Watchmen

MGM · Post by **MGM** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 3:49 pm

Rorschach's line is the best of the novel, hands down.

I liked the movie, but I wonder how it is if you wouldn't know the story. Biscie, you didn't know the story, right? How well did the twist of the villain come over on screen? I felt it lacked in places, but that's due to the fact because 3 hours really is too short to tell the story and do justice to all the layers and subtleties. It's like telling LOTR in 3 hours. I did dislike some of the stupid characterizations, though (like Nite Owl and Spectre killing the robbers in the alley).

All in all I liked it, but was no masterpiece.

Tragic Angelus · Post by **Tragic Angelus** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 5:33 pm

I had fun with it and enjoyed it, regardless of how different it was from the story. I wasn't expecting carbon copies of the panels so I had a great deal of fun and excitement watching the movie.

I will admit, the villain reveal wasn't all it was in the book. But part of me attributes it to the overall deal of having read the source material already. All the key lines, monologues, scenes and events lacked that 'wow' or 'holy shit' kind of punch because I'd already heard/seen/knew them. There was no 'surprise' watching the film other than how exactly they altered the ending.

But seeing as how I'm not as nitpicky and anal as some of you here, I liked the movie.

CBKA · Post by **CBKA** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 5:50 am

JediMindTrick wrote:i saw an elephant dick on an IMAX one time...impressive. most impressive.

do tell me more

CBKA · Post by **CBKA** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 5:54 am

Did anyone get the feeling it was obvious it was veigt from the beginning?

I mean we all know it was veigt because of the GN, but to people who were catching it for the first time?

The French Biscuit · Post by **The French Biscuit** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 1:05 pm

MGM wrote:Rorschach's line is the best of the novel, hands down.

I liked the movie, but I wonder how it is if you wouldn't know the story. Biscie, you didn't know the story, right? How well did the twist of the villain come over on screen? I felt it lacked in places, but that's due to the fact because 3 hours really is too short to tell the story and do justice to all the layers and subtleties. It's like telling LOTR in 3 hours. I did dislike some of the stupid characterizations, though (like Nite Owl and Spectre killing the robbers in the alley).

All in all I liked it, but was no masterpiece.

Yeah, I left the movie feeling like it was one long trailer for the graphic novel. All the good parts but not a lot of development. Which is about all one can expect from a movie based on a literary work anyway so, meh.

I didn't get the point of that fight scene in the alley. It was like they felt the movie was lagging so they just threw in a fight scene to pick up the pace.

Only thing I felt about the villain twist was that his whole adoration of the pharaohs was such a cliche.

I concur with your last sentence.

Stocky Boy · Post by **Stocky Boy** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 1:33 pm

CBKA wrote:Did anyone get the feeling it was obvious it was veigt from the beginning?

I mean we all know it was veigt because of the GN, but to people who were catching it for the first time?

I was struggling with this one too. It seems to me like maybe I would have twigged it was him all along, if I hadn't read the graphic novel.

Veidt's admiration for the pharoahs is much better portrayed in the book, which if I remember correctly appears mainly in the magazine interview extract at the end of the penultimate issue.

MGM · Post by **MGM** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 1:48 pm

Apparently Biscie didn't see it coming, so somehow it worked.

wolf_2099 · Post by **wolf_2099** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 8:16 pm

Did anyone else not give a damn about the characters at all? I could have seen any of them die, and not even blinked.

Even the event at the end didn't even faze me. I just was not emotionally invested in this film at all.

With the comic however, it shocked the shit out of me when the squid showed up, and Rosarch ate it.

Junkogen · Post by **Junkogen** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 8:27 pm

I know this isn't exclusive to this movie, but the part where the hippy girl puts the flower in the gun and they opened fire...

That just pretty much sums up what's wrong with this fucking world.

The French Biscuit · Post by **The French Biscuit** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 8:39 pm

MGM wrote:Apparently Biscie didn't see it coming, so somehow it worked.

I didn't really care enough to try and figure out who the villain was, and when it was revealed I just went along with it. I wasn't surprised or thinking "Oh, no way! Didn't see that one coming."

I'm with wolf, I didn't really care about any of the characters except for Rorschach.

Mr Wallstreet · Post by **Mr Wallstreet** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 9:13 am

I finally saw Watchmen on DVD. As an adaption of Moore's work, it was "okay". As a comic film on its own, I thought it was a good film. Take the two together, and overall I thought it was an enjoyable experience. While not great by standard it certainley was enjoyable.

The pacing of the movie, while slow at some points, didn't really feel clunky to me. Snyder tried his best to stay as faithful to the comic as he could and it showed in the film. The chronology of the scenes in the film matched up the chronology of the scenes in the comic at least 60-70% of the time and I was able to follow them with ease without getting confused.

I felt the actors did a good job protraying their characters, however some were far more interesting than others. When I last read Watchmen, the character who I thought was most interesting was Rorschach. When watching the film, the character I was most interested in was Jeff Dean Morgan's Comedian. Seeing the Comedian's sadistic tendancies and apathetic attitude towards everything and everyone brought to life were pretty damn good. Guy who played Nite-Owl, while he did look a lot like him, I felt he was just there reading lines. I never felt he was really trying to be Nite-Owl, which is a shame because that guy is a great actor (see: Angels in America).

The fight scenes, however great they looked, were too stylized and too reminiscent of 300; didn't fit in so well here. Dirtier fight scenes that didn't have the actors moving gracefull about the screen without slow-mo would've worked better. The two places where a slow-mo/matrix/300 scene would've worked and been appropriate was when the assassain tried to shoot Ozymandais in his office and he deflected it and towards the end where he was shot but catches the bullet; however, thats just me nit-picking.

I do agree that using Dr. Manhattan as a scapegoat to unite the nations was weak. It felt like Snyder needed to give "the ending" something to tie it back to the Watchmen but it just felt empty.

So overall, while the film did have its flaws, they didn't entirely ruin the film for me. Will I buy it? Definitely not, unless its on sale in the bargain bin box.

EDIT:

Playing Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are-A Changing" while scenes of civil unrest, protest, riots, death, war and destruction played in the background, I thought was one of the best parts of the film.

XIII · Post by **XIII** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 2:28 pm

I want to ask you guys, did anybody get or watch the DVD they did with the pirate story? Is it any good?

The French Biscuit · Post by **The French Biscuit** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 8:13 pm

MGM wrote:Apparently Biscie didn't see it coming, so somehow it worked.

Did I say that?