Holy crap, it's Rorshach!

[iv3rdawG]

Alright so I did like the film. Quite a bit, actually. Finishing the book a couple of days ago, it was still fresh in my mind, as was the whole concept that Veidt presented in the book. What I think they should have taken out were two things that weren't even in the book: Dan seeing Rorschach die and Dan then going and punching Veidt. I loved the Jon and Laurie stories in the book and they both worked really well in the film, though I thought Laurie's story could have gone on a little longer. In the end though, I did enjoy it a lot.

[Relaxing Dragon]

Anyone see this (spoilers for end): http://www.cracked.com/article_17131_how-studios-would-have-ended-watchmen-storyboard.html 

[SJP]

Saw it not too long ago.  I thought it was good, but as I was walking out of the theater I heard two people talking about it.  I'm guessing it was a mother and her son, from their voices.

"So, what did you think?"

"Three hours of boredom.  They hyped that up way too much.  They tried to amp it up in the last twenty minutes, but I think that was too little too late."

Zach Snyder is in a Catch-22.  He is obviously deeply a fan of the source material, and did his best to pull it off as reverently and faithfully as possible.  On the other hand, Watchmen is a comic book filled with a lot of people talking and angst.  It doesn't have the same mass market appeal as a lot of the other comic book movies; it's not an action film with lots of explosions.  Dark Knight had about the same running time, but the material was merely based on the character of Batman, not a direct translation of a comic book, and as such Nolan had a lot of leeway in alternating between dialogue and action sequences.  Watchmen isn't like that.  Its action is front and bottom-heavy.  It's not that it's not interesting, but if you're expecting the same sort of experience as Iron Man, you won't find it.

The trouble is, if it doesn't do well, this bears out the ideas that studio execs are right; people don't want to see faithful translations, but brainless, mindless action films.  But if you haven't read The Watchmen, and you go into it with the wrong mindset, you probably will think it's a slow-moving, boring superhero movie.  It's a character study, not Die Hard.  And it will be a shame if it does poorly on that basis alone.

But here's fingers crossed, hoping it does a good box office this weekend.

[Nick]

Just saw it. Personally I liked it. The changes weren't too big as to distract me from enjoying the movie.

[ScottotD]

The trouble is, if it doesn't do well, this bears out the ideas that studio execs are right; people don't want to see faithful translations, but brainless, mindless action films.  But if you haven't read The Watchmen, and you go into it with the wrong mindset, you probably will think it's a slow-moving, boring superhero movie.  It's a character study, not Die Hard.  And it will be a shame if it does poorly on that basis alone.

But here's fingers crossed, hoping it does a good box office this weekend.

Although as you say it wasn't an adaption, you don't think the fact the current second highest grossing movie ever wasn't a brainless, mindless action film might help balance it out even if Watchmen doesn't do well?

[Relaxing Dragon]

(Yes, more random link posting for me) For those who are curious, the really cool opening credit bit is online: http://chud.com/articles/articles/18407/1/THE-AMAZING-WATCHMEN-OPENING-CREDITS-ARE-ONLINE/Page1.html

[SJP]

The trouble is, if it doesn't do well, this bears out the ideas that studio execs are right; people don't want to see faithful translations, but brainless, mindless action films.  But if you haven't read The Watchmen, and you go into it with the wrong mindset, you probably will think it's a slow-moving, boring superhero movie.  It's a character study, not Die Hard.  And it will be a shame if it does poorly on that basis alone.

But here's fingers crossed, hoping it does a good box office this weekend.

Although as you say it wasn't an adaption, you don't think the fact the current second highest grossing movie ever wasn't a brainless, mindless action film might help balance it out even if Watchmen doesn't do well?

It probably will.  But I'm just hoping they don't think Dark Knight is just some weird fluke.  "Butts in seats" is the order of the day, and if Watchmen doesn't get people in, they won't greenlight anything like it in the future.

[bratpop]

Um, but Dark Knight WAS just some weird fluke. It would be mediocre as a crime drama, and as a weird comic book movie that was unlike a comic book except in sheer absurdity, it became a fluke and actually made lots of money.

Hulk proved that people do not inherently want to see serious, dramatic comic book based movies. That doesn't mean they don't. It just means it's not a formula for instant success. V for Vendetta was great, but it didn't exactly make a splash.

I would rather see Watchmen have the Dark Knight's box office and then see them adapt a Batman comic panel-for-panel than the order it actually happened in. Watchmen is a formula. TDK was a shot in the.... dark.

[GregMcduck]

This is pretty much the movie Watchmen fans have been waiting for. It's not perfect. It's not the movie that's been playing in my head for years. Things are changed and cut. This is still the best version of Watchmen that could be done in 2 hours 43 minutes. I can not wait until the full length edition gets released because that's how I ultimately will judge the movie.

Jack Earle Haley was basically about as perfect as he could be. He was easily my favorite thing about the movie (his first "hurm" put a shit-eating grin on my face). The opening scene worried me because I thought we could be in for a 300-style slow-mo wankfest, but I think Snyder was wise to tone it down in this one. It was far less jarring and tedious this time around, and hopefully he won't make that his "style" for the rest of his career.

For nearly everything that's left out or altered from the comic, I can see a reason for it. As much as I want to see certain things, it simply couldn't be done in the time frame. For everything I miss, there are 10 things that made me happy. In general, I enjoyed it. 90% was great and 10% was memorably bad.

But I did have one huge fricken holy shit of a problem with this film: the music. My god, the music. Snyder reveals himself to be an eighth grader discovering "classic rock" and buying shoelaces at Hot Topic for the first time. Hallelujah is what ruined the sex scene the most for me... it has absolutely no place being there, and I'm trying to remember that scene but all I can think of is the film stopping, Snyder walking into the frame and saying "Hey guys! Listen to this song! Nope, Rufus Wainwright didn't write it... it's by a guy named Leonard Cohen! Enjoy!" and cutting back to really weird softcore porn.

Actually that wasn't the worst choice, nor was Sound of Silence which should never be in a movie ever. The worst was All Along the Watchtower, if only because it nearly cuts off Manhattan's big monologue, which is among my favorite sets of words I've ever read, the one part of Watchmen that actually made me tear up. They distilled the monologue and took out difficult words like "quark," and not a half a second after he finished talking, there's the fucking Watchtower riff. It was presented like his entire monologue was the coach's big speech at halftime and the next shot should be the team running onto the field in slow motion. The song shouldn't have been attached to the scene on Mars in any capacity. It might fit the tone of Rorschach and Nite Owl in Antarctica, but it's entirely misplaced where it was. It was a moment in which I was in complete agreement with Alan Moore--sometimes, you just need to be able to stop reading and look at the frame. And not have All Along the Watchtower suddenly blast you out of the scene and into every single Viet Nam War movie ever made.

I also need to bring up something that was being discussed a long time ago, when the promo pic of Ozy came out and everyone saw his nipple-humps. People were saying, and Snyder implied, that the film was going to examine comic book films in the way the novel examined comic books. I'm not sure if this holds water or not, and I'd like to watch it again with that in mind. I was thinking about how lame the non-pop music sounded during the action scenes, perhaps the lameness could be purposeful, as well as the abundance of gore (that most comic book films lack) and possibly a million other things I missed.

[Doctor Who?]

Anyone see this (spoilers for end): http://www.cracked.com/article_17131_how-studios-would-have-ended-watchmen-storyboard.html 

That was great.

Only two days to go until I see it.

[stansimpson]

It's a character study, not Die Hard.

  That's probably why I liked it and my friends didn't. 

But here's fingers crossed, hoping it does a good box office this weekend.

It will do very, very well for the opening box office weekend.  My big anticipation is the following weekend.  I'm expecting a 60% drop-off.  And that's my low estimation.  This thing has had the perfect hype blitz that will suffer with the (probable) reality of studio execs saying "Butts in seats.... FIRST weekend!  Expect later disappointment.  Let the audience deal with it.  We need our money back."  Typical strategy for any expected bomb.  The word-of-mouth on Watchmen will absolutely kill it.

Snyder reveals himself to be an eighth grader discovering "classic rock" and buying shoelaces at Hot Topic for the first time.

Perfectly said.    Yknow why the trailer worked?  Cuz the song used was a foreboding and quite obscure (and imo one of their best) Smashing Pumpkins song.  Yknow why the music in the movie didn't work?  Cuz it was the complete opposite of that.

[Doctor Who?]

Is it just me or do nerds go to comic book movie looking for something to hate?

Even The Dark Knight that everyone loved six months ago is now being bashed as one of the worst films ever made.

I don't think I have ever read a review of a comic book movie written by a fan that wasn't negitive in some way.

[ImOscardotcom]

But here's fingers crossed, hoping it does a good box office this weekend.

It will do very, very well for the opening box office weekend.  My big anticipation is the following weekend.  I'm expecting a 60% drop-off.  And that's my low estimation.  This thing has had the perfect hype blitz that will suffer with the (probable) reality of studio execs saying "Butts in seats.... FIRST weekend!  Expect later disappointment.  Let the audience deal with it.  We need our money back."  Typical strategy for any expected bomb.  The word-of-mouth on Watchmen will absolutely kill it.

Yeah, those are my thoughts as well. This might beat out Ang Lee's Hulk as the biggest box office drop from the first to the second weekend in history.

[Compound]

Is it just me or do nerds go to comic book movie looking for something to hate?

Even The Dark Knight that everyone loved six months ago is now being bashed as one of the worst films ever made.

I don't think I have ever read a review of a comic book movie written by a fan that wasn't negitive in some way.

Welcome to the interwebs. Please enjoy your stay.

[Doctor Who?]

When did insane become sane?