Watchmen
POSTED BY: ecgordon
UPDATED: Monday, December 14, 2009 18:36
VIEWED: 13159
PAGE 4 of 7
I'm having a tough time trying to decide whether or not this movie was a masterpiece. It had great visuals, of which director Zack Snyder could be considered a genius, but that's only one aspect.
The script....well, the jury's still out for me again in this area. Why? Because you get top notch performances by Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian. I also liked the actor who played Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson). So I'm not quite sure what to make of it with these solid performances. Is the criticism due to bad acting or bad script? Maybe it's a bit of both.
But what I liked about Watchmen was it's storytelling style and tone; it was almost like a protest from the 60's - loud and charged with energy and ending in violence. The violence reminded me of the ultra-violence in A Clockwork Orange (a Stanley Kubrick film), which was considered for it's time overkill (no pun intended) and was given an X rating for it's trouble, but that, by today's standards, is considered somewhat tame.
Still though "Clockwork" was ahead of it's time in the depiction of artistic violence that drove the story along. But I didn't get that feeling here in Watchmen, it felt at times tacked on to appease the audience who wanted to see superhero action. That goes to story pacing, in '300' Snyder used the action to near perfection but here it made for awkard starts and fits against the overall storyline. But this is a minor quibble.
I actually enjoyed the detective-solving-a- mystery approach that was used. The Blog, if you will, of the main character - Rorschach. It was unlike your typical superhero movie and kept my interest focused on him as he investigated the murder. The use of the soundtrack was almost flawless, as Snyder used 60's and 70's music to underscore and puntuate scene after scene. I especially liked the opening sequence and the scene (Dylan's The Times They are A Changing)where Dr. Manhattan leaves Mars to return to Earth (Hendricks All Along the Watchtower), very interesting choices.
I don't want this to come out like a soundbite but, Watchmen was like a cross between X-Men, The Matrix and The Dark Knight but on steroids. It put forth it's message, sometimes in a heavyhanded way, that humankind is worth saving in spite of itself. I don't believe that this movie will be fully appreciated in it's own time, except of course by the die-hard fans, because of some minor flaws, but make no mistake Watchmen has flashes of brilliance and will be a cult classic for some time to come. Wait, it already is.
SGG
Tawabawho?
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Rorshach my hero. The HOFFA of Superheroes. He was kick ass. Tricky Dick's pinocchio nose in the movie cracked me up. Well it's a pretty good flick.
"Battle of Serenity, Mal. Besides Zoe here, how many-" "I'm talkin at you! How many men in your platoon came out of their alive".
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Tricky Dick's pinocchio nose in the movie cracked me up.
My son (who's 26 and read the novel BTW) didn't like the movie and said that that was one of the worst make-up jobs he's ever seen.
I told him that it was purposefully done that way to make a point. At least that's what I got from it. Tricky Dick was made to look grotesque because of his war mongering.
"Pinocchio nose" that's a good one! 
SGG
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I'll be brief. (Edited: ok, looking back over it, not so brief)
I first read the comic in the 80's so I've literally been waiting 20 years for this to come about.
I thought it was good though probably not perfect. I loved 90% of the casting. The main casting I didn't much like was Ozy. I actually think the actor did a good enough job. It reminded me of a not-as-successful miscast as Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in the x-men movies. If you compare the actor to the character in the comics, a horrible mis-cast. But, the actor got the job done.
There were a few things changed plot-wise from the book which I had no problem with. There are certain things which I just don't see a mass-market audience buying. I really didn't have any trouble with the change to the ending as I think it didn't really change the point of the ending, just the particulars. In some ways, after a bit of thought, I actually like it better than how the book ended it.
My real issue with the movie, and the thing that pulled me out of the experience at times, was the violence. This actually really surprised me, because I always thought of the book as being quite violent for its genre. I would have been horrified if they'd tried to make the movie PG-13. I simply felt that they ratcheted the violence and gore level higher than was needed, as if trying to make the point that "Yes, this is really violent" over and over again.
Without getting into specific scenes, there's just no need to depict bones jutting out of skin and some of the spraying blood and gore. It made me think about the choices made in making the movie, not just the movie.
Of course, the thing about the movie that really scared me is that it seems more people were bothered by the sexual content and Dr. Manhatten's genitalia than by the violence. I weep for a society where people take their pre-teen kids to the movie, despite its R-rating, and complain there's too much sexual content without batting an eye at the violence.
So, in summation, I really liked it, with reservations.
- Leto_V
"Well, my days of not taking you
seriously are certainly coming to
a middle." - Mal
"What the hell is an aluminum falcon?!?" - Palpatine - Robot Chicken
Benford's law of controversy
"Passion is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available."
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I myself read the novel in 1993, and therefore waited 16 years to see this film. I was very let down with the horrible casting of Sally Jupiter at age 67. The actress was foolishly young to be playing her. A far better choice would have been Sharon Gless, the actress who plays Michael Westin's mom on Burn Notice.
The young Sally Jupiter was fine, but everytime the 67 year-old sally opened her mouth I wanted to throw my popcorn at the screen. Just horrible.
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Her makeup wasn't terribly convincing, but I adore Carla Gugino, so I was okay with it.
"I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him."
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Quote:
Originally posted by CellarDoor:Quote:
Originally posted by Muggi:
As someone else noted, the soundtrack was...not very good. Too predictable. Some songs are just played out...Hendrix' "All Along the Watchtower" and "Flight of the Valkyries" have both been used too many times or in such defining films, they've lost their impact.
I know... "Flight of the Valkyries" is fine Wagnerian opera, but I keep hearing "Kill the Wabbit" every time I listen to it... The Bob Dylan songs were cool though. I kinda liked the soundtrack in general (I'm not going to buy it--Mamma Mia would be higher on my list), but I can see how people wouldn't. Heh, I have limited musical taste.
I thought the music was awesome, very retro...
constantly refering back to movies and associations of the 1970s and 1980s...
When I heard Fligth of the Valkyries I was seeing 'Apocalypse Now' (1979) with a similar setting of helicopters attacking...
the burial scene reminded me of the stoner scene in Easy Rider (1969)...
There was a weird retro tone to 'Watchmen' that was beyond awesome IMO.
edited to add: as I read on in this thread I see that Gwek already made the point about Apocalypse Now... (sorry about that).
This was a film that didn't necessarily require that one has read the graphic novel, but it does seem to be better if you are very familiar with popular culture for the last 3 or so decades...!
New Firefly fans should check this out: http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.asp?b=2&t=15816
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Just got back from seeing it.
Wow.
Not as in " wow " what an awesome movie, yay! But it was a good movie, imo. Just not a yippie, rah rah type of story goin' on here. Lots of deep, darkness.
You see, I've no knowledge of the Watchman story before going into the movie, so this was my initial exposure.
Sorta spoilery stuff
Select to view spoiler:
From the start, I had a bit of trouble trying to suss out the plot line, from the REAL events w/ the alternate world which was set up in the story. There was some predictable political biases I noted, but it wasn't overly dripping with such, as I had feared it might.
I see where The Incredible's got it's concept. Former super heroes forced to retire because the Gov't couldn't stand the competition.
Anyway, as one not sure what to expect, I kinda liked this movie. It was about as gory as I was lead to believe, and a bit more sexual too. I had heard of a violent rape scene, which turned out not to be, thankfully. But I was caught off guard w/ the steamy scene later on. Soft core porn, essentially. Anyone who sends a kid under 15 to see this flick is nuts, imo.
Overall, I didn't think the movie was too long, too slow (save for a brief part here or there ). In some respects, this movie was strikingly honest, which is a switch for how most "comic book movies " tend to be.
Might be the mood I'm in or something, but I'd give it a solid B.
It is not those who use the term "Islamo-Fascism" who are sullying the name of Islam; it is the Islamo-Fascists. - Dennis Prager
A concern of the GOP is that the people aren't informed enough to understand their policies, while a fear of the Dems is that the people ARE.
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I finally got a chance to see the movie today, and honestly I just adored it. It was certainly true to the novel, though a few things were necessarily cut. A few other things were condensed, and in the course of that there were several moments that were not in the original work, though most of them were great moments. I particularly liked "It's your turn now, doctor. Tell me what you see." I thought that was brilliant.
spoiler for book and movie alike
Select to view spoiler:
The ending, I almost liked better. The whole concept of alien invasion uniting the world is perfectly sound, and it worked well, but the "psychic explosion" angle of the graphic novel seemed a little odd to me. Jon has this great power which, when duplicated, would certainly cause a blast of epic proportions, whereas a human psychic's brain might prove less dramatic. Also, targeting cities worldwide seemed a much more effective tactic than focusing only on New York. I had been worried, when I heard the ending was changed, but I was pleasantly surprised by how they pulled it off.
Certain things were hard to watch. There was a lot of blood, a lot of violence. A lot of the violence came directly from the book, but it's... more visceral when it's on screen. The attempted rape, the inmate getting sawed, and Rorschach's first kill made me wince the most, they were very graphic. The sex was also fairly graphic, but I didn't find that hard to watch
As an aside, the first showing I tried to go to they had some technical difficulties with the sound, which actually proved to be a blessing, as I noticed the already-fussy toddler near the front of the theater before the movie started, and was able to leave and exchange for a later show on a different screen, which had no such abysmal parenting taking place.
I only have one problem with the movie, really. It's a small thing, but I really loved the linked events of Jon becoming Dr. Manhattan. He knows how to repair watches, though he's pushed onto another path, Janey's watch gets broken, he tells her he can fix it, and the ultimately repaired watch is in his lab coat, which he left in the chamber, and in going to retrieve it he becomes a being who transcends time. It's a really brilliant and beautiful chain, and I was disappointed to not see it in the film. There were some other things I felt the lack of, but none as acutely as that detail. I'm sure not everyone focuses on the same things I do, so I might be alone in this particular sentiment, but that was the only thing I really wished were different. A small thing, and not really a flaw in the movie itself. If I only have one major pang like that when watching a book set to film, it's a rare and precious adaptation.
I'll just mention one last thing, because the soundtrack has been brought up a few times. I really liked it. I thought it fit well, for the most part. I'll also point out that 'Ride of the Valkyries' is mentioned by name in the text of the book, so it's an homage to Apocalypse Now, but might also be a reference to that mention. There were also certain songs whose lyrics were quoted at the end of the chapters, and I think it would have been pretty shiny if more of those could have been included in the soundtrack, but that would have just been some icing on the cake.
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Yeah, I caught a glimpse of a couple of young kids in the theatre where I saw it. Who brings a young child (6 or 7 y.o.) to an R-rated movie?
I also was subjected to a young child crying and fussing a few rows in front of me at the beginning of the movie (perhaps he fell asleep after a few minutes). I do not understand bringing a kid younger 14 y.o. to a movie like this, especially becuase it was R-rated.
I think the drop off at the box office was due to word of mouth that this wasn't "Spiderman" or "X-Men" type of movie - both those were PG-13 I think. When I went to see "300" I did not see as many kids in the theatre as I did for Watchmen.
What are parents thinking about?
SGG
Tawabawho?
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