Watchmen The Movie

[DoTheFandango]

OH WOW THAT WAS AN OLD POST.
love dtf

[Jeenyuss]

just a couple posts downs he said that he started reading it.

[Squeezer]

really dude? I thought you over anyone here would have read it. Both of those, in fact. Welcome to my senior year.

This isn't just a graphic novel, it's THE graphic novel.

I know, I was ashamed too. I'm reading Naked Lunch for the first time right now, another book I should have added to my list a long time ago. I've read Watchmen 4 times since I bought it. I've kind of become a fanboy of Alan Moore. I think he's creative and thoughtful, even if it is a bit gruff. Next quarter I'm taking a "comparative authors" class on Pynchon and Moore. My reading list is Gravity's Rainbow and Watchmen

For those that have read the graphic novel but haven't seen the movie yet, check out the opening credits here:

http://daveandthomas.net/blog/2009/0...ening-credits/

edit: And there are still a ton of literary references I need to catch up on. This quarter I read "House of Leaves," by Mark Danielewski and understood most of the references, but it made me feel kind of frustrated that I recognized where the quotes and concepts came from, but I hadn't actually read them myself.

[Pearl Jam]

Gravity's Rainbow

Good luck. I couldn't finish it. I appreciate the brilliance of the writing (you probably will to, aren't you something along the lines of an english major?), but I don't appreciate how ridiculously over-the-top difficult it is to read. I think Pynchon and James Joyce were BFFs in another life.

[DoTheFandango]

I think Pynchon and James Joyce were BFFs in another life.

total butt fucking friends.

[Arsen]

First and for most i didnt know anything about this story when i whent and saw the movie - However after seeing it, it makes me want to read the graphic novel to fully understand the character developments. The action sequences were fucking awesome, and i had no clue there was that high level of graphic violence! I love horror movies that are just down right gorry. There is one scene in the movie where aguy gets his arms cut off - This whole scene is almost shot in 1 clip - which is unheard of! Anyways, i give this movie a 8.9/10 had a great time watchin it in IMAX love that big screen and sound!

[Summa]

I have been trying my best to contain myself and not just explode ever since I went and saw the opening midnight showing, but I can no longer contain myself. A message to all of those who have not read Watchmen or do not care about honoring the greatest graphic novel of all time: Go see this movie it is quite wonderful. To those who have read and do care: Do not go see this movie it will only leave you as pissed off as I am.

Going into spoiler tags just in case anyone wants to go watch this with an unbiased pov.

[spoiler]

Zack Snyder really knows how to do it. I could not think of a dumber decision to make than to mess with the ending than this. But it doesn't start there, the ending is the spark that ignites the bomb that had been laid out unbeknownst to me earlier in the movie. I mean how do you spend 2 hours and 10 minutes of a 2 hour and 30 minute movie pulling direct quotes from the graphic novel, and fuck this up? Well guess what....HE DID

Before I start let me give this movie some credit. The casting on the Comedian and Rorschach was spot on imo, this movie overall is just plain beautiful...I mean I could stare at some of the scenes for hours on end it is so pretty, this movie holds fairly true to the brutality of the graphic novel (I would have had it be a bit more, but I was satisfied enough), and lastly it masterfully hides the clusterfuck that is the ending. Honestly if I would have walked out 2 hours and 10 minutes into the movie I would have said "You know what....that was about as good as you can portray Watchmen...it had issues and was a bit watered down, but you know what Zack Snyder...not bad, you have slightly redeemed yourself from the shitfest that was 300.

Now let's explore some of my issues with this movie more thoroughly:

Casting: I didn't really care for the actress who played Laurie very much...but I think that was more just personal taste and my own imaginings of her. I was ok with Dr. Manhattan...I mean that is a damn near impossible role to play and it was done ok enough. The big blunder here was Adrian Veidt..... and boy did they miss. Yes there are hintings at Veidt's homosexuality, but hollywood went way too far. He is portrayed as almost entirely homosexual. And wtf is with that sweedish accent/lisp shit? Adrian Veidt is the most confident person in the entire graphic novel and he is portrayed by a pansy who's posture indicates that he is unsure of himself. The last shot we have of Adrian Veidt is him hanging his head at what he has done.......that is NOT ABSOLUTELY NOT ADRIAN VEIDT. He is confident and sure of what he has done, not a regretful pansy.

Superheroes: The only person who is more than a physically fit man or woman in all of Watchmen is Dr. Manhattan. I was looking forward to some flawed fighting where normal criminals actually get some hits in on these costumed heroes or where they struggle in the face of 3v1's, instead I got a 40 vs 2 and a display of strength far above that of humanity. These people are not super, and while the fighting was entertaining to watch, I would easily sacrifice or at least make it REAL. Ex. Rorschach jumps through the window. In the graphic novel he breaks the stilts that make him appear taller and also injures his legs so due to the severity of the fall. In the movie he proceeds to stand up and continue to fight off 10 more heavily armed cops before finally going down. I let this one slide simply because it was entertaining and I felt it was necessary to keep audiences that were not acquainted with the graphic novel entertained...even though Watchmen is a giant "FUCK YOU" to almost every Hollywood stereotype. All of that said...this sat in the back of my mind festering the entire movie.

The Portrayal of Nite Owl and Ms. Jupiter: What the fuck......
Scene: Nite Owl follows Rorschach outside and falls to his knees screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" when Manhattan blasts him...../movie ....its over...NO WAIT HE RUNS BACK INSIDE AND TRIES TO FIGHT VEIDT and then tells him to bear the sins of what he has done......congrats you have made Dan a hero. WHAT THE FUCK. All of the disparaging qualities of Laurie and Dan were gone. Laurie didn't smoke, she wasn't whiney, she expressed no disdain for Rorschach and was not all that bothered by the comedian. Where was he baseless hatred of people? Where was the whiney bitch? No, instead we are given an innocent hero. FUCK THAT. Dan apparently no longer agrees with what Veidt did, unlike in the graphic novel. He also chooses to follow his now "butt fucking friend forever" Rorschach outside instead of having sex with the hot bitch waiting for him by the pool. Congrats Snyder, you made heroes from a story that is supposed to leave a sour taste in your mouth and make you walk away questioning who is at fault and if anyone was right in the end.....nope...none of that, we get a definite answer in this one. Which leads me to the ending.

Ending: The regular ending to Watchmen is definitely the only part of the movie that you CANNOT screw with. I knew the squid monster would be gone...it had been publicly announced for quite some time, so I was interested in how they would compensate for that and boy did they ever in a HORRENDOUS way. The ending to Watchmen is in no way a conventional Hollywood ending, and it seems that they realized this and decided to give their own definite winners and losers along with heroes and villains. In short, they replaced the squid monster by placing all of the blame on Dr. Manhattan.... I need not even expound on how great of a blunder this is....what a joke. That coupled with Nite Owl's epic Hollywood "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" then his proceeding to beat up Veidt, oh and then there is the no sex by the pool, ohhhhh don't forget Veidt not being proud of what he had done, ohhhhhh wait there's more the final lines of the movie used to ruin the best line of the entire novel Manhattan's "Nothing ends Adrian, Nothing ever ends." given instead to Laurie and butchered to all hell. What a shitfest.

One last comment and I may come back with more later just because I am so flamingly pissed off....you could tell when they stopped borrowing lines from the novel and started writing their own because it was so much more horrendously worse. JESUS FUCK. MY MOVIE FUCKKK SHIT!!!!

[Squeezer]

Good luck. I couldn't finish it. I appreciate the brilliance of the writing (you probably will to, aren't you something along the lines of an english major?), but I don't appreciate how ridiculously over-the-top difficult it is to read. I think Pynchon and James Joyce were BFFs in another life.

I read it this quarter as well. Easily one of the hardest reading experiences I've ever had, especially since we covered the book in only 3 weeks.

Pynchon is kind of a stubborn brat/know-it-all which I find cute. But yeah, Gravity's Rainbow was a chore to follow the first time through. Hopefully a second time will give more perspective.

[a2m+]

Am I the only one who disliked this movie? Seemed like the actors overacted (think "Batman Forever" acting), there were tons of useless scenes that had nothing to do with the storyline, and the movie in general was long and boring as hell. Sure it had its cool parts, but on the whole I found it to be a terrible movie. Yes, the girl was hot and thank god we got to see her naked, but did we really have to see the blue guy's junk for half the movie??? Plus I thought the ending was stupid and the CGI was pretty bad. I'm sure if I read the book I'd be more excited about this movie, but on a whole, I was thoroughly disappointed.

[Bioture]

the movie wasn't TERRIBLE... but I get the feeling that it eventually caved under the weight of trying to live up to the comic.

[HateTheFake]

kinda an interesting choice for silk, (played in heartbreak kid) Overall the ending reminded me of 1984. How there had to be a negative effect for people to truley understand it. Great graphics. But i would have liked to see more fighting

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

I think that a lot of the 80's music used killed it a little bit for me. It just seemed a bit too forced, although I get the whole "period piece" point of view. I don't know how to reconcile it with the graphic novel, either.

The opening credit sequence was still pretty phenomenal.

[phata$$]

I agree with most of your post, Summa. But I'm a little less pissed off.

Trying to make a movie that was both appealing to the fans of the comic and to the people who haven't even read the comic is an extremely difficult task. Snyder did a really good job and although he butchered some really good parts of the comic, I'm sure it was just so that it could go well with the average film goer.

I refuse to believe that Snyder didn't film the original scenes word for word as the comic. You just have to acknowledge that an audience wouldn't have liked a whiny Spectre, a pussy Nite Owl, and a Rorschach who doesn't know kung fu.

I had relatively low expectations for this movie and I left feeling happy.

I also felt that the 80's music was forced. I realized that when Hendrix played over an aerial shot for the 10 millionth time in a movie. Although, watching the Comedian kick hippie ass to "I'm Your Boogie Man" was extremely entertaining.

[Summa]

A smile did crawl across my face when there was an overhead of the Comedian's tombstone and "Hello darkness my old friend" played. Overall the music was spot on and hilarious at times, but those few times did not compensate for the overall corny and shitty music choices.

As for that opening sequence, I forgot to include that in my successes of this movie. That opening sequence was so great that it got my hopes very very high.....only to be shot down terribly...I think the movie was a progressive downhill slide from that opening sequence....with a giant chasm at the end.

[Zeebu]

ya i herd der was lotz of dik if tru im seein it tootimes