[Movie] Watchmen

Originally Posted by knkwzrd

They exaggerated the action and dumbed down the interesting bits

Saw this at a midnight showing, and generally agree with this segment of your comment, if not the overall feeling about the film. Compared to what could have been done to this film, I was pleasantly surprised by how tightly they stuck to the framing, artwork, and pacing of the film. The vast majority of sequences happened in exactly the same manner as they did in the book, which I thought was a positive. Perhaps my expectations were actually too low, but I was braced for a standard Hollywood treatment, where they think they know better than Moore and completely rewrite the book. In my opinion, it was akin to Lord of the Rings. They made an effort to be true to the book, and I appreciate that the effort was there, even if their perception of the book colored the final result with greys.

Spoiler:

Obviously, no squid, as has been known for a while in the leaked info, but I didn't mind the change, even though the squid did have a meaning in the original book. Much like LotR, I can understand the removal of "The Black Freighter", as that much meta-narrative would drag the pacing to a standstill. And I thought the newspaper salesman, and the little kid hugging right before the end was a nice touch, even if it was out of context.

The exaggeration of the action was a bit much, although it wouldn't have been nearly so jarring if the gal playing Silk Spectre hadn't kept posing in every scene. Going through a doorway? Pose. Judo chop. Pose.

Still, in the end I think Pang's old comment was about right. It was as good as a movie adaptation could be expected to be.

Edit:

Originally Posted by Hantei

The music selection was really good

Didn't see this before, but this was the one thing that I thought was sub-par about the whole experience. Personally, it just felt like they were trying too hard with the music to tell you what emotion you were supposed to be feeling. Ride of the Valkyries in Apocalypse Now had a well integrated story point with a callback to Wagner. In this, it was just parody and a marker for "Audience, this is Vietnam."

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Denicalis

Watchmen was an abortion on screen. Almost fucking unwatchable.

I can understand not liking it, believing it was bad, and thinking that it did not live up to the book. Reasonable opinions. But, "You're retarded because you saw anything besides "Rorschach is cool' " is just stupid.

There's nowhere I can't reach.