I have heard that the original comic/ graphic novel is actually amazing. I think a film is too much. It’s going to suck since it uses the director of 300. Its look will be cheesy (see the 10,000 immortals in the 300, they japanese style masks, but then atrocious plain metal breast armor that doesn’t fit, not to mention the crappy sets around sparta.) Also I am sick of huge budget films, more money should be going to films with soul. 300 sucked, it had no heart, it was like sick propaganda, it has made people worship spartans. Spartans some of the most evil and brutal people ever. Thank goodness they fell soon after the peloponessian war as a result of their own stupidity. They were like the Khmer Rogue of the ancient world.
I’ll tell ya one thing…after seeing the trailer for the first time, I immediately went to buy the graphic novel. I was late in checking it out, I admit, though I had heard and seen bits of it. The trailer intrigued me enough to do that, and I’m glad I did. It was a great read. I even bought a copy for a friend. If Snyder can capture any of the elements of the source material, then kudos to him. And from what I’ve seen in the trailers and some clips, he’s on the right path.
Also, it is to laugh: berating the Spartans for their characteristics during ancient times? Take that, you Spartan devils! Haha!
It might be wise to avoid discussing big, flashy film entertainment on this site in future, as it seems to boil the blood of many here. Alrighty then… I’m off to start a topic that will have people list their favourite sub-titled films.
Finally, we should stop being so afraid of actually be entertained by film or movies (take your pick)…it’s not a sin.
WATCHMEN SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS!
What an intellectual contribution to the conversation…
>>we should stop being so afraid of actually be entertained by film or movies (take your pick)<<
Then give me a film that’s actually entertaining.
Really, I am so sick of being told that the reason I did not like WATCHMEN or TRANSFORMERS or FILL IN THE BLANK was because I’m a snob or whatever. My taste ranges from Wood to Tarkovsky. How about I didn’t like FILL IN THE BLANK because it was a poorly made, crappy movie?
>>WATCHMEN SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKS!<<
I agree.
>>What an intellectual contribution to the conversation…<<
I agree.
But it is on the same intellectual level as the film in question.
This is the thanks I get for resuscitating a dormant thread…
WOW kurt walker is obsessed with talking about watchmen
I adore the graphic novel, it’s one of my favorites. The movie, save the art direction and editing, was less-than-meh. I kind of hated it.
Get defeated in one thread only to run to criticize me in another one? It should be noted I started this thread 6 months ago, right before the movie was coming out. The rest is history.
Latecomer, I know! Suddenly dawned on me that there must be a thread on here about Watchmen. I’ve been a fan of the graphic novel (GN) for nearly 20 yrs & have read it mult times, discussed it quite a bit w/friends & acquaintances.
Ultimately, I thought the movie looked good & had some very well done visual FX & art direction. This was something I suspected when I 1st heard Snyder was directing the movie: it’ll LOOK good but I’m not sure he has the talent to bring out emotion in his actors. Take a look at 300, smarmy feelings but no real substance to them, despite the film looking good.
So, here’s my ultimate prob w/the film: he failed utterly to capture the emotional themes of the book. Long & short, he took a masterful story, one that had characters that we actually cared about, cared about their motives, their relationships with each other & he stripped it down to something that would appeal more to the short-attention span crowd, rather than something that would appeal to fans of the GN. For example; the penultimate moment of the book, when Laurie finds out on Mars who her real father is, has lost all of it’s impact because only half the chapter was filmed. Dr M’s long pontification on the fate of the Earth and the wonders of Mars and Laurie’s counter arguments are stripped down so that the only thing we’re left with is him touching Laurie’s head & feeding her the truth. DID NOT HAPPEN that way in the book, Laurie’s own recollections, what she’d been blocking in her own mind for decades, THEY were what finally gave her the revelation. Snyder takes the easy path by having Dr M do something akin to a Vulcan mindmeld.
Another example is how Rorschach dispatches the child murderer; Snyder reduces it to a scene from a slasher film. In the book, the bastard was made to suffer agonizingly when R sets his home on fire, a longer, slower death. I don’t know what Snyder was thinking, other than “this effect of a split head is gonna look AWESOME on screen!”
In the end, this was a pretty poor rendering, esp from a guy who told us in several interviews that he was going to make a film that would please fans & non-fans alike.
I was surprised by the change in the child-murderer murder scene, too…till I realized Snyder (et al) would probably have gotten sued by the creators of MAD MAX which Moore ripped off in the original comic. Even the dialogue about sawing out of the handcuffs is similar.
Sued by the creators of Mad Max? Eh, I doubt it highly! Snyder (if he’d done things right) was using Moore’s book NOT Mad Max. The producers of Max might have a case against Moore but if they really did, they’d have tried it by now.
Moore stealing an idea from Mad Max is a helluva lot less (lack of a better word…) criminal than changing a huge part of the scene’s context from the orig source. I know I thought of the Max scene immediately when read the scene in the book BUT it made me laugh that Moore had used such an obscure ref at the time. Don’t forget, this book came out about 6 yrs aft Max became a cult item in the US so Moore was prob counting on Max’s obscurity for the scene.
Benham Jones
At this point it is just “whatever.” Who cares if the cow is sacrificed anymore? The film has been made, most of us have been waiting over a decade to see it and its going to be a fun night at the movies even if it blows.