Guest Caustic Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 looks like the opening weekend box office is already underwhelming, for the studio at least. i'd say this will end up being a niche film like it always should have been. basically the public who hasn't read this book could care less, stuff doesn't blow up real good like in the Batman movies, and it's rated R, so most intelligent parents won't bring the younguns to see giant blue dick and ass grinding. Cool. If it's a box office flop, then all the elitist twats on the internet can allow themselves to like it. I doubt that. If anything, they'd hate it more. ZACH SNYDER SUXX, WATCHMEN=RUINED FOREVAR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solo Strike Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 I saw it last night too. Loved most of it, with a few minor quibbles. It felt a bit rushed in the second third, and some bits were a little off, but they pretty much nailed it. Dr Manhattan was superb, just how I imagined him from the comic. I'm not sure why people would find him being naked all the way through the film such a distraction? Obviously you don't come into nude blue demi-gods in real life very often, but come on, get over it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
autopilot Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 I pissed off a dude last night because I said I'm a better judge of the quality of the film than Alan Moore because I've seen it and he hasn't. I could feel the rage coming through my computer monitor. It was beautiful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Caustic Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 I bet Moore has seen it, surely. If only to see how they've "raped his vision" or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Stoppit Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 I'm going to see it tonight. I know nothing about Watchmen, but it better be as good as it is long... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Glass Plate Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 Yegg and I are waiting for the chance to see in Imax I think. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earth Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 Saw it yesterday -- thought it was mediocre at best. Could have easily shaved an hour off of the movie and it would have been better. Music was really tacked on, a lot of the dialogue was fucking horrible. Rorschach was the only one worth a damn in the movie.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Benedict Cumberbatch Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 Yegg and I are waiting for the chance to see in Imax I think. are there actually any scenes filmed in imax? i saw it downtown last night and either they integrated really well or there were none. we arrived about an hour before it started and we found semi decent seats. when i went out to et snacks people were already queuing for the 10pm show. so 4 hours early? one guy had a kimble. thats what kinda dicks see this film Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest beatfanatic Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 whats a kimble Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beneboi Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 kindle maybe? the book thing? i kind of want one if those Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest hahathhat Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 whats a kimble I'M DETECTIVE JOHN KIMBLE! I'M A COP YOU IDIOT!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Key Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 looks like the opening weekend box office is already underwhelming, for the studio at least. i'd say this will end up being a niche film like it always should have been. basically the public who hasn't read this book could care less, stuff doesn't blow up real good like in the Batman movies, and it's rated R, so most intelligent parents won't bring the younguns to see giant blue dick and ass grinding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
onecaseman Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 Saw it yesterday -- thought it was mediocre at best. Could have easily shaved an hour off of the movie and it would have been better. Music was really tacked on, a lot of the dialogue was fucking horrible. Rorschach was the only one worth a damn in the movie.. Agreed. The movie was totally weak besides Rorschach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atop Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 nice.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Betty Posted March 7, 2009 Share Posted March 7, 2009 I bet Moore has seen it, surely. If only to see how they've "raped his vision" or something. He didn't see From Hell, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or V for Vendetta, he just read the scripts and was disgusted. I think he may have even stopped reading the scripts at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atop Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 I really enjoyed this review, as I have enjoyed many of his before this one.... » Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... « Watchmen / / / March 4, 2009 by Roger Ebert After the revelation of “The Dark Knight,” here is “Watchmen,” another bold exercise in the liberation of the superhero movie. It’s a compelling visceral film — sound, images and characters combined into a decidedly odd visual experience that evokes the feel of a graphic novel. It seems charged from within by its power as a fable; we sense it’s not interested in a plot so much as with the dilemma of functioning in a world losing hope. That world is America in 1985, with Richard Nixon in the White House and many other strange details, although this America occupies a parallel universe in which superheroes and masked warriors operate. The film confronts a paradox that was always there in comic books: The heroes are only human. They can be in only one place at a time (with a possible exception to be noted later). Although a superhero is able to handle one dangerous situation, the world has countless dangerous situations, and the super resources are stretched too thin. Faced with law enforcement anarchy, Nixon has outlawed superhero activity, quite possibly a reasonable action. Now the murder of the enigmatic vigilante the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) has brought the Watchmen together again. Who might be the next to die? Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), the only one with superpowers in the literal sense, lives outside ordinary time and space, the forces of the universe seeming to coil beneath his skin. Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) is the world’s smartest man. The Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson) is a man isolated from life by his mastery of technology. Rorshach (Jackie Earl Haley) is a man who finds meaning in patterns that may only exist in his mind. And Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman) lives with one of the most familiar human challenges, living up to her parents, in this case the original Silk Spectre (Carla Gugino). Dr. Manhattan is both her lover and a distant father figure living in a world of his own. These characters are garbed in traditional comic book wardrobes — capes, boots, gloves, belts, masks, props, anything to make them one of a kind. Rorshach’s cloth mask, with its endlessly shifting inkblots, is one of the most intriguing superhero masks ever, always in constant motion, like a mood ring of the id. Dr. Manhattan is contained in a towering, muscular, naked blue body; he was affected by one of those obligatory secret experiments gone wild. Never mind the details; what matters is that he possibly exists at a quantum level, at which particles seem exempt from the usual limitations of space and time. If it seems unlikely that quantum materials could assemble into a tangible physical body, not to worry. Everything is made of quantum particles, after all. There’s a lot we don’t know about them, including how they constitute Dr. Manhattan, so the movie is vague about his precise reality. I was going to say Silk Spectre II has no complaints, but actually she does. The mystery of the Comedian’s death seems associated with a plot to destroy the world. The first step in the plot may be to annihilate the Watchmen, who are All That Stand Between, etc. It is hard to see how anyone would benefit from the utter destruction of the planet, but remember that in 1985 there was a nuclear standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union that threatened exactly that. Remember “Better Dead Than Red”? There were indeed cold warriors who preferred to be dead rather than red, reminding me of David Merrick’s statement, “It’s not enough for me to win. My enemies must lose.” In a cosmic sense it doesn’t really matter who pushed the Comedian through the window. In a cosmic sense, nothing really matters, but best not meditate on that too much. The Watchmen and their special gifts are all the better able to see how powerless they really are, and although all but Dr. Manhattan are human and back the home team, their powers are not limitless. Dr. Manhattan, existing outside time and space, is understandably remote from the fate of our tiny planet, although perhaps he still harbors some old emotions. Those kinds of quandaries engage all the Watchmen, and are presented in a film experience of often fearsome beauty. It might seem improbable to take seriously a naked blue man, complete with discreet genitalia, but Billy Crudup brings a solemn detachment to Dr. Manhattan that is curiously affecting. Does he remember how it felt to be human? No, but hum a few bars. ... Crudup does the voice and the body language, which is transformed by software into a figure of considerable presence. “Watchmen” focuses on the contradiction shared by most superheroes: They cannot live ordinary lives but are fated to help mankind. That they do this with trademarked names and appliances goes back to their origins in Greece, where Zeus had his thunderbolts, Hades his three-headed dog, and Hermes his winged feet. Could Zeus run fast? Did Hermes have a dog? No. That level of symbolism is coiling away beneath all superheroes. What appeals with Batman is his humanity; despite his skills, he is not supernormal. “Watchmen” brings surprising conviction to these characters as flawed and minor gods, with Dr. Manhattan possessing access to godhead on a plane that detaches him from our daily concerns — indeed, from days themselves. In the film’s most spectacular scene, he is exiled to Mars, and in utter isolation reimagines himself as a human, and conjures (or discovers? I’m not sure) an incredible city seemingly made of crystal and mathematical concepts. This is his equivalent to 40 days in the desert, and he returns as a savior. The film is rich enough to be seen more than once. I plan to see it again, this time on IMAX, and will have more to say about it. I’m not sure I understood all the nuances and implications, but I am sure I had a powerful experience. It’s not as entertaining as “The Dark Knight,” but like the “Matrix” films, LOTR and “The Dark Knight,” it’s going to inspire fevered analysis. I don’t want to see it twice for that reason, however, but mostly just to have the experience again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Caustic Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 I bet Moore has seen it, surely. If only to see how they've "raped his vision" or something. He didn't see From Hell, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or V for Vendetta, he just read the scripts and was disgusted. I think he may have even stopped reading the scripts at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Betty Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 Apparently this is a real promotional item for the film: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awepittance Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 just saw it last night. ill start with the negatives and end with what i liked/love about it some spoilers the bad: the directing/acting i felt like a lot of the dialogue scenes were shot in only one take or they chose takes that felt out of place. Some of the most emotional and weighty lines from the book itself when spoken aloud sounded very cheesy and kind of wrong (even compared to the motion comic) such as the Rorshach journal joke part where he talks after leaving Comedians grave about the Great Clown Pagliacci. small elements were removed that made the movie seem more serious than it should have such as Laurie and Dan walking by the night owl robot suit and commenting on how 'a suit like that could really mess you up' missed the Veidt biodome and his flashbacks from the book as well a good percentage of the CGI (mars, antarctica, the giant glass clock, almost all the blood) looked VERY unfinished, sometimes shockingly so, also lots of very noticeable movie goofs can be seen such as in the last scene you can see Bil Crudup's LED mocap suit obviously reflecting on night owls goggles in over 3 different shots. The unfinished look to the CGI in some of the scenery i mentioned above i didnt mind so much it was the blood that actually had a negative impact, for me it took away from some of the gore. Like when Dan breaks the guys arm, seeing shiny cgi blood bubbles coming out made it look cartoonish instead of really painful too much slow motion, sometimes it was so overdone i got very distracted like when the guy drops the box in the elevator. They could have taken out about 60% of the slow motion and used the leftover time to fill in some more humorous dialogue from the book (again i feel like by including such a huge percentage of the story and plot they missed a lot of what made the comic funny and it fees too serious as a result). A lot of the time the slomo worked surprisingly well like the opening sequence with the Comedian. the score (not the soundtrack) was too typical of modern action movies. I read in reviews that it was intentionally 80s and meant to sound like Vangelis or blade runner. This got me very excited for the score and i was pretty disappointed by it. It sounded almost anachronistic to me for being in a 1985 movie because of how much it resembled a metal plodding symphonic electronic Michael Bay movie score from 2002-2006 . If there were hints of retro or Vangelis in there they totally went over my head the good: thought a lot about how it feel to watch if you haven't read the book and i think as a film by itself it's extremely ambitious, ground breaking in many ways and one of the most cerebral $150 million dollar movies put out by hollywood it was a very interesting film, very authentic adaption. Still a big shame that they tweaked the ending, felt like a copout considering how authentic the rest of the movie was, i thought it was going to ruin the film but i was wrong. Some of the rest was so strong that a lot of scenes really blew me away. the Comedian was fantastic. he really stole the show for me as far as the cast goes. Never seen this actor in anything else but he really proved himself. Loved how the included the scene where he shoots the pregnant woman and tells Manhattan he's loosing it. That played out on film a lot better than i think it did in the comic. In fact a lot of things i think Zack Snyder did as his own creative touches were impressive. Having the comedian land in the street while randomly shooting a shotgun was a nice touch, as was the hatchet to the head. Bill Crudup did a great job as Dr. Manhattan, having an unaffected calm voice was the best way to go. Dr. Manhattan when up close looked photorealistic, i almost think it was probably a combo of some cgi and some composited film elements of someone in blue makeup. I could be wrong but a lot of Dr. Manhattan when he was normal size looked too much like a real human being to be CGI.if it was all CGI it was very impressive. Rorshach's mask looked amazing. lots of people complained about the song choices in the movie (simon and garfunkel, hendrix) but i thought they worked great, most of them were referenced in the comic book and that was a surprise for me. Some of my favorites were the nat king cole song playing during the comedian death scene and the tears for fears Muzak while Viedt is in the elevator. i liked the sex scene in the owl ship it was actually one of the moments of levity i felt the movie needed a lot more of. i think people maybe didn't realize that it was somewhat intentionally humorous. the Dr Manhattan foreplay with Laurie was also a nice touch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest awkwardsilence Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 So I'm having real conflicted emotions about this movie, and I'm considering never watching it ever. I mean, I've already got the perfect Watchmen in my bookshelf, why fix it if it ain't broke? But then I start thinking like it's almost like this new Blade Runner or something, cinematic awesomeness. But yeah, I'm gonna skip the cinema, and do a re-read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awepittance Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 So I'm having real conflicted emotions about this movie, and I'm considering never watching it ever. I mean, I've already got the perfect Watchmen in my bookshelf, why fix it if it ain't broke? But then I start thinking like it's almost like this new Blade Runner or something, cinematic awesomeness. But yeah, I'm gonna skip the cinema, and do a re-read. i really think you ought to go see it, i was extremely emotionally conflicted about it but i think i the end it paid off. This was truely the first alan moore adaptation that captures the essence of what makes his comics good. If this movie is successful its good news for Alan moore fans, i can see them adapting some more of his creations in this same way. looking back on my viewing experience i think it's better than it got made this way than not at all, obviously i have small and some big complaints about it but i think on several levels it really works. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest idrn Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 just watched it. snuck 6 wife beaters and 2 packs of popcorn into the cinema. got fucking laery pissed during it - was a pretty good film. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awepittance Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 as much as i think Snyder is a douche and 300 and his Dawn remake are pretty crappy, his Watchmen take shows some true promise in his abilities as a filmmaker. <--- i can't believe im saying this :embrassed: just the fact that he convinced the studios to produce one of the if not the most cerebral & strange $150,000,000+ movies made by hollywood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gary C Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 I'm more excited now that you guys have been reviewing it. So I'll hopefully be seeing it tomorrow, if I don't get stood up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Q27 Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 I haven't seen it or read it, but when I saw a picture of The Comedian with his shotgun I freaked out. The wide barrel and such is how I draw shotguns. Yeah I'm a dork. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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