Thoughts on the Watchmen movie.

[ROM Spaceknight]

I will argue to my last breath that the ending of the movie with Doctor Manhattan being made the scapegoat was better than the giant squid monster in the original comic. It just made so much more sense and for a better story.

Agree with this 100%. Sometimes film-makers do improve on the source material.

Another example of this was the 2002 Spider-Man film, directed by Sam Raimi. I thought it was great that they explained Spider-man's "webbing" as being produced by SM himself, organically (like an actual spider produces it's web) instead of artificially, like it was always described in the comics - i.e., Peter Parker/Spider-man made this in a lab?! - somewhat ridiculous explanation....In fact, IIRC they had an interview with someone @ Marvel when the SM film came out, and they said something like "I wish we had thought of that idea" (or something along those lines).

[JBatmanFan05]

Not for nothin, I don't think you can have too much visuals in a movie or a comic for that matter. They're both primarily visual mediums, one of the problems I had with the book is the sub par art. But I think the movie is a great improvement.

I meant CGI, a big criticism I have of movies nowadays. Obviously Watchmen required some. Visually, you're right & Snyder probably had some of his best success with the film being visual.

Way too much action though and ridiculously unreal action to boot, which is totally against Moore's Watchmen. Watchmen is a drama (with some minor action), not an action flick.

[JBatmanFan05]

I will argue to my last breath that the ending of the movie with Doctor Manhattan being made the scapegoat was better than the giant squid monster in the original comic. It just made so much more sense and for a better story.

Nope, I loved Outer Limits "Architects of Fear" aspect/reference, the whole 30s 40s 50s 60s pulp sci-fi touch, of Moore's ending. Just because something is like viewed as more modern doesn't make it better (sure you can absolutely reverse that too, but I know what I prefer here). Black Freighter was pulp pirate, so I saw all the pulp love that Moore liked to show.

[Fairyprincess]

The say watchman was 'unfilmable'. But the movie was as near as damn it.... A very good try.

[dancj]

Way too much action though and ridiculously unreal action to boot, which is totally against Moore's Watchmen. Watchmen is a drama (with some minor action), not an action flick.

I don't remember there being more action in the film - I guess more to the point, the stuff they had to trim to make it fit in a film wasn't the action - so the proportion of action increased.

I agree with you about the action being unrealistic. I loved the movie - especially the extended edition - but I'd prefer the action to be more realistic like the book.

[SmokeMonster]

Oxymandias catching a bullet was realistic?

The realism of the story was in the way it treated the politics surrounding superheroes, not the action or visuals, from what I remember.

[JBatmanFan05]

Oxymandias catching a bullet was realistic?

I didn't say Moore's book was totally realistic, it definitely was not, but that doesn't mean he would have done Snyder's crazy action scenes either, he did not. Snyder's action was crazy unrealistic and of course all this action was added to book scenes were there was either no big fight or much less of a fight.



Ultimately, IMHO Zach Snyder was too Zach Snyder, too Sucker Punch, for Watchmen. He needed to reign himself in some. He was much more perfect for Miller's 300 and Miller's sensibilities. Snyder would have been just as perfect for Sin City too. It's like he is this Frank Miller-ish school of filmmaker.

But to say something nice about Snyder's Watchmen...I appreciate his ambition to try to live up to the book, when perhaps no other filmmaker would have dared went that fanboy fidelity route...I just think he needed a collaborator, co-director or something, to reign him in and lead the film to what could have been an Academy Award-level more drama kind of film (a film the studio seemed unwilling to allow, or they would not have hired Snyder perhaps). The film needed that Spielberg or Darabont or GoT showrunners Benioff & Weiss touch to balance Snyder out. Because I was just taken out of the film in so many ways. Watchmen could have been a true cinematic breakthrough for comic films (an 85-90some%er on Rotten Tomatoes), just as the book was. Greatness was right there for the taking, so close, it kills me.

[ROM Spaceknight]

One of the many things I really enjoyed about Watchmen was that it didn't deviate too much from the comic series - these types of film adaptations that are this faithful to the source material are extremely few and far between in Hollywood.

What's interesting is that a couple of years ago, I was reading on another comic book thread that some fans felt that Watchmen suffered as a film because it remained so close to the source material (comic series) and that it should have deviated more from the comic so that it would have done better with a mainstream film audience.

Wow.....The film-makers of Watchmen tried to make it as close as possible to the comic (except for the ending) and the film still gets slammed. However, if the film had gone too much other way and been too different from the comic, fans would have criticized that as well.

You just can't win...

[batnbreakfast]

I was afraid of Watchmen action in Bat v Superman but Batman doesn't look too bad yet still unreal. I'm happy with the Watchmen adaption as it is. The opening credits with the earlier team is stunning and beautiful. Rohrschach, Doc Manhattan and Night Owl are perfect. There is no perfect movie and Watchmen is a lot better than most in that genre.

[Nick Miller]

I thought the portrayal of the characters was the best part. And the best part of the comic is the portrayal of these characters.

Becoming crime fighters, it will mess up your life, man!!

[CliffHanger2]

I do wish the fight scenes in MOS were as good as Watchmen.

[ed2962]

I thought the portrayal of the characters was the best part. And the best part of the comic is the portrayal of these characters.

Becoming crime fighters, it will mess up your life, man!!

More like only messed up people become crime-fighters...LOL!

[ROM Spaceknight]

Yes, that aspect was what made the comic series & film so unusual/ground-breaking. These "heroes" were extremely flawed in many ways - even evil. Rorschach was a borderline?! psycho-path, The Comedian was a real scum-bag, Dr. Manhattan felt he was "above" humanity, etc.

[inisideguy]

I really really liked it. Although I guess alot of people did not. Never understood exactly why but hey thats what makes us human I guess. I think its a great movie.