Watchmen movie discussion thread

[Scofield]

Big weekend and I didn't see one of these. I went and saw it last night. As someone who read the graphic novel 8 years ago, I really liked the movie. I think the consensus was that Nite Owl's "NOOOOOOOO" was the worse part of the movie. The changing of the ending didn't bother me too much, surprisingly. What did bother me was the omission of a few good lines, like "When you gotta go, you gotta go".

 

[TDS]

I havent read the comics but I loved the movie. Im not 17 so i had to buy a different ticket and sneak in. Rorscach was so cool.

 

[Jackal]

first off keep this thread spoiler free for people who havent read the book, or at least use spoiler tags, I already had to edit one post.

onto my thoughts!

I saw it last night, and having adored the book, i went in with the realistic expectation that I could not hope for a movie to be as good as the book. Once you get around this fact, I found that I really enjoyed the film. The film at some points is so true to the book that it made me giddy. The gore was often fairly liberal, and I think could have been toned down a bit, and the stop motion was a little overdone (although it didnt totally detract from the movie like it idid in 300). Also, I do have to say some of the characters lacked a little of the fucked up personality they had in the book (Laurie). The Comedian was stellar, Rorschach was stellar, Manhattan for the most part was steller (blue penis aside). Nite owl was ok.

I thought as a film adaptation it was done as well as could be done, and thats a huge compliment. They obviously omitted things, but those are the things you have to go in expecting they will omit (the newspaper stand stuff, the backstory of the black guy, etc) as the movie can only be so long. Many people complained about the length but I think it was necessary. As a Holywood version of the most celebrated graphic novel of all time, I think it did well to combine character development, narrative, action scenes, special effects, soundtrack (amazing). At some points it did try to bite off more than it could chew, but most things were linked together and someone who has never read the novel should be able to still follow and enjoy the film (albeit not half as much as someone who has).

Onto the flaws lol, and there is only one noticeable one imo, but my god.

The ending was terrible. They changed it from the book, and the books ending was not even that good to begin with. But Jesus Christ they made it worse. At one point some guy in the crowd yelled out "THIS IS BULLSHIT" and people got up and left with 5-6 minutes left in the movie (after Nite Owls NOOOOOO lol how terrible) just because the ending was so bad. Way to ruin it.

So basically the first 2 hours and 20 minutes are great, great cinema, both as a movie and as being true to the book. A great adaptation of a great book, sure to entertain. But wow the ending can just go fuck itself.

 

[Llama]

Hmm it was good, my friends who had not read the novel really liked it, but I really, really hate their choice of music, the original stuff was good but all the other music did not fit at all. The Comedian also didn't seem as tragic as he was in the book. I mean it was good, but it could have been so much better.

 

[Hyra]

Hmm it was good, my friends who had not read the novel really liked it, but I really, really hate their choice of music, the original stuff was good but all the other music did not fit at all. The Comedian also didn't seem as tragic as he was in the book. I mean it was good, but it could have been so much better.

I have to disagree with the music criticism. I think each piece really did a good job of setting up the next chapter (since that is about when they decided to add in music). Like each song captured what was going to happen later on in the movie.

Who else thought the intro to the movie was amazing at hinting to the backstory? It never explicits says what happens to all the old heroes, but gives you enough to infer. I felt a lot of the movie was like this, where they make it so you don't need to read the book, but that its so much better if you did.

Also, the ending was pretty lame. Both of them.

 

[Rave]

The ending was terrible. They changed it from the book, and the books ending was not even that good to begin with. But Jesus Christ they made it worse. At one point some guy in the crowd yelled out "THIS IS BULLSHIT" and people got up and left with 5-6 minutes left in the movie (after Nite Owls NOOOOOO lol how terrible) just because the ending was so bad. Way to ruin it.

I have to disagree with this. By tying it back to Dr. Manhattan, I think it rounded off the story far more sensibly - mainly due to the lack of space for back story. Hell, it was probably a better ending regardless. Leaving out some other major points of back story did make the last scene almost random, but for the most part, I thought it was an amazing adaptation.

I look forward to seeing it again next week with some friends. I get the feeling it'll be one of those movies that gets better every time I see it. I should probably read the book again too.

 

[Jackal]

Spoiler:

I do not think tying it back to manhattan was the terrible part, im talking about the WAY they did it. They basically turned him into a big softie, and did not leave it open ended at all. Manhattan cared way too much about humans in the end. And furthermore that scene afterwards where laurie confronts her mother was godawful you have to admit. thats not what watchmen is about at all.

in summary the actually ending from a plot standpoint isnt so bad, in fact it prolly is better than the book, but they way they delivered it in the movie was just frustrating

 

[Firestorm]

I saw the movie but I want to save my impressions 'til after finishing the book. I was hoping to read it earlier but didn't get a chance until the day before. By then I didn't want to rush it so I only got through the first two chapters. Will finish it soon.

As a whole the movie was kind of meh for me. Unlike you Jackal, I found the stop motion fighting a really distracting. I'd forgotten Snyder did both 300 and this and I was just thinking "goddamn this is so 300" whereas in 300 it seemed to fit in the context of the movie as a very hyper-stylized action movie. Watchmen isn't really supposed to be about the action as far as I can tell so it didn't fit at all imo.

 

[Vampy34]

Alright so I just got back from seeing it with my dad, and I must say, the movie was done just about as well as it could have been done. I'm absolutely amazed by how faithful it was the book.

My Dad, who went into the movie knowing nothing at all about the story or the characters, came out of it in love with Watchmen, which is pretty amazing :)

 

[Sunday]

I saw it last night, loved it and now I'm trying to hunt down the book.

I lol'd at 17yo's sneaking in, it's only MA15+ in Oz :)

 

[Berserker]

Haven't seen it yet, but I've been reading a few reviews. It's 'mixed', but there have been tons of people giving it high ratings, but also some complaints about the adaptation, and still others complaining about it a lot, like http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2009/03/the_watchmen_li.html

 

[Steelicks]

i quite enjoyed it. naked whatshername was a plus

 

[MNL]

my friend is convinced that he is "just like the blue guy"

 

[Chill Murray]

Let me preface this by saying I've never read the novel.

jesus christ that was a terrible movie

here are a couple of things wrong with the movie

- the soundtrack. it sounded like someone raided a hippy's record stash and just threw shit in there for the hell of it
- the sex scene aboard the archimedes, while realistic in terms of the faces they made, was possibly the worst sex scene i've ever seen, and it fucking ruined Hallelujah for me
- sex between the night owl and ms jupiter in general. you expect me to believe a nerdy guy 70 leagues into the friend zone can suddenly overcome that obstacle by doing... nothing?
- oh god blue penis everywhere, it wasn't even circumsized
- i've seen better acting in high school english projects
- ok seriously did they just cast nixon solely on the ability to emulate his voice, because i've taken shits that better resemble nixon
- the ending. it would have been better to just end it with that pan up from Ozymandias standing in his base

i do have to say there were some good things about this movie, though, including:

- ms jupiter's b cups
- every scene with rorschach
- deliciously corny dialogue
- you know what, I'm putting the shitty acting here

i still can't decide whether i like it or not, although i have to say it probably would have been a better movie had it come out 10 years ago, when anti-heroes weren't everywhere

 

[Raj]

^^ I fucking loved the soundtrack... except for Hallelujah. C'mon, Jimi Hendrix's All Along the Watchtower is great..

Anyway, I loved the movie, nice to see a super hero movie where each character's flaws are really emphasized. I mean, they were practically villains themselves. I can never understand why they can show penises in movies, but not vaginas...

 

[Chill Murray]

the songs themselves were ok but they seemed completely out of place

edit: ok after further introspection I do think that I liked the movie. a lot. that doesn't detract from it being terrible, but it is a good terrible. I'd place it in the same pantheon as Snakes on a Plane and the Evil Dead series.

 

[EvilBob]

As a big fan of the comic, the movie did have its flaws, but I found it pretty enjoyable regardless. Haley did a good job as Rorshach.

More importantly though, I'm just waiting for the cartoon.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDHHrt6l4w

 

[monkfish]

i did NOT get how the dudes ink blotches were movin around all the time

 

[Outlaw]

Its an inkblot, you see what you want to see.

I remember reading about the real reason behind it, but I have since forgotten it.

 

[Hazerider]

His mask is made of a fabric that has two pressure and heat sensitive fluids between two layers of latex.

 

[Llama]

His mask is made of a fabric that has two pressure and heat sensitive fluids between two layers of latex.

and if I remember correctly it was made by Dr. Manhattan. And yeah my friends who didn't read the book were also wondering about this because the movie never explained it.

 

[Rave]

-bit in white that appears clearly when quoted-

I personally feel that by changing his view, he developed more as a character. The ending may have been a bit closed, but that doesn't detract from the story in my opinion.

And furthermore...-spoiler-

I was thinking the exact same thing.

in summary the actually ending from a plot standpoint isnt so bad, in fact it prolly is better than the book, but they way they delivered it in the movie was just frustrating

Frustrating I can understand. But really, I would be far more frustrated with the original ending. Without substantial additional backstory, it would have felt completely random and therefore un-fulfilling.

 

[StrangerDanger]

holy shit i loved this movie

also fuck you guys who think the soundtrack sucks. I thought it was all so fitting, the only cheesy one was 99luftballoons. Hallelujah had me laughing my ass off the whole sequence!

and when all along the watchtower started playing it was just such a pretty sequence

aaa

 

[Hyra]

what? just the fact that they used 99 red balloons (sorry I know it as the german song Goldfinger covered) had me going "Wth? this is awesome?"

about the endings, I think it mostly stems from the fact that the ending in the comic wasn't that good, so with losing some of the emotion going from print to screen, it feels even worse in the movie.

 

[PurpleWurmple]

i don't understand how someone could say that the music is out of place...the Dylan song accompanying the opening montage was perfect, and All Along the Watchtower is an epigraph in the book...and "naked whatshername" is Malin Akerman, you may remember her as that naked hottie farmer's daughter in Harold and Kumar 1.