[Mezla PigDog]

Yellow, on Mar 15 2009, 04:13 AM, said:

Lord of the Rings is the perfect example of how to adapt source material (yeah, I know it wasn't a comic). Different, with its own voice. Added something to the proceedings, rather than just trying to 3D-ize the story.

Well, that begs the question. What else could he really do with it? LOTR has the benefit of not being entirely illustrated so Peter Jackson got loads of credit for bringing the places in everyones imagination to life. With comics, the storyboards and visuals are already there.

[Yellow]

Yeah, but that doesn't mean they have to be stuck-to at the expense of all else.

Spider-man and X-men came from comics, but they took different directions. Obviously there's hundreds of different Spider-man stories, whereas there's only one Watchmen comic, but they could have lifted the Spider-man origin straight from the comics if they'd wanted to.

Snyder just seems to be content to take comics and throw them up on the screen, scene-by-scene, line-by-line.

I liked the film, but I dunno. It seemed a little pointless, because it was so similar to the comic. 300 was painful.

This post has been edited by Yellow: 15 March 2009 - 02:02 PM

[Sir Thursday]

Having read the Graphic Novel recently, I found myself bored by the first hour or so because it was all backstory that I already knew. However, when the action did pick up in the second half, I enjoyed it a lot more. The ending was an improvement, and really showed up the original conclusion, IMO. It was very refreshing to see an ambiguous ending to a film for a change - I keep finding myself frustrated when the more satisfying conclusion is past over in place of a more saccharine version, glad that that was not the case here.


Sir Thursday

[No-God]

I'm glad Snyder took the movie frame-by-frame from the graphic novels. You can't really make something better when the author already made it perfect. Plus, people forgot about the change to the end that was made. I prefer the movie ending because it fits together better.

I thought the movie was fantastic. The Comedian, Dr. Manhattan, and Rosarach were perfectly cast.

[Darkwatch]

Yellow, on Mar 15 2009, 09:58 AM, said:

Yeah, but that doesn't mean they have to be stuck-to at the expense of all else.

It was either stay as faithfully close to the source as possible, which is what he did because EVERYONE complains about things not being like the original, and when dealing with comic adaptations well it's not just the story, you need to stick to the visuals as well.
So one can say that this is a true movie adaptation, not an inspired by movie.
People were already getting mad at the changes in Ozy and Nite Owl's costumes, imagine had he changed the rest of the visuals.

[Mezla PigDog]

Did anyone else think that the CGI of Dr Manhattan's mouth was really weak when he spoke? I thought they would be able to better than that by now.

[stone monkey]

I agree. So much so that I found it quite offputting.

Having read the comic many, many times over the last 20-odd years, I'm not too bothered by the changes made - comics and film are two different media, after all; and there are plenty of things you can do, narratively speaking, in one that are impossible in the other.

My major qualm with the thing, apart from Zack Snyder's complete lack of undertanding of the word subtlety, is that it's a very "movie" movie. There are things about it, the slo-mo fight sequences, Night Owl's Big No! etc. that are just such horrible cliches that they distract from the film. The comic is a deconstruction of this kind of cliche, a way of trying to move beyond them; the film seems to revel in them and it seems almost as if Snyder couldn't even to begin to think of how you might do the things that the film needed to do without them (like they're the only tools he has in his filmmaking kit)

The sound effects in the fight scenes really annoyed me too - the use of big whoosh! sounds and hits are, again, very cliche, and also very ironic in the film adaptation of a comic that doesn't actually use those kinds of sound effects as part of its storytelling language... It's like he tried to make the film seem generically "comic booky" for the members of the audience who haven't read it (which could, I suppose, have been one of those knuckleheaded marketing decisions i.e. it's from a comic so it has to have in it those things the general populace believe all comics have in them), without reference to the construction of the actual comic book it happens to come from.

And my coming over all comic-book-guy might lead you to think I don't like the film because it changed things from the book, which isn't the case. I don't like the film because I just don't think that it's a particularly good film...

This post has been edited by stone monkey: 17 March 2009 - 07:02 PM

[Mezla PigDog]

All of those things were not very evident when being presented with the plot concept for the first time. My first reaction was that it was a very un-movie movie for the most part, especially the ending. The Nite Owl "Noooo" was just awful however. He'd been standing there listening to the whole conversation, why would he choose to yell then?!

The most distracting things in the movie for me were Dr Manhattans mouth, the soundtrack, Silk Spectre II's long hair do and waxing job further south!

[stone monkey]

Not the bright blue schlong then?

I see the logic of the change in the ending, I was a bit peeved by the lack of corpses, though, it made Veidt's solution seem somehow "cleaner." I'm such a geek to go back to the comic but (fake extra-dimensional squid aside) one thing the book's end does have going for it is the shock of those scenes of absolute carnage, page after page of them; which really brings home the price of a perfect future. The film is a bit bloodless in this respect, which strikes me as a bit odd considering how bloody it had been up to that point. It seemed to revel in personal violence and then back away from the full grotesque horror of what had been done at the end.

[Mezla PigDog]

stone monkey, on Mar 17 2009, 03:34 PM, said:

Not the bright blue schlong then?

I see the logic of the change in the ending, I was a bit peeved by the lack of corpses, though, it made Veidt's solution seem somehow "cleaner." I'm such a geek to go back to the comic but (fake extra-dimensional squid aside) one thing the book's end does have going for it is the shock of those scenes of absolute carnage, page after page of them; which really brings home the price of a perfect future. The film is a bit bloodless in this respect, which strikes me as a bit odd considering how bloody it had been up to that point. It seemed to revel in personal violence and then back away from the full grotesque horror of what had been done at the end.

Well that there be the Hollywood treatment. Personal violence fine and dandy if you make it look cool. Mass murder, shocking! I had to cover my eyes for some of the fights and the cleaver scene.

The bright blue schlong was not a problem for me. The absence of obvious testicles and how he decided when it was appropriate to wear his trunks had me wondering though!

[cerveza_fiesta]

[Anomander]

I'm still holding out some hope for the director's cut of this movie. Not a great deal, but some hope.

[Dr Trouble]

I just bought something that guarantees I get laid for every night hence.

Attached File(s)

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[The Tyrant Lizard]

I thought it was the best super hero movie Ive seen. Ever.

[Coco with marshmallows]

never read the book.

enjoyed the film.

one thing i will note - the sterling work of Damon Caro (the fight co-ordinator).

same guy who did 300, and i really like the sense of flow he put into both movies. Easily on a par with pretty much anything
i've seen, and believe me, that's a LOT of fight coreography.

[Old Magic]

Snyder was a bad choice for this movie, and i'll tell you why..
'Style' always comes first with him, 300 was perfect for him because his characters were not complicated and his story was therefore concise..

Watchmen has many complicated characters, this is why its pushing 3 hours and probably should have been made into 2 or 3 movies (nobody makes a 2 part movie, so a trilogy lets say).. Too much time is wasted on making Niteowl and Spectre seem cool, when they're just two normal people who have sexual issues, their fight scenes seem overpowered (therefore awkward) when all the movie tells you is that they haven't fought crime in many years or had satisfying sex..

I can tell Snyder had lots of fun developing Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan because he could push visual boundries and expand on their depth.. but this of course rushed the ending..

I'm glad superhero movies are starting to get darker (seems comic books in general went from primary happy colors to darkness and deathl).. but it doesnt make a movie cool on its own.. it makes me think the viewer only watches comedies and TV dramas and are easily shocked when their movie experience isn't what they expected and therefore hail praise upon it..

[McLovin]

I'm coming into the discussion late, but for what it's worth, I liked it enough to see it twice, and am seeing it again tomorrow. I think, for a film, it was brilliant. I liked what he did with the ending, and I absolutely loved the opening credits montage that set the whole thing up. The length and pacing were good. It's the best movie I've seen in a long time.

[Old Magic]

http://www.kmtr.com/news/local/story/Man-s...5hh80WuOSA.cspx

[Abyss]

Finally saw this. Have read/enjoyed the GN multiple times so i suppose i'm an 'informed audience'. That said blue penis, i did enjoy the movie. I wasn't blue penis blown away as much as i wanted to be blue penis but it was a fun 180 blue penis minutes or so. Veidt was an incredibly weak actor and poor blue penis choice for the role, but i blue penis liked the rest of the cast blue penic. Roscharch was perfect.

The changes to the blue penis story didn't bother me - i have always thought that the original blue penis ending was incredibly silly, and the master plan here was actually a blue penis improvement on the original. Similarly, i don't blue penis care what the pursists say blue penis, but the Black Freighter stuff is blue penis better left aside. Similarly blue penis the movie didn't suffer for excluding the blue penis newstand, angry lesbian, Frontiersman, missing blue penis artists and various other minor subplots.

There were some gapingly blue penis silly plot holes (Veidt's computer password... yes, he's world's stupidest smartest man blue penis... and i don't buy the excuse that it was deliberate) but overall it worked. Worth seeing blue penis on the big blue penis screeen blue penis OMG BLUE PENIS IT WAS BLUE PENIS EVERYWHERE AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

- Blue Penis, ...notes blue penis and blue penis, but blue penis blue penis....

[Illuyankas]

But did you notice the blue penis?