Watchmen (w/Spoilerz) - Page 2

Jimbuna · 03-08-09, 07:57 AM

Is this the sequal to 'Free Willy'

SS107.9MHz · 03-08-09, 07:28 PM

POINT 1. Alan Moore is one of the most acomplished interesting and downwright genial writer's in comics/novels and performance acts. He's also quite a funny and preposterous guy at tat.
POINT 2. It is impossible to realistically adapt ANY of the major comic books Alan Moore ever wrote to film, nless producers are prepare to ingress in a major series of fims/sequels.
POINT 3.Any single film trying this will either fall short of the book it adapts (if it's good, wich hasn't be the case in any of them), or be a total mockery of the core of the written works (which is exactly wha happened with: "From Hell (the 2nd worst adaptation)","V for Vendetta"(a loosely based adaptation on a book of the same name...and also an entertaining, if hollow, film) and the just laughable LOEG movie adaptation, which isn't even worth talking about. And I don't even won't to remember "Swamp Thing" the movie, from the 80' (UGH...)

That said, bare in mind that seeing Watchmen might be the first movie that DOESN't make a complete hash of things, but also won't be anythin like the masterpiece that the graphic novel is...and it really is. It's just a compromise of fanboys and a big studio production cashconverter. Think of a "MAUS" adapted to cinema by Disney or Pixar... you'll get an idea.

Untill HBO ge's the rights to adapt even a single Moore book, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

PS:now reading "Voice in The Fire", it seems pretty good, but not my favourite, at least comparing with "Snakes & Ladders"... And "FROM HELL" is a mandatory piece of work.

Max2147 · 03-08-09, 10:36 PM

I saw the movie despite never having seen a single frame of the graphic novel. I thought it was decent. It certainly wasn't great, but I didn't feel like I wasted my money. I followed it well enough to get what was going on. And yes, Rorschash was a bada**. His "You're all locked in here with me" line in the prison was awesome.

My friend is a huge fan of the graphic novel, and ironically his overall opinion of the movie was similar to mine. He said it was as faithful to the novel as it could have possibly been, to the point that most of the lines were verbatim from the novel. In some ways that might have hurt it as a movie, since some things that work in a graphic novel don't work as well in a live action movie, but I think fans of the novel will be pleased at how faithful it was.

My only real gripe was the hideous sex scene. You know your sex scene is bad when half the audience is cringing and half the audience is laughing out loud at it. The end of the scene was legitimately funny though.

Etienne · 03-08-09, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Max2147

My only real gripe was the hideous sex scene. You know your sex scene is bad when half the audience is cringing and half the audience is laughing out loud at it. The end of the scene was legitimately funny though.

I just saw it tonight, and I have to agree. That sex scene was just so out of the blue.

Also, the length of the thing. GAH! I'm sure there was a good movie somewhere in that miniserie! Seriously, the pace was just so plodding at time, I think it would have been better split into two movies... But then I suppose that would have caused variations from the source material.

It was okay for me, but it didn't make me a fan...

SS107.9MHz · 03-08-09, 11:32 PM

G-ddamit had a huge post to add and my cat just jumped on the keyboard and sent me to my home page! ARGHHHHH!!

Well since _Idon't have the time or willingness to rewrite everything that I had I'lljust post a link for a review I found on one of my favourite music/movie review sites,Tiny Mix Tapes. Just to point out that I believe it's not a bad movie, it's just that it's impossible to acount for all the richness and complexity of the stories when in the movie the premise follows a simple A-to-B storyline. In the novel the maskmen killler plot is just a thread that allows for the character to be developed...for instance Rorschach in the movie,´is lke a antihero badass, kind of like another side of the Comedian... In the novel he's a pathetic shell of a man, who only lives thru the skin of his masked pesona, an allienated man who's only contact with humankind is through breaking and entering in his former colleague, a retired and depressed ex-superhero... Rorschach as resigned of his humanity, hes a bitter and cold man, because he was never loved, living in fantasy since his childhood, in order to escape the gruesomness of his own life... He's the most tragic of the character's, he is no man, just a mask, almost to the end...well and that's just a sample of the lackings of the adaptation...

So, if you liked the movie, buy the book! If you didn't...just another reason to buy it!

SS107.9MHz · 03-08-09, 11:38 PM

Oh, and just to make it clear I found that review, AFTER I made the first post (just found it funny because only now I realised the guy who wrote it made a simlilar comment about how it could've been an HBO mini series eheheh

)

Blacklight · 03-08-09, 11:39 PM

Quote:

It was okay for me, but it didn't make me a fan...

Grab a copy of that graphic novel and you will be. It's well worth the read !

Falkirion · 03-09-09, 06:48 PM

I knew about the graphic novel going in, hell I'd been on my friends back about giving me his copy to read on the train I take to work everyday for the past couple of months. But when I saw it last Thursday I was surprised at how violent and graphically the whole novel was portrayed on screen.

The things I didn't like about Watchmen. The violence, I understand that the novel is violent but violence on paper and violence on screen are totally different. That ate at me the whole film, did it really need to get like that? Although Rosarch in prison was hillarious, so badass it was awesome.

Blue wang galore annoyed me too, seemed like everytime we saw Manhattan he had to have his wang out. I understand why he did, clothing doesnt mean much to a guy who can see in the fourth dimension. Time flows differently and all.

I did enjoy the film, I just didn't think it was worth the 2.5 hours it cost me. Well thats only because I had work the next day and couldn't sleep till 1.

kiwi_2005 · 03-09-09, 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by owner20071963

Here is a Movie that is close to
Shindlers List called
The Reader,
Not for Kids,
But beats Valkyrie hands down,
Check it Out,

The Reader. Yep that one is not for kids!

Seen it but didn't think its close to Schindler's List. She deserved to win the academy for her role in this movie that's for sure, ''just following orders''. Good movie.

You might like "The boy in the stripped pajamas" about a german boy (who's father is commander of the concentration camp) befriends a Jewish boy from the camp. The story is brilliant two boys who don't hold a grudge against each other cause of there race all they wanna do is play. The ending is a shocker.

I aim to see Watchmen sometime this week.

Sailor Steve · 03-10-09, 11:09 AM

Read the comic. Sorry, it wasn't composed as a graphic novel, but as a 12-issue comic back when. Didn't like it then. First, Moore wanted to use the old Charleton characters that DC had recently aquired. DC said no, so he invented his own rip-offs of the same characters and ran with them, and DC published it. I thought it was brilliant, but I didn't really like the story.

On thing Alan Moore doesn't understand at all is Americans. The set-up was preposterous from the start. Even if Manhattan and friends had ended the Vietnam war in a week, there is no way that would lead to the repeal of the 22nd Amendment and the multiple re-electing of the president in power at that time. But the story needed a reason to exist, so it got one.

Cut to the movie. I still didn't like the story, but it was well done. I liked all the actors, especially Carla Gugino who surprised me by playing the 67-year-old mom. I understand that one director who was considered said he'd only do it if he could make a miniseries.

The over-the-top violence didn't bother me, nor did the sex scene or even Manhattan's lack of inhibition. I thought it was kind of disjointed, and a lot of it needed to be either less, or more, depending on what you wanted to take out of it. I loved 'Archie', and the fact that they didn't even try to explain how 'he' worked. Very reminiscent of the Blue Beetle's 'Bug', and taken directly from it.

I liked a lot of little things they did with the movie, but on the whole I thought it was overdone and not worth the money. But then I felt the same way about Sin City and The Spirit. Maybe the Director's or even the Extended cut will be better.

Wolfehunter · 03-10-09, 01:07 PM

I like this movie I give it my two thumbs up

Oberon · 03-11-09, 12:48 PM

Pretty good really, never read the graphic novel, but recognise Moores style, loved the alternate history approach, but then again I'm a sucker for that. The soundtrack was awesome, and the setting pretty spot on, there were times I thought I was watching a film shot in the 80s, although that could have been Dreiburgs glasses

Rorshach kicked ass, particularly in the prison cell, but reminded me a little too much of another character Moore used, the Invisible Man, but nevertheless well played.

As for the blue man wang group, I honestly didn't notice it that much, but that's just his character I guess, like Falkirion said, he doesn't see things the way others do.

All in all, a good film, the sex scene was a bit unecessary, although the flamethrower was humorous (that got those of you who ain't seen the film curious, eh?

), dark, gritty, humourous in places, worth a look even if you've never read the graphic novel.

EDIT: One other thing, in the scene in Archimedes heading for Ozymandias's base, did anyone else expect to see Hueys flying to the soundtrack of Hendrix's cover of 'All along the watchtower'? It's just one of those songs that automatically makes you think of the Vietnam war.

Max2147 · 03-11-09, 01:07 PM

One thing I loved about the movie were all the Dr. Strangelove tidbits in the Nixon scenes.

Oberon · 03-11-09, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Max2147

One thing I loved about the movie were all the Dr. Strangelove tidbits in the Nixon scenes.

I thought that set looked familiar!!

Etienne · 03-11-09, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Max2147

One thing I loved about the movie were all the Dr. Strangelove tidbits in the Nixon scenes.

Gigantic tidbits. They had all the subtlety of a runaway freight train.

03-08-09, 07:57 AM	#16
Jimbuna Chief of the Boat Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: 250 metres below the surface Posts: 190,615 Downloads: 63 Uploads: 13	Is this the sequal to 'Free Willy' __________________ Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something. Oh my God, not again!!

03-08-09, 07:28 PM	#17
SS107.9MHz Lieutenant Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Lat.40º12'82"N, Long.8º85'48"W, Portugal Posts: 256 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	POINT 1. Alan Moore is one of the most acomplished interesting and downwright genial writer's in comics/novels and performance acts. He's also quite a funny and preposterous guy at tat. POINT 2. It is impossible to realistically adapt ANY of the major comic books Alan Moore ever wrote to film, nless producers are prepare to ingress in a major series of fims/sequels. POINT 3.Any single film trying this will either fall short of the book it adapts (if it's good, wich hasn't be the case in any of them), or be a total mockery of the core of the written works (which is exactly wha happened with: "From Hell (the 2nd worst adaptation)","V for Vendetta"(a loosely based adaptation on a book of the same name...and also an entertaining, if hollow, film) and the just laughable LOEG movie adaptation, which isn't even worth talking about. And I don't even won't to remember "Swamp Thing" the movie, from the 80' (UGH...) That said, bare in mind that seeing Watchmen might be the first movie that DOESN't make a complete hash of things, but also won't be anythin like the masterpiece that the graphic novel is...and it really is. It's just a compromise of fanboys and a big studio production cashconverter. Think of a "MAUS" adapted to cinema by Disney or Pixar... you'll get an idea. Untill HBO ge's the rights to adapt even a single Moore book, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed. PS:now reading "Voice in The Fire", it seems pretty good, but not my favourite, at least comparing with "Snakes & Ladders"... And "FROM HELL" is a mandatory piece of work. __________________ Rádio Universidade de Coimbra 107.9 FM, 26 Years Of Free Radio, http://www.ruc.pt/

03-08-09, 11:32 PM	#20
SS107.9MHz Lieutenant Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Lat.40º12'82"N, Long.8º85'48"W, Portugal Posts: 256 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	G-ddamit had a huge post to add and my cat just jumped on the keyboard and sent me to my home page! ARGHHHHH!! Well since _Idon't have the time or willingness to rewrite everything that I had I'lljust post a link for a review I found on one of my favourite music/movie review sites,Tiny Mix Tapes. Just to point out that I believe it's not a bad movie, it's just that it's impossible to acount for all the richness and complexity of the stories when in the movie the premise follows a simple A-to-B storyline. In the novel the maskmen killler plot is just a thread that allows for the character to be developed...for instance Rorschach in the movie,´is lke a antihero badass, kind of like another side of the Comedian... In the novel he's a pathetic shell of a man, who only lives thru the skin of his masked pesona, an allienated man who's only contact with humankind is through breaking and entering in his former colleague, a retired and depressed ex-superhero... Rorschach as resigned of his humanity, hes a bitter and cold man, because he was never loved, living in fantasy since his childhood, in order to escape the gruesomness of his own life... He's the most tragic of the character's, he is no man, just a mask, almost to the end...well and that's just a sample of the lackings of the adaptation... So, if you liked the movie, buy the book! If you didn't...just another reason to buy it! __________________ Rádio Universidade de Coimbra 107.9 FM, 26 Years Of Free Radio, http://www.ruc.pt/

03-08-09, 11:38 PM	#21
SS107.9MHz Lieutenant Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Lat.40º12'82"N, Long.8º85'48"W, Portugal Posts: 256 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	Oh, and just to make it clear I found that review, AFTER I made the first post (just found it funny because only now I realised the guy who wrote it made a simlilar comment about how it could've been an HBO mini series eheheh ) __________________ Rádio Universidade de Coimbra 107.9 FM, 26 Years Of Free Radio, http://www.ruc.pt/

03-10-09, 11:09 AM	#25
Sailor Steve Eternal Patrol Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: High in the mountains of Utah Posts: 50,369 Downloads: 745 Uploads: 249	Read the comic. Sorry, it wasn't composed as a graphic novel, but as a 12-issue comic back when. Didn't like it then. First, Moore wanted to use the old Charleton characters that DC had recently aquired. DC said no, so he invented his own rip-offs of the same characters and ran with them, and DC published it. I thought it was brilliant, but I didn't really like the story. On thing Alan Moore doesn't understand at all is Americans. The set-up was preposterous from the start. Even if Manhattan and friends had ended the Vietnam war in a week, there is no way that would lead to the repeal of the 22nd Amendment and the multiple re-electing of the president in power at that time. But the story needed a reason to exist, so it got one. Cut to the movie. I still didn't like the story, but it was well done. I liked all the actors, especially Carla Gugino who surprised me by playing the 67-year-old mom. I understand that one director who was considered said he'd only do it if he could make a miniseries. The over-the-top violence didn't bother me, nor did the sex scene or even Manhattan's lack of inhibition. I thought it was kind of disjointed, and a lot of it needed to be either less, or more, depending on what you wanted to take out of it. I loved 'Archie', and the fact that they didn't even try to explain how 'he' worked. Very reminiscent of the Blue Beetle's 'Bug', and taken directly from it. I liked a lot of little things they did with the movie, but on the whole I thought it was overdone and not worth the money. But then I felt the same way about Sin City and The Spirit. Maybe the Director's or even the Extended cut will be better. __________________ “Never do anything you can't take back.” —Rocky Russo

03-08-09, 10:36 PM	#18
Max2147 Seasoned Skipper Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 714 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	I saw the movie despite never having seen a single frame of the graphic novel. I thought it was decent. It certainly wasn't great, but I didn't feel like I wasted my money. I followed it well enough to get what was going on. And yes, Rorschash was a bada**. His "You're all locked in here with me" line in the prison was awesome. My friend is a huge fan of the graphic novel, and ironically his overall opinion of the movie was similar to mine. He said it was as faithful to the novel as it could have possibly been, to the point that most of the lines were verbatim from the novel. In some ways that might have hurt it as a movie, since some things that work in a graphic novel don't work as well in a live action movie, but I think fans of the novel will be pleased at how faithful it was. My only real gripe was the hideous sex scene. You know your sex scene is bad when half the audience is cringing and half the audience is laughing out loud at it. The end of the scene was legitimately funny though.

03-09-09, 06:48 PM	#23
Falkirion Ace of the Deep Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Melbourne, AUS Posts: 1,043 Downloads: 34 Uploads: 0	I knew about the graphic novel going in, hell I'd been on my friends back about giving me his copy to read on the train I take to work everyday for the past couple of months. But when I saw it last Thursday I was surprised at how violent and graphically the whole novel was portrayed on screen. The things I didn't like about Watchmen. The violence, I understand that the novel is violent but violence on paper and violence on screen are totally different. That ate at me the whole film, did it really need to get like that? Although Rosarch in prison was hillarious, so badass it was awesome. Blue wang galore annoyed me too, seemed like everytime we saw Manhattan he had to have his wang out. I understand why he did, clothing doesnt mean much to a guy who can see in the fourth dimension. Time flows differently and all. I did enjoy the film, I just didn't think it was worth the 2.5 hours it cost me. Well thats only because I had work the next day and couldn't sleep till 1.

03-10-09, 01:07 PM	#26
Wolfehunter Crusty Capt. Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 2,752 Downloads: 40 Uploads: 25	I like this movie I give it my two thumbs up __________________

03-11-09, 12:48 PM	#27
Oberon Lucky Jack Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 25,976 Downloads: 61 Uploads: 20	Pretty good really, never read the graphic novel, but recognise Moores style, loved the alternate history approach, but then again I'm a sucker for that. The soundtrack was awesome, and the setting pretty spot on, there were times I thought I was watching a film shot in the 80s, although that could have been Dreiburgs glasses Rorshach kicked ass, particularly in the prison cell, but reminded me a little too much of another character Moore used, the Invisible Man, but nevertheless well played. As for the blue man wang group, I honestly didn't notice it that much, but that's just his character I guess, like Falkirion said, he doesn't see things the way others do. All in all, a good film, the sex scene was a bit unecessary, although the flamethrower was humorous (that got those of you who ain't seen the film curious, eh? ), dark, gritty, humourous in places, worth a look even if you've never read the graphic novel. EDIT: One other thing, in the scene in Archimedes heading for Ozymandias's base, did anyone else expect to see Hueys flying to the soundtrack of Hendrix's cover of 'All along the watchtower'? It's just one of those songs that automatically makes you think of the Vietnam war.

03-11-09, 01:07 PM	#28
Max2147 Seasoned Skipper Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 714 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	One thing I loved about the movie were all the Dr. Strangelove tidbits in the Nixon scenes.