My review of Watchmen (spoilers inside)

majortusk · My review of Watchmen (spoilers inside)

otherwise I liked the movie alot.

:P

Dark Lord

I was supposed to go last night but my earache just got so bad I didn't want to sit in a loud theater and go crazy.

Cephalopod

Methinks Majortusk did not his glowing, blue surprise.

GalakStarscraper

I found it great.

Only caught 9 major departures from the books while watching the film.

1) One with Nightowl near end (in book he doesn't see Rorsach's death and then go in and fight with Ozymandes)

2) One with Rorsach in middle (he didn't clever the guy in the head ... he dump gasoline around him handed him a hack saw and lit the gas)

3) One with ending (no squid ... but I thought what they did instead of a good replacement)

4) One with Comedian at beginning (book never says Comedian shot Kennedy)

5) One with transportation change at end (no air scooters to the Anarctic location ... they walk in the movie instead)

6) One with a fight scene at end (the prolonged movie fight scene between Ozymandes and Nightowl/Rosarch was great ... in the book its over in seconds)

7) One with shooting incident in middle (Ozymandes is not meeting with the big 3 auto makers in the book when the shooter comes)

8) One with who Dr. Manhatten not having key conversation (totally omitted his conversation with his wife about knowing about the affair and encouraging her to go with Nightowl ... I thought that was important to the story ... but its not really a change ... just an omission I actually was surprised to see omitted)

9) On with who Dr. Manhatten has conversion at end. (Dr. Manhattan has his big ending conversation with Ozymandes not his wife in the book ... just was interesting to see them swtich who his comments about making some of his own life was directed to).

None of them upset me.

I was amazed at how close to the story the movie stayed. And happy with what I saw for the final product.

Galak

Cephalopod

Well, based on how good everyone here (and locally, to be fair, but you guys pushed me over) said it was I went and bought the trade paperback. Mind you, I'm 30 and I'm buying my first comic book ever.

I just finished reading it. I am very impressed with how good the story was, not what I expected from flipping through Spiderman or Batman in my youth. I was on the fence about seeing the movie but now I definitely will go see it in the next few weeks, once the crowds thin out a bit. Did I mention that I am not a people person?

Dark Lord

Some of the best stuff I have ever read has been in comic books.

If you ignore Marvel & DC there's a ton a great stuff out there!

If you ever buy a second book make it this one.

GrumpyGrizzly

I drug my wife out to see it. She loved it more than I did. I found myself spending too much time thinking about what was and was not in the book. I'm going to see it again with another friend and I should be able to enjoy it more this time.

My biggest fear was that the movie would suck and put off people from reading the original. I am happy to say that the movie didn't suck. I though they did good with what they had time to bring to the screen.

I wanted the squid, but not the extra 30 minutes of backstory to make the squid relevant. I liked the pacing, though I know a number of people complained about it being slow.

At least I don't have to worry about a Watchman 2

Dark Lord

You know pacing is such a tricky thing; it's very relative. You know critics complained about A New Hope being too fast to follow in 1977, but if it had been made now days, they would say it moves like a dumptruck. Sometimes people call a movie slow because there isn't enough "boom boom" for them, or sometimes they say it's slow because the dialogue is agonizing. However, I can see Watchmen having a slow pace because so much of it is build up...it is a mystery after all.

And I can see fans calling it slow since it's hard to watch a mystery when you know the ending.

skatingtortoise

i think modern 'geek' culture is much too hung up on canon, authenticity, and 'fathfulness to the book'.

as far as im concerned if you want something exactly like 'the book' or 'the original', then go read/watch the original.adaptations are just that - adaptations. saying that theyre better/worse than the original is missing the point.

having said that, everyone here seems very well adjusted :)

also, Persepolis is fantastic, i loved the book AND the film :P

will try and drag GF to watchmen sometime this week

GalakStarscraper

MidniteXpress

i agree with galak, but would like to point out that halle berry-brains can't act and the vast majority (if not all) of her movies suck.

the reason spiderman, x-men and the fantastic 4 movies are considered pretty good is mainly IMO because stan lee was a consultant for all of them.

Dark Lord

MidniteXpress

i was never that keen on fantastic 4 comics, so the movie being crap didn't really stand out to me. One movie I would like to see made is shadowman

mattwakeman

Dark Lord

I hear they are making a Dredd movie...tho it seems like I have been hearing this rumor for a long time.

mattwakeman

They are indeed and some of the concept art (which is a bizarre concept when it is being made from a comic) by an artist called Jock is excellent. But of course it will live and die on its script which is where the Stallone effort failed. In a sense an anime version of JD would be possibly the best as to realise Mega City One even in an age of cgi would still be expensive. Get John Wagner to write the script (he did one for the first film) and have the courage to make the story about the city as much as anything else. Oh, and I think that I will wait until the directors cut of Watchmen before seeing it. No real reason why.

Dark Lord

Well I didn't have as much problem with the JD script as I did with the complete disregard to sacred Dredd concepts...IE Dredd taking off his helmet, Fergie being a little woman, Rico looking nothing like Dredd, the bikes being pieces of junk, the way Dredd was completely loose with the law and could simply sentences people to death by shouting "death!" just before he blew them away with a giant penis...errrr I mean gun.

But yeah, the script was garbage too.

majortusk

Judge Dredd was a great 15 min movie.

I did like the opening sequence, up until he took off his helmet.

Dark Lord

Just saw it, still digesting. It was incredibly faithful to the comic, and I love the comic. It had a strange pacing to it tho, I agree with Grumpy, and I liked it but I wonder about the Director's Cut...yeesh, that thing will go on for 4 hours! All in all, I would say it was a good movie; I understand the March release date now tho. It's not a summer blockbuster...and I don't think all the norms are gonna get it.

mattwakeman

Have still yet to see it but a few people have said that it would have worked much better as a mini-series as that would allow the natural flow of the material to retain its natural peaks. Interestingly, one of the criticisms is that Snyder has actually been too faithful to the graphic novel to the detriment of working in a different media. Still tempted to wait for the director's cut before going to see it.

GrumpyGrizzly

I watched it again with a semi-geek friend of mine. It was better the second time through because I wasn't trying to match his frames up with the novel.

Like I said before, I just didn't want it to suck

There were things that I thought the director could have done better. Was strange that some of the small details that would have cost 0 screen time were left out, but that's ok. Dr. Manhattan's pushing Laurie at Night Owl and when Ozy's watching the screens and talking with his broker to make money jump to mind.

Dr Manhatten's monologue/flashback when he goes to mars was something that I really liked. I liked the flashback sequence when they are burying the Comedian. Rorschach in jail was probably my favorite part.

I did feel like Night Owl and Silk specter were too powerful/brutal, lessening how brutal Rorschach truly was. I could have done without Night Owl being there for Rorschach's death. It kinda cheapened the scene to me. It's the movies big dark impact and I didn't need some cliched emotional outburst.

But on the whole, I enjoyed it and will buy the DVD when it comes out. Probably the director's cut if it's avaliable. I think my butt can take 4 hours at home

Dark Lord

I can't even describe how funny this is.

skatingtortoise

neither can i.

saw the film tonight, and a lot of things worked, and the changes that were made were done for good reasons.

in the end a lot gorier than the comic - the butchers knife freaked me out, but did the same job as the hacksaw, so im happy :) (and now a bigger rorschach fan)

didnt really get going until the prison riot, though still a very very high quality adaptation. the tension between nite owl and silk spectre was very well put together :D

youre all trapped in here with ME.

SillySod

Poor film. Comparable to watching 3 hours of old Star Trek episodes.... now I quite like watching old Star Trek episodes but they are not what I expect from a film, even a moderately average one. The problems with the film:
- the whole story felt strung together to try and fit characters who had no reason to fit anything, it felt awfully contrived.
- the plot was really strung out. You'd see a tiny bit of it and then a bunch of stuff which wasnt especially relevant. It felt alot like they hadnt edited out all the scenes they usually cut.
- the soundtrack was ghastly. Sadly you noticed this because a) there often wasnt alot happening and b) it was ghastly.

A mate actually said it felt a bit liie he'd gone to see a documentary... sadly I can see where hes coming from there

Having said that Rorschach was well played and it is probably worth wasting a few hours on if you are bored, just not if you want to go see a film. If you want to see a good film I recommend seeing The International.