watchmen, the movie

[mrip]

soundtrack was shit. hallelujah while boning, come on guy.

i enjoyed it, obv the book was better. visuals were nice. dr manhattans penis is twice the size it is in the comic

[redgrail]

He's Dr. M. He can make it as big as he fucking wants.

[Somnus]

Umm..the movie was a big dissapointment for me. I despised the way Night Owl and Silk Spectre (Laurie) were portrayed in the movie..their relationship was painfully cheesy, and they were horrible at acting.

Another thing that really bothered me were the overly stylized, power rangers meet Matrix fight sequences. They were painful to watch and it all just a big joke to me.

They also made Dr. Manhattan turn into some martyr-esque emo character..he's not supposed to be so damn empathetic and emotional towards humanity.

I give this film a 5/10 for effort, and for the decent performance of Rorschach and The Comedian.

[jeepster]

^wait... what did you expect - it was a comic book adapted to a movie. Comics by nature are "cheesy". While the writing in Watchmen is pretty great, it's overly melodramatic and cheesy to a T. I can agree with the acting, but seriously man, what did you expect? Sean Penn doing his Oscar bid as Night Owl? Nahhhhhh doggie.

[Somnus]

I disagree with the whole "Comics are by nature cheesy".

I don't know what kinda graphic novels you've been reading.

I didnt expect much, but why make a movie when its gonna be half-assed? It also neglected the main theme and purpose of Watchmen.

[jeepster]

Dude, the medium of comics is inherently an overly melodramatic rendering of reality by nature. Who the hell goes around monologuing and delivering overly long passages about the futility of life and the desperation of human nature?

And du, I sell comics for a fucking living right now.

[Somnus]

Rorschach's monologue reflects his internal perception on life and humanity. I don't see anything melodramatic or cheesy with that.

I think Snyder tried way too hard to follow the comic panel by panel, resulting in a static, stiff, and awkward movie.

[jeepster]

The idea is that Rorschach is supposed to be the internal dialogue and the internal melodrama and push and pull of the entire graphic novel. The writing is by its inherent nature, melodramatic, that does not mean it is a bad thing nor does it mean that it can translate poorly to other mediums. I think Rorschach reflects on the other characters external dialogue by internalizing the more poetic and striking monologues that move the story forward.

I do agree with you that Snyder did try and follow the framing of the story arc a bit too much, and there are times when you can imagine the panels actually around the scenes, but I disagree that it brought the movie down - for an "unfilmable" movie, he did an above average job. I thought 300 was far more forced and self-consciously done.

[readytoignite]

as a caveat, i read the books when they came out - i was way too young at the time so didn't get much out of them nor remember all that much

that said i thought the picture was surprisingly compelling. certainly you could argue that the shots were very "comicy" but it's ironic that someone would say they were too much like the matrix, because the matrix was pretty much the movie that translated the visual language of comics into film.

parts of the movie were pretty corny which i'm guessing is because it was so literally adapted from an 80s work - that decade was the corniest it got pretty much across the board. it's true that nite owl's acting didn't help though. the use of music did suck though, hallelujah made an already risible scene downright laughable (as in lol in the theater) and all along the watchtower made like a ham-fisted tribute to scorcese.

that said "first we take manhattan" in the crawl was pure genius

[Charlie Delta]

Noone expressed love for the opening scene yet?

[jeepster]

Credits were done brilliantly, probably the best use of CGI in the entire film.

[esoteric]

I thought the movie was alright.

Though slow in the beginning, but that's given since there needed to be a lot of background information. I went with a few of my friends who have never read the book, most of them enjoyed it while the others were just lost.

Overall, it was a pretty nice watch. I'd watch it again.

[readytoignite]

Noone expressed love for the opening scene yet?

it was ok; the montage that caught you up on the rise and fall of the superheroes after that was pretty epic though

Though slow in the beginning, but that's given since there needed to be a lot of background information. I went with a few of my friends who have never read the book, most of them enjoyed it while the others were just lost.

i figured most would have thought this but the first half was the richest part of the picture - it's kind of a weird gloss on character-based cinema except the characters are actually symbolic of the socio-political era of the time, which is rendered beautifully.

without this part the traditional part of the movie would have been really stupid

[Charlie Delta]

it was ok; the montage that caught you up on the rise and fall of the superheroes after that was pretty epic though

...

That's actually what I meant.

[mpcec]

awesome batman reference in the opening scene. also the boys folder on veidts comp.

[jeepster]

Yeah, there are a lot of little details. Gonna have to see it again.

[Servo2000]

Perfectly decent. The scenes that were done well (i.e. Rorsach's parts) made what fell flat almost worth it but nothing could save this movie from its soundtrack. Nothing.

That said - there's no way they could have ever made "Servo2000's Watchmen Movie" since for me the overall plot was always just a medium to explore the rest of the world / the characters / psychology and superhero stereotypes, etc... and I'm sure most people who actually read the book agree with me. I'd almost rather have seen the overall plot compressed / simplified to allow more of the tangents to fit into the film.

But I mean, that's why it was "unfilmable" so I can't really complain.

[tweeds]

eh, i honestly preferred the sheer graphic machismo of 300 over this. that was just...stylised way over the top, whereas snyder has to deal with a very complex world, philosophy, psychology (exactly what servo said) and that made for a very confusing and disappointing film.

what really made it worse was the awful acting across the board, save for rorschach and possibly the comedian, both of whom probably delivered the most compelling performances. and the soundtrack floored me.

i haven't read most of the graphic novel, but now i'm determined to read it properly, because the same muddy plotlines, themes, characterisation, etc in the movie are probably better fleshed out on the page. should've listened to terry gilliam...

all that said and done, rorschach was really the brightest spot (blot? heh) in the movie. enjoyed all of his moments on screen.

[mpcec]

i dont get the soundtrack hate at all. thought it was well done/ fun. i loved the 99 red balloons part.

also tweeds i thought the voice acting for dr manhattan was spot on, nite owl and silk spectre weren't much but the acting wasn't so bad that it detracted from the movie

[Servo2000]

i dont get the soundtrack hate at all. thought it was well done/ fun. i loved the 99 red balloons part.

Nope. Shit sucked.

[AL-9000]

the soundtrack was hit and miss for me

"hallelujah"=bad

dylan, hendrix=meh

simon and garfunkel=hit a soft spot (maybe i just really like the song)

[domdomdomdom]

I'm glad i ordered the four-legged chicken.

[Guest jmatsu]

watched movie.

how/why did rorschach's rorschach ink on his mask move?

did not like his voice, not supposed to sound like that.

[LiberationFrequency]

lol I was unexpectedly disappointed they left out the alien squid. I wish they added in a homage or something.

Near the end in Veidt's Antarctic base the camera scrolls across the screens as all the countdowns are going off and the program is actually called "S.Q.U.I.D" - not sure how many people noticed it though.

I wish we saw his huge garden and how the snow kills everything when the glass roof opens.

[panicnation]

Pretty disappointing movie.

I think Snyder was trying too hard to stay as close to the source material as possible, so much so that the movie didn't really have a life of its own. Given the difference in mediums, Snyder should've paid more attention to capturing the "spirit" of the GN, rather than attempting to recreate every panel wholesale.

Sure it was entertaining, in a flashy, loud, exploding sort of way, but is that all you really want from an adaptation of Watchmen? Disappointing.

[Desi]

saw it a couple days ago at midnight and boy did I hate Adrian. I felt had "badguy" written on his face. The comic was much better at leaving you confused. Loved the added combat scenes throughout the movie though and most of the cast was spot. Everyone looked like their characters from the comic except some changes in Silk Spectre (both) and the lack of purple on Ozymandias.

Loved the Comedian. Really felt like the comic.

how/why did rorschach's rorschach ink on his mask move?

it did in the comic too right? Think he explained it when he was talking about working in the textile industry using Dr. M's advancement in fabric.

[terrible!]

The opening montage was worth the price of admission alone.

[stuntastic]

The movie was... AWESOME...

[FUCK]

movie was really true. appreciated it. enjoyed the graphic novel more.

[ghettosalazar]

what was with Nixon's nose?