Watchmen, soon....

I'm about half way through the novel... I think I'll stop here now that I have a taste of the style and a background on the characters. Or should I finish it before I see the film?

 

More reviews

Empire 4/5

Total Film 4/4

Den Of Geek 4/5

Malo, if I could I'd see the film first before finishing the book.

 

well

Spoiler

Considering that we already had two atomic blasts that didn't unit the world or have the power to do so then yea i'd say its diffrent. The whole point of the squid type thing is that its arrival killed millions in NYC and it united the world against a common threat of the "aliens" or at least that was the plan. I don't see nukes doing that . If anything i can see that ending the world

 

agreed

Spoiler

Ozzy creates an external enemy that humanity can unite against. The Watchmen decide not to stop him, and in a sense, the enemy wins. There's just too much at stake to tear down his plan. I guess it depends on how it's done, but I can't see a nuclear blast doing anything but causing a nuclear war. We've had terrorist attacks and they haven't exactly lessened the amount of warring in the world. We'll see how it plays out in the film

 

I don't see how you can make this type of script work as a movie. The graphic novel's whole schtick and coolness factor was the innuendo and metaphor. A lot of it was a play on the graphic novel genre in and of itself.

For instance a shot of people talking and say a newspaper is drawn somewhere outside the focus floating through the wind with a headline you can just barely read.

You can't really do that in a film, you don't have 3 minutes to disect the implications of a single shot and even if the director tries, people would simply get bored.

The story and characters taken by themselves aren't really that compelling. The only character that might have something to work with is Rorscharch.

 

Yet the trailer looks pretty good and true to its' origins.

 

For those in London, grab a copy of the free faily paper - Metro

I've been grinning all morning

 

I've seen the film (was relaesed on the 5th in Australia)

Major Ending Spoilers.

Spoiler

What happens is that Ozzy asks Dr. Manhatten to make a device that mimicks his power under the guise of free power for everyone, instead what he does is use that machine to set of blasts in major countries across the world as to unite the world against a common enemy which both sides (USSR and America) know has the power to destory everything if he wants too.

.

 

Yea, that's a concern of mine too for general audiences to enjoy this movie. It's too meta for its own good in terms of translating it to film.

I don't think the 'graphic novel' was very well established by 1986 for this to be the case. More of a play on comic book tropes in general.

 

Check out this interview with Alan Moore. It includes his thoughts on why the Watchmen will not work as a movie.

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/magazine/17-03/ff_moore_qa?currentPage=all


Pretty interesting interview.

 

Would you believe, it runs in the very smallest theatre here while some utter crap like "Journey to the center of the world" occupies the big ones. Idiots.

 

Maybe because Journey was a better movie? And much more main stream.

I didnt care for Watchmen at all. I dont know much about the history of the comic, but I dont have to. Without ruining it for people who havent seen it and going into detail why, Ill just say it was average at best. Probably subpar.

 

I'm going to see it tonight so will give my opinions on it later. A lot of my friends have had mixed feelings on it so I'm going in with pretty low expectations at this point. My son is far more amped for it than I am.

I can't imagine the movie being worse than "Journey to the Center of the Earth". Journey was just terribad and a blight on all humanity.

 

I thought it was ok. Not terrible, not great. It just seemed to drag a little for me.

 

I really enjoyed it. I don't think I could imagine a better adaptation for general release. Soundtrack was awesome.

It's funny reading peoples dissection of the change to an ending to a movie that they have't seen and so don't have all the facts. I think the new ending works pretty well actually.

 

Ars has a review out for the movie...spoilers included in there so read at your discretion. I think I am going to go check out the movie next weekend at the IMAX. I just want to be entertained. I dont have any expectations whatsoever for this movie. I am mildly curious about it is all.

 

Which is why you didn't like it. It's a movie made for fans of Watchmen, which is utterly great to see. There is a pretty clear line from people I've seen in responses to it. Fans of Watchmen love it, those who have no clue why they watch movies don't.

 

I love Watchmen, I thought the movie was terrible. After this and 300 I'm convinced Snyder is a hack. It's not a comic that would be easily adapted to movies in the first place, but a director who knows how to direct more than action scenes would have been preferable. It's a comic book filled with subtleties, and I think Snyder is only vaguely familiar with the term. Give him more Frank Miller stuff -- the dialog in those is usually gibberish anyway, and there's more than enough combat to make everyone happy.

I don't think that a movie would have to be identical to the comic, but there were subtractions and additions I found inexplicable and unnecessary. I didn't care for the altered plot to begin with, but I can live with it. Thing is...

Spoiler

if, supposedly, genetic engineering is so difficult to explain, why not excise Bubastis as well?

I didn't like how they removed many of the unlikeable attributes of the heroes, the things that gave them extra depth. Rorshach became just a brutal vigilante, as opposed to an unstable, bigoted one. Plus the ability to dumb down every single scene, that was impressive.

Spoiler

*flashback from Laurie's youth*
Laurie: Oh god!
Dr. Manhattan:So the Comedian is your father.

More than once I thought they should have changed Dr. Manhattan's codename to Captain Obvious.

Also, I found the violence somewhat excessive: it's almost as if to make the combat scenes interesting, they had to invent superpowers for everyone.

 

It's incredibly harsh. Several things he says about the 'maturity' of comics also applies to videogames, unsurprisingly.

 

You have the honor of being the first to make such a remark that I've heard/read. I'm personally not going to see it because I know I wouldn't like it. But that's the point, I don't go to movies just to see the new flick.