Watchmen - no discussion?

[joeranger]

After multiple attempts to watch this all the way through, I finally saw the full directors cut last night.
I don't read comics or graphic novels but have enjoyed many of the movie versions.
Visually it was awesome. Special effects, costumes, filming, cast...Great
Story: interesting, cool alternate reality
Characters: again, interesting but there are so many you don't really identify with all of them.
Pace: It's slow but there are multiple story lines that need to be supported by flashbacks to make sense.
Action: Great action scenes, I had to fast forward through some of the "silk specter" scenes. Might need to go back and review.
Audience: Not a kid movie. Very adult themes and complicated political/cultural issues. It is a movie worth supporting just to let Hollywood know they can take a chance every once in a while.
Success: $130m budget and made $180m ww.

Interested to hear what other people have to say.

 

[JD]

Read the book.

 

[Wes R]

I need to grab it. I had little interest in it but I'm a fan of David Hayter who worked on the script after seeing his other movies (and it doesn't hurt he's the voice of Solid Snake). I know he said that Fox kept getting in the way of how the movie was made. From what I can tell I'm not sure the characters were meant to be likeable.

 

[joeranger]

I have the book but am not a fan of graphic novels. A really good book plays like a movie in your head.
I will try reading it again. Cool story.

 

[Solo4114]

The graphic novel is....a thing unto itself.

It's a very very VERY different experience from the film. First, Dave Gibbons' art style is distinct and, in my opinion, beautiful. But there's often A TON going on in each frame, sometimes literally, sometimes symbolically.

It's a very thought-through, meticulous piece of work. Or at least it reads that way. Maybe they just lucked out and stuff all fell into place.

Anyway, it's not just a "trade paperback" collection of comic issues. I mean, it is, but the story is crafted as a dense tale with a beginning, middle, and end. It's well worth it.

I gave it to my cousin who's so-so on comics and he LOVED it. Gave him a copy of Crisis on Infinite Earths and he was far more "meh" about it because it lacked a lot of the deeper thematic issues that Watchmen addresses. That's actually a good sort of dividing line there. If you're a comics fan, you may appreciate Crisis because of what it did in the comics industry. You don't have to be a comics fan to appreciate Watchmen, though, as a story and exploration of aspects of human behavior. It also raises a few interesting ethical questions.


I heard the film was frame-for-frame very very similar to the comic, but changed a few crucial elements (specifically the ending). I gather they kept the thematic punch of the ending in place, but I haven't seen it (missed it in the theaters, and saving it 'til I get a blu-ray player and an HDTV).

 

[Birdie]

The characters really aren't likeable in the book, either, at least not in the 'hey, I'd like to hang out with that guy' sense. The fact that they are mostly either sociopaths or psychologically damaged is kind of the point.

 

[Kommissar]

i like the ending of the movie more than the book.. the lovecraftian ending of the book was disliked by the author as well, and he has said in interview if he could rewrite history, he would have changed the ending to be closer to the movie.

 

[Treadwell]

I read the book after seeing the movie, but I enjoyed it and was amazed more by how close the movie was to it, rather than how different. I agreed with most of the changes/omissions.

The Black Freighter asides did nothing for me. I didn't see how they contributed at all.
I like Dave Gibbons' overall sense of composition and construction, but his draftmanship doesn't work for me. The poses are stiff, the figures lack weight. They look like posed mannequins. His anatomy is lacking, and he doesn't draw females well. Men with boobs.

 

[Clutch]

Black Freighter was a parallel to the main story. Didn't think it was really necessary in the movie though.

 

[Dave Porter]

Read the book.

This.

I read it as it was coming out in the 80's. I have probably been through it 10-20 times since.

I have seen both the regular and the extended BluRay, and the book beats it out every time.

 

[ONEYE]

Didn't care for the comic or the movie.

 

[cayman shen]

I thought the movie was great, but I saw the theatrical. What was added to the director's cut? I saw the animated Tales of the Black Freightor, and it was ok. It worked in the comic, but I can't imagine cutting it into the movie. Did they? Seems like it would ruin it.

I also have long been a fan of the book. I hate to say though, I prefer the ending of the movie.

 

[Clutch]

Yes, they cut it into the movie.

 

[Treadwell]

Depends on the release. There's an extended blu-ray (with a bonus disc) that does not have it cut in, and there's one without a bonus disc that does. I rented the separate release of Black Freighter just to see it, and decided I didn't need to have it. Don't really like "motion comics" anyway.

 

[Clutch]

Don't really like "motion comics" anyway.

That would be called 'animation'.

I got the Ultimate edition:

Disc 1:
Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut Film
Audio Commentary with Zack Snyder and Dave Gibbons

Disc 2:
Over 2 Hours of Special Features
• The Phenomenon: The Comic that Changed Comics
• Real Super Heroes, Real Vigilantes
• Mechanics: Technologies of a Fantastic World
• Watchmen: Video Journals
• My Chemical Romance Desolation Row
• Under The Hood
• Story Within A Story: The Books of Watchmen

Disc 3:
Digital Copy of the Theatrical Version

Disc 4:
Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comics BD-Live

 

[Treadwell]

That would be called 'animation'.

Well, if you want to call cutting the characters out of the comic book art and pasting them back onto modified backgrounds and moving the layers around "animation"...

edit: whoops, BF wasn't one of those, I forgot. It was pretty limited though.

 

[JD]

i like the ending of the movie more than the book.. the lovecraftian ending of the book was disliked by the author as well, and he has said in interview if he could rewrite history, he would have changed the ending to be closer to the movie.

ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE.

The author, Alan Moore, has made it clear he will not see the movie adaptation oh this - or any of his books. He has a great deal of disdain for adapting his work and would probably go on a rampage if he saw these changes.

 

[JD]

I read the Watchmen when it was initially released in issues (and still have them). I was much too young to appreciate the depth in this book, but even as a teenager, I knew this was something special. There are things on there that seem like throwaway pieces of information, but it all makes up this story and makes it more real and more visceral.

The movie couldn't do this book justice there's just too much going on. It's an honest attempt and outside of the ending, somewhat faithful... But a two hour movie barely scratches the surface.

It would have been an amazing miniseries on HBO.

 

[terryr]

The movie had too much 'talking about it' instead of 'showing it'. Never read the original. Rorschach was about the only interesting thing for me. It was like watching retired cops talking about when they were cops.
It was on TV a few nights ago and I switched off half way.

... Don't really like "motion comics" anyway.

I saw a few of those late night. Weird and stupid and unlikable. Moving unmoving cartoons. Like a kid put the comic book on sticks and moved them around. And it seems like all the voices were done by one guy, including the woman.

 

[JoMamma_Smurf]

The directors cut is amazing... I love it sooooo much. It's one of my all time fav movies.