Watchmen

polystyle

Well-known member
The trailers on the movie site got my attention the other week.
The ones on Cable a little less so.
Missed the original graphic novel and most of the backstory of the disputes during production -but am glad it got made and will be out here tomorrow.
Can guess you have seen the something about this one ...

Noted: They sure did use Blade Runner's sdtk as one template - file under Steal From The Best or Couldn't Better It , So Copy It.

We have a selection of "WATCHMEN Motion Comics" on Cable from 3/3,
the actual movie 3/6
and WATCHMEN: Tales of the Black Freighter ( animated)
& Under The Hood ( Night Owl's account of 'origins' ) premiering 3/24 on RCN
( NYC Cable TV).

A bit stoked,
may actually go to a theatre to catch it in IMax ( Siegfeld uptown if possible).
Last night caught Billy Crudup in "Almost Famous" for first time,
quite a jump to Billy as .... Dr. Manhattan.
 

swears

preppy-kei
I've loved the graphic novel since I read it aged 12 for the first time, probably read it a dozen times since. I love the alternative history, the politics, the backstories, the way the characters are basically pathetic and full of self-doubt... it's a staggering piece of work. I like how Dr Manhattan represents a sort of scientific 50s American modernism that has abdicated responsibilities and left for Mars in the post-Vietnam era... very Peter Halley!

Seeing the film tomorrow night, not really expecting it to be as good. More out of curiosity value than anything, would like to be pleasantly surprised.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
Polystyle:

for the love of everything good and just,

please please please READ THE COMIC BEFORE SEEING THIS FILM!!!!
 
I'm still debating with myself if I want to see it... a lot of what I like about the comic has to do with it being a comic and I can't imagine that this being captured on film.
 

empty mirror

remember the jackalope
there hasn't been a movie adaptation of a comic book that hasn't been a huge disappointment

i am very skeptical about this effort
 

polystyle

Well-known member
Times review, just drips with dismissal.
http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/03/06/movies/06Watc.html
I don't care what A.O says, it's not going to float everyone's squid,
he's paid to write something.
Will go see it, and as a producer will prolly enjoy parts as the trailers perked my interest like nothing else has recently ...
And will read the comic first , cheers for the reminder Zhao.
The comments below the review reflect some of the comments made here yesterday.
And along with the review there are little bits on why the ending was changed, etc.
A comic from the '80's just might have been better as a movie in the '80's !
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
I wonder what Alan Moore thinks of the film. I know that he, quite rightly, hated V for Vendetta and From Hell. This one definitely looks more promising though.
 

Sick Boy

All about pride and egos
I wonder what Alan Moore thinks of the film. I know that he, quite rightly, hated V for Vendetta and From Hell. This one definitely looks more promising though.

Alan Moore refuses to watch any of the movie adaptations of his work. He has never seen one, and hates the idea that they are even being adapted.

From the reviews I've read it seems the opinion is polarized: either the critic loves the movie (these are usually your regular rags, critics who like every movie with a bit of hype behind it), or they love the book and dislike Zach Snyder's commercialization of it (changing the ending, putting in matrix-esque fight scenes, etc. Although this being said apparently Snyder very immaculately reproduced the aesthetic of it - in my opinion, his only talent), or they hate the movie because they hate the book (The Washington Post, The New Yorker).

The Washington Post guy said that he didn't think Watchmen was so much "unfilmable" as Alan Moore's original novel was just "unreadable". I don't agree with this at all, personally, I think a lot of it is knee-jerk pseudo-academic types asserting their erudition and high culture by panning something that has a lot of hype surrounding it. A "Column C" type criticism.

I'm expecting a visually pleasing, high-octane, pulp-y blockbuster with perhaps a few of the elements that made the novel good, but not many.
 

Tentative Andy

I'm in the Meal Deal
I've not read it, so could well be talking out of my arse (as ever), but isn't Watchmen sometimes interpreted as being quite right-wing, in the libertarian sort of sense? I'm not saying this makes it bad of course, but it might explain why some critics are so resistant to it. Of course, as you say, it could just be your two-a-penny cultural snobbery.
Certainly interested to see the movie, think I'll mention it to my friends when I see them tmr and try to set a date to drag them along.
 

Sick Boy

All about pride and egos
I've not read it, so could well be talking out of my arse (as ever), but isn't Watchmen sometimes interpreted as being quite right-wing, in the libertarian sort of sense?

No, a few of the characters are. In the book there are two newspapers, The Nova Express and The New Frontiersman, and one is extreme left, the other is extreme right, and both are sort of portrayed as ridiculous.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
I wonder what Alan Moore thinks of the film. I know that he, quite rightly, hated V for Vendetta and From Hell. This one definitely looks more promising though.

from a recent interview by Wired:

I've never watched any of the adaptations of my books. I've never wanted to, and there's absolutely no chance of me doing so in the future. So I haven't really suffered through them, although there has been a certain amount of irritation and outrageous behavior on the part of the comic industry and the movie industry that I have suffered through. But I've gone into this at bitter and ranting length elsewhere. I'm sure that people can look up the relevant articles have they a wish to.

I'm with him 100%. saw V for Vendetta, was mortified at the shambles that was made about it, swore never again.

It's not just silly fanboy stuff either - oh they got such & such details wrong - it's that no Hollywood adaptation of an Alan Moore work is going to remain even vaguely faithful to the spirit of his work.

*EDIT* - not to be elitist about it though - by all means other ppl should go if they want & if they enjoy it then great.
 
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padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
I've not read it, so could well be talking out of my arse (as ever), but isn't Watchmen sometimes interpreted as being quite right-wing, in the libertarian sort of sense.

to add to what Sickboy said, in a word: no.

anti-government, surely, & perhaps in that the sense where far left & right sometimes crossover. but libertarian to me tho implies a kind of uber free-market capitalism & I think Moore is if anything well to the left. in a (half-irritating, half-endearing) sort of aging hippie, into Magik (with a k), demented genius kind of way.

but I mean read V for Vendetta. it's a bloody inverted circle A yunno.
 

swears

preppy-kei
v for verdict

lol, Pat Buchanan and Kissinger!

Violence was great, sex less so

Veidt looked/dressed like '85 Green Gartside

Hammy acting generally

CGI a little OTT

Dr Manhattan really good, zen teenager style

Nite Owl's glasses cool

Ending... acceptable

Alan Moore should chill

7/10
 

zhao

there are no accidents
for the record i thought V for Vendetta was a *great* adaptation. i thought the scope of the story was just (perhaps barely) small enough for 2 hours. and although the film felt cramped with no breathing space, and with a lot of omissions of great scenes and details, it made no major compromises (even with unnecessary fight scene and ending being possibly problematic), and as good as was probably possible in all respects. (and this coming from someone who read the original books roughly 200 times between age 14 and 17)

but i fear the worst with watchmen.

the intricate plots within plots within plots like those russian dolls
the complex interlocking systems of visual puns and symbolism
the moral ambiguity, existential quagmire, and pervasive Orwellian dystopian dread
the dimensionality and depth of each of the numerous archetypal characters and their transformations taking place in the duration of many decades...

only format that might have done any kind of justice would be a HBO or BBC 5 season series.
 

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
for the record i thought V for Vendetta was a *great* adaptation.

nah. I mean your reaction is just as valid is mine, but for me, no. tho I will admit that aesthetically it was pretty good - I thought they nailed the look/feel of it pretty well. what sunk it for me was how much they toned down all the anti-authoritarian elements - in other words how they made the individual villains the problem rather than the system itself. which one may or may not agree with but certainly the original books were much more radical in tone.

not that it was particularly suprising. frankly I was amazed it got made at all in a post-9/11 world - a film about a "terrorist" who topples the govt.
 

swears

preppy-kei
I thought V for Vendetta was the most cornball film I'd ever seen. Watchmen is ten times better. Still a bit corny, tho...
 
D

droid

Guest
nah. I mean your reaction is just as valid is mine, but for me, no. tho I will admit that aesthetically it was pretty good - I thought they nailed the look/feel of it pretty well. what sunk it for me was how much they toned down all the anti-authoritarian elements - in other words how they made the individual villains the problem rather than the system itself. which one may or may not agree with but certainly the original books were much more radical in tone.

not that it was particularly suprising. frankly I was amazed it got made at all in a post-9/11 world - a film about a "terrorist" who topples the govt.

Yeah. Having read the comics again recently, I was also struck how 'glossy' the film looked in comparison. It lost the 1984 style British grimness in translation.

Thats also my fear about Watchmen. im not expecting much, but it just looks wrong to me. IMO a proper visual analog to Gibbons' art would be something more along the lines of the look of the French Connection rather than the Matrix...

Also 'From Hell' - worst Moore adaption? Not because it was worse than the league of extraordinary gentelmen, but because the book was just so good. Probably the best things Moores' ever done.

Would love to see a good Marvelman adaptation.
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
I just like the fact that at Surrey Quays Odeo about half the audience walked out, presumably cos they were expecting a comic adaptation like Iron man or something, whereas they've made a pretty faithful, long, dogged adaptation of the Watchmen. It's not bad, it just highlights how definitive the book was really.

Echo swears on Dr Manhattan being good, the Mars scenes are 70s fab.
 
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