Just came home from Watchmen

[VintageComics]

Funny how everyone sees things differently.

 

I didn't think the movie was drawn out at all. There was never a dull moment and it did NOT feel like an almost 3 hour movie.

 

The feel of the movie was fantastic. It felt raw and 80's like. The movie was wound tight in a good way and there was never a dull moment from the first second to the last.

 

It felt authentic.

 

The only complaint I have is not with the movie but with the story itself. It is so cerebral and intense that I found the comic a little flat and this carried over into the movie. That is a testimony to how well of a job Snyder did with the movie. I felt exactly the same after watching the movie as I did reading the book.

 

The violence and sexual scenes were very well done, not over exposed or gratuitous and I don't see the problem with Dr. M's frontal nudity. It was well done, was not over done and was necessary.

 

All in all a terrific movie even though I did not think it to be a terrific story to start with.

 

In my books DKR is the ultimate comic book story and likely will stay as the best of the best to me. I'd like to see if someone can make that into film.

 

 

[Lazyboy]

Just got back from the matinee showing...

 

The movie has issues. Too drawn out in spots...and just because the text worked in a comic doesn't mean it works in a movie. Some of the dialogue came off as extremely silly.

 

Jim

 

 

Can you give me some examples? I am usually tuned in perfectly to the snicker factor of certain movie lines. My sensor didn't go off at all during the film. Ozy's line made me think he was a tool, but that was what the character was written to do. Other than that?

 

C

 

How about at the end, with Nixon's line about uniting against a common enemy (Dr. Manhattan)? Do you know what chance the entire human race has against him?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

:censored: ZERO!!!

 

 

 

That was easily the worst, most senseless line in the movie.

If you want to say that Dr. Manhattan has shown the world a fraction of the horror of nuclear war and that path must be abandoned, that's fine. But there is NO COMMON ENEMY to unite against.

 

On a related note, if the entire city (or even most of it) was devastated, how did the journal and the New Frontiersman building survive?

 

Better ending than the comic, my .

[kimik]

Saw the movie yesterday with 3 buddies. I actually liked the movie better than the original book since it cut out the newsstand and horror story bits. It flowed fairly well, and the new ending worked better in my eyes than the dumping of a giant alien squid. I am going to take my wife to see it sometime during the next week, and I look forward to the extended version on DVD.

[Fireboy]

Choked up in this scene

DO IT!!!

 

a reference to the squid

 

 

 

and this, well in the words of Rorschach "Possibly homosexual, must remember to investigate further."

 

[BrianR]

Yeah never reading the comic I didn't expect that to happen to Rorschach.

[BaltimoreLauren]

I actually did cry a little when he blew him up, even tho I was expecting it.

[comix4fun]

 

Plasma Angel...nice. (thumbs u

 

C

[Fireboy]

Veidt's folder labeled BOYS still cracks me up

[Darth Corgi]

I saw this flick on Friday night in a packed theater.

I am a huge fan of the books, and usually I can seperate the source material and examine the film adaptation on its own merits. For this one though, I just kept going over the scenes and couldn't help but compare them to the source.

 

When you read a graphic novel, you have the leisure of going at your own pace, savoring the art and text and often rereading passages. It is a luxury that a film doesn't have. Essentially you take the story as they serve it. If its too fast or slow, too bad. We only have 2hrs and 45 min and this is the way it comes. Someone else had a great point: it didn't help that I knew what was going to happen around every corner.... having read the book I felt spoiled yet on the other hand, I kept saying during the film "If you hadn't read the book, you'd be lost here!"....

 

It was an entertaining and visually-stunning film and hats off to Zach Snyder for having the balz to make this picture! Being that the source was so dense and layered, I would of loved to of seen a 5 hour adaptation.

 

I'd say there were a few parts that were better than the book such as action segments but in the end it felt they were trying to fit 10 pounds of goods into a 5lb bag.

 

 

[Shemp]

I saw the movie tonight and my first thought was the movie was WEAK. It's a very good looking but boring film.

 

While the movie on its own was not very good, it was great as a compliment to the comic book.

 

[howardhallis]

It was interesting for me to go see WATCHMEN with my wife Jesse, her friend Nadia and Nadia's boyfriend Jesper. Out of the three of us, I was the only one to have read the series, so it was up to Zac Snyder to bring the characters and the plot to life for the uninitiated.

 

Being the comic dork that I am, I read the series right off the racks as it came out over the course of 15 months back in the mid-80's. You can say I'm a big fan, and have personally recommended it to non-comic people looking for an intellectually stimulating read. Since I knew that Snyder basically filmed the graphic novel almost exactly panel by panel, I had read the reviews online before seeing the film, something I usually don't do with movies I'm anxious to see. I knew the reviews were mixed, I knew the ending had changed, and tried to keep an open mind.

 

The only thing I really disliked about the movie was some of the music cues. Using "Sounds of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel for a funeral scene sounds good on paper, as does Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" for a sex scene, but put into practice it was corny. Really corny. So corny in fact that it was almost laughable. Nevertheless, when I read the series as a teenager, I always imagined Nite Owl and Roarschach approaching the Antartic base of Ozymandias with the Jimi Hendrix version of "All Along The Watchtower" playing, which is exactly what happened in the movie. This one music cue HAD to be there, as Moore quoted the song right after that scene in the comic. The opening montage to Bob Dylan's "Times They Are A-Changing" worked for me as well, but the sex scene would have been much better with an instrumental track.

 

And what a sex scene! The hottest by far in a comic book movie. I might need some alone time with the DVD.

 

Since the big blue shmeckel of Billy Crudup has already been mentioned quite a bit on this thread, my only comment would be to say kudos to Snyder for letting Dr. Manhattan let it all hang out. It didn't bother me, and I feel if I can look at Malin Ackerman in all her hotness, my wife can enjoy Crudup's glowing gonads.

 

As for the ending, to me it worked better than the cthuloid alien squid. It made more sense in the context of the film, and was much easier for the uninitiated to accept in terms of a climax.

 

Speaking of the uninitiated, Jesse and her friends all enjoyed the movie. None of them were confused by it and were able to follow the plot quite well. Despite the length, none of them lost interest and everyone got the jist of it. That says a lot for the movie. In fact, more than anything else, that is what gets my thumbs up.

[NewtSamson]

I enjoyed the movie. I felt it was really well done.

[VintageComics]

I enjoyed the movie. I felt it was really well done.

 

Yeah but you're an easy to please date.

 

[joe_collector]

How about at the end, with Nixon's line about uniting against a common enemy (Dr. Manhattan)? Do you know what chance the entire human race has against him?

 

That's the whole problem with the new ending - it makes absolutely no sense.

 

With an unknown alien enemy, there is still the chance that Earth's combined forces could win, but everyone knows that Manhatten is omnipotent and they have zero shot at beating him. Not even zero, a negative chance.

 

So in that case, I'd imagine a large percentage of Earth's citizens would give up, start the Church of Doc Manhattan and the world leaders would all head for their bunkers.

[VintageComics]

How about at the end, with Nixon's line about uniting against a common enemy (Dr. Manhattan)? Do you know what chance the entire human race has against him?

 

That's the whole problem with the end - it makes zero sense.

 

With an unknown alien enemy, there is still the chance that Earth's combined forces could win, but everyone knows that Manhatten is omnipotent and they have zero shot at beating him.

 

So in that case, I'd imagine a large percentage of Earth's citizens would give up, start the Church of Doc Manhattan and the world leaders would all head for their bunkers.

 

How many fictional movies are centered around humanity rallying against an unbeatable enemy?

 

Almost every one of them.

 

Your [i'm talking to everyone that agrees with lazyboy] logic is flawed as the movie bases it's ending on the principle that human life always finds a way and that when backed into a corner they will not give up.

 

I can think of a 100 movies and stories (comics anyone?) this instant that show humans facing impossible odds and making a storyline out of it...why is it so impossible to believe it could happen in this fictional movie?

 

Ozy blocked DR M's receptors and manipulated him...who knows what else they could have done had they tried.

 

R.

 

[joe_collector]

How many fictional movies are centered around humanity rallying against an unbeatable enemy?

 

Against something as omnipotent as Doc Manhattan - none. Not even remotely.

 

The closest I could imagine would be the strategy employed in Deep Impact, where a portion of humanity goes underground to wait out the coming annihilation, while a team is sent to battle against near-impossible odds. Or The Day the Earth Stood Still, where fighting was exactly the WRONG thing to do.

 

But even then, a huge asteroid is a walk in the park next to Doc Manhattan. That guy would burn down Superman in a nano-second.

[VintageComics]

How many fictional movies are centered around humanity rallying against an unbeatable enemy?

 

Against something as omnipotent as Doc Manhattan - none. Not even remotely.

 

The closest I could imagine would be the strategy employed in Deep Impact, where a portion of humanity goes underground to wait out the coming annihilation, while a team is sent to battle against near-impossible odds. Or The Day the Earth Stood Still, where fighting was exactly the WRONG thing to do.

 

But even then, a huge asteroid is a walk in the park next to Doc Manhattan. That guy would burn down Superman in a nano-second.

 

That's not the point though, is it? Humans fight against impossible odds all the time even if they know they will lose.

 

If he was so omnipotent how did Ozy play him? There is always a way....especially in fiction.

 

edited for a boo boo

[VintageComics]

Look at 300....a handful of Spartans against impossible odds.

[joe_collector]

Look at 300....a handful of Spartans against impossible odds.

 

Hardly - they didn't even break a sweat. It was so one-sided, I felt bad for the invading hordes.

[joe_collector]

That's not the point though, is it? Humans fight against impossible odds all the time even if they know they will lose.

 

Hey, you can gush over the changed ending all you want, but it doesn't even come close to working as well as the original one Moore devised.

 

Sure, you could get rid of the squid, but the "threat from another dimension/outer space" angle just works so much better as a uniting force for humanity, like the massive asteroids from Armageddon/Deep Impact or the alien invaders from War of the Worlds/ID4.

 

Nothing is scarier than the unknown and unexpected, and Moore understood this. There is something atavistic about humanity bonding together to fight against an unknown, unexpected, unanticipated and very mysterious invader. People can buy that angle, as it strikes a primitive chord with us.

 

Having this "omnipotent hero" bad-guy switch doesn't work even a fraction as well. The Watchmen Earth already knows about Doc Manhattan, his powers, his origin, his personality, and it is very unlikely that 100% of the population would be united against him, or at least not investigate further, try to contact him, wait for future developments., etc. The UN would probably take a few months trying to figure out why, or even if, Manhattan did it.

 

One thing is for sure, Moore is a much better writer than anyone involved with the movie, and I now understand why he wrote it off - the ending changes the entire story and its overall plot. But hey, it was (admittedly by Snyder) changed to make the ending simpler and more basic for the general public to digest.