Watchmen Film, Yay or Nay

[AroLombardi]

I was watching it today too! But the only reason I really liked it was Rorschach. His brutality and scratchy voice never got old for me.

 

[death525]

I never read the book but the movie I thought was just okay.
I would have enjoyed it more if Dr. Manhattan followed the rule show dont tell during his monologues(I probably misspelled that sorry to lazy to look it up).

 

[ounkeo]

I read a lot of dissappointed reviews of the watchmen movie. I had only just watched it a few months ago. yes, I've read the book many years ago in my teens and I really liked it.

That said, my wife did not like the movie. I, however, really liked it. It was slow sure, but I wasn't watching it for the superhero action (there wasn't). It was a political movie (global politics) and the politics of the superhero. And most importantly I felt it asked the right question:

What would happen if we had an absolute God among men? And what happens to the human psyche when he/she becomes a hero/heroine.

It was a reflective movie and I liked it just as much as the graphic novel. I honestly didn't care how close to source or not it was. What mattered to me in the movie, as in the graphic novel, were those questions above. Watching heroes destroying tens of millions of people and justifying it with sheer logic on the greater good... that was more powerful watching it happen onscreen.

 

[Guffe]

I liked it, I've never red the comic but I thought the movie was amazing.

 

[Kenbo Slice]

Yay. It was a great movie. The only reason I've heard people disliking it was because it had a blue penis in it. SO THE FUCK WHAT! If it was a blue naked girl nobody would complain. Plus him being naked is part of his character, he feels no need for clothes because he thinks he's a God.

 

[TheXRatedDodo]

Torturous. 2 hours and however many minutes of Snyder urinating all over a classic.

 

[loc978]

Most of it yea (I felt that the artistic license taken and small modernizations were done well), but changes to the ending... nay.

Spoiler: movie spoiler

Simplifying Ozymandias' goals into blaming Dr. Manhattan with his lie of an attack felt slightly insulting to my intelligence...

Spoiler: graphic novel spoiler

Faked giant squids from outer space may seem silly on the surface, but it's far smarter to bring the people of the world together against an unknown common threat from outer space than against a known one from your own country. Ozymandias is the smartest man in the world, and among the richest and most ambitious men in the world. Hamstringing his nation and culture like that in the world's eyes would be rather stupid when he's seeking to be at the forefront of globalization.

 

[Nazulu]

I thought it was good, not great, just good. I didn't read the comics before seeing the movie but I try not to judge movies harshly just because the book was superior in writing.

Very dark, well edited and quite fun but nothing truly special in any way, that's my opinion. The soundtrack on the other hand is great, I didn't think they would use classics anymore like Dylan and Hendrix.

 

[Rems]

Love the graphic novel (which i had read first) and enjoyed the movie. I can understand why all the changes that were made were done so, but i like how much they did actually keep in. The ending had the most changes but was as an above poster said internally consistent with the rest of the movie so that was ok.

 

[Get_A_Grip_]

Great movie! Although the ending did seem kinda flat.
I've never read the graphic novel but I'll get around to it sometime in the future.

 

[GamerKT]

Yay. The sex was awkward, though.

I read the book first, but I was skeptical of the movie. After my girlfriend pestered me for a while, I finally saw it, and I LOVED it. Except the sex scene. What the fuck?

IMO
It was supposed to be a little awkward. Dan is generally a very awkward man, and Dr. Manhattan is a quasi emotionless god.
I really liked it, and the changes were pretty freaking minimal, and the cuts were understandable, and they showed up in the directors cut. The only thing I didn't like was that they cut the bernards originally. And I thought they wood, but when they were showing stuff before the release I saw them and got excited.

They weren't that awkward in the comic, though. I'm mostly talking about the sex in Archie. I think it was the music... I'm glad they kept the ejaculation/flamethrower symbolism and timed it right. That was funny. Yeah, I just think it was the music.

Also, I hate Laurie; she's a whore.

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

nay; as and adaptation it does work due to it being faithful to the source material, but that's where the problem lies: Watchmen is UNFILMABLE. If it's faithful then it doesn't work as a film, but if you stray from it then you risk backlash. When Terry Gilliam said this was unfilmable he was right

 

[DeimosMasque]

I love the movie. Read the graphic novel the first time when I was fourteen. When I saw the movie, I saw the differences and flaws but I honestly don't let that bug me.

All source material gets changed for movies, it's what's fun about it. If it was exactly the same, I'd know exactly what was going to happen.

I liked the changed ending, I felt it make more sense since Dr. Manhattan is honestly a scary person. If someone said he suddenly turned against the entire human race, I'd believe it. He was so detached from us, I could see him destroying us because he thought we were horrible.

The giant squid from the graphic novel... yeah it just never sat right with me, even when I first read the thing.

 

[mikespoff]

It was awesome. Loved the film, will read the graphic novel at some point, but the film stands on its own as a magnificent work of art.

 

[mikespoff]

oops - repost. Forum didn't update, so I thought it hadn't gone through.

 

[DeimosMasque]

Actually I totally agree with you mikespoff, have you seen the "Ultimate Edition" with Black Freighter and everything added back in, so beautiful.

I imagine it's what Lord of the Rings fans see with then have their 3 hour long versions of each movie.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I recently saw the watchmen film(I'm aware it came out a while ago) and I thought it was amazing. I don't feel the need to go into the details of why I thought it was good, but I am curious as to why it is such a divided playing field. Those of you who felt that it was lacking I would like to here your reasoning behind it. Was it that it was not true to the comic, or that it was but just didn't do it justice. I didn't read the comic as I wasn't born when it came out so I have a fairly large bias toward the film. Any way express your opinions any way you see fit.

Funnily enough, I didn't like it.

I'm a huge fan of the comic/graphic novel - but the film was just...that. It didn't bring anything new in - apart from the ending, which sort of sucked but was gonna happen - you can't do that in a film.

It was ok, but I'd rather read the book again. Perhaps that's the problem?

 

[Treefingers]

NAY.

It wasn't baaaad as such. Just overwhelmingly average. It was quite true to the book imo, with the exception of the ending. But I think that the book told its story in a way that only its own medium could, it simply doesn't translate to film particularly well.

EDIT:

The sex was awkward, though.

Oh yeah, this too. Worst sex scene ever.

 

[Serge A. Storms]

It was alright, my biggest problem with it was that it had that Zach Snyder flavor where everything blows up or spurts blood for its own sake while the plot putters along. They could have fit more of the plot in and evened the pacing out if they didn't spend so much time stretching the action scenes out beyond the point that they stay entertaining.