Author Topic: Who's Watching the Watchmen?  (Read 10411 times)

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Who's Watching the Watchmen?
« on: February 20, 2009, 02:31:49 PM »

Offline fairweatherfan

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With all the recent hype, most of you have probably heard about the new Watchmen movie.  I've personally been waiting for it since about a year ago, when I heard it was being made.  I read the graphic novel a few years back and it blew me away (and others - Time put it in the Top 100 English language novels (not graphic novels, novels) of the 20th Century).  One of the best literary works I've read, bar none, and remarkable when you realize it was written in 1985 and inspired most of the darker, more realistic vein of comic books and comic book movies that came after it.

Anyone else looking forward to seeing this?  Any fans of the original book on the board?  Just curious to see what others think.

And just for fun:



More like this here: http://www.somethingawful.com/d/photoshop-phriday/watchmen-funnies.php?page=1

Re: Who's Watching the Watchmen?
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2009, 02:57:12 PM »

Offline xmuscularghandix

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ME!

Re: Who's Watching the Watchmen?
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2009, 02:59:59 PM »

Offline Cman

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I have been planning on seeing the movie, but thanks as well for the tip about the novel -- it is now on my amazon wish list.
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Re: Who's Watching the Watchmen?
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2009, 03:11:09 PM »

Offline fairweatherfan

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I have been planning on seeing the movie, but thanks as well for the tip about the novel -- it is now on my amazon wish list.

Novel is awesome - my understanding is the movie is basically a shot-for-shot recreation of the novel, with some scenes subtracted for length (a movie of everything in the novel would probably take 4+ hours), and a few key changes (including at least one semi-major one).  Most of the cut scenes will be readded for the DVD - I've heard that the full DVD movie will be over 3.5 hrs long. 

One tip for reading the book - I found it hard at first to keep track of who's talking at a given moment.  There are lots of scenes where they're showing Characters A+B but some of the dialogue is actually a voiceover by Character C or something from a comic book being read by Character D off to the side of the frame.  Read slowly and keep track of the graphical differences between word bubbles for actual dialogue, character thoughts, voiceover, comic book content (a small but significant subplot involves a minor character reading a pirate/horror comic book that mirrors much of the main plot), etc.   

Nearly every single frame has small hidden details and hints that you might not catch the first time, too.  It's cool though, because when you read it a 2nd time it's like a whole new book since you'll pick up on more of the subtleties and hidden messages you missed the first time through.

Re: Who's Watching the Watchmen?
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2009, 03:25:04 PM »

Offline WayneKreklow

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I am incredibly psyched to to see this. I have a friend who worked on the visual FX and he thought that it looked good (at least the parts he worked on).

Re: Who's Watching the Watchmen?
« Reply #5 on: February 20, 2009, 03:38:50 PM »

Offline LarBrd33

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I'm sure it will look pretty, but I'm fairly confident this movie will suck... and that's not a knock on the graphic novel (which I've never read)... I just think that 300 was overrated garbage and if they are just going the "eye candy" route with this one... it'll be a large dump in the turd bowl.

Re: Who's Watching the Watchmen?
« Reply #6 on: February 20, 2009, 03:40:23 PM »

Offline idrinkdetergent

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Im Skeptical, But will see it anyway. I just cant wait to see if they do the movie right how disappointed people will be that its not another batman.
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Re: Who's Watching the Watchmen?
« Reply #7 on: February 20, 2009, 04:11:53 PM »

Offline fairweatherfan

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I'm sure it will look pretty, but I'm fairly confident this movie will suck... and that's not a knock on the graphic novel (which I've never read)... I just think that 300 was overrated garbage and if they are just going the "eye candy" route with this one... it'll be a large dump in the turd bowl.

I don't know that 300 was ever overrated other than that a lot of people, especially young men, enjoyed watching it.  I liked the movie for what it was, but I've never heard anyone call it a great movie in any context.

And this isn't an action or "pretty CGI explosions and fights" movie by any means (though there is some of both) - the reason why the movie is so long isn't because it's full of epic battles, it's because most of it is dialogue, character development/backstory, and uncovering the mystery that the plot is centered on.  The "heroes" are basically just ordinary, flawed people - with the exception of Dr. Manhattan (glowing blue guy), none of them even have any superpowers except for being extremely fit and in some cases, extraordinarily intelligent. 

And by the accounts I've read, the "slow-down, speedup" effects that were overkilled in 300 are present in the very first scene, but afterwards they're pretty rare.  Snyder is a huge Watchmen fan and doesn't seem to want his visual style to overwhelm an amazing story.  But if you're wary of the movie, I'd still recommend reading the book if you like this kind of stuff at all.

Re: Who's Watching the Watchmen?
« Reply #8 on: February 20, 2009, 04:36:19 PM »

Offline crownsy

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I'm sure it will look pretty, but I'm fairly confident this movie will suck... and that's not a knock on the graphic novel (which I've never read)... I just think that 300 was overrated garbage and if they are just going the "eye candy" route with this one... it'll be a large dump in the turd bowl.

Ive never gotten this about the 300. can you link me to any reviews that say it was a fantastic moive other than what it was, a action film?

It was a good popcorn flick, lots of cool fight scenes, little deep meaning. everyone i've talked to that liked it, and myself, like it for what it is, a good action movie.

But ive never seen it labeled by anyone outside of the occasional person on a forum as anything other than a good action movie, which it was.
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Re: Who's Watching the Watchmen?
« Reply #9 on: March 04, 2009, 03:05:18 PM »

Offline Cman

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With all the recent hype, most of you have probably heard about the new Watchmen movie.  I've personally been waiting for it since about a year ago, when I heard it was being made.  I read the graphic novel a few years back and it blew me away (and others - Time put it in the Top 100 English language novels (not graphic novels, novels) of the 20th Century). 

1. Congrats on 1000 posts!
2. Thank you, and TP, for your suggestion of the Watchmen.  I got it from Amazon and have been reading it (not quite finished) and think it is excellent.
3. For those of you interested in the other 99 novels that made Time's list, see here: http://www.time.com/time/2005/100books/the_complete_list.html

-- as a side note, I think some of the inclusions are debatable (Franzen's The Corrections, Wide Sargasso Sea) and there are some notable exclusions that need to be remedied (Wallace Stegner and Jonathan Lethem should be on there somewhere).
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Re: Who's Watching the Watchmen?
« Reply #10 on: March 04, 2009, 03:23:29 PM »

Offline KCattheStripe

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I'm one of the few people who read comics that I know who thinks Watchmen is supremely overrated. I'm not particularly fond of the art or the writing (I'm not a big Allen Moore guy, don't even get me started on Frank Miller). That being said, Dr. Manhattan's origin story is one of the single greatest comics of all time.

Its funny that Time put this on its list of top 100 "novels". It wasn't even a Graphic novel, it was a monthly limited series that was the collected into what now would be called a "Trade paper back". It is not a graphic novel in the traditional sense of " A History of Violence" or "300".

Re: Who's Watching the Watchmen?
« Reply #11 on: March 07, 2009, 12:18:22 AM »

Offline fairweatherfan

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Haven't seen the movie yet, am planning to do it this week to fit my schedule and avoid a bunch of teenagers giggling at Dr. Manhattan's blue junk.  Still really looking forward to it, though.

However, I've been watching the Animated Comic Watchmen DVDs, released a few days ago, and for those who are interested, they're quite good.  Basically they take the frames from the comic and add simple animation and 3D depth to tell the story.  The dialogue is cut down a bit, and they have the same narrator for the entire piece which is a little weird, especially for the female parts, but it's a great adaptation for those who want to see the original story as it was originally depicted.  And for folks who don't have the budget, there is a "torrent" of info on the Web about it.   ;)

Re: Who's Watching the Watchmen?
« Reply #12 on: March 10, 2009, 11:27:39 PM »

Offline dark_lord

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the ending was pretty cool as it picked up towards the last portion of the film.


overall, i was extremely disappointed.....and im a big comic book/graphic novel guy

Re: Who's Watching the Watchmen?
« Reply #13 on: March 11, 2009, 12:22:49 AM »

Offline Schupac

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Its funny that Time put this on its list of top 100 "novels". It wasn't even a Graphic novel, it was a monthly limited series that was the collected into what now would be called a "Trade paper back". It is not a graphic novel in the traditional sense of " A History of Violence" or "300".

Kind of strange but many writers who fall into the cannon of great writers serialized their work.  Charles Dickens comes to mind as an example.  It's just a symptom of the medium, I guess.

*****************SPOILERS**************

I read the novel about 3 months ago to prepare for the movie, absolutely loved it.  I understand some of the criticisms (pirate side story?   no thanks) but it really did inspect many conventions within comic books.  The whole idea of these "super heroes" and their origins, and how they interacted with the real world around them, dealing with becoming obsolete, these are all things not normally touched on in comics.  The Nightowl's impotence without his costume was really smartly written.

Personally found Dr. Manhattan's justification for viewing Laurie Jupiter as a miracle to be be extremely touching and quite a pick-me-up for all us average people out there.



Saw the movie Sunday, really liked it.  It wasn't a masterpiece by any means, but the one major change (Ozymandias making Dr. Manhattan the villain instead of an alien) made more sense than the original graphic novel, the fight scenes were excellent, and I thought it was a really faithful adaptation.

It didn't take the story someplace new, like I think The Dark Knight did for Batman, but it didn't mess it up.  A lot of times that's all I hope for.

Re: Who's Watching the Watchmen?
« Reply #14 on: March 11, 2009, 03:27:59 PM »

Offline dark_lord

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Its funny that Time put this on its list of top 100 "novels". It wasn't even a Graphic novel, it was a monthly limited series that was the collected into what now would be called a "Trade paper back". It is not a graphic novel in the traditional sense of " A History of Violence" or "300".

Kind of strange but many writers who fall into the cannon of great writers serialized their work.  Charles Dickens comes to mind as an example.  It's just a symptom of the medium, I guess.

*****************SPOILERS**************

I read the novel about 3 months ago to prepare for the movie, absolutely loved it.  I understand some of the criticisms (pirate side story?   no thanks) but it really did inspect many conventions within comic books.  The whole idea of these "super heroes" and their origins, and how they interacted with the real world around them, dealing with becoming obsolete, these are all things not normally touched on in comics.  The Nightowl's impotence without his costume was really smartly written.

Personally found Dr. Manhattan's justification for viewing Laurie Jupiter as a miracle to be be extremely touching and quite a pick-me-up for all us average people out there.



Saw the movie Sunday, really liked it.  It wasn't a masterpiece by any means, but the one major change (Ozymandias making Dr. Manhattan the villain instead of an alien) made more sense than the original graphic novel, the fight scenes were excellent, and I thought it was a really faithful adaptation.

It didn't take the story someplace new, like I think The Dark Knight did for Batman, but it didn't mess it up.  A lot of times that's all I hope for.

i disagree on a few accounts.

it was close to 3 hours long.  the first two hours are pretty boring and dragged out.  i know they attempt to give background knowledge of the characters and the story, but i think they could have cut it down, while incorporating more action/fight scenes.

like i said in my previous post, the last portion of the film was awesome, so if they cut down on the background while adding more action, the film would be much better received by the audience.

my last point issue is, i saw the film with a friend (who never read the graphic novel).  he was sooooo confused and lost during the aforementioned background information.  he was constantly asking me questions and just seemed frustrated and confused.  im sure he had more questions than he asked, but didnt want to keep interrupting my experience.

for those who read the novel and are somewhat into it...i give the film a 6 out of 10.

for those who have no knowledge going into the film, i imagine it is a 2 out of 10