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Watchmen Midnight Showing A review FULL OF SPOILERS

#1 User is offline   Otal Nimrodi Icon

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Posted 06 March 2009 - 04:05 AM

Or rather, not a review. A... Few comments coming from the mind of someone writing a review at four in the morning.


Overall, my reaction was...

Well, it was an alright movie. Packed pretty densely. They showed the opening fight between the Comedian and... Well, you know who it is. Anyway, they had a brilliant prolonged credit sequence explaining a lot of what was explained in the book.

Then, we go on to the opening. They have the opening monologue word-for-word. In fact, a lot of scenes word-for-word (including the first sex scene)

A lot of the subtlety is gone.

I have one complaint, which will survive all subsequent viewings was that this man

http://media.filmsch.../ozymandias.jpg

Looks EVIL. They sorta slam you in the face with it. And he acts evil... The whole time. He doesn't... Gah, well, he's evil. I can't think straight, so I'll keep this brief.

Wait, first...

They took out Captain Metropolis. He's an old man in the famous picture, and he's never seen again.

There is the hint of the Captain Metropolis/Hooded Justice angle. Although we never learn Hooded Justice's name, and are forced to call him "That Guy In Purple With A Noose"

Well... The new Ozymandias scheme seemed even more hare-brained than the old one. But still.

I guess that's all I can say... More when I wake up.

EDIT: added spoiler warning to topic heading (civ2)

This post has been edited by civilian_number_two: 06 March 2009 - 06:47 AM

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#2 User is offline   civilian_number_two Icon

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Posted 06 March 2009 - 06:46 AM

Yeah, thie similarities are great. They sorta draw attention of course to Alan Moore's complaint about comic book movies in general, which is that the similarities will all be simple and visual, while the differences, in timing and tone, will be specific to each viewer/reader (he has many other complaints, but that's one). For instance, I think the film was pretty good (sitting in the same theatre with stuntmen, actors and some technicians from the show made me slightly more partisan), but it moved at a different speed here and there from the movie I'd imagined when reading the book. But blah blah blah.

I found that all former misgivings aside, I really bought ALL of the casting. Several secondary characters had to be removed for the sake of brevity (it comes in under three hours), but many tertiary characters were preserved for the sake of relevance. Here and there too some lines of dialogue are taken from one character and given to another, which is not all that uncommon in adaptations. Almost all of the tertiary plotlines are removed, to the extent that Laurie's big discovery comes pretty much out of nowhere (it also requires a huge new power be given to Dr Manhattan).

My only significant complaint is of course that the ending is drastically different. I have no idea why. Were the filmmakers afraid that the ending of the source material was too close to "The Day The Earth Stood Still?" If that's their reason, well pooh pooh. If their reason was that they thought the original scheme was too hard to believe (well, it is ... ), the thing they replaced it with is also, as Otal said, crazy beyond measure.

But ok, let's say it all worked. My one pet nitpick is that the very last shot of the final scene is wrong. The ketchup from the burger is supposed to fall onto the shirt AFTER the dimwit looks at the book, not at the beginning of the scene! If it's at the beginning of the scene, it loses ALL of its thematic significance! Did Snyder really, really faithfully adapt a comic series down to storyboarded shots straight from the comic, and NOT notice that the stain on The Comedian's badge was meant to emulate the symbolic Doomsday Clock at 5 to midnight? REALLY?

Unbelievable.

Still, 8/10.
"I had a lot of different ideas. At one point, Luke, Leia and Ben were all going to be little people, and we did screen tests to see if we could do that." -George Lucas, in STAR WARS: the Annotated Screenplays (p197).
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#3 User is offline   Emu Icon

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Posted 07 March 2009 - 01:29 PM

I really liked that they got the visual style pretty much right on, and, like Otal, I very much enjoyed the opening sequence and agree that Ozy shouldn't have been so obviously evil from the start - that kind of misses the point of his character. I also missed the ((warning: spoiler!!!)) giant octopus, but could understand why they'd leave that out - the giant octopus would have to come with about another hour of backstory in a movie that was already three hours long. but my biggest gripe was how they botched one of my favorite scenes from the book - the one where Rorschach outwits Big Figure and his goons. having the second guy get electrocuted *after* Rorschach punches him out was disappointing, and also totally not how Rorschach is supposed to operate. the interesting shot with the swinging bathroom door made up for it, but only a little bit smile.gif Also, it was weird that Rorschach was all suicidal at the end, instead of it being more of a confrontation between him and Dr. Manhattan from which he wouldn't back down. Little gripes aside, I really enjoyed seeing it!
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#4 User is offline   Ninja Duck Icon

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Posted 07 March 2009 - 01:29 PM

Otal, the image you linked to isn't loading for me, but I can only assume that by "evil" you mean "gay". Did you notice the folder labeled "Boys" on his computer?

Anyway, although I haven't read the original graphic novel, I liked the movie. Could have used more pants, though. But if pornography can earn a less restricted rating just because it's blue, well I think that opens up a lot of avenues.
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#5 User is offline   Emu Icon

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Posted 07 March 2009 - 01:34 PM

haha, yeah, what was with that?

also, did you notice, in the restaurant scene, some woman in the background says, "I'm so glad I ordered the four-legged chicken!"
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#6 User is offline   Gobbler Icon

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Posted 07 March 2009 - 01:51 PM

Didn't Rorschach remark in the comics that he suspects Veidt to be gay?

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#7 User is offline   civilian_number_two Icon

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Posted 07 March 2009 - 03:00 PM

Yeah, Rorschach thought Veidt might be gay; Snyder seems to have wanted to prove that he was a pedophile (maybe). I think that was too much on-the-nose, like his apparent villainy earlier on.

Dr Manhattan's nudity is getting more attention thanI think it should. I think it was like three scenes at most; his nudity is more overt in the comic book. And it's not pornography since the sex act wasn't hinted at; Laurie and Dan gettign it on in the Owlshp is closer to porn than the blue cgi dong.
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#8 User is offline   David-kyo Icon

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Posted 07 March 2009 - 05:39 PM

That sex scene in the owlship should have totally not been there, it was very embarrassing, especially with the cheesy soundtrack and the burst of the flamethrower in the moment of ejaculation. Ho ho ho, brilliant metaphor right there.

Anyway, the film's ending I actually prefer to the original one because it makes a lot more sense in my opinion. I mean, there's a walking H2-bomb with a personality disorder who's been recently cockblocked, he's a real, tangible threat on his own, why the hell should have Veidt introduced pseudo-aliens into the equation? Framing Dr Manhattan was a more logical step. What I didn't like though was that there was little backstory explanation for Veidt, Dreiberg, etc.
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#9 User is offline   Otal Nimrodi Icon

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Posted 07 March 2009 - 10:04 PM

QUOTE (Gobbler @ Mar 7 2009, 01:51 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Didn't Rorschach remark in the comics that he suspects Veidt to be gay?


Yes...

All I'm gonna say is that the guy spends all his time alone in a remote location with three men and a cat... I assume he's not interested in the cat.








Oh, and Civ... Pedophile? What?
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#10 User is offline   TheOrator Icon

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Posted 08 March 2009 - 06:57 PM

I agree with David, the new ending is much better than the old one.

Also, damn sauce at the end.

Should've introduced the New Frontiersman earlier on in the story.

Pretty damn fine film, in my opinion.

The Archimedes sex scene was a bit too long, but the fire metaphor thing is from the book.
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#11 User is offline   civilian_number_two Icon

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Posted 08 March 2009 - 07:23 PM

Otal, there's a folder on Adrian's computer titled "Boys." So it would seem that instead of allowing Rorschach to assume Adrian might be gay, Snyder has opted himself, as filmmaker, to allude that he might be into boys.
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#12 User is offline   David-kyo Icon

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Posted 08 March 2009 - 07:35 PM

I guess he wanted to mimic Alexander the Great to the last detail.
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#13 User is offline   Otal Nimrodi Icon

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Posted 09 March 2009 - 06:42 PM

QUOTE (civilian_number_two @ Mar 8 2009, 07:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Otal, there's a folder on Adrian's computer titled "Boys." So it would seem that instead of allowing Rorschach to assume Adrian might be gay, Snyder has opted himself, as filmmaker, to allude that he might be into boys.


Ah... Tricky, I didn't see that.


Well, the guy lives in a remote location (in the book) with three men and a cat. And I don't think he's into the cat.
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#14 User is offline   J m HofMarN Icon

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Posted 16 March 2009 - 12:03 AM

That was a damned fine movie. Despite being an asskicking superhero movie, it seemed to have ulterior motives and something to actually say, which is uncommon in that genre. I like it when a superhero movie can actually look at the nature of what heroism is, good and evil, so forth. The scenes were all beautifully done. There was a good bit of nudity, but I guess that kind of kept with the gritty feel of the whole film. I wasnt sure if Ozy was evil as I hadnt read the comic, but he did have an air of corporate sleeze about him.

Also, anyone who names their porno file something that obvious and then puts it on their desktop, and then has a password that actually exists as a name, is not the smartest man in the world.

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#15 User is offline   barend Icon

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Posted 16 March 2009 - 12:37 AM

I thought the ending made sense for the purposes of a movie. But when all the pirate stuff comes back in it's going to serve little purpose on DVD (blueray whatever).

I loved the film but a few things annoyed me.

In the opening two men tied to a firehydrant appear identical to an image from the comics backstory for Rorscharch, but then a note flips over saying NEVER. Lame. Him delivering that note knifed to a serial rapists chest in reply to banning of costume heroes gives a much better view of his personality and unrelentingness. THat and him chopping the kidnapper in the head instead of the SAW option.

few other things, but I gotta go.
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