Official Watchmen movie thread

[DanTMWTMP]

I had an epiphany when I watched the movie for the 2nd time. There were riots/protests against the police in our timeline. In the Watchmen world, it's the riots against the vigilantes. With the LA riots, came the public's brand the vigilante justice (black people rioting against the city, injuring the next white truck driver.. the koreans taking up arms and defending their own businesses.. etc), but in Watchmen, it's the otherway around. It's as if no matter what, any authoritative justice group will always be protested against. No matter how much good they have done, it'll just take one case/event to have the public turn against them.


Also... "it's Nixon or the Commies, right?" "It's Bush or the Terrorists, right?" (I know, comic was made in 1984, but I still think the material in the Watchmen is still very relevant today). Every leader meant well in their own perception. No matter the leader, there will always be a group of people who will go against their own leader/leaders.

I'm not trying to make this into a political argument. I just find it rather interesting on how much we can learn from past political atmospheres and apply it to our current atmospheres.

 

[Sedition]

Originally posted by: Ballatician
I'm gonna write my thoughts here before reading the rest of the thread. These are my comments and some questions sprinkled in. I'm sure some have been answered which I will see when I read the thread.

I had never even heard of The Watchmen until threads started popping up here and there about the movie coming up. It seemed interesting enough to see so I went to see it tonight.

Overall, I'm glad that I saw it and was engaged the whole time (I don't think I should have seen it in IMAX though, didn't seem worth the extra $). It was odd at times but from hearing other peoples reaction, I'm glad they stuck closely to the book. I don't think it is the type of movie that a lot of people will like and it isn't going to be on my top 10 list or anything but it was very interesting to see Moore's perspective on life (assuming the movie is a good representation of his perspective) and was a good story.

I remembered reading that the author of the comic/graphic novel was very conservative and I think some of his ideology shone through in the film. I am already forgetting some of the things I wanted to bring up but Dr. Manhattan's whole spiel about how perfect it is that two people can produce a child, how it is a miracle, etc immediately made me think about the abortion debate especially in cases concerning rape. How the heck could Silk Spectre go and sleep with the Comedian after he tried to rape her anyway?
Also, the whole creating a disaster for the sins of humanity was maybe a Biblical reference?

Both SS's were hot as hell. Too much blue dong as said before. How did Dr. Manhattan draw that symbol on his head? Was it the hydrogen atom or something?

I wonder how he came up with this. I mean, we know now that there was no nuclear war with the USSR and that happened without millions of people dieing. The more I think about this movie, the deeper I realize it is. Good movie overall and definitely not a superhero film, not that there's anything wrong with that.

My seat kind of sucked but I don't think I'll watch it again until it comes out on DVD.

7/10

Sorry, no offense, but this made me laugh.

Text
Alan Moore is a devote anarchist and an all around nutty and funny and brilliant guy.

Remember this book was written not as an afterthought but in 1986 in the heart of the cold war.

 

[Kev]

what the hell was that thing they were floating around in on mars?

 

[Sedition]

Originally posted by: jalaram
Possible idea for a sequel

Real article on how unlikely it would be.

Synder already said absolutely no way. The producers and writers feel the same way. There is no sequel in the watchmen universe.

 

[Sedition]

Originally posted by: Kev
what the hell was that thing they were floating around in on mars?

A clock castle. They underplayed Dr. Manhattan's backstory a bit to purge some time.

Growing up all he wanted to do was to be a simple watchmaker like his father. His father pushed him into physics because of the A bomb and Einstein and wanted his son to lead the future.

In fact it was this that caused the accident in the first place. Janey broke her watch at Coney Island and he promised to fix it. When she asked about a month later he told her it was fixed but he forgot it in his lab coat. That is what he went in the room for. It was also the reason he was able to rebuild himself after being blown apart.

I only ever watched the first season of Heroes but had always thought that Sylar's backstory had been a bit of a rip off of Dr. Manhattan's. The whole "I just want to be a simple watchmaker and on top of that his ability to see what makes people tick".

 

[Beev]

I liked the movie a lot. I read the novel about 6 months ago and enjoyed it, but found myself only caring about Dr Manhattan. Ended up feeling the same way during the movie too.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: Ballatician
How did Dr. Manhattan draw that symbol on his head? Was it the hydrogen atom or something?

Yes, it was a hydrogen atom and he etched it into his forehead. When Dr. Manhattan was first being introduced by the government, they gave him a sort of suit to wear. The helmet had the atomic symbol on it and Dr. Manhattan immediately expressed how he thought that was a poor representation and that the hydrogen atom was a better representation. Something like that.

Originally posted by: Ballatician
My seat kind of sucked

Mine was pretty darned terrible.

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: gorcorps

Originally posted by: FlashG
Just got back from seeing the movie with both of my sons. It was well done especially in IMAX. But everyone?s question was why wasn?t it "X" rated for violence? I haven't finished the novel yet but was surprised that the movie was actually more gruesome.

I'm almost positive that you can't get an X rating for violence, that's specifically a sexual rating.

Robocop originally received an X rating due to violence. It then trimmed some of the closeups out of Murphy's death scene to get it down to an R.

This was before NC-17 existed though.

 

[Gothgar]

Originally posted by: Beev
I liked the movie a lot. I read the novel about 6 months ago and enjoyed it, but found myself only caring about Dr Manhattan. Ended up feeling the same way during the movie too.

funny, I thought Manhattan was easily the poorest written character of the entire movie

 

[Knight7]

the movie sucked bad, i really wanted to like it, to the 2 hour mark i was still kinda waiting for something to happen the it became the worst kind of annoying feeling ever not since "dude where is my car" i felt this way. difference between those movies dude where is my car cost 2 dollars to make. Watchmen was awful.

 

[torpid]

Disappointed. Much like the LOTR: FOTR film, all of the heart and soul of the novel was lost in the film version. It had good visuals and it was thrilling, but it lacked oomf for some reason.

About the music: wasn't it always ambient within a scene (i.e. coming from a radio or similar) in the graphic novel? I wish they would have done that in the movie.

 

[Sedition]

Originally posted by: Gothgar

Originally posted by: Beev
I liked the movie a lot. I read the novel about 6 months ago and enjoyed it, but found myself only caring about Dr Manhattan. Ended up feeling the same way during the movie too.

funny, I thought Manhattan was easily the poorest written character of the entire movie

not so in the novel.

 

[jonks]

Thought it was really good. Wish I hadn't read the book though, think it spoiled it too much given how close the film resembled the book. Not sure why they couldn't just do the book ending though, it wouldn't be that hard to have explained it.

 

[Ballatician]

Originally posted by: Sedition

Sorry, no offense, but this made me laugh.

Text
Alan Moore is a devote anarchist and an all around nutty and funny and brilliant guy.

Remember this book was written not as an afterthought but in 1986 in the heart of the cold war.

Haha, none taken, I don't know why I thought it was him I read about, maybe a friend told me this? I don't know. Scratch that from my review although I still think the movie can be used to argue certain ideologies.

 

[Chiropteran]

Originally posted by: torpid

About the music: wasn't it always ambient within a scene (i.e. coming from a radio or similar) in the graphic novel? I wish they would have done that in the movie.

How else would a graphic novel show music?

 

[torpid]

Originally posted by: Chiropteran

Originally posted by: torpid

About the music: wasn't it always ambient within a scene (i.e. coming from a radio or similar) in the graphic novel? I wish they would have done that in the movie.

How else would a graphic novel show music?

Could have been the narrator singing or something I guess. My point is, the music is not exactly the same in the novel as in the movie, as claimed previously. Some of the songs may have been used in both, but the movie did not present it as ambiance within scenes. Instead it just went full hollywood in your face style.

 

[Sedition]

Originally posted by: torpid

Originally posted by: Chiropteran

Originally posted by: torpid

About the music: wasn't it always ambient within a scene (i.e. coming from a radio or similar) in the graphic novel? I wish they would have done that in the movie.

How else would a graphic novel show music?

Could have been the narrator singing or something I guess. My point is, the music is not exactly the same in the novel as in the movie, as claimed previously. Some of the songs may have been used in both, but the movie did not present it as ambiance within scenes. Instead it just went full hollywood in your face style.

Time to debunk this:

The film uses some of the songs mentioned in the comic, including Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin'", which is played over the opening montage;[8] Jimi Hendrix's cover of "All Along the Watchtower"; Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sounds of Silence"; the German version of Nena's "99 Luftballons"; a musak version of Tears For Fears' "Everybody Wants To Rule The World"; and Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable".[91] Many of the period songs were upmixed to 5.1 surround for the film using the Penteo process.[92] Bates said the challenge was composing music that would transition effectively into these famous songs.[89] Snyder and Bates received Dylan's permission to use the stems from "The Times They Are a-Changin'" so the three-minute song could play over the six minute opening.

 

[torpid]

Debunk what? It doesn't matter whether the songs were in the comic. I wasn't disagreeing with that. In the comic they were ambient and in the movie they were in your face.

 

[DanTMWTMP]

I HAVE to get this off my chest!! RAWR!!!
First off though, I enjoyed the movie, and I think everyone involved with the movie should be extremely proud of themselves.

K..well, phok. I have one major gripe. It's the millions dying scene. In the comic, all the momentum towards the end was going towards a more optimistic upswing. Watchmen band together, almost solving the crime. Dr. Manhatton and Laurie is on their way back to Earth... ok flip the page, next chapter..

Then it's nothing but blood, guts, and dead people. To me, that was a total WTF when I read the comic. It was very disheartening.
The movie should've just showed all the blood/guts of millions, then show how it was done. Take the momentum to a more optimistic tone, only to have nothing but death and destruction.

 

[captains]

i enjoyed the movie until they kept showing a blue dong hanging all over the screen

 

[Sedition]

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP
I HAVE to get this off my chest!! RAWR!!!
First off though, I enjoyed the movie, and I think everyone involved with the movie should be extremely proud of themselves.

K..well, phok. I have one major gripe. It's the millions dying scene. In the comic, all the momentum towards the end was going towards a more optimistic upswing. Watchmen band together, almost solving the crime. Dr. Manhatton and Laurie is on their way back to Earth... ok flip the page, next chapter..

Then it's nothing but blood, guts, and dead people. To me, that was a total WTF when I read the comic. It was very disheartening.
The movie should've just showed all the blood/guts of millions, then show how it was done. Take the momentum to a more optimistic tone, only to have nothing but death and destruction.

Not true. The last scene before the countless dead is Adrian kicking both their asses, explaining his plan, and telling them he did it 35 minutes ago.

I do somewhat agree that it was missing something with out the blood and guts and horror and most importantly a big ugly squid, but I imagine that was something to do with ratings.
You can see in earlier posts by other posters that they thought the movie was verging on too gruesome. Imagine a city filled with blood and guts, news reports of mothers eating their children in horror and all the nastiness that went into Veidt's plan.

 

[Sedition]

Originally posted by: captains
i enjoyed the movie until they kept showing a blue dong hanging all over the screen

Grow up. This has been the lamest issue thus far. If you are uncomfortable with penises move to Utah and join the Mormons or something. It is just a cock. Deal with it.

Personally, I wish they would have stuck a little more to the comic with this, but only to shut up the "OMG PENIS" crowd.

Gibbons drew Manhattan as a Blue Statue of David, complete with an uncircumsized and unglorified penis. He thought of him having to reimagine the human form in order to rematerialize himself and therefore came out as something of a statue-esq human.

 

[captains]

sorry for giving my opinion

 

[Joemonkey]

Originally posted by: captains
sorry for giving my opinion

as well you should be

 

[DanTMWTMP]

Originally posted by: Sedition

Originally posted by: DanTMWTMP
I HAVE to get this off my chest!! RAWR!!!
First off though, I enjoyed the movie, and I think everyone involved with the movie should be extremely proud of themselves.

K..well, phok. I have one major gripe. It's the millions dying scene. In the comic, all the momentum towards the end was going towards a more optimistic upswing. Watchmen band together, almost solving the crime. Dr. Manhatton and Laurie is on their way back to Earth... ok flip the page, next chapter..

Then it's nothing but blood, guts, and dead people. To me, that was a total WTF when I read the comic. It was very disheartening.
The movie should've just showed all the blood/guts of millions, then show how it was done. Take the momentum to a more optimistic tone, only to have nothing but death and destruction.

Not true. The last scene before the countless dead is Adrian kicking both their asses, explaining his plan, and telling them he did it 35 minutes ago.

I do somewhat agree that it was missing something with out the blood and guts and horror and most importantly a big ugly squid, but I imagine that was something to do with ratings.
You can see in earlier posts by other posters that they thought the movie was verging on too gruesome. Imagine a city filled with blood and guts, news reports of mothers eating their children in horror and all the nastiness that went into Veidt's plan.

ahh thanks for the clarification. I just remember going "holy crap!"

Heh, I remember my reaction more than the story. It's been awhile since I've read it.