The Watchmen

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

There were quite a few scenes where a majority of the audience laughed when I saw it. Specifically, I recall a decent laugh during Dan and Laurie's dinner with the story about dropping Captain Carnage down an elevator shaft. There was also a really odd solo laugh when Manhattan exploded Rorschach.

speaking of odd solo laughs, I laughed pretty hard and inappropriately when in a flash back Rorshlach's whore mother told him she wished she'd had an abortion.

[hank213 1,823]

So I ended up reading the Wikipedia article...which led me to Outer Limits...which led me to Tales from the Darkside...which led me to an episode called "Inside the Closet" and this horrifying picture from my childhood:

Yeah that one freaked me the fuck out too.

[Swift_Psycho 1]

Saw it yesterday. Disappointed, but maybe my expectations were just too high.

Criticisms:1. The extended sex scene was really unnecessary. 10 seconds would have sufficed (so they could include the 'joke' about pushing that flamethrower button if they really wanted).2. Personal annoyance, but one of my favorite scenes is when Rorschach kills that guy by handcuffing him to the house, pouring the gasoline around, handing him the saw and telling him that he won't have time to cut through the chains, and then lighting the place on fire. I was really looking forward to seeing that on screen, and they altered that scene completely. Sad for me, but probably not that important overall.3. I actually consider Rorschach's interaction and huge impact on the psychiatrist's life as vitally important to the story. I think I knew that it wasn't going to make the cut in the movie, but still sad that it was left out.4. Not a fan of a lot of the music choice as far as whether many of the songs were appropriate for the scenes or situations they were accompanying.5. A lot of the acting was meh.6. What the hell is up with Nixon's nose?

With all that said, I still do think it was a pretty decent movie overall and will still be seeing it again and probably buying it on DVD when it comes out. Filming this book was going to be a losing battle from the start, and all things considered they didn't do a terrible job.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

Saw it yesterday. Disappointed, but maybe my expectations were just too high.

Criticisms:1. The extended sex scene was really unnecessary. 10 seconds would have sufficed (so they could include the 'joke' about pushing that flamethrower button if they really wanted).2. Personal annoyance, but one of my favorite scenes is when Rorschach kills that guy by handcuffing him to the house, pouring the gasoline around, handing him the saw and telling him that he won't have time to cut through the chains, and then lighting the place on fire. I was really looking forward to seeing that on screen, and they altered that scene completely. Sad for me, but probably not that important overall.3. I actually consider Rorschach's interaction and huge impact on the psychiatrist's life as vitally important to the story. I think I knew that it wasn't going to make the cut in the movie, but still sad that it was left out.4. Not a fan of a lot of the music choice as far as whether many of the songs were appropriate for the scenes or situations they were accompanying.5. A lot of the acting was meh.6. What the hell is up with Nixon's nose?

I think some of these objections are a little fanboyish, as the type of detail they would have had to go into to have thinks like the psychiatrist is just unrealistic.I agree about the music choices. They seemed obvious and cheesey. Other than "The times are a changin' for the opening montage, I found almost every famous they used to be heavy handed and took me out of the movie momentarily. Scorcese this director ain't.I actually liked the sex scene, but maybe it's because I'd really wanted to see Silk Specter naked all movie, and was so pleasantly surprised that she ended up getting naked. I didn't think the acting was bad at all, really, I thought all of the characters were pretty much how I thought of them. I particularly like night owl and Rorsh. Other than maybe Ozy, I didn't really care for that guy.

[checkymcfold 0]

i just saw this tonight, and i super, super liked it. going in, i didn't think that i would, either.

[eYank 0]

I just got back from seeing it. I liked the whole story for the most part, but having never read the novel (I might go buy it this week) I wasn't always sure what exactly was going on.

I went with a bunch of friends who also never read the GN but they really disliked the ending. At first I didn't like how they killed everyone to prove a point but then I understood that it made everyone afraid of Manhattan, therefore preventing nuclear war. <<Do I have that right? I really liked the way the film was put together. Some of the music was out of place but I kind of liked "All Along the Watchtower" where the movie fell along with it with the "Two riders were approaching..." as they walked up to the Antarctic palace but the music mostly did seem out of place.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

I just got back from seeing it. I liked the whole story for the most part, but having never read the novel (I might go buy it this week) I wasn't always sure what exactly was going on.

I went with a bunch of friends who also never read the GN but they really disliked the ending. At first I didn't like how they killed everyone to prove a point but then I understood that it made everyone afraid of Manhattan, therefore preventing nuclear war. <<Do I have that right? I really liked the way the film was put together. Some of the music was out of place but I kind of liked "All Along the Watchtower" where the movie fell along with it with the "Two riders were approaching..." as they walked up to the Antarctic palace but the music mostly did seem out of place.

yeah, you got it exactly right, but it's part of what I was curious about, I have no idea how confusing the ending would be to someone who hadn't read the graphic novel. And, really, it's the ending that makes the movie/GN so genius. The bad guy wins. The bad guy, this evil genius, this captain of enterprise, straight from the Lex Luthor archetype, hatches his evil plan.... to save the world. And it works. The good guys don't stop it, and you, as the reader, come to believe they shouldn't stop it either. You realize that even though it's a horrible thing that Ozy's done, that he's probably saved the world doing it. One of so many things that made this comic so ground breaking in 1986 when it came out. This movie is about 20 years too late, as the cold war and the threat of nuclear holocaust isn't the salient issue that it was during the Reagan administration.

[eYank 0]

yeah, you got it exactly right, but it's part of what I was curious about, I have no idea how confusing the ending would be to someone who hadn't read the graphic novel. And, really, it's the ending that makes the movie/GN so genius. The bad guy wins. The bad guy, this evil genius, this captain of enterprise, straight from the Lex Luthor archetype, hatches his evil plan.... to save the world. And it works. The good guys don't stop it, and you, as the reader, come to believe they shouldn't stop it either. You realize that even though it's a horrible thing that Ozy's done, that he's probably saved the world doing it. One of so many things that made this comic so ground breaking in 1986 when it came out. This movie is about 20 years too late, as the cold war and the threat of nuclear holocaust isn't the salient issue that it was during the Reagan administration.

Exactly. The more I'm thinking about the movie, the more I liked it and I think I'm going to pick up the GN to read over spring break. A lot of my friends did not like it at all and thought it dragged on too long. It took me a while to actually realize what was going on at the end there

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

Exactly. The more I'm thinking about the movie, the more I liked it and I think I'm going to pick up the GN to read over spring break. A lot of my friends did not like it at all and thought it dragged on too long. It took me a while to actually realize what was going on at the end there

Anyone who even remotely liked the movie, should get the graphic novel. You don't have to be a comic fan, to like the GN, but it really helps. I actually didn't read it when i came out, I got into comics about the time it came out, but I was into marvel comics. I remember all sorts of watchmen posters at the comic shop I would go to, but I never checked it out, I was into xmen and stuff like that. I eventually got sick of comics, because they are, by and large, really poorly written, often poorly drawn, and every summer marvel has some corny cross over thing, where I had a bunch of awful titles I normally never read, to understand what was going on. I eventually just said no, and quit reading comics cold turkey ( the one exception was The Sandman graphic novels, that a friend of mine loaned me in high school, which were awesome). Flash forward to about a year after I graduated college. I would occasionally read an odd comic/graphic novel at Barnes and noble, when I had some time to kill, but the marvel ones were so terrible, that I had no urge to get back into them. Then, I read this comic, " Jimmy Corrigan, the smartest kid on earth" which is one of the most beauitful and amazing book's I've ever read. It didn't hurt I was really stoned. It was mind blowing, to know comics were this good. So, I went to the local Olympia, Washington Comic shop ( the Danger room, if anyone lives anywhere close to Olympia, that shop is amazing. There's no way there's a better shop, in terms of quality comics per sqaure foot of store). And told them I liked Jimmy Corriagan, and asked them if there was anything else I should read, told them my back ground. They owner asked me if' I'd read the watchmen. I said I had not. He told me I needed to start with that one, and I did. And it got me back into comics. It's the definitive super hero comic, really no other super hero comic needs to be made after it, it deconstructs all the old cliches, and attempts what no comic had ever done before that, describe a realistic world with masked heros, and super heros. To show you what that world would really be like, the geo-political implications of a "superman", the psycho-sexual issues of people who feel the need to dress up and fight crime. Just a staggeringly good GN, it helped me understand and respect the art and storytelling craft of comics for the first time. So, in short, The Watchmen comic rules. There's my sales pitch.

[Tehtoe 3]

Just finally bought it today, gonna read the GN and then see the movie next weekend most likely.

[Jadaki 0]

I'm just getting around to reading reviews and such of the movie now that I've had time to digest what I saw on Friday. I want to personally go visit everyone who is writing a review that says there isn't enough action for a comic book movie. And by visit I mean anally rape them with a jagged stick.People have no idea what they are watching, or what the story is actually telling them. And even though I joked about the blue cock, I think it's hilarious in a movie that shows

the leftover parts of a murdered child being eaten by dogs

that people are so uptight about penis on screen. What's really more offensive?I think Synder did a pretty amicable job in trying to translate the GN, and even the ending almost makes more sense than the original. I'm looking forward to seeing the directors cut edition which apparently has another hour + of footage.

[Piddle Duck 0]

Saw it this weekend and didn't like it. No I didn't read the GN before hand and yes I was pumped to go see it. My wife who read the GN didn't like it either and I agree with her so I will just use her words to express my negativety towards it and then you fans can yell at me and I will let her know.

Tonight I saw "Watchmen." First, just let me say my experience was colored by a horrific "Family Guy"-esque scene that played out two rows in front of us.* Second, the horrific scene at least provided some entertainment value. Yeah, I'm sorry to report that I'm one of the party-poopers who did not enjoy this movie. Which is too bad because I went into it with an open mind, despite some of the poor reviews, and was hoping to enjoy a good challenging movie.What I got was a poorly paced tableau that droned on and on with no satisfying resolution or conclusion. Everything was so flat -- the characters, the storyline, everything. I think half the problem was the faithfulness with which Zack Snyder and crew adhered to the story: what works as a multi-part storyline in a graphic novel does not work as a movie. There was nothing to carry the viewer along with the story -- no urgency or emotional undercurrent to keep the action moving. Consequently, the resolution, such as it was, had no resonance.It didn't help that the pacing was utterly somnolent. I was pulled in from time to time -- during Rorshach's prison stint, the scenes with The Comedian -- but just when I thought the story was finally picking up, it would drop me again two scenes later. And what was up with Dr. Manhattan? Fascinating in the graphic novel, his character was completely devoid of power here.Watching this film convinced me that everyone who said "The Watchmen" could not and should not be made into a movie were right. What's brilliant social commentary on the page comes out as ham-fisted on the screen, and dialogue that works with two-dimensional characters seems disjointed and trite coming from the mouths of the actors.I wish I'd enjoyed it more. I swear, I really wanted to like it. Maybe I'll give it another chance when it comes out on DVD but I'll probably have to have a few drinks first. All I can say is, I was very disappointed tonight.

[Jadaki 0]

I will add this, though I liked it overall, the scenes where Nite Owl was supposed to carry the movie really dragged. They needed to cast someone with more charisma, even though I understand the casting choice. It's one of the things I wish they would have been more willing to break from the source material on.

[CobaltBlue 662]

First, just let me say my experience was colored by a horrific "Family Guy"-esque scene that played out two rows in front of us.*

Elaborate?

[Piddle Duck 0]

Elaborate?

Heh, there was a family two rows ahead of us. Our guess is a daughter(15 or so), her friend, the son(13 maybe), the mom, and the moms burnout midget longhaired looks like he was stuck in the 80's boyfriend. Diagram of the seating arrangements:_ _ _ _ DFRND DAUG _ _ _ _ _ _BF MOM _ _ SON _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ME WIFE _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ All was cool until the kid left to get popcorn or something about an hour in. Within minutes the BF and MOM were sucking each others face off like it was the first time they ever had the chance. They were nice enough to quit about 30 seconds before I heard the door open and the kid come down to the row. But about 45 minutes left in the movie the BF and MOM could not take it any longer and started sucking face again with the kid 3 seats away. It was distracting to say the least. Two fat ugly older people making out heavily was just not cool. The kid was getting annoyed as well. He did turn and catch my wife and I making faces of disgust about what we were all seeing. I felt sorry for him. MY wife's version:What happened? Two middle aged burn-outs engaged in serious, gratuitous making out WITH THEIR YOUNG TEENAGE SON SITTING NEXT TO THEM!! And their daughter and her friend sitting in the row in front. Now this wasn't just a little kissing here and there, this was a face-licking, hands-in-mysterious-places acid-washed denim nightmare. That boy is going to need some serious, serious therapy later. Actually, my husband and I might need some too. The horror, the horror...

[Swift_Psycho 1]

MY wife's version:What happened? Two middle aged burn-outs engaged in serious, gratuitous making out WITH THEIR YOUNG TEENAGE SON SITTING NEXT TO THEM!! And their daughter and her friend sitting in the row in front. Now this wasn't just a little kissing here and there, this was a face-licking, hands-in-mysterious-places acid-washed denim nightmare. That boy is going to need some serious, serious therapy later. Actually, my husband and I might need some too. The horror, the horror...

You've got a pretty cool/funny wife. Kudos.

[gilbertology 0]

Anyone who even remotely liked the movie, should get the graphic novel. You don't have to be a comic fan, to like the GN, but it really helps. I actually didn't read it when i came out, I got into comics about the time it came out, but I was into marvel comics. I remember all sorts of watchmen posters at the comic shop I would go to, but I never checked it out, I was into xmen and stuff like that. I eventually got sick of comics, because they are, by and large, really poorly written, often poorly drawn, and every summer marvel has some corny cross over thing, where I had a bunch of awful titles I normally never read, to understand what was going on. I eventually just said no, and quit reading comics cold turkey ( the one exception was The Sandman graphic novels, that a friend of mine loaned me in high school, which were awesome). Flash forward to about a year after I graduated college. I would occasionally read an odd comic/graphic novel at Barnes and noble, when I had some time to kill, but the marvel ones were so terrible, that I had no urge to get back into them. Then, I read this comic, " Jimmy Corrigan, the smartest kid on earth" which is one of the most beauitful and amazing book's I've ever read. It didn't hurt I was really stoned. It was mind blowing, to know comics were this good. So, I went to the local Olympia, Washington Comic shop ( the Danger room, if anyone lives anywhere close to Olympia, that shop is amazing. There's no way there's a better shop, in terms of quality comics per sqaure foot of store). And told them I liked Jimmy Corriagan, and asked them if there was anything else I should read, told them my back ground. They owner asked me if' I'd read the watchmen. I said I had not. He told me I needed to start with that one, and I did. And it got me back into comics. It's the definitive super hero comic, really no other super hero comic needs to be made after it, it deconstructs all the old cliches, and attempts what no comic had ever done before that, describe a realistic world with masked heros, and super heros. To show you what that world would really be like, the geo-political implications of a "superman", the psycho-sexual issues of people who feel the need to dress up and fight crime. Just a staggeringly good GN, it helped me understand and respect the art and storytelling craft of comics for the first time. So, in short, The Watchmen comic rules. There's my sales pitch.

qftThe 12 part comic series is simply amazing.I am debating now whether I should actually go see the movie a second time. I think I'll flip a coin.

[GeneralGeeWhiz 0]

I saw it yesterday and I really enjoyed it. Like BigD suggested, I'm going to read the graphic novel.

[PMJackson21 0]

I saw it yesterday and I really enjoyed it. Like BigD suggested, I'm going to read the graphic novel.

[Jadaki 0]

I figured you would have read that already PMJ

[PMJackson21 0]

I figured you would have read that already PMJ

Ya, after watching the movie I'm kind of disappointed in myself. I've never been a comic guy, but it is def something I can see myself enjoying from what I saw.

[Jadaki 0]

Ya, after watching the movie I'm kind of disappointed in myself. I've never been a comic guy, but it is def something I can see myself enjoying from what I saw.

It was recognized as one of the 100 greatest novels of the 20th century, it's a lot more than just a comic. I'm pretty sure you will like it.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

It was recognized as one of the 100 greatest novels of the 20th century, it's a lot more than just a comic. I'm pretty sure you will like it.

yeah that list is corny. Comic's aren't novels. Novel's aren't a visual story telling art form, comics are. Putting the Watchmen on a list like that is just an embarrassing way to make comic's "Respectable". Comics are their own art form and don't need to glom onto another respected art form's glory, imo. I think calling comic's "Graphic novels" is the same sort on needless churching up.

[bobbywithani 0]

yeah that list is corny. Comic's aren't novels. Novel's aren't a visual story telling art form, comics are. Putting the Watchmen on a list like that is just an embarrassing way to make comic's "Respectable". Comics are their own art form and don't need to glom onto another respected art form's glory, imo. I think calling comic's "Graphic novels" is the same sort on needless churching up.

I agree. Using the term "graphic novel" is so silly. It's basically just trying to convince snobs that comics can be art too. I know that they can be and if someone wants to dismiss them because they can't take comics seriously I'm not going to waste my time trying to convince them. They are obviously too closed-minded for me to continue talking to. People are so quick to dismiss things you'd think they'd learn from it by now. Classical music fans dismissed Jazz, Jazz fans dismissed Rock'n'Roll, Rock'n'Roll fans dismissed Punk rock.

[BigDMcGee 3,352]

I agree. Using the term "graphic novel" is so silly. It's basically just trying to convince snobs that comics can be art too. I know that they can be and if someone wants to dismiss them because they can't take comics seriously I'm not going to waste my time trying to convince them. They are obviously too closed-minded for me to continue talking to. People are so quick to dismiss things you'd think they'd learn from it by now. Classical music fans dismissed Jazz, Jazz fans dismissed Rock'n'Roll, Rock'n'Roll fans dismissed Punk rock.

yeah, but the difference between comics and novels are even greater than the difference between classical and jazz. At least they are both still music, the same type of art. Using Sequential graphic art to tell a story is just fundementally different than both novels. And it's also different than most forms of visual art, like Paintings or drawings, due to the narrative. I think Comics share more in common with Movies than anything else. A great nonfiction comic about the issue, is called "understanding Comics" , for my money the best thing ever written about the artformhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understanding_ComicsI highly recommend it to any comic fan, or anyone interesting in comic art in the slightest. It's a great history lession in comics, and a discussion about the unique ways comics tell stories.