Watchmen Film

[Sam.]

Overall, a solid B+. (With extra points because this movie utterly defies becoming a franchise. Too many of those these days. Nice to see a story wrapped up  with a big "The End" when the credits roll.)

Never rule it out, if it makes enough money. After all, they are bringing back I am legend after

Spoiler

the main character got eaten by zombies.

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_{Edit by Andail: Added spoiler tags.}

[Ponch]

Never rule it out, if it makes enough money. After all, they are bringing back I am legend

A sequel to I am Legend? Now that just silly! What sort of nonsense will Hollywood try next? A sequel to Planet of the Apes? What could you possibly do with that? Send another astronaut back? Have some sort of mutants worshiping a bomb or something? Or send the Apes back in time (somehow) to the Planet of the Humans? Madness! Next thing I know, you'll try to convince me Hollywood might be dumb enough to make a live-action version of the Flintstones!

- Ponch

[Revan]

Never rule it out, if it makes enough money. After all, they are bringing back I am legend

A sequel to I am Legend? Now that just silly! What sort of nonsense will Hollywood try next? A sequel to Planet of the Apes? What could you possibly do with that? Send another astronaut back? Have some sort of mutants worshiping a bomb or something? Or send the Apes back in time (somehow) to the Planet of the Humans? Madness! Next thing I know, you'll try to convince me Hollywood might be dumb enough to make a live-action version of the Flintstones!

- Ponch

Yeah right.. who would they get to play Fred? I mean maybe John Goodman at a push, but he'd never agree to that career shattering role... But then who would play Barney?  I guess I havn't seen Rick Moranis play a good old comidic role in a while.. In fact with my casting skills they could pull off the greatist live action flintstones film ever... Lets mix a young Haley Berry in there, why the hell not!!!

lol... 

[Nikolas]

Never rule it out, if it makes enough money. After all, they are bringing back I am legend

A sequel to I am Legend? Now that just silly! What sort of nonsense will Hollywood try next? A sequel to Planet of the Apes? What could you possibly do with that? Send another astronaut back? Have some sort of mutants worshiping a bomb or something? Or send the Apes back in time (somehow) to the Planet of the Humans? Madness! Next thing I know, you'll try to convince me Hollywood might be dumb enough to make a live-action version of the Flintstones!

- Ponch

They're also considering doing a sequel to "The Passion". And "Titanic II". And a prequel to Star wards (<-yes, no tpyo there). Hehe... 

[Darth Mandarb]

But you knew that it was going to be almost 3 hours long, right? And you know that if you have the drink you'll have to go to the bathroom halfway through, so... maybe forgo the drink this time?

No.

I like to have my beverage while watching a movie.  So why would I give up the drink, thus making myself uncomfortable and taking away some of the enjoyment of my experience, just to avoid making myself uncomfortable when I have to use the restroom 90 minutes in?  Nah.  I'd rather have to "hold it" for a bit and sit through another 1/2 hour rather than not have the drink in the first place.  Doesn't change the fact that [I felt] the movie was unnecessarily long.

I don't mind movies that are three hours long (or longer) if the content feels worthy of the length (Lord of the Rings for example).  I felt this movie didn't need all the extra fluff.  This is, of course, subjective.  Some [fan-boys] probably feel this content was worthy of the length of the film.  I do not.

Also sans-penis was the girl in the black outfit and the bob haircut in the opening credits. Movie needed much more of her and her girl-kissing, crime fighting ways. Much, much more.

Couldn't agree more!  She was captivating and didn't have nearly as much time on-screen as the CGNBP (computer generated neon blue penis).  I found her limited screen time extremely intriguing.  I didn't really mind the over-abundance of the CGNBP.  It wasn't blatant or flaunted, just part of the story.  The only thing about it that bugged me was that every scene with it would cause some idiots in the audience to giggle.  It's a fake penis ... is it really that funny?

[Revan]

Haha.. just found this on Youtube...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YDDHHrt6l4w

Dont worry i found out it was fake. but it had me for about 1min.. lol

[Tuomas]

I think the whole concept is silly, and the trailer looks even more cheesy. I just can't see what's so "cool" about men in tight pants flying around. But I guess that's just why Donald Duck got so popular in Finland. All this batman - superman stuff just sounds a bit if not retarded, then immature to me.

[Revan]

I think the whole concept is silly, and the trailer looks even more cheesy. I just can't see what's so "cool" about men in tight pants flying around. But I guess that's just why Donald Duck got so popular in Finland. All this batman - superman stuff just sounds a bit if not retarded, then immature to me.

I don't remember Donald Duck ever wearing tight pants and flying around... in fact now that i think about it, he never put pants on... however when getting out of the shower he'd put a towel on.. what's with that...?

I pity people who think Comics are immature and for kids... You are shutting yourself off from such a fantastic form of media. Also if you took the time out to look at watchmen, you'd realise that the very thing you are talking about is tackled in the film. They discuss how sill it was to dress up and become vigilantes.

You are entitled to your own opinion I agree, but there are ways of expressing opinions without being rude. 

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I found the movie to be quite good, though it made a few strange deviations from the comics that didn't make sense in light of the sheer dedication it seemed to pay to the source material (which I have read).  For instance:

Spoiler

Captain Metropolis is strangely absent from everything but the original flashback photo session of the original Watchmen.  He was the one in the comics responsible for trying to form the 'Crime Busters' iteration of the Watchmen, not Ozymandias.  I can see 'why' they would eliminate him, though he does appear a few times in the comic, but since they bothered to include Hollis Mason (who has just as minor a role) it just seems odd.

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Spoiler

Dan Dreiberg warning Adrian about the 'mask killer' instead of Rorshach.  Why?  The only logical explanation I can give here is because they felt Rorschach was getting too much screen time and had to mix it up a bit.  Unfortunately, this hurt the narrative somewhat because Rorschach's dialog with Adrian reveals more information than the movie version.

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I didn't mind some of the more subtle changes, but these two stood out to me as 'why?' moments in the film.  I also bring these up because I doubt the extended version will alter these unless they have refilmed these scenes entirely.  Overall, though, I was quite pleased with the film and glad that they kept the comic's ending, though I do think their decision to go with an 'R' rating (which I fully support) is at least partly responsible for some of the negative reviews and sales.  Hollywood is really trying to force everyone into the PG-13 mold these days.

[Tuomas]

I think the whole concept is silly, and the trailer looks even more cheesy. I just can't see what's so "cool" about men in tight pants flying around. But I guess that's just why Donald Duck got so popular in Finland. All this batman - superman stuff just sounds a bit if not retarded, then immature to me.

I don't remember Donald Duck ever wearing tight pants and flying around... in fact now that i think about it, he never put pants on... however when getting out of the shower he'd put a towel on.. what's with that...?

My point exactly.

I pity people who think Comics are immature and for kids... You are shutting yourself off from such a fantastic form of media. Also if you took the time out to look at watchmen, you'd realise that the very thing you are talking about is tackled in the film. They discuss how sill it was to dress up and become vigilantes.

You are entitled to your own opinion I agree, but there are ways of expressing opinions without being rude. 

That's not what I mean, I read a lot of comics myself, no superherostuff though, through personal preference.

[Snarky]

I like to have my beverage while watching a movie.  So why would I give up the drink, thus making myself uncomfortable and taking away some of the enjoyment of my experience, just to avoid making myself uncomfortable when I have to use the restroom 90 minutes in?  Nah.  I'd rather have to "hold it" for a bit and sit through another 1/2 hour rather than not have the drink in the first place.  Doesn't change the fact that [I felt] the movie was unnecessarily long.

I don't mind movies that are three hours long (or longer) if the content feels worthy of the length (Lord of the Rings for example).  I felt this movie didn't need all the extra fluff.  This is, of course, subjective.  Some [fan-boys] probably feel this content was worthy of the length of the film.  I do not.

I guess I misunderstood you. I thought you were saying that you were in great discomfort or couldn't stay for the length of the movie, in which case I'd say that's really more of a self-inflicted problem.

Nearly 3 hours is a long time, and if a film is boring it's a REALLY long time. I was going out of my mind watching Pirates of the Caribbean 2, for example. I was pretty bored through the Lord of the Rings movies, and fascinated through this, but tastes differ. It might have been possible to trim it a bit more, but most of the sequences in the film are either essential to the story or just too damn cool in their own right to remove.

I didn't mind some of the more subtle changes, but these two stood out to me as 'why?' moments in the film.  I also bring these up because I doubt the extended version will alter these unless they have refilmed these scenes entirely.  Overall, though, I was quite pleased with the film and glad that they kept the comic's ending, though I do think their decision to go with an 'R' rating (which I fully support) is at least partly responsible for some of the negative reviews and sales.  Hollywood is really trying to force everyone into the PG-13 mold these days.

Hollis is going to have a much bigger role in the director's cut, as they restore one of the most important scenes Snyder had to take out here. As for the change with Dreiberg telling Veidt instead of Rorschach, I think it made a lot of sense. One of the things that made the comic hard to film is that it's so clearly divided into separate chapters, with different points of view. Chapter 1: Rorschach goes around and talks to the surviving Crimebusters. Chapter 2: Flashbacks about The Comedian. Chapter 3: some plot stuff. Chapter 4: Dr Manhattan reminisces. Etc., etc. To make the movie flow, it was important to kind of smooth this out.

I personally think they'd amped up the violence unnecessarily, and that the sex scene didn't really need to be explicit, so I would have been fine with a PG-13 rated version.

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

I agree about the sex scene, though it didn't really bother me.  Aside from the rather fake looking ceiling gore sequence, though  (looked like a lot of raspberry-filled donuts exploded), I didn't think it was that graphic.

[Makeout Patrol]

I think the whole concept is silly, and the trailer looks even more cheesy. I just can't see what's so "cool" about men in tight pants flying around. But I guess that's just why Donald Duck got so popular in Finland. All this batman - superman stuff just sounds a bit if not retarded, then immature to me.

I can understand you saying this! Most of the time, I would agree with you - the superhero genre is usually about as boring and simple as it gets. Watchmen, however, is different - it's a complex and compelling morality play. It's not about flying around and fighting crime, it's about who has the right to do what to whom and for what purpose. It's an exciting action movie, but more than that it's a compelling commentary on morality and superpower politics.


I'd also point out that I was surprised by how graphic the movie was - I was expecting a 14A movie, but Watchmen definitely deserved its 18A. I didn't have a problem with any of it, however. The sexuality was tasteful, and the violence wasn't celebrated, it just made you take the violent story more seriously.

[Darth Mandarb]

I was going out of my mind watching Pirates of the Caribbean 2, for example.

Good lord yes!  I loved the first one ... the second one bored me so bad I damn near walked out of the theater.  It was so bad that I didn't go to the theater to see the 3rd one.  I just drudged through it at home.

It might have been possible to trim it a bit more, but most of the sequences in the film are either essential to the story or just too damn cool in their own right to remove.

This is, I think, where not being familiar with the source material alters my "take" on the film.  I felt that a lot of the sequences were totally unnecessary and could easily have been trimmed out.  With Lord of the Rings (of which I am extremely familiar with the source material) while I could see some scenes that could have been trimmed, I wanted them in the film.  I would wager it's the same situation with Watchmen fans.

[magintz]

I watched men yesterday, literally.... :/ too much blue schlong!!1

The film was really good I enjoyed it. About a year ago I borrowed the comic to read but found it slow, boring and hard to keep interested in it so I never finished it (made it about a quarter of the way in) and found the film did a superb job of translating what I saw into film yet keeping it interesting unlike the slow monotonous tone of the comic.

I was worried because all the hype about the comic, which I didn't enjoy, and all the hype about the film. My initial thoughts were that I was going to be disappointed and / or confused about things that would have been obvious if you had read the comic but otherwise hopeless.

I didn't realise that the film had an 18 age rating at the start but I was glad it did. It meant that the film didn't have to cut or cater to a younger audience which, from the comic, I would have assumed have been difficult and lousy and I believe is where most comic/book->film translations go wrong.

[ManicMatt]

The film intrigued me enough that I bought the Watchmen graphic novel! Well okay my lovely girlfriend of 2 weeks knew I wanted it and bought it for me as a gift! 

[Stupot]

I saw it the other night.
Having not read the graphic novel I wasn't sure what to expect but I thought it wasc fantastic.
The fight scenes are awesome. The story is interesting with a charming twist at the end.

My only gripe is that the story doesn't really seem to focus on anything in particular.  All the various story arcs seem a tad incomplete and unpolished.  This is probably an unavoidable effect of being an adaptation of a much larger work, so I'll forgive it as it is an otherwise astounding peice of cinema.

[DeviantGent]

That, and smegloads of small but quite significant stuff was cut or merged into existing scenes. Wait for the Director's Cut, it will scratch many of those itches.