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Watchmen

Conchaga

Conchaga

Let's fuck some shit up
I just finished the comic.

I'm gonna have to re-read it.

Overall, I think it's quite good. Though, from a story standpoint, it's got A LOT of superfluous nonsense it doesn't need. I seriously just skipped the Veidt interviews at the end. I don't feel like I missed anything. In fact, that whole Black Freighter thing was useless. It became annoying and something of an irritant towards the end. I found myself hating it because it kept getting in the way of the true story, which was incredibly good. Granted, it's artistic value is up there. But, really...? Does it need to have three pages per book dedicated to it? Also, the size of the flashback sequences became mind-numbing.

Don't get me wrong. I understand the need for those types of things. However, I'm quite positive that this book can be translated to film with incredible ease. All they have to do is subtract the 30+ pages of incredibly verbose back-story (Hollis' Under the Hood excerpts, Manhattan's philosophical drivel, and any thing not pertaining to Rorschach), and replace them with about 10 lines of dialogue. Toss the Black Freighter and it's artist/writer side-story completely. Downplay the Minutemen. Finally, reduce the flashbacks to something reasonable. Voila! You've got yourself a movie.

I did like it. But, it really needs some slimming down.

Overall 8/10
 
Honestly, I think the comic was a bit heavy-handed, both with its metaphors and its morality. I liked From Hell better, probably because it wasn't supposed to be a morality play.
 
Conchaga said:
However, I'm quite positive that this book can be translated to film with incredible ease. All they have to do is subtract the 30+ pages of incredibly verbose back-story (Hollis' Under the Hood excerpts, Manhattan's philosophical drivel, and any thing not pertaining to Rorschach), and replace them with about 10 lines of dialogue. Toss the Black Freighter and it's artist/writer side-story completely. Downplay the Minutemen. Finally, reduce the flashbacks to something reasonable. Voila! You've got yourself a movie.
Click to expand...

That's what they did pretty much. But, it came off very silly. And, Manhatten came off as a total dick.
 
Considering that they've been saying Watchmen was impossible to make as a movie for almost 25 years, I'm pretty much deaf to any criticism. I don't think Kubrick himself could make a better Watchmen movie if he rose from the dead tomorrow.

Conchaga, most of that stuff was supplementary material, anyway. I read it maybe the first few times I read the book anyway, except Rorschac’s stuff. The pirate stuff isn’t my favorite either…but it does provide an interesting framing device at times.

All in all, I don’t think I’ve seen a better superhero comic, and I read a LOT of them at one point in time.
 
My roommate, who has almost zero taste in movies, (one of his favorites is Over the Top) told me that this movie is fantastic and I need to go watch it on Imax. This makes me wary.

As for Pickle's comment, no, any director with a big enough budget can make this movie. The only caveat is that the director and the producer have to want to be true to the comic. After that, it's all down hill. You'd just need to find a competent screenwriter. Have him simply cut off what is completely superfluous (see my above post) and shorten some of the dialogue for time. Yet, it seems that their screenwriter didn't follow the second step, because the runtime is over 2.5 hrs.

I'll go up to the theaters this coming Friday and actually shell-out the cash (a complete rarity for me) to see this, then report back.
 
[ame="http://www.trollkingdom.net/forum/showpost.php?p=1645841&postcount=30"]Troll Kingdom - View Single Post - What film did you recently see ? Do not forget to rate it[/ame]
 
Yet, it seems that their screenwriter didn't follow the second step, because the runtime is over 2.5 hrs.
Click to expand...

I'm frankly suprised they cut it down that much. THis could've easily been a 3+ hour movie...
 
Something weird (not in a flattering manner) about Watchmen is that it pitted superheroes in a pseudo-dramatic context and situations that superheroes would not be normally in. It's the movie's main strength, setting it apart from the legions of superhero movies flooding the market, and main weakness, because as creative as it is, it's fucking ridiculous.

I bought the characters in In The Name of the Father, bought them in Requiem for a Dream because their dramatic frame makes sense and perfectly fits in.

But you can't make drama and a story-driven movie out of a bunch of characters wearing spandex, with names like NiteOwl, The Comedian, and Silky Ghost. It's neither believable, nor fun to watch. Even the fights (which, combined, are about five minutes) were boring. "Gritty", but not entertaining to watch.

But all this is offset by the ending, which I totally dug, because it's a typical superhero ending, and the plot device triggering the ending was linked with a character that is supposed to do the thing he did. See, that part worked because it had superheroes do shit that superheroes do.
 
Ok, just watched it.

That was great. long and evolving storyline.
Excellent visuals with sex and violence.
Fights destruction, and philosophical meanderings.

And, yes I'm going to have to watch that damned new Star trek movie now too.
 
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