The Watchmen - my thoughts

[urgeok2]

Holy crap

this had to be one of the most depressing things i've ever read.
i was interested .. but i cant say i enjoyed it.

how on earth this is going to translate to a movie i have no idea.
from the ads i've seen they are lifting visuals and dialogue directly from the pages of the book ... except the owl which looks 1000 times better in the movie.


i have to admit - i didnt care for the Watchman artwork ...

[Doc Faustus]

It has weaknesses common to 80s comic art.

[Azazel005]

I'd like to get my hands on it and give it a read at some point. The film certainly had some compelling moments.

[missmacabre]

As far as I can gather, the film makes more sense if you have read the comic. Being able to understand the little details and fill in some of the plot makes it just that much better imo. On the other hand I have heard complaints from fans of the comic about the places where you need to fill in the plot.

The comic was definitely depressing, but I enjoyed that. In every other superhero comic that has been translated into a movie has had the good guys win, the bad guys lose. What I love so much about The Watchmen is that you even in the end you don't know who is good, who is bad? Should peace prevail, and what are the sacrifices you need to make, what are the consequences to making that decision. I've read the comic several times and after seeing the movie I am still not sure where I stand.

[Azazel005]

I think the film does a tremondous job with that. The polar concepts of fighting the good fight even if it doesn't real save the world vs making the big sacrifices to do just that are richly painted. It challenges you to disagree with Ozymandias' sacrifices by making it very clear that it has saved the world from nuclear devastation. It challenges you to side with Rorschach despite his obvious mental fragility.


I haven't read the comic and am at a loss as to what was confusing or unclear in the film without having the comic's grounding. Perhaps different elements are more thoroughly explored but the nothing is the film is confusing one might argue some things are vague... at a pinch.

[urgeok2]

for the general public - they find anthing beyond the storyline of Lethal Weapon confusing. doesnt matter how laid out it is for them .. if they have to stop, listen, and understand dialogue that explains thing ...that lasts more than 3 or 4 words ... they get confused.


Dune confused people. in the 1st few seconds of the film, the princess narrates the entire plot and premise .. yet people were still confused.

i agree that the Watchmen should be understandable for anyone with half a brain and an asshole but unfortunately that just descibed the minority of the kinds of people who fill the seats in theatres.

[Zero]

hmm- i'd recommend reading it again later. i've read it a dozen times or more and each time found the story more nuanced and even the art more poignant than before

[missmacabre]

for the general public - they find anthing beyond the storyline of Lethal Weapon confusing. doesnt matter how laid out it is for them .. if they have to stop, listen, and understand dialogue that explains thing ...that lasts more than 3 or 4 words ... they get confused.


Dune confused people. in the 1st few seconds of the film, the princess narrates the entire plot and premise .. yet people were still confused.

i agree that the Watchmen should be understandable for anyone with half a brain and an asshole but unfortunately that just descibed the minority of the kinds of people who fill the seats in theatres.

People were confused by Dune?! Not I can see being slightly confuse while reading Dune (one of my favourite books, but it throws a lot of names and definitions around) but watching it? It's pretty well laid out.

[Azazel005]

I actually picked the comic yesterday night, so I should have the grounding of the comic post movie pretty soon.

[urgeok2]

People were confused by Dune?! Not I can see being slightly confuse while reading Dune (one of my favourite books, but it throws a lot of names and definitions around) but watching it? It's pretty well laid out.


you overestimate the intelligence of the average movie goer.


i think what people who are in love with movies enough to join movie related forums forget is that they arent the norm, they are the exception.

i see it a lot here - because movies are a big part of our lives - we invest time into paying attention to them, sometimes doing a little research.

that isnt the case with 80% (probably more) of the rest of the world that watches movies.

they are generally as dull as a box of hammers - which if you think of it is pretty obvious given the crap that does well in the theatres and as rentals.

to the vast majority - movies are no different than tv shows - or commercials ... something to do - something to move in front of their eyes when they are too bored to find anything else to do.

sad but true.

[Azazel005]

Though I can appreciate that Dune is somewhat harder to understand then The Watchmen. Even at it's most basic the construction of the film is very surreal, Lynch doesn't exactly go out of his way to make the story telling transparent in this film or any of his really.

Still, it's not just the movie going public making the proclaimations, rather people whose very proffessions revolve around watching and analysing film. Perhaps was are just giving to much credit to humakind in general? :p

Anyway I just read the Watchmen novel, it's a clearly a very well crafted piece of work with just some niggling self-indulgence. Moore's near infamous sexism is far more present in the work on issues that didn't come across with the same distaste as in the film.

It's pacing is deliberate and masterfully precise, it never needs to force it's hand or pad the story in anyway. The character's layers are incredibly intricate, the Comedian for me, was again the star of the show.

I actually thought considering it's age the art was spectacular. Yes it typically has some ugly use of color, but the pencils and inks could stand up to nearly any AAA comic title today.

I didn't find it quite as depressing as you Urge, perhaps I am just a darker person by nature, I thought it's uplifting elements matched it's depressing ones elegantly enough that one can embrace it, for good and bad that's what life is all about hey?