Holy crap, it's Rorshach!

[gojikranz]

cant wait for 4:15 PM gonna be going then! 

on a similar note i just finished the motion comic dvd thought i would let people know its pretty nice.  the animation is all pretty well done.  though it should be noted that despite reading many places taht all the comic is reproduced here completely, there are many small cuts throughout.  i noticed a few specifically cause i had just reread the book and im sure there are a whole bunch i missed.  nothing major but for completeists something to worry about.  and of course it really doesnt match the book given that they dont do any of the written material like under the hood etc.

15 hours

[a pretty girl is like]

  Why would the world be so willing to believe that Dr. Manhattan would do this? The population at large has no clue about his "disassociation with humanity", that was just the people close to him. And aside from his exploits in Vietnam and as a crimefighter, he hasn't killed anyone or even threatened anyone. To suddenly go from a 'God who does interview on TV when he's not working on science experiments' to 'mass murderer' seems quite a bit of a leap for the general populace to accept, even those in other countries who didn't necessarily like him or the US.
  It seems to me that a better plan for Veidt to have done was to get Dr. Manhattan to eliminate the entire world's stockpile of nuclear weapons and use that as a threat to the world's leaders. manhattan could also have given the "psychic warning" to the world's people about his threat to kill them all if they stepped out of line. I know this doesn't need the elaborate plot to kill the masked heroes, but it would have been a better use of Veidt's affiliation with Dr. Manhattan and still necessitated his leaving the planet. Something that he probably wouldn't have minded anyway.

I put the second bit behind a spoiler tag too. I assume you meant to?

Anyway:

Why would they believe it? Because it *was* him. Oh sure, it wasn't, you and I know that, but it was his powers and the world is told it was him, so why would anyone think otherwise?

He's the only character in the whole world with superpowers.

He was also demonised on television earlier, and it is shown that he doesn't regard life as important or meaningful.

And let's not underestimate the power of the scapegoat.  The bigger the crime, the higher demand for a scapegoat.  Get the president on tv with a person to blame, and the public will soak it up.

Looks like it's opened well:

From the imdb:

Comic book movie adaptation Watchmen has scored the biggest opening of 2009 after taking in an estimated $55.7 million (£39.8 million) at the U.S. box office over the weekend.

"Biggest opening of 2009"?  Really?  Because the competition against "Madea Goes To Jail" and "Pink Panther 2" were strong contenders.     That assessment is as respectable as those critics who call any movie released in January the best movie of the year so far.  Still waiting on that following weekend drop-off.  That'll be a huuuge indicator (as well as a huge percentage).  At this point, I think 70% drop-off point is very reasonable. 

I mean, even as much as I enjoyed the movie, I've had to tell certain people not to go see it cuz I know they'd hate it.  Considering how much went into marketing this sucker, it'll be amazing if it makes its money back.  Now let all of us fans be sure to spend that extra dough on repeat viewings as a sign of good faith to the execs who stepped out of the way for this not be a 2hr movie with big movie star names and family-friendly rewrites.

The opening was good.  Not great like expected.  $60 - $70 million was the expected number seeing as how 300 opened with almost $71 million when Zak "Visionary" Snyder was still an unknown commodity.  The longer running time was offset by opening the movie in far more theaters than normal.  Even more than some big summer movies.  The real tell will be this second weekend when drop offs for movies of this kind can reach upwards of  60%.  I think the phrase Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily used was the movie would crawl to $150 million on its hands and knees.  A real honest to goodness blockbuster these days would make that money in 10 days tops.  And that would be the beginning, not just the end goal.

This is all beside the point anyway.  The real money is overseas and on home sales.

btw. I haven't seen it yet.  I'll be watching it later this afternoon.

[BBQ Platypus]

The squid could not POSSIBLY have been set up on film without seeming like it was pulled straight out of somebody's ass.

The comic book has plenty of time to prepare you for it because it's a static medium rich in background information.  There is far more room and time for exposition on a static page than there is in a motion picture.  In the film it would need to be shoehorned in, disrupting the narrative flow.  It wouldn't have worked to have Jon and Laurie say "Oh, did you hear about those writers and artists that got kidnapped?"  It would be stupid to have Bernie say it, because how the fuck would Bernie know?  And I mean EITHER Bernie.  Bernard the Elder wouldn't care, and Bernie the younger is just a kid.  Hell, it wouldn't even work to have it be in a diegetic news broadcast.  In a film, it would feel telegraphed and inserted.  Come now.  Do you really think it would inspire any reaction besides "Oh, gee.  A random aside about something there's no way in hell we should care about.  I wonder if it will turn out to be meaningful.  Hmm..."

It'd be like that Monty Python sketch that begins with John Cleese just saying, out of the blue "You know, I really enjoy interviewing applicants for this management training course."  Only when Monty Python did it, it was SUPPOSED to be ridiculous.

It also wouldn't work because the fact that the comic book is...well, a comic book - adds a certain extra dimension that wouldn't make the transition to screen.  You're reading about comic book artists in a comic book.  It gives it a special sort of significance that I don't think I can explain.

And LucasM, did they specifically say that Ozy DIDN'T attack D.C.?  I could swear I saw it on the map of targets.  I mean, Nixon was in a secure location, and he obviously would have survived whether an attack happened or not.

For the most part, the flaws in the plan are the same as they were in the original.  Magnified, perhaps (the chance of a false flag operation certainly appears stronger).  But the peace forged was always supposed to be a fragile one.  The question is, would it even work to begin with?  I think it would, but it relies on a couple assumptions - one of those assumptions being that Nixon calls the Russian Premier before he launches his nukes in retaliation.

It's not a perfect ending, but the original ending would have even more problems on screen.

[Doctor Who?]

Only 2 hours and 15 minutes until I get to see it.

[Doctor Who?]

1 hour 55 minutes.

[BBQ Platypus]

Another thing that the squid ending needs to make sense is "Tales of the Black Freighter."  "Tales of the Black Freighter" serves as a link between the writer/artist subplot and the rest of the story.  The parallel between the main character of "Tales" and Ozymandias provides the reader with a thematic link between the characters and the endgame, which turn the ending from a stock sci-fi ass-pull that comes right the fuck out of nowhere into something germane and relevant.

Without "Tales of the Black Freighter," the squid makes no sense.

[mrbasehart]

1 hour 55 minutes.

*calls Doc's cinema*

Hello, there's a crazy super-fan who wants to see Watchman today.  As a member of the International Projectionist Union, I would like to ban him from watching this film at any theatre in your country.  Of course you can identify him! He'll be wearing a pimp hat and the crazy smile of the super-excited.  Thank you for your assistance.

[a pretty girl is like]

What was the total budget (including marketing) for this thing anyway? What is the "golden number" they need to make a profit? Is that where you got $150 mil?

Nikki Finke came up with the $150 million number. From what I've read on her site, the budget was around the area of $100 million plus another $40-$50 for advertising.  I'm sure with the worldwide numbers, it'll end up with over $200 million easily but any profits Warner Bros makes still has to be split with Fox, right?  I think that's how the court case ended.  Fox got cash upfront and a small cut of the gross.

[a pretty girl is like]

Box Office Mojo has the budget at $150 million.  I think today's standard for profitability is the movie to needs to gross at least twice the production budget since advertising adds so much to the red and more often the studios have to take on multiple producing partners to even come up with the budget in the first place.

[Tyrant]

  Why would the world be so willing to believe that Dr. Manhattan would do this? The population at large has no clue about his "disassociation with humanity", that was just the people close to him. And aside from his exploits in Vietnam and as a crimefighter, he hasn't killed anyone or even threatened anyone. To suddenly go from a 'God who does interview on TV when he's not working on science experiments' to 'mass murderer' seems quite a bit of a leap for the general populace to accept, even those in other countries who didn't necessarily like him or the US.

[/spoiler]


  Because it's the Cold War. People were heavily distrustful of anything associated with nuclear power because it was such a psychological shadow over the world. We tagged political and military figures as our scapegoats in reality. In the alternate reality of Watchmen, it's Dr.Manhattan, who more directly represents such power. What I got from both movie and book is that we (the readers and watchers) are on the tail end of apperant years of distrust and misunderstanding that has accumulated since Dr.Manhattan was introduced to the world. His interview on TV where he finally loses his temper and teleports to Mars was the straw that broke the camel's back, for both him and humanity.

[bettertomorrowamy]

So in the comic book, does the US have Nuclear Weapons, or do they just have Dr. Manhattan, or do they have both?

[Junkyard]

Spoilers!

[dignan]

Pretty good overall I thought.

[Doctor Who?]

I thought it was very good.  Also all the people in the theater with me even the ones who i heard saying they knew nothing about the movie seemed to enjoy it so here is hoping it does well.

My only problem was

Silk Spectress 2.  She just wasn't nearly bitter or angry enough and she didn't really have a plot arch.

I can't wait for the director's cut.

[gojikranz]

25 minutes better go!