[Movie] Watchmen

Just saw it, and was fairly entertained.

Spoiler:

Not so much from the first half, but the second was more pleasing and not boring.
Not that the backstory telling wasn't needed it's just that I kinda zoned in and out of it and just didn't grab my attention as it should have.
I never read the graphic novel so I don't know if it was because I didn't get myself attached to the characters beforehand that i didn't enjoy the movie as much.
I just found it fairly predictable of who the bad guy was (if you can call him that) as soon as I saw him. It was even obvious he was the one that put the pill in the dude's mouth.
rorschach of course didn't start to get interesting until the fight with the cops and then on. It was just funny to see the tough guy panic. Oh and the choice of music was to fit the 80's but all of that music has been used to death in countless of other movies so I just don't know what would have been so bad to create an original score for a movie like this.

Oh and last thing, rorschach dying I found pointless. Who would have believed him anyways. Still a good death tho. . . . kinda

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Shenlon

I just don't know what would have been so bad to create an original score for a movie like this.

There was. It was composed by Tyler Bates.

Quote:

Spoiler:

Oh and last thing, rorschach dying I found pointless. Who would have believed him anyways. Still a good death tho. . . . kinda

Spoiler:

Rorschach's the only one who stuck to his principles. His death was necessary because it showed how much of a hypocrite everyone else was by compromising and going along with Ozymandias.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Cellius

Spoiler:

Rorschach's the only one who stuck to his principles. His death was necessary because it showed how much of a hypocrite everyone else was by compromising and going along with Ozymandias.

Spoiler:

Ah yes I see the point there. I guess I was trying to put some other sense into it as in "no one would have believed him, and everyone would have thought he was a terrorist partner (watchmen) with manhattan."
Guess I was over thinking it.

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They probably could have done a lot more if they hadn't shot 2/3rds of the movie with high speed cameras.

In any case, I was really satisfied with Jon's plot save for the ending.

I was speaking idiomatically.

It's a great movie. Fans of the comics should forget about the comics and approach this adaptation as a movie. It's quite pointless comparing the two since they're different mediums. And the lack of the giant squid at the ending was fine, they were able to relay the same symbolism of the giant squid with what they did in the movie.

Also, Silk Specter <3. Hottest costume, or HOTTEST costume?

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Overall, I enjoyed the experience. At least, as much as I can enjoy such a story.

Originally Posted by Hantei

The only thing that bugged me was how he kept with the Batman voice after being unmasked. I was kinda expecting him to play down the voice a little when he was Kovacs. But then we're told/reminded, that Kovacs was no more when he found the dead little girl, which I guess kinda explains why his voice stayed consistently that way.

Yeah. That's also how it works in the graphic novel. After the girl's death, he always talks in a different, noticeably rougher, word balloon.

I think my disappointment with Rorschach was that the mask wasn't explained. It was essentially a passing remark in the novel and could definitely have been one here. I imagine some viewers may have "How does his mask do that?" stuck in their heads whenever he appears on-screen.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Sousuke

To be honest, I never had the opportunity to read the novel. :/ I'd love to, though. Especially now that I've seen the movie.

Despite not having read the book, I have to say I really enjoyed the movie.

This seems to be a general broad opinion that those who saw the movie without reading the book would enjoy it and those who did, didn't like it as much.

So here's my question, I recently bought the book a few days ago and seeing the negative responses from the readers who saw the movie, I ask whether if I should just watch the movie first or enjoy the book first?

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I think that either way, the movie will eventually be disappointing. I don't think anyone (besides Sprout) is saying that this is a bad movie. It isn't a bad movie. It's just not as good as it could have been. Being just short of excellent is usually more disappointing than being awful. If something is awful, you can dismiss it outright, easy peasy. That's not what this is. A lot of it is great, but there are moments that make you think "they just utterly fucked that bit up". It's not as good as it could easily have been considering the amount of effort put into it, and that's the ultimate letdown.

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As far as an adaptation of Watchmen could go, this is the best I imagine we could have hoped for. I liked it well enough, but it just seemed like it lost something in the transition.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Tentacle Rapist

As far as an adaptation of Watchmen could go, this is the best I imagine we could have hoped for. I liked it well enough, but it just seemed like it lost something in the transition.

As far as an adaptation of watchmen could go, the best we could have hoped for was Gilliam's interpretation: "Can't be done." And if you have to fucking hack apart this graphic novel, do it in a mini-series.

Watchmen was an abortion on screen. Almost fucking unwatchable. It looked like every other movie in the genre and was boring as fuck. I think you have to be brain dead to glean anything beyond "Yeah, rorschach was pretty bad ass a few times" from it.

Rubbish, and not even especially pretty rubbish.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I am deeply amused by the beard brigade's insistence that the movie's very existence offends them! combined with their apparent decision to collectively go and see it ASAP (so they can explain how bad it is).

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Pangalin

I am deeply amused by the beard brigade's insistence that the movie's very existence offends them! combined with their apparent decision to collectively go and see it ASAP (so they can explain how bad it is).

Or maybe it could be that after having seen it, we reached a conclusion that hey, maybe Moore was right about this. Maybe Gilliam had the right idea, given the fact that this movie didn't work at all.

Wow. Agreeing with someone when they're right. What a novel thing. Get over yourself, Pang. A lot of us who didn't like it went to see it hoping it wouldn't suck (except LeHah, I'm guessing) and were disappointed to find that it did. If you like shitty films, good on you. Enjoy yourself. But don't get your panties twisted when someone points out a bad film is bad.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I actually expected to like it more than I turned out to. Like I said, it just seemed like it was missing something. A soul, maybe. Not something I'd pay to see again.

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Originally Posted by Denicalis

don't get your panties twisted

Look if it's a bad movie or whatever fine

I'm just schadenfreuding over the all the omg soul raep some people are exhibiting.

I mean, I haven't even seen it but I am fairly sure the movie does not leap out of the screen and brutally rape you

which would make the hysterics semi-appropriate

V Zip doesn't like it : must be good

FELIPE NO

Didnt like it at all, much like 300 it was full of fluff with no real stuffing. 300 the comic was the same so that movie worked, but Watchmen is complex with different pararell things going on.. and not seeing some of it just broke it.

no homo

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.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I have mixed feelings. I feel that a lot of the graphic novel was lost through the continuous nature of film. I liked the feeling of being in a different chapter that explores a different theme, and I don't think that comes through very much in the film. I also didn't think the stylized action was very appropriate. It kind of worked in the opening since the "mask killer" is supposed to be just a bit better than just a normal guy, but other scenes (like the alley scene or the prison fight) left kind of a bad taste, what with Nite Owl and Spectre smirking at each other every few seconds. Also, I don't see how someone who didn't read the comic could understand anything at all - Bubastis is sort of just thrown in, Dr. Manhattan is for some reason making huge structures out of Mars dirt - I just feel like the comic drags you into its world more easily because of how gradual everything is explained. Also the movie was so long. Also I guess I don't have mixed feelings about it, I just didn't like it very much.

edit: Also, Nixon's nose.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I never read the book. Enough of a story was left for me to follow, and very deeply enjoy, within those two hours. I got to drink in a taste of an entire, entertaining alternate timeline. And it was much better than anything else I could have gone to see right now. Mission accomplished I'd say. Better to approximate and tribute something amazing, then to give me a fat cop crashing his Segway 17 times or the third "I'm a virgin!" movie of the month.

If the book is THAT MUCH MORE awesomesauce, I guess I'll read it.

(I found 300 book and 300 movie dully 1-D).

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Denicalis

Watchmen was an abortion on screen. Almost fucking unwatchable. It looked like every other movie in the genre and was boring as fuck. I think you have to be brain dead to glean anything beyond "Yeah, rorschach was pretty bad ass a few times" from it.

Rubbish, and not even especially pretty rubbish.

Worse than The Dark Knight, if that's even possible, which isn't, also I won't admit a movie being WORSE than it, lest people could get the idea that TDK had any redeeming qualities whatsoever.

Also: lol blue schlong.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Pangalin

V Zip doesn't like it : must be good

or maybe Zack snyder is worthless

no homo

Originally Posted by Tellurian

Also: lol blue schlong.

Quadruple blue glowing schlong.

I found it enjoyable enough for a comic book movie. It's not life-changing but it's good enough that I don't regret spending the $10 for admission, which is sadly becoming a much less frequent occurrence lately.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

"Enjoyable enough for a comic book movie" - you see what's wrong here?
"Most celebrated graphic novel of all times" - "Enjoyable enough for a comic book movie"

See it yet?

Where do I sign the "Alan Moore's rabid raging fanboi Fatwa on Zack Snyder"?

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by Tellurian

"Enjoyable enough for a comic book movie" - you see what's wrong here?
"Most celebrated graphic novel of all times" - "Enjoyable enough for a comic book movie"

See it yet?

Where do I sign the "Alan Moore's rabid raging fanboi Fatwa on Zack Snyder"?

So wait...Someone finds -some- enjoyment out of a movie, regardless of what it is, and they are instantly a fanboy for the director?

That's a bit harsh, considering that the above quote is coming from a blatant fanboy of the graphic novel. Makes you sound like those rabid FF7 fans that would verbally rip apart anyone that found Advent Children 'Enjoyable enough for a video game movie'.

But then again, I could have misread the above. But still, it sounds fucking retarded.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Tellurian

"Enjoyable enough for a comic book movie" - you see what's wrong here?
"Most celebrated graphic novel of all times" - "Enjoyable enough for a comic book movie"

See it yet?

Not everything is translatable between mediums, and just because a translation takes place doesn't guarantee the translated item will bear the quality of its origin (I don't think I really need to cite examples here, there have been plenty of them). So calling the Watchmen film a failure because it didn't achieve the same level of qualilty as its source is both foolish and more than a little naive.

In fact, one might argue that for an "unfilmable" graphic novel a film that's enjoyable at all is a massive achievement.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Tentacle Rapist

I actually expected to like it more than I turned out to. Like I said, it just seemed like it was missing something. A soul, maybe. Not something I'd pay to see again.

The problem with adapting something like Watchmen is that it relies so much on Moore's supporting cast to drive home the central themes of the work. The movie doesn't ever really drive home how ridiculous the entire notion of superherodom actually is. Despite all of their personal disorders none of the characters ever come off as anything other than cool kung fu dudes. Ozymandias skirts the line of super genius manchild but his ultimate tinge of self-doubt is supplanted onto Nite Owl.

The problem with the movie is that they tried to make too many plot elements more plausible when the lynchpin holding the story together is how utterly implausible the entire thing is.

I mean, the biggest example of how this came through is how Rorschach comes off as such a cool badass. Rorschach was actually a paranoid serial killer with the moral reasoning of a child.

Additional Spam:

Originally Posted by Denicalis

Rubbish, and not even especially pretty rubbish.

The worst cgi in the movie was Bubastis, don't be such a baby.

There's nowhere I can't reach.