Watchmen

bbfc advice for Watchmen from bbfc.co.uk: [I'll put it in tags, but there are only mild spoilers]

"WATCHMEN is the latest film from director Zack Snyder and the team behind 300. Based on a famous graphic novel from the 1980s it tells the story of an alternate America in which the Vietnam War was won, Nixon was elected for a third term and costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of society. It was passed
 
I'm a massive comics fan of Xmen and Batman for 20 years but for some reason have never read Watchmen (i know - shoot me now!). Went to see the film last night and thought it was fantastic. The director really knew how to keep the story going with not a lot of action in some parts, especially as it was 2 1/2 hrs. Like a lot of people, ill have to obtain the graphic novel(s?) now.

One question though, i understand the ending was changed from the book. Can anyone enlighten me s to how it enRAB. PM me if you dont want to spoil it for others
 
i completely agree - pretentious is the word i would use

and can i say too - misogynistic..?

silk spectre 1 - falling for the man who brutally raped her

mind you, the treatment of women is pretty poor in most of the graphic novels turned into films ive seen

sin city - they're either whore or victims

300 - the one woman in it gets raped

you forget that the people who lap all this up and sotty geeks who probably don't even go anywhere near women (im half joking but the writers of these stories definiately have creepy ideas about women)
 
Here is a very brief review of Watchmen from Time magazine:

"There is a press blackout on reviewing the Watchmen movie until March 6. However, I've seen the movie, and I'm not press. Don't worry, I'm not going to write a review of Watchmen. What I am going to write about is the emotional experience of seeing a piece of literature with which I have an intense personal connection LITERALLY COME TO LIFE. It's a serious freak-out.
I'm not alone in having bonded with the Watchmen comic book back when it was first published. But in 1986, I sure felt like I was. Barely anyone in my high school even knew who Wolverine was, let alone Rorschach. Gradually, however, the awareness of the Watchmen graphic novel has spread from a small group of comic book readers to become a major cultural touchstone for an entire generation. It's the common ground uniting almost everyone in my creative community. And now it EXISTS.
I'm not allowed to talk details, but let's just say it is astounding how much of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' graphic novel is in this movie. (Really, the absence of Alan Moore's name on this is like Stan Lee's being missing from Spider-Man, because 95 percent of the worRAB and ideas in this movie are all Moore.) Has there ever been a movie adaptation of a comic book (or book book) this close to its source material? Probably the two Frank Miller movies, Sin City and 300. But, while awesome, Frank Miller's comics didn't solve my Rubik's Cube of a 1980s teenage heart every single time I re-read them the way Moore's and Gibbons' did.
Sitting in that screening room and watching the visual world of the Watchmen movie unfold was one of the most powerful experiences I've ever had. Not film experiences. Just EXPERIENCES. I don't think I realized how close I was to the original book until I saw such a loving, detail-rich, almost obsessive recreation of that universe. It had my heart pounding and head swimming. I barely slept that night. Someone took the most special personal thing of my adolescence and put it on a movie screen. That doesn't happen every day.
What will people who've never read Watchmen even think of this film? What will it be like for them to sit through these crazy, violent, colorful three hours and not recognize almost every line – almost every image? Will they be utterly baffled, bored, or totally love it? Is Watchmen even a good or bad movie? I have no idea. I stand powerless before the GoRAB I once worshiped in my attic bedroom, now moving and talking and fighting and loving on a giant screen. And I find myself unable to judge them.
For me, and I suspect many others, the movie won't provoke the feeling you get from seeing a great movie, (which Watchmen very well may be). For me, Watchmen isn't a movie at all. It's a surreal mind-trip the likes of which my 14-year-old self would never have believed. Now, the special thing that still feels like only I know about has been given to the whole world. I hope they like it."
 
The original ending was
instead of faking Dr Manhattan strikes all over the globe, Adrian teleported a genetically engineered huge squid-like life form in to the heart of NY. Upon materialisation, it triggered a huge psychic wave, killing millions. It's entry also crushed loaRAB of folk too. This united the warring countries as thought the life form was an alien, and they had to unite to fight it.

That's the gist, anyway.
 
eh??? i watched film night with jonathan ross and he panned it?!

doesnt put me off it though, can't wait to see it!

Anyone know a legit site or a legit torrent to view it from? Im going to watch it at the cinema... but i couldnt get round to seeing it tonight and reaaallly want to!
 
He looks pretty ridiculous in the book too. In fact, the psycho Rorschach is the only one who doesn't. It may be part of the point Alan Moore was trying to make: that these people, apart from Dr. Manhattan, are just deluded and not super (or even heroes).
Nite Owl is a has-been loser, Comedian is a violent criminal, Rorschach is deranged, Silk Spectre is just stroppy and Veidt is smart and rich. How much of this the movie will retain is anybody's guess.
 
I didn't think in anyway it would be life changing, dont get me wrong, after all it's just a comic book movie.

Was it fresh? No. And as the actors were saying "i think people are ready for their superhero notions to be turned around". Hardly.

It was alot more 'adult' than your average fare but that was about it.

Was Watchmen really this diamond in the rough of comic books that the comic 'illiterati' yearned for years to be made? Is that it? Is that the pinnacle of 'adult, intelligent' comic stories?
 
Thank god they changed that then! What a ridiculous idea!?!?!

I have never even seen the comic of Watchmen (don't give me this 'graphic novel' bull ;) ), let alone read it, but I went to see this yesterday, as a fan of the genre more than anything, really expecting to hate it, I had a bit of a preconception that it would be a load of self important twaddle.

In actual fact I quite enjoyed it, despite the over-long running time, visually it's just superb (in spite of frequent shot-pauses to say 'look, look, this was in the comic') and it has some brilliant characters, particularly Rorshach. It has some pretty weak ones too tho, I'm thinking the owl dude and latex girl, neither of whom really had anything to say, and the only purpose the girl seemed to serve was to give sexual relief to superheroes.

I can see why people might see it as soulless, but it's got a hell of alot more soul than, for instance, the Spiderman films (which I can't stand), I'd rate it better than most of the recent Comic adaptations apart from Chris Nolan's Batman films and the Hellboy films.
films.

PS, I'd say 7/10 is a fair rating, but unless your missus is a bit of a geek too, do not take her, mine hated it and slept through most of the second half of the film.
 
Anyone going to see it in Cineworld should keep their tickets, not sure if it's nationwide but Borders here (dundee) today had posters up saying if you take your ticket in store, you can buy Watchmen books at 50% off.

Sounded like a pretty good deal.
 
Compared to the costume in the novel, the on screen version is actually an improvement (but as the poster above pointed out, the idea was never for them to look overly cool).

From the bits I've seen, visually they've done a superb job translating the novel to screen. The costumes are updated, but not to the point of making them look vastly different to book. And the overall styling of the CGI stuff is remarkably accurate. You do get the feeling they've tried very hard to translate it to screen without upsetting the fans of the graphic novel.

...apart from Alan Moore of course. ;) But Alan seems to hate everything of his that gets transferred to screen, so him complaining about the Watchmen adaptation was no great shock. ;)
 
If only I could sit in the cinema for that long. That's a hell of a running time.

I wouldn't mind seeing this, but one for home viewing I feel.
 
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