded to or shown in the background, which should please all but the most diehard fans (one stormed out of the theater 15 minutes in).

The ending is changed from the book in a way that I think actually makes for a better, more plausible story.

I was interested to see how much the reviews of the movie differed before I saw the movie. It was pretty clear that either the movie missed the mark of the book or some of the critics just didn't get it. After seeing the movie, it's the latter. Some critics dismissed it before they ever saw it and read into the movie what they expected rather than what it's about.

For example, from The New Yorker:

“Watchmen,” like “V for Vendetta,” harbors ambitions of political satire, and, to be fair, it should meet the needs of any leering nineteen-year-old who believes that America is ruled by the military-industrial complex, and whose deepest fear—deeper even than that of meeting a woman who requests intelligent conversation—is that the Warren Commission may have been right all along. Military industrial complex? Political satire? Ok, sure there's plenty of political satire in the alternate reality of The Watchmen, but it's all just a backdrop for the larger themes and questions of the film.

[swift]

I caught a late-night IMAX screening this weekend. Great movie. :thumbup:


The characters were pretty much spot on. Rorschach and The Comedian were better than I thought they could have been done while Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias were a little flat.

I thought they did a really good job of trimming the story down to a length workable for a movie. It [loses] some of the growing sense of doom from the book but does a good job of moving the story along the same arch as the book in a logical fashion at a good pace.
^^^ agreed 100%

[Sean Malone]

I shouldn't have read this review...here (http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/03/05/review.watchmen/index.html?iref=newssearch). But having not read the book I'll probably enjoy it. 163 minutes? Yikes.

[dando]

I shouldn't have read this review...here (http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/Movies/03/05/review.watchmen/index.html?iref=newssearch). But having not read the book I'll probably enjoy it. 163 minutes? Yikes.

Gene Shalit panned it, too (he said it 2:41 too long :eek:). I have a feeling that if you don't like the genre, you'll hate it and vice versa.

-Kevin

[Insomniac]

Is the whole movie in IMAX or just parts like Dark Knight? Also, any thoughts on the news that they cut the movie a lot more than they wanted and there would be multiple longer versions (one approaching 3.5 hours) coming out on BR/DVD later this year?

[nrc]

Is the whole movie in IMAX or just parts like Dark Knight? Also, any thoughts on the news that they cut the movie a lot more than they wanted and there would be multiple longer versions (one approaching 3.5 hours) coming out on BR/DVD later this year?

The parts that are missing don't bother me much. The "Tales of the Black Freighter" story within a story material, for example. In the book it contributes to the general sense of approaching doom and frames one of the central themes of what lengths are justified in order to protect what we hold dear, but I think in the movie it would have just slowed the pace and confused the casual viewer.

There is more material in the book that deals with the unraveling state of a society faced with imminent doom. Maybe that could have been captured better in the movie, but was it worth bumping it over three hours? I don't think so.

[pchall]

Sometimes a graphic novel translates nicely to the big screen. Dave Stevens' The Rocketeer comes to mind, but that might just be my love of airplanes, autogyros, zeppelins, and what not... or it could have been Jennifer Connely in a push up bra. ;)

[Don Quixote]

When you get to be my age, you are afraid to start a 163 minute movie because you may die of old age before it is over. :D

[Badger]

It appears I'm in the minority here, but the movie just was not that good. I would say 3 out of 5 and that is being kind. Graphically, it was impressive, as were the fight scenes but the pace was just too slow. Keep in mind, I love the movie Sin City but this movie isn't even close.

And Dr Manhattan, aka Papa Smurf or Viagra man was just lame. Other than the scenes of him in Vietnam, his character was just plain boring. And throw at laeast a thong on for gods sakes!

[Insomniac]

The parts that are missing don't bother me much. The "Tales of the Black Freighter" story within a story material, for example. In the book it contributes to the general sense of approaching doom and frames one of the central themes of what lengths are justified in order to protect what we hold dear, but I think in the movie it would have just slowed the pace and confused the casual viewer.

There is more material in the book that deals with the unraveling state of a society faced with imminent doom. Maybe that could have been captured better in the movie, but was it worth bumping it over three hours? I don't think so.

I pretty much get introduced to all these things through movies. I was never really into comics as a kid. (I know graphic novels aren't comics, but I figure that if I were into comics, I'd know more about graphic novels.)

It's probably good in the sense that I have nothing to compare these movies to, so I decide whether they're good or not just based on what I see. I'd never know what was missing.

I do however wish I had read more fiction as a kid (more in general). Figure the creative parts of my brain suffered. Now all I read is non-fiction. I get my fiction from TV and movies. (On a side note, I wish I could break away from sub-vocalization when reading.)

[Sean Malone]

The review that I posted above brings up a good point in that how much of a 'visionary' can one be if they are using the simply using the novel as the movies story board? Sure, there is a lot more to a live action film. Maybe this one would have been better as a CGI flick? I was somewhat disappointed in the same way when I caught the Lord of the Rings animated feature film from the 70's on tv a couple of years ago. It became quickly apparent that Peter Jackson's film mimicked the cartoon version practically scene to scene and even dialog (at least for the Fellowship parts). A little googling revealed that indeed Jackson did use the cartoon as a story board. It just makes it feel a bit less 'visionary'. But isn't that the case with any rendition of a novel? I mean the 'vision' is in the novel, the film is simply a view.

[TravelGal]

But isn't that the case with any rendition of a novel? I mean the 'vision' is in the novel, the film is simply a view.

Excellent way to differentiate. Made me think about the whole process. :thumbup:

[G.]

I mean the 'vision' is in the novel, the film is simply a view.
Whoa!

[swift]

YDDHHrt6l4w
:D

[swift]

Free to watch this weekend for non-HBO subscribers! (The 2019 HBO series)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2020/06/20/you-should-be-watching-hbos-watchmen-for-free-this-weekend/#64424639296e

https://www.hbo.com/watchmen
:thumbup: