Watchmen

[randy]

Many moons ago when the comic first came out it became an immediate favorite of mine. This is the first movie in ages that I am looking forward to--hopefully the big screen version will not suck. Strongly advise anyone seeing it to at least pick up the graphic novel first.

[empyrean]

Based on the trailer, i think this movie will be really great.

Cant find the Novel here in the Philippines though.

And NightOwl looks like Batman.

<a href="http://s141.photobucket.com/albums/r72/din1081/?action=view¤t=215613201067hitmedawg.gif" target="_blank"><img src="http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r72/din1081/215613201067hitmedawg.gif" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

[NuWaveRx]

In two words. It. Rocked.

Fairly faithful to the graphic novel. Still very dense, brutal, violet, sexy, horrific, and funny. Graphics and action sequences are incredible.

Would highly recommend reading the graphic novel first--it may be a bit much to follow without it (which, in the end, could be the biggest critique I have)

Typical fanboy response, I suppose. I'll be seeing it again soon, I'm sure[:D]

[randy]

Cannot believe this board is so quiet about it. Has nobody heard of it prior to now?

[bleek]

Okay, I just read Watchmen last year and was very impressed by the scope and intelligence of the thing. I had been looking forward to the movie with anticipation but with reservations.
Well yesterday I saw the movie. It was fun to see the characters made real and the sets were awesome but this film should have been a miniseries i guess. It had a lot of the bombast and flashiness but not enough of the background info and sidelines that made the comic solid and gave it that breath of life.
I brought my wife to the movie and was kind of watching it through her eyes as well. She's a hard sell on Sci-Fi/Fantasy stuff so I kept my fingers crossed. About 3/4 into the movie I began to feel a bit self-conscious about bringing her there. The dialogue felt clunky and the fighting scenes seemed gratuitous, silly and appeared to be filler.
I didn't like the changed ending although I can imagine the mocking that the general public would have unleashed on a giant squid with a brain cloned from a psychic, etc.
Some reviews speak of how faithful the film was to the graphic novel and I don't see it. Some elements were true enough but other parts were changed too much. What about Sally Jupiter's reunions with the minutemen, Rorschach's psychiatrist falling apart, The death of Hollis, etc. I missed some of the humour toward the end when Ozymandias scurries away from Jon and Rorschach's attempts to sneak up from behind and get slapped down. Ozy was too young and the dialogue was delivered like so many superhero films but even more so, like "This is my grand proclamation!" "Here's our our brave responce!" blah blah blah.
It looked like the filmmakers had thought "Oh, we have to remember that people want top see a superhero movie not a dialogue based film. We better extend and add more fighting sequences and give it more blood and gore." To me these were the films shortcomings. But then again, to do all the things to remedy these would have required a miniseries wouldn't it?
My wife said she enjoyed it nonetheless and let that stand where it may. I still felt the need to fill her in on the gaps and omissions.
The visuals were cool. Jon's mind-meld thing was lame too.
Oh well, we'll see what the DVD has to offer.

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[NuWaveRx]

[quote][i]Originally posted by bleek[/i]
<br> But then again, to do all the things to remedy these would have required a miniseries wouldn't it?

[/quote]


Exactly. To include all the subplots, to say nothing of the excerpts from "under the hood" and "Tales of the Black Freighter" would have made the movie 10 hours long. I feel they kept the main plot of the GN as faithfully as possible within the confines of a single movie. As far as the dialogue, I'd guess over 50% is verbatim from the GN.

I remember when LA Confidential (the movie) came out. As a big James Ellroy fan I thought a movie based on any of his novels (especially the LA Trilogy) would never work because of the dense plot and numerous sub-plots. But the filmakers in that case (and in the case of Watchmen, IMO) did the right thing, by being as faithful as possible to the main plot and keeping the "flavor" of the book intact while dispensing with subplots that would have made the movie 8 hours long.

As far as the violence I wonder if the rules of "grim and gritty" would have been in play in 1985 if Moore's GN would have been as violent as the film. Read any of Garth Ennis's "The Boys"? It's on a par with the movie's violence.


Watchmen the movie could never be an exact reinactment of the GN. I think it stands well as it is. A tribute to the Alan Moore masterpiece, without being a complete replication of it.