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:

How well could you see out of the mask? Cool costume!

We now have tickets for tomorrow night.

This made me laugh.

http://cad-comic.com/comics/20090306.jpg

I would like to know if there is a image or wallpaper for the scene of all the minutemen sitting/standing next to the table (like the Last Supper type of deal).

Eh, enough to get around and pose for pictures with a surprisingly large amount of people and theater staff. Not good enough to watch the movie...it came off, then went back on just in time for me to miss whatever was on the twilight zone >_<

Spoiler: Yes, in the opening credits. It is a montage of many similar scenes, with costumed heroes taking the place of the usual subjects in famous paintings and photographs.

Is it online so I can get a copy?

Beats me.

My own take of the movie was that it was excellent. I personally was too engrossed to notice the spotty acting by Silk Spectre II that some people have mentioned. I approved wholeheartedly with the changes made to the story to embrace the movie medium. I loved the pacing and the storytelling. I appreciated that the movie treated me as an intelligent person and let me tie all the clues together myself.

This movie lost a lot of points with critics because its story is over 20 years old and many of its concepts no longer seem revolutionary. Fuck 'em. A good story is a good story.

My only gripe was the soundtrack. I realize how it fits in with the original comic, but there were a few songs in there that took me out of the moment. The date. The funeral. The sex scene. Great scenes, but the music left me wondering why... why...

I generally hate soundtracks with songs that I know and like...it yanks me out of the ambient effect the song was intended to have. The Matrix is practically unwatchable now that I've listened to the soundtrack so many times. Watchmen ironically would have been 'better' (in terms of keeping the viewer's focus on the continuity) if they'd been covers, so we wouldn't already have a pitch-perfect representation to mentally sing along to, but get the idea that they're referencing the song and move on.

I really really liked it. Now, I did see it at 11pm so we didn't get out till 2am. I'm gonna have to see it again during the day so I'm not as sleepy... And not drink before.


My girlfriend hated it. Okay, so she didn't hate it... she just thought it was boring.

My wife seemed to rather like it, as did I.

I also liked it.
I had read the book about 2 weeks ago so it'd be fresh in my mind, and it's surprisingly faithful for most things, especially the dialogue.
Even the shot's angles are great, they recreate the scenes exactly how they're supposed to be.
A few obvious things can't be put in the movie, such as the parallel comic book story read within Watchmen, Tales of the Black Freighter. There's simply no practical way to put that in a movie without making it incredibly awkward.
A few other things have been changed, but as a whole I feel like they took out the right parts to make it a good movie, without losing the best aspects of the book.
I was surprised by Jon's voice, I didn't really know what to expect though. I suppose maybe a less human, and less young voice.
I liked Rorschach a lot, he did a great job with it, and the Comedian was good as well.

The rest of the cast is okay, too. Veidt looked more impressive in the book as a person, but when the stunts came it finished convincing me that it was him. Maybe his face was a bit off, somehow.

Costume design was great too.

---------- Post added at 09:29 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:27 PM ----------

Overall, I recommend it, but of course, read the book, either before or after! It should be on everyone's must-read-list.

The very-prevalent buzz is that the extended director's cut re-intersperses the Black Freighter portions where they belong. :thumbsup:

Supporting evidence for this is that the newspaper salesman and the kid reading the book are very prominent throughout the film.

For those bad at math, that's 34 extra minutes in the Extended, and then an additional 15 minutes for the Black Freighter (I believe it's going to be called the Ultimate cut).

I also heard a rumor of one of those two cuts hitting theaters in [s]April.[/s]

Edit: Make that July, and Snyder confirmed limited theatrical release.

I enjoyed it... I'm looking forward to the read when I have the time.

Great, I was wondering if there was a way to include the Freighter segments, and I'm anxious to watch the most extended cut.

I dont think a move has pissed me off for a while. This did.

I wont spoil it for anyone else who hasnt seen it by even going into it - but the ending is fucked up so badly.

I cant imagine why they would do that... its almost like a joke of what Hollywood producers do to a work of art... like those Orange adverts they have at the start of movies (in Cineworld's in the UK anyway)

I agree - up to a point. Rationally, I understand why they felt they made the change. But that doesn't make me happy about it. I feel conflicted about it. There was just too much material at the end of the day, and it would have been very confusing to introduce the characters necessary to explain the original ending.

But I wanted my giant squid, dammit!

I dunno, I agree pretty strongly with PZ Myers' take on the issue, and he's both a fan of the graphic novel AND obsessed with cephalopods! (Some spoilers below)

Pharyngula: Watchmen

This pretty sums up how I felt at the end of the movie.

Here's what Snyder said, and I agree with: The changed ending is character-driven in a way the squid wasn't, and if the squid took 20 minutes to build up to, that's 20 minutes less of Rorschach and Dr. BlueMan. I had no problems with it.

Ozzy's cat made way less sense in a squidless universe, though.

I saw it last night without having read the book or really knowing much about it besides what I've picked up through osmosis. I enjoyed it immensly, even if some of the violence was a bit much for me. I basically checked out mentally during the back-alley fight and the Kidnapper flashback.

Anyway, the ending worked fine for my ignorant eyes.

That's explained in more detail in the graphic novel. The fabric was created by Veidt industries, and is heat and pressure sensitive. It was originally a dress made by the tailor shop Rorschach worked for after he moved out of the foster home he grew up in, but the woman who ordered it didn't want the dress because she thought it was ugly. Rorschach liked it because the black and white never mixed, and the movement was interesting. He taught himself how to cut it properly and decided to make a mask out of it when he started crimefighting. If you pay close attention in the graphic novel, you'll notice the pattern on his mask changes panel to panel.

I don't think there's any real spoilers in there.

I loved the movie overall. I thought the ending was a bit clumsy, though; I understood the rationale behind the change (and behind all the other changes, for that matter) but I still thought it felt a bit lacking.

Bring on the super extended ultimate director's cut!

Amen. Despite my mixed feelings, I'll definitely be looking forward to seeing this.

We saw it the other night on IMAX, where it totally rocked, even though we didn't know much about it. We like the fact that the CG supported the movie, as opposed to 300, where the CG was the movie. It took us about 40 minutes to come up to speed on what and who was what. It might have been better with a better Introduction, maybe a couple of paragraphs scrolling up the screen to explain about the superheros and their backstory.

In its own right - I guess I could admit it is a well made movie, which mainatins the core of some fascination characters.

As a representation of the comic book, a really huge let down to me.

And I really feel the things they did to make it more "commercial" actually werent needed and it could still have been a commercial movie off its good looks, without having to "Hollywood" up certain things.

I suppose it wasnt as bad as the "From Hell" movie.

Same here. I had mixed feelings. Love Rorschach and the Comedian, but wasn't impressed by much else. That said, I am anxious to see a director's cut.

you mean it being the closest representation of a comic book pretty much ever?

they didn't make it more "commercial" or make it more "Hollywood". There's no way they could have done the original ending really well in movie format. The changes were made to fit the medium, not to make it "Hollywood".

In my opinion they captured the look and feel of the comic perfectly, but captured very little of its soul, I saw the movie as an exercise of surface over feeling.

I think part of it is that it's impossible to capture the original feeling in any type of novel from a movie. The written word(when in it's most excellent form) oddly enough, will always be able to convey more feeling and emotion that a motion picture.

Yes, but there were so many little things that to me needlessly spoiled it.

I dont want to get into spoilers, but as a small example of what I mean:
Spoiler:
When Nite Owl and Silk Spectre's two fight scenes. In the book they can certainly look after themselves. In the movie the level of violence and the ease with which masses of opponents are levelled would be ridiculous in a Steven Siegal movie. I think the movie wouldnt have suffered if a realistic fight with odds of 2:3 or whatever, rather than a super powered martial arts exhibition when 20 or 50 thugs are decimated with ease and acrobatics

SF, I am in absolute, total agreement with you for a change. I completely agree with pretty much everything you've said in this thread.

However, I don't see how the film-makers could have done much more to capture the soul of the book. That's an exceedingly difficult thing to do when moving mediums.

A wonderful visual experience with a nigh incomprehensible plot and resolution. I'm sure it was a lovely reproduction for fans of the comics, and I enjoyed watching all the craziness, but it could've used some intense editing. I'm not sure they could've made the story any clearer without sacrificing a lot of what fans of the comic love about the movie, but it probably would have done wonders for those of us uninitiated.

These are some comments from the "Rate the last movie" thread, that I had missed. I had a question/comment relating to this but I thought I would transplant it to the Watchmen thread.



So, my question is, other than for the shock value of 20 or so minutes of blue penis screen time, why does Dr. M have a penis at all? "Well he probably had a penis before the accident", you might say. Yes, but he can control matter, and can control his appearance (blue, superbuff, 50ft tall, etc), so the penis has to be a conscious creation. Now I can understand the desire to have one to satisfy his masked babe dujour, but why not put it away when not in use. I think the lack of a penis would have more effectively demonstrated his detachment from human society. ;)