Who's (Going To Be) Watching the Watchmen?
 

Who here is going to see the Watchmen movie?

Me, I've gotten bored with super hero movies. Oh, I enjoyed Iron Man. But the last installments of Batman, Spider-man, and Hulk didn't do much for me.

However, I think I'm going to enjoy the Watchmen movie. Which seems strange, since I thought the graphic novel was just okay. (Well, more than just okay. I guess I didn't "get it", upon my first reading. I thought, "Meh. With super heroes like this, who needs villains?") But it's looking like the motion picture version of that graphic novel is going to be fantastic.

I am a little concerned by how they're marketing this movie, though; seeming to want to appeal to all audiences, including children. I mean, the Watchmen graphic novel was dark, really dark. And the movie, which is sticking pretty close to the graphic novel, is rated R. (I'm surprised they accepted that rating, without compromising the movie. Usually, studio execs don't want an R rating for a big-budget movie such as this.) Even the latest Batman movie, The Dark Knight – which was dark, indeed – was only rated PG13.

Whatever, I'm glad to see the movie is getting good reviews. (76% positive, so far, at rottentomatoes.com, which is pretty good on the tomatometer.)

Me!!! My boyfriend and possibly my roommate will be going along with me (possibly roomie because he's threatening to go earlier in the day; I can't go until after 4pm because of work) on Friday.

I'm really excited to see it. Some students of mine have talked about it in class the last couple of days. I mentioned that I was also interested in the movie and had read the graphic novel. I guess I don't look like the comics book type--they were all taken by surprise. :D

Can't wait! RAAWWWLLLL!

Going to see it on a double date on Saturday. :)

This weeks mission: Find a fedora to complete my Rorschach.

I will, but our show opens friday so not till sat

I'm really curious to see if it does the graphic novel seriously. I'll probably go pick up tickets tomorrow for a midnight showing on Thursday.

What I've seen so fat has left me really excited.

wait...i was with you until you said 'batman' and 'didn't enjoy' :orly:
Umm...I REALLY don't think they're marketing this to children. Initial reviews report that it is NOT a soft R. It has bones-and-blood brutal violence. It has dogs Spoiler: gnawing on the partially eaten corpse of a child It has a Spoiler: rape...well kinda. It has graphic nudity and sexual intercourse. And, as, we all know, in America, one boob > a million bloody decapitations.

Well, the Watchmen movie was on the cover of the magazine insert in this past Sunday's paper, and that little magazine is definitely family-oriented.

Furthermore, the TV commercials for this movie make it appear to be just another colorful, action-packed super hero movie; a dark one, maybe, but seemingly no darker than Batman: The Dark Knight. (But those of us in the know, know this movie is going to be much darker than that.)

Thus, I wonder if a lot of families who end up going to this movie, realize what they're in for? Yes, the R rating should tell the parents something. But maybe they won't notice, going in, that the movie is rated R, assuming that since it's yet another super hero movie, it's surely rated PG13, at worst.

oh please, If you have read the graphic novel (or even walked by the graphic novel) you would HAVE to know it is not geared to children. AT ALL, nada, no way, zip. Of course the "r" rating might also help. And if parents would take their kids to see it then in all likely hood they are feeding them ground glass as well. Go figure.

I'm going. Maybe not opening weekend (hey, babysitters are hard to come by out here) but definitely within the first week. I've been waiting to go see this movie since 1990, the first year I read the graphic novel.

I'll go after its been out for a while as I hate the crowded theater where you can't see and yell at the person talking

I'm absolutely going. I might be going opening night, but if so I'll plan to go again some time next week to actually SEE the movie. Opening night is fun for the crowd and the energy, but it's not real conducive to actual film-watching.

I think it looks pretty cool. Wouldn't mind seeing it. So now I have that, Harry Potter, and New Moon to see. I still didn't see the third Underworld yet either.

I will most likely see it at IMAX.

At first I was excited, then I lowered my expectations. I mean, nothing's perfect. Especially since they changed the ending. Instead of a Spoiler: giant alien squid, it's gonna be Spoiler: Veidt making it seem like Dr. Manhattan is attacking Earth. Honestly, this kind of bummed me out. Not to say that the original ending was anything that spectacular, but still. If you're gonna go to the effort of a shot for shot movie from the comic book, how could you change the ending?

I've read the comic a few times, and will try to check out the Thursday night show at Midnight!

I'll be checking it out. It can't possibly be more overrated than The Dark Knight (which I still liked even though it wasn't anywhere near as epic as I was lead to believe).

Here's the take by Lev Grossman of Time: My Own Private Watchmen :: Nerd World - TIME.com. Not a review, since he's not allowed to do that yet, but a great review of the impact of seeing this movie on a turbogeek.

Best Buy is doing a promotion for a free movie pack with 2 tickets to see Watchmen if you buy a Xbox Live product. Cheapest is a 1 month subscription for $8.

Hopefully Friday night if not Saturday.

Alot of that has to do with Snyder's R-rated 300 doing so well at the box office. If 300 didn't make a bazillion dollars he never would have been able to make Watchmen.

I'm holding off judging the ending until I see it.

Roger Ebert gave Watchmen 4/4 stars. Holy hell!!!!!!!!

Ebert is usually a very good critic of comic book movies and a self-proclaimed fan of comics in general. If he gives a comic book movie a favorable review, chances are it's good.

Anyone reading the comic PVP this week? It's a great Watchmen mashup with the funny pages. Start here:
PvPonline Archive Ombudsmen

As soon as I get back from Dr School Orientation... Saturday the 14th. Cannot WAIT.

All my buddies flaked out tonite, so they're gonna miss out :p

My 5-word review of The Watchmen,

Better Than The Dark Knight

I am, the only question is, do I go during the day and risk annoying children, or late at night and have to deal with a crowd?

I haven't been this excited for a movie since 300.

We've got tickets for the 4:30 show. It's at the nice theater in town, so it should look and sound amazing. I'm totally stoked. I don't know how I'm going to make it through two hours of work this afternoon--the kids are going to think I've lost my mind!

Deal with the crowd. It will be an awesome one.

Also, CPS should be standing at the door shooting RFID tags into parents who bring children to this.

I've got tickets to the 7pm imax showing...just enough time to get off work, finish my mask, and get in line.

http://i39.tinypic.com/3506owo.jpg

Hain's Journal, March 6 2009 -

Dumb kids talking in theater. Popcorn bucket thrown into their face. This movie rocks something awesome. Compulsion to read the graphic novel captured onto big screen.

Who watches the watchmen? I watched the Watchmen.

Will probably skip it - never thought the graphic novel was all that amazing to begin with and I hear the movie is nothing special if you're not a fan already.

twistedmosaic, I hope you took pictures of yourself in that costume!

I'm back from seeing it and I have to say I have mixed feelings. There were definitely parts of the movie I liked, and parts I didn't like. I won't say more now, but perhaps at a later time, once more people have seen the film and we can have a proper discussion about my issues with the adaptation...because there are definitely issues.

And Leonard Cohen is depressing.

I remember walking out at the end of Spider-Man disappointed. Toby McGuire was bad casting. They didn't use a mechanical web-shooter. Mary Jane was the love interest instead of Gwen Stacy. Green Goblin was the first villain. It wasn't that they broke cannon, it was that they broke cannon for no good reason.

Watchmen didn't suffer from that, imho. Watchmen is something new, something better. It wasn't a carbon copy of the graphic novel, but it couldn't have been. We were never going to get a perfect copy. What we got had the right contractions, edits, and changes. It still worked in the overall narrative. I must say that it was the same Watchmen that I read when I was younger, and there was something both thrilling and comforting in that. It's nice to see a comic book movie that doesn't rape my childhood.

4/4, despite the awkward 99 luftbaloons.

Yes, we did have some interesting choices regarding music. But if comics had background music, I'm sure they'll play Beatles tunes during every funeral :)

Saw it, was awesome. Like snowy, a few critiques, but this is the best movie of its genre, just above Dark Knight. At least for now, in a few years I'll go rewatch em both and see which one wins.

For me the music was great for most of it, so-so for some of it, and only one bad choice that took me out of it and made me go, huh?

Rorschach is awesome, my new favorite super hero. Anyone know what the reason they give for his mask being able to do that?

They did Dr. Manhattan perfectly.

I could go on, but anymore than that and I'll have to start going into spoiler territory.

I went and saw this last night, and I LOVED it. The casting was spot on, and the changes made were made with consideration on how to get the point across in the media used, not just to make random changes for no reason. They stayed true to the point and feel of the comic. And the sound track was awesome for 2 reasons. One, it just had really good music, 2, if you've read the comic, in between chapters there are song quots. Guess where they picked the sound track from. I can see how someone not a fan of the comic would have a hard time with this movie though. It doesn't hold your hand, and doesn't stop hitting you. You either pay attention or you get left behind. That makes it a first for comic movies I think. That the fans of the comic will like it better then the people who haven't read it.

Except for the very end when you know who starts gabbing about his or her plan. Such an obvious expo, and cliche to boot. That was about my only problem with the movie, though I understand why they had to do it, or 2/3rds of the audience wouldn't have figured it out.

That was almost verbatim from the comic though. And it's not really, cliche, due to the fact that the comic pretty much started the "35 minuets ago" trend.

http://i43.tinypic.com/2eurad3.jpg

I just looked a the pictures...my photog didn't tell me my scarf was drooping, and the flash makes the mask look less opaque than it is in real life...I'll try to get a better one next time I've got it all one.

I think I have some hairspray around here somewhere.....hmmmmm

I saw it last night: absolutely loved it. A couple things were changed from the comics, sure, but that didn't harm the story at all, nor did it wreck things for me as a fan of the graphic novel. Loved the music, except for the Jimi song that in my humble opinion started about 5 seconds too soon. Great casting, great acting, beautiful shots, etc.

Better than The Dark Knight? Yes; oh my, yes.

And about the rated R / not-rated R matter: there were a couple of dads with their (young) sons in the cinema, and my friend and I could almost hear them hate themselves for not having double checked the rating:)

So, yeah, it rocked :cool: