The official I SAW WATCHMEN! thread

[Dusty]

I don't want it to feel like we're ganging up on you, Maxx, because it should be made clear you are far from the only person who feels the way you do about the movie.

[Machete Holiday]

Yes, absolutely. I was just not adding to the discussion by adding my agreement to Dusty's opinion. My original thoughts were that I was sure that there were things that people were going to disagree with (and I understand why even if they don't' bother me). The overall reception of the preview that I attended were lukewarm. Some clapping and some actual booing.

The clapping / excitement was better at the end of the Episode III showing I went to, whatever that means...

[Spike]

I personally find it laughable that people are complaining about "Too much blue penis."

Also, the change to the Rorschach origin, with him actually killing the man instead of leaving him to burn was a lousy change in my opinion.

I agree on both counts.

[Maxx]

Don't worry about it guys.

I'm cool with being the dissenting opinion.

I always felt it was a good moment between Dr. Manhattan and Rorschach. The scene itself is so symbolic and the fact that despite Moore's intentions, everyone likes Rorscach, the big no was just sort of implied. Everyone was supposed to feel that heart-wrenching sadness when our deeply flawed sociopathic protagonist died for the truth, but Zak Snyder couldn't let this slip past the movie going audience. He had to have another character emote what the audience was supposed to feel, which feels cheap and shabby to me.

It's just sort of my problem with the entire movie. It just...wasn't subtle. It was very faithful to what was in the book, almost painfully so. But it was just...so much more blunt, but I suppose that's the faults of the medium translation (Which leads into my arguement of why it shouldn't have been adapted in the first place, but I'll save it.)

Also, 56 million isn't bad for a March movie. Probably enough for a sequel.

[Akitsu]

Saw it and loved it. Sadly, it had to have some parts a bit altered... but in the end I think it works well as a movie. There's just certain things that work in comics that don't on the big screen.

I think a lot of fans are nitpicking on this one... and while they're entitled to their opinions, they should remember how difficult a project this was... and that there's a hell of a lot more right than wrong.

I mean hell, who'd have believed they'd include full frontal male nudity of a blue kind?

A lot of the changes are logical... especially the ending. I dare say that I liked it better than the space squid.

Veidt actually felt like less of an asshole in the movie. I thought it was really obnoxious how he bragged all throughout the ending of the GN, and it worked a lot better without that aspect IMHO. He's a lot more understandable in this version.

Rorschach's origin change was minor... and after seeing The Hills Have Eyes remake I understand just why it was changed. Burning people alive just doesn't make good cinema in most cases (It tends to evoke sympathy, as it doesn't matter how bad a piece of shit he is... it's not a situation you'd wish on anybody. Not to mention it would take away from the brutality of the deep fryer guy later on)... and it was actually a bit more poetic that he chose to take the guy out the same way as the dogs, and didn't bother to cover his own tracks.

As for audience reception, my friend Lori watched it and hated it. I asked her, "Did you read the book?" She wasn't even aware there was one. More than likely she represents a good deal of the people in most theaters, who despite having decades to actually read the world's most acclaimed graphic novel... didn't get around to it. Then again she has a problem with what she terms "man tv"... aka anything that requires thought or contemplation. The History channel is her arch enemy, so having something on screen that requires accepting an alternate history was pretty much not going to fly in any case.

The music was well done... but a lot of people are complaining they didn't like that version of Hallelujah. Tough tittie. It's the original, which came out in 1985. All the other versions out there are covers. It fits very well with the movie's insistence on using period music for each timeframe, and I thought it was a perfect pick for that particular scene. Bask in it's unaltered glory...

"LOVE IT MEG! LOVE THE GAS!!!"

[^o^CORVUS^o^]

Yeah, just about every blog/forum comment/review about this film tends to fixate on Doc's junk.

Its a penis folks. Deal.

Anywhoozle, went again today and took the wife. She liked it, though she wasn't blown away, which I expected. I am, however glad she liked it.

[sab39]

After thinking about it for a few days now there's only one bit that I think feels really really wrong to me. It seems completely and utterly out of character for Rorshach, when he confronts Jon at the end, to take off his true face and die Kovacs.

Oh, and my dislike for that version of Hallelujah was certainly not intended to imply that my preferred fix would be a different version of Hallelujah

[^o^CORVUS^o^]

About that...I said the following elsewhere:

Yes, because -speaking for the common man- if i couldn't get it up the first time to do Silk Spectre, if I managed it the second time, then that's the music that would have been playing in my head.

[Akitsu]

All other version were made after the movie's fictional 1985. As much as I like other versions, they just wouldn't work in Watchmen.

Damn that's good humpy music. Lol.

As for Rorschach's final removal of the mask... I think it's far more heartbreaking for the audience to actually see the man's face. The mask dehumanizes him... and in his last moments, Rorschach is more human than he's been most of his life.

There's a lot of nuance to that last scene. Night Owl has NEVER seen Rorschach take off the mask... and he looks visibly shaken by the event. The subtle interplay between the actors in the scene just wouldn't work any other way.

I'm not ashamed to say that part had me in tears.

[sab39]

Damn that's good humpy music

Actually that's pretty much what I'm disagreeing with. It wasn't the version that I had a problem with, it was the choice of song in the first place. I'm sure they could have found another song from the right era that got the balance of triumph to bitterness better. To me, Hallelujah is a song of bitterness and heartbreak and the title is entirely ironic. There surely was supposed to be some bitter(sweet)ness there but I didn't get the impression the whole humpy part was supposed to be entirely bitter and worthless.

As for Rorschach's final removal of the mask... I think it's far more heartbreaking for the audience to actually see the man's face. The mask dehumanizes him...

Exactly - having him take the mask of struck me as playing to the audience at the expense of being true to the character.

Night Owl has NEVER seen Rorschach take off the mask

That, on the other hand, hadn't occurred to me, and it's an excellent point. I'm not sure what to think about it but I'll definitely keep that fact in mind next time I see it and decide whether it changes my feeling of removing the mask being wrong.

[Dusty]

I thought the "Hallelujah" bit was hilarious.

[Spike]

The next time I have sex you may well be able to tell by me posting "Hallelujah" references all around.

[Akitsu]

That, on the other hand, hadn't occurred to me, and it's an excellent point. I'm not sure what to think about it but I'll definitely keep that fact in mind next time I see it and decide whether it changes my feeling of removing the mask being wrong.

The comic makes a bigger deal of that fact when Dan and "Miss Jupiter" are talking throughout. The closest thing he's seen is that first scene where he's eating beans in his kitchen.

Perhaps at the end of things, he felt that it would be a shame for the last people to see his real face to be his enemies in jail. Maybe, just maybe, Kovacs felt that Dan deserved to see him just once... even if it was at the end of things. After all, Dan was the only friend that Kovacs had...

[Ayeima]

Yeah, just about every blog/forum comment/review about this film tends to fixate on Doc's junk.

Its a penis folks. Deal.

Anywhoozle, went again today and took the wife. She liked it, though she wasn't blown away, which I expected. I am, however glad she liked it.

yeah alot of people have fixated on "Lower Manhattan" so much there is now a drinking game....I think you can figure out the rules

[Spike]

I'm plotting to see it again. I wish i could tonight.