Watchmen

double post.

t, if you boycott it, i will too. i think integrity is the key word here, in all of this. i don’t need this book to go down as being something that hollywood used as a sub-cultured instrument for both zach snyder to gain another blockbuster victory (remember 300? /me rolls eyes) and for scarring the very name of alan moore.

and instead of ‘the end is nigh’ we’ll have: ’let’s all get high’.

i prefer uber banter to negativity, forum noobz, fruitless or explanation-less responses, finger-pointing, cinemal bigots, high horses, soapboxes, what have you. Apparently the first scene of the movie is supposed to the be the comedian’s murder scene; followed by the opening credits with (hopefully not a covered) bob dylan— the book quotes bob dylan, not my chemical romance. i’ll definitely take a little smashing pumpkins, muse was pushing it, and MCR has no business being anywhere near this influential of a story.

im in agreement with you guys too. i dont usually like to moan about something i havent seen yet, its the one thing above all others that have killed sites like the imdb and aintitcool, but at least this feels constructive. one of the things that put me off of ever joining the forums over at criteriondvd.org/com was the fact that those guys seemed to see criterion as the be all and end all of film.

Good point Irvin, WATCHMEN could have been better served as an HBO miniseries. That’s true of a lot of comics, like PREACHER and Y: THE LAST MAN which are both set to be features.
PREACHER by Sam Mendes, last I read.

I really wish Watchmen, above all other comics, was never adapted into another form. We are talking about a comic, the only comic, that is routinely on lists with Faulkner, and Pynchon. It is a masterpiece of superhero comics and I don’t think I can ever watch it. It would be impossible for someone to imbue the movie adaptation with the depth and nuance that the comic has. It is the equivalent of someone adapting Gravity’s Rainbow, it would be that impossible to do justice.

I think with adaptations one has to remove themselves from the original or else they will never enjoy said adaptation. I can’t remove myself from Watchmen because it is one of my favorite comics ever. It makes me sad that some kid out there will watch the movie, and not even know the comic exists.

My 2 cents.

My quick thoughts;

I am split on Snyder…really enjoyed Dawn of the Dead, hated 300.
I think the actors could shine…Jackie Earle Haley, Patrick Wilson, and Billy Crudup are all fine actors.
That being said this is a massive project and I am not sure how it will be treated. Visually it looks great, but if it has anywhere near the depth problems that 300 had it could be a bumpy ride. Given the source material is much richer then 300, but still great source material does not in any way shape or form guarantee a good film (Alan Moore knows this pretty well, if he actually watched the films based on his comics).
I think the hype for this film is going to get out of hand, already my film school peers are dreaming about in day and night. It might be interesting, exciting, it might even skim the depths that Alan Moore achieved…but I can’t imagine it becoming a classic.

sounds like you’re boycotting it with us, adam?

I heard somewhere that the end has been changed, either Rorshach’s death or the mini-Apocalypse. I really hope this was just a terrible rumour, but it was a rumour I heard from Rolling Stone (if I remember correctly)…

I enjoyed the comic/graphic novel well enough, even if I did know almost immediately who it was who was killing off the Watchmen.

A film of this could be good, I like the idea of an HBO miniseries that might preserve the episodic nature of the story.

But directed by that Zack Snyder creature, who gave us that vile war-mongering atrocity 300, the film will suck and suck hard. No intention of giving that Snyder any more of my money or time.

“Visionary Director Zack Snyder” the trailers proclaim. Ha.

http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2008/07/16/patrick-wilson-says-watchmen-ending-remains-the-same/
http://www.slashfilm.com/2008/10/19/watchmen-ending-changed
It seems likely that the ending was at least tweaked from the comic but not enough to change the tone or the essential feel of Moore’s conclusion. In any event, I’m extremely excited about this movie and confident Snyder will be as faithful as possible within the confines of a big studio picture. I think any qualms I had with ‘300’ were inherent in the original source material and I personally much prefer Moore to Miller as a writer.

Man, I thought 300 was pretty entertaining, and I was pleased to see someone composing action sequences that aired on the side of slow-motion rather than incomprehensibly fast nonsense editing and coverage. That said, it only worked BECAUSE the material was as dumb as a box of hair (I was never that gripped by the original comic either).**

I’m re-re-reading WATCHMEN right now, and it is, quite conversely, among the smartest, most densely detailed and thought-out works of narrative I ever expect to encounter. FROM HELL stunned me by pulling off something equally as complex, and MOBY DICK might compete parallelly in the medium of the written novel. These are compendiums of knowledge about each one’s given topics…great stories doubling as theoretical texts (or vice versa) about the intellectual histories of their subjects, and they take their chosen media into account very seriously in order to accomplish that feat.

No other medium than comics seems as suited formally to WATCHMEN’s fundamental concepts. Moore addresses time, relativity and their relation to the historical realities of modern global conflict. Oh, and (Mankind’s need for) God too. The guy has just thought so much more and so much more intelligently about this stuff than anyone else…Even if visionary director Zack Snyder uses the original panels of the comic as his storyboards for shots, I see no evidence from 300 that he’s discovered the Rosetta Stone necessary to alchemically transform the unique quality of comic panels and page layout onto the screen, particularly in the way that those factors inherently balance forward narrative momentum with discreet units of static, graphically gripping spectacle: WATCHMEN is as compulsively readable as it is compulsively reviewable, backwords or forwards, linearly or skipping about willy-nilly via the reader’s own volition. Plop on top of that the comic’s chaptered structure and original serial monthly pacing, and you’d really have to hire an actual visionary director, especially if you want to come in under budget in 2 hours and 30 minutes of screentime.

If you want your Hollywood blockbuster to replicate or even approximate the ideas being addressed in the original, you will need someone smart enough to and willing enough to produce a revolutionary culmination of the moving-image medium. Uh, maybe something interactive? DVD!!! Cable!!! Inter-web!!! I understand that Snyder, exhibiting a cringe-worthy wishy-washy lack of auteurial control is planning on a 155 min. theatrical version, a 198 minute extended cut, and a 220 minute REAL director’s directorial cut (whatever…). But then again, exploiting all-too-willing consumerist DVD-buying slaves with strategically staggered money-making multi-version releases with bonus extra extras isn’t the same as coming up with a unified work of art that happens to be endlessly rich. (Fine, BLADE RUNNER guiltily excepted, since it trickled out over 25 years, and no one ever agreed about what was going on to begin with…)

It’s just asking too much to have this thing get made into a movie-going experience comparable to the comic. A great popcorn movie, hopefully? I’ll totally be there to see.

**Oh, and Tom, I didn’t even think of this till after re-reading your post, but, yes, it will be interesting to see how a war-mongerer-for-hire navigates adapting a text that’s epically inquisitive, thoughtful, and outright critical about the United States’ foreign policy and intervention throughout the second half of the 20th century.

My Chemical Romance is all bad. I don’t understand how the fuck they would end it with the song “incorporated” considering it ends with the Comedian/Sally Jupiter revelation. I hope there isn’t too much slow-motion moment, but the trailer is making it feel that way. I am a little worried about performances, but risking big actors paychecks for a greater adaptation is good news. I don’t care much for this theatrical release, I am more interested in the hyper-extended version that will eventually be released.

SPOILERS***

Don’t fuck wid it.

I am not down with some new sub-plot with Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias creating some super nuclear bomb that locates or is already set-up and destroys a good deal of the major cities across the planet simultaneously. Stupid fucking studio. That IS a studio decision. The alien was brilliant! The nuclear stand-off with Russia is now compromised due to that and now there can be no world peace at the end of the film. How does Ozymandias win?

Despite 300, I think this adaptation of the comic book is going to be amazing. I’m usually one not for comic book hero movies at all. I mean i liked iron man and dark knight, but hardly AMAZING movies. They’re both good. And when I first heard about watchmen and zack snyder, i wanted to kill myself. However, i’ve been keeping up with all the production journals and footage they release, and I can say without a doubt that this movie is going to be amazing. This is going to be the end all be all of comic book movies. Instead of making it flashy bullshit action shots, this movie is going to have an intimate camera and it’s going to dive into the comic book panels and really display the drama which happens in this alternate history, cheesy costumed crusaders story. I’m sure the Dylan cover will be awesome in the movie and i’m sure the no-squid problem will prove to be nothing. Last thing I want to say is that TDK was good, but I definitely want to see more movies based on the actual comic book, rather than a visual allusion-less adaptation. The reason why these movies are awesome is because it’s a way of seeing those iconic images come to life on the bigscreen. I didn’t particularly like Sin City, but I’ve read some of them, and seeing those images on the screen was pretty awesome. So I feel that with a good comic book with awesome imagery, a movie could be the next best step.

I feel so left out. I’m going to buy Watchmen tomorrow. It’s that good?

On Dec. 24th a judged ruled that Fox owns the distribution rights to the graphic novel and Warner held no rights to make a film
adaptation. The same judge set a trial date of Jan. 20. We shall see what this all comes to.

Yes soybean, i’ve only just started to get into american graphic novels, but so far Watchmen is BY FAR the best. I would go as far as saying watchmen is one of the great literary pieces to EVER come out of america.

Watchmen’s not an American graphic novel, it was written by an Englishman (Alan Moore) and drawn and colored by two other Englishmen (Dave Gibbons and John Higgins). The more I see of this movie the more I hope it won’t be released and we can forget all about it, and the altered ending is just another misstep on this adaptation’s road to Hell.

A british author and artist, but it’s published by DC an american company and it’s an alternate history piece in and about the u.s.

I’d like to screw over-I mean, adapt, Gravity’s Rainbow.

For all watchmen fanatics; see the film, but reserve final judgment on the project until the 3 1/2 hour BLURAY comes out later this year.

yeah. I have my ticket for opening night. Too bad my favorite graphic novel is Mother, Come Home.

and The Killing Joke.

I’ve been checking out the reviews over at Rotten Tomatoes and it seems like a split decision over there, about 65% approved of it. Anybody see it yet? Or is there a boycott?

i would be lying if i said i didnt want to see it, even at least just to peak my curiosity. though i dont know about others, but i wont be seeing it simply because i don’t want to dish out the 10 bucks for the ticket…..

I saw it, and quite liked it, and I was ready to find fault with it in acting, directing, or what have you…but it was very good.