In my personal opinion, its a classic, as the book was.
You just don’t know it yet :)
Finally watched this last night. I love the Comic, but I hated the movie. My wife hated it too. It’s WAY too long, with way too many completely unnecessary scenes. It could have been half as long and just as effective, though it would have lost some fan service then. The acting was all over the place. It was a bit jarring to see such a brilliant Comedian and such a terrible Laurie (Specter, whatever). I wasn’t fond of the total monotone delivery for Rorshach, but I understand the choice. And that actor was great without the mask. Those scenes were really really good. There was too much gore, for no good reason; too much meandering about things that people unfamiliar with the comic (and even I, as a fan) didn’t care about.
I just thought it was truly bad, overall and will not watch it again.
I watched the director’s cut last night. It adds quite a bit, making the movie even longer, but I enjoyed every minute of it. I’m not what you’d call a huge fan of the comic book as I’ve only read it once, and it took me the better part of two weeks to read it. I did enjoy the comic book, but found it tedious to read. It wore me out (but a good wear 'n tear)
The Movie OTOH, continues to impress me and gives me an itch to read the comic once again. I particularly liked the part of Dr Manhatten when he’s jumping around in time - when I first read that part of the book, it was one of the hardest to digest. Whether it is because I read the comic and have already seen the movie once before, or if the movie handles it better, I’m not sure.
I was OK with the change in the ending the first time watching the movie, yet the 2nd time through I’m not so sure. The “no one can know” line along is mostly contradicted for how fast the govt was able to scan entire planet earlier - you’d think they would have made it a priority to find Dr Manhatten after committing genocide.
One question on re-reading the book however, and I may be committing sacrilege, but I’d like to read the black-freighter story independently. Is there a version of that so I can read it by itself?
I’ve read comics. I’m familar with the medium. Why can’t I get the “comic bookness” themes presented in the movie if I haven’t read the actual comic book?
At this stage in my life I’d rather watch a movie than read a comic. I’m grateful that some of the better comics are being adapted to the movies.
Out of curiosity, why?
Because I’m talking about things that are of the medium, not things that are about the medium.
It’s like asking why you can’t have a live-action version of “Understanding Comics”.
get spike jonez on it and i’d watch it
100% true, and Gibbon’s and Moore’s manupulation of the medium of comics is certainly a strong point of Watchmen.
That being said I think the movie was an entertaining retelling of the story, even if some of the subtle touches were lost.
I have a few friends that have read the Watchmen. They typically never read anything, and tend to enjoy any movie that has great special effects. They thought both the comic and movie were deep. It was entertaining; I wasn’t expecting Tolstoy, but I have a feeling that something must have been lost in translation.
The overly simplistic and naive outlook on the cold war was a glaring issue for me. Important political figures became a caricature. Humanity was lost. Was it was a commentary on if the pendulum swung so far to one ideology for an extended period of time? I have read that the original comic was a commentary on comics as a whole. Was Rorschach the only character in this cartoon world that saw it for what it was?
I was surprised to see the commentary on religion. While not unique, it must have been ground breaking for it’s original medium. Overall I enjoyed it, I guess I was just expecting more.
That aspect is actually far worse in the comic, since it was based upon a perspective that in hindsight was proven to be grossly inaccurate, so it hasn’t aged well.
The movie revisions to as good a job as possible in the circumstances of actually making the threat credible again (although at the cost of having some really bad makeup and making the U.S. the potential initiator of the conflict).
Yeah, but at the time Watchmen was originally published we were actually actively concerned that the commies were gonna nuke us at any time. I remember it being a bit more dramatic when I actually was worried about getting nuked.
Yeah, it absolutely is a period piece in that way.
I just finished reading both volumes of Kruschev’s memoirs. Maybe that made me a bit too critical.
I’m a big fan of the movie. It did meander a bit, but it did so much right without compromising, I was impressed. Elaborate costumes that don’t look excessively silly? I’ve never seen that pulled off in a superhero movie before.
I could see disappointment for folks who haven’t seen the comic, I was nearly lost in the main plot by the end myself, even knowing what happens. I think the ending change makes perfect sense, man vs. Manhattan is the tentacle monster without the silly monster. A few songs were out of place, but a few others were inspired, so I’m calling it even on the music.
My biggest quibble is that Oz is tiny. A little tiny girly man model with a pencil neck and stick arms. Bad casting.
H.
Further, and I know this had been mentioned before, that the Watchmen comic can only really be fully appreciated by multiple readings (at least two, although I’d say more). That’s not to say it’s because it’s “so deep” or alluding to its greatness in any way, it’s just a fairly complex storyline and the time shifting aspect makes it even less penetrable of a story at first pass. Plus, it takes hours to read of course. Condensing it and making it so you can perhaps follow the storyline in one sitting (as is expected of contemporary film) is a tall order, never mind the difficulty inherent in medium-to-medium adaptations (which is extremely significant in the case of Watchmen).
I tried reading an electronic version, and it was impossible. The book itself, however, was 100 times better, so there is definitely truth in the medium making a difference.
H.
Has anyone watched the Ultimate Cut yet? I’ve held off buying any of the other versions and was considering this one. How does is measure up to the directors cut? Are the Freighter segments jarring or do they integrate well into the flow of the narrative?
Problem is neither UC or DC is available here, so before I order the blu ray from the states I kinda want to make sure I make the right decision.
What an awesome thread. Great analysis/critiques/explanations/debates, no one went over the top, some mild trolling was treated as such and either ignored or addressed politely with great insight. I watched this for the first time last night having never read the novel, and this thread has answered so many questions I had. I am going to watch it again tonight after the Colts-Ravens game, and will buy the book tomorrow, only because of this thread. Fantastic discussion.
I read the novel after watching the movie. You are in for a real treat when you see how similar they are :) You will recognize scenes and “camera” angles.
Oh man. I had read the novel before seeing it, and watching it executed on-screen (the death of The Comedian being almost panel-for-panel perfect) and other scenes, like Ozymandias in front of his mega-terminal, were just so perfect it was uncanny. Doctor Manhattan’s TV appearance was also very faithful. I have never seen any comic/graphic novel adaptation as faithful and loving of the original as Watchmen.