Who Watches The WATCHMEN...?

Post by **parka** » March 11th, 2009, 1:14 pm

I don't think I'll watch Watchmen.

My short attention span makes watching movies more than 2 hours very very challenging for me.

Maybe I will just grab the DVD when it's out.

Post by **Randall** » March 11th, 2009, 10:39 pm

Ben wrote: For all the exetensial (existential?) mutterings, I thought it was amazingly shallow.

And that's probably where it failed to stand up on its own. Readers of the comic can "fill in the blanks" without even meaning to. As someone who's read it a few times, I enjoyed seeing so much of it come alive, but it was next to impossible to separate my knowledge of the comic from my examination of the film.

Post by **Vernadyn** » March 12th, 2009, 2:00 am

Agreed with Randall here. I enjoyed the film well enough, but I kept wondering if those who hadn't read the book would find it jumpy. In fact, I was fairly impressed when one of the people I saw it with who hadn't read the comic remembered that the thin, smart guy's name was Ozymandias.

I'm not what one would call an expert on comics, yet I think the Watchmen book came out in 1986, before the "dark superhero" thing was really done to a large extent. Then again, the dark, mysterious, Byronic hero has long been an archetype in stories.

Post by **Ben** » March 12th, 2009, 10:08 am

Yes, I also tried to take that on board, that this was basically written back when the comic was set, so that other things came afterwards.

For instance, Dr Manhattan's big blue ball of fury could have looked like it was ripping off the similar sphere of power in a cityscape visual that we just got in The Day The Earth Stood Still remake, but I kept reminding myself that it was THIS that came before that.

I didn't find it jumpy at all. I actually thought it was a well crafted film on many levels. I almost thought at one point it could be the kind of commercial thing that might wind up in the Best Picture race. I got all the story points, followed it all extremely well and thought Nite Owl was the best character on all levels (arc, casting, performance, etc).

However, as a final whole, I wasn't ever convinced by Manhattan's animation, especially the rubber jaw closeups, and as I say, for all the depth, there wasn't actually anything there. HAD those "blanks" been filled in, or indeed left for the audience to ask their own questions, it might have been more successful as a film event, but as such, in all its trying to explain all, it did so to its detriment, basically exposing that there was very little to actually try and explain.

I did find many things to like, and it's not like the disappointment to me that The Dark Knight was, but it is hindered by coming out as a movie after such similar projects. We all know it was written well before, but it is unfortunate in feeling a bit "seen that" in coming out after other things that have obviously drawn inspiration from it.

Post by **Dacey** » March 12th, 2009, 10:51 am

For instance, Dr Manhattan's big blue ball of fury could have looked like it was ripping off the similar sphere of power in a cityscape visual that we just got in The Day The Earth Stood Still remake, but I kept reminding myself that it was THIS that came before that.

Actually, that part technically wasn't in the book.

Post by **Vernadyn** » March 12th, 2009, 2:55 pm

Maybe I thought it could be jumpy to some because the pacing was much faster than in the comic and some events were compressed (by necessity.) Or maybe because some characters were reduced to bit parts (like Hollis Mason/Nite Owl 1, Malcolm Long, Bernie and Bernard). I do think these cuts were needed to make the film more coherent.

I also didn't find Doc Manhattan's nudity too distracting, though....

Post by **Dacey** » March 12th, 2009, 5:46 pm

This is freaking hilarious:

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

Post by **Ben** » March 12th, 2009, 10:31 pm

That's funny about the big blue ball of fury. So it was a rip-off of The Day The Earth Stood Still!

And it's easy for me to say this now...but this is true: watching that big blue ball of fury in the movie, the thought that absolutely genuinely went through my mind was: "I wonder how that looks in the comic / I wonder if they used a ball at all / No, they can't have done, wouldn't look good / I wonder what they did use / I'll have to check it out to see if it was a ball or something else..."

Honestly, that was going through my mind, so it's interesting that it wasn't a ball. I'd have liked to have see a giant squid, actually. It wouldn't have looked so cliched at least.

But I worry about poor Zack...a horror remake, two graphic novel translations... Think the guy has any originality in him? I'd be very interested to see a project from him that hasn't been through other hands first...

Post by **Dacey** » March 14th, 2009, 5:55 pm

Ouch:

http://boxofficemojo.com/daily/chart/

Post by **Ben** » March 14th, 2009, 6:44 pm

Speculators said this would probably happen, but ouch indeed.

Although it's up on a per screen average, it seems the weekend is Witch Mountain's, but dropping to from one to three is a bit harsh for Nite Owl and co, which also seems to be struggling worldwide.

Obviously Watchmen's length is going against it...canny theaters will get two showings of Mountain out of the same time frames, and the ratings naturally mean more bums on seats for the Disney picture.

I'd like to have seen Watchmen do at least 300 numbers...it's a much better film than that and, like Speed Racer, doesn't deserve to crash and burn.

Nice to see, however, Coraline still pulling in over half a million per day, and looking close to reaching $70 domestic...very decent for the type of film and release date.

Post by **eddievalient** » March 14th, 2009, 8:11 pm

What has me worried is the fact that David Hayter said if Watchmen fails, the studios will never allow a film like it to be made again. He should know, right? I'm a huge fan of the comic book/superhero movie genre (I'm planning to write a book about it, in fact) and now I'm terrified that it's all going to end badly, either with films in the pipeline being cancelled outright or with the ones that do make it being severely dumbed down to appeal to the lowest common denominator (you know the type, those morons who think Epic Movie is the height of comedy). I've got a very bad feeling about this.

Post by **Ben** » March 14th, 2009, 8:24 pm

And it may be so...until Nolan/Bale's third Bat-pic changes their minds again.

Post by **Dacey** » March 15th, 2009, 11:04 am

Nice to see, however, Coraline still pulling in over half a million per day, and looking close to reaching $70 domestic...very decent for the type of film and release date.

*raises hand* I've helped there! *has seen "Coraline" three times in theaters*

But yeah, the running time is definately working against "Watchmen" right now. I almost a second time the other day but decided not to do so because it didn't really work with my schedule.

And one of the ushers at my local theater is claiming that people are actually walking out of "Watchmen" and demanding their money back. They're apparently accusing the film of being, among other things, "raunchy."

But I don't think that the superhero genre is going to suffer at all because of this. And not just because of Batman; "Iron Man 2" is on the way, and the first one was extremely well-reviewed.

Post by **eddievalient** » March 15th, 2009, 11:45 am

Well, I'm not worried as much about Marvel now that they're doing the movies themselves. I know they won't give up. My concern is that we won't be getting much of anything else. This is especially troublesome because after four years of being on again/off again, they're finally prepping Sin City 2 to film sometime this spring. If that gets cancelled I'm gonna scream. Also, I heard that WB was working on a Jonah Hex movie, which would be interesting to see if it actually gets made, but it may be on the chopping block too now. It's a scary time to be a fan.

Post by **Ben** » March 15th, 2009, 5:20 pm

Well Sin City 2 is safe. For one thing that's not a WB movie, for another if it was going to be threatened by anything it would have been Miller's Spirit movie, and lastly they're going for the built-in audience that made the first one a hit.