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Topic: Watchmen (2009)

Chad Souder
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 962
From: Waterloo, IA, USA
Registered: Feb 2000

posted 03-30-2009 09:39 AM

Finally finished reading the comic and decided I like the ending in the movie better because:

{SPOILERS}

1. Night Owl was kind of a wuss in the comic. He quits after a shot to the nose whereas in the movie he keeps coming

2. I like the threat of Dr. Manhattan better than one of an alien. It seems more permanent. An alien attack will fade over time unless you stage another alien attack every decade or two. That is unlikely. Manhattan can pop up anytime he likes, remind people he is capable of destroying everything, then leave again, refreshing the fear.

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David Stambaugh
Film God

Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002

posted 09-25-2009 10:46 PM

I should start a thread in Afterlife, but I'm not going to bother.

Someone has been bugging me to see Watchmen. So I tried to watch it on Blu-ray tonight. I got a little over an hour into it, quite an accomplishment considering it was simultaneously giving me a splitting headache and making me angry to the point of wanting to smash the TV.

I knew nothing about Watchmen going in, and an hour into this movie I still know next to nothing. The story as presented to that point is basically incomprehensible.

After shutting it off I skimmed through most of the reviews here. Looks like I'm not the only one who just doesn't get this. I also read the story synopsis on Wikipedia. No shit, that's what's going on? Why the hell is that narrative 98% missing from this movie?

I generously gave it an hour. In return it gave me a headache. Clearly the makers put a lot of effort into this. Sorry to belatedly inform them of their epic fail.

Did I mention that too much of the dialog is muffled and difficult to understand?

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System Notices
Forum Watchdog / Soup Nazi

Posts: 215

Registered: Apr 2004

posted 12-23-2010 03:51 PM

It has been 453 days since the last post.

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Christian Appelt
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 505
From: Frankfurt, Germany
Registered: Dec 2001

posted 12-23-2010 03:51 PM

I missed the movie because it was gone pretty fast from theatres here, so I watched the DVD yesterday.

Still not sure what to make of it, this is certainly a strange piece of moviemaking. Great start with the title sequence, and I found the first half hour promising.

Cinematography and set design was excellent, I've no idea how much of this came from the comic book because I didn't care to read it.

I felt disappointed when the film went away from Rorschach's SIN CITY-like world and moved towards the Dr. Manhattan character. Not that it was not done well, but omnipotent characters are seldom interesting (except "Q" from STAR TREK: TNG maybe). Just couldn't care for the blue guy and his girl. In my teens I liked classic Marvel comics, except for the Silver Surfer after whom Dr. Manhattan seems to be modeled. The Surfer was great in Fantastic Four #48-50 (March–May 1966), but later I found his endless philosophic monologues really boring. Marlin Akerman may look pretty as Silk Spectre II, but she cannot bring more to the scenes with Dr. Manhattan than the script provides. Pity they didn't cast Milla Jovovich or someone else more charismatic.

The movie picks up some speed during the jail break sequence, but the last act is so lame, wanting to be SO BIG AND IMPRESSIVE that I felt like turning the DVD off.

Whether it was faithful to the graphic novel or not, I don't consider this to be a good movie. From the Mars sequence on, I felt it was going the way of LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN with a bit of 1998 AVENGERS - just blah.

However, if you look at single scenes, Zack Snyder did a good job, there is no shakycam, almost classic framing and editing, which I found quite unusual for a film of that type.

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