Watchmen

[Lucas]

saw the preview for this at batman. i was actually more excited about the watchmen preview than i was for seeing batman.

alan moore is the bomb

[jason.]

man that is the truth! been waiting for a watchman movie for a loo-oo-ong time.

[sanjuro_ronin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4blSrZvPhU

Slackers, posting a thread without a link.
lack of chi...

[GeneChing]

Watchmen (http://watchmenmovie.warnerbros.com/). Love the dripping blood spot when loading...

:) (with blood)

[Lucas]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4blSrZvPhU

Slackers, posting a thread without a link.
lack of chi...

I dont lack qi, I just like to make you use yours instead. I like to keep my reserves up ;)

Im glad that they waited until they could make it look so good.

[MasterKiller]

I saw Watchmen last night, and it was amazing. I even think the change in the ending was probably appropriate.

Several people walked out of the theatre during the movie. I guess they thought they were going to see Spiderman, but wound up watching Citizen Kane instead.

[Lamassu]

I just saw Watchmen last night, and it kicked a$$! The fight sequences were top notch, and though a bit over the top (hey, it's a comic book movie), I really enjoyed the graphic results which amplify the devestating stakes in self defense.

[Pork Chop]

I saw Watchmen last night, and it was amazing. I even think the change in the ending was probably appropriate.

Several people walked out of the theatre during the movie. I guess they thought they were going to see Spiderman, but wound up watching Citizen Kane instead.

yeah, citizen kane with a big, blue wiener.
i swear I don't understand the decision to take off the dude's shorts for 80% of the movie.
It just seemed very gratuitous - didn't add anything to the flick.
I could see that making other folks uncomfortable.

[sanjuro_ronin]

yeah, citizen kane with a big, blue wiener.
i swear I don't understand the decision to take off the dude's shorts for 80% of the movie.
It just seemed very gratuitous - didn't add anything to the flick.
I could see that making other folks uncomfortable.

Well, he does walk around naked in the comic.

[golgo]

yeah, citizen kane with a big, blue wiener.
i swear I don't understand the decision to take off the dude's shorts for 80% of the movie.
It just seemed very gratuitous - didn't add anything to the flick.
I could see that making other folks uncomfortable.

It was probably done to hush the critics about all of the Silk Spectre nudity. I can handle a blue dong flopping around for that. I didn't even notice it until my wife pointed it out to me.

All-in-all I thought it was great and paid great respect to the comic.

[MasterKiller]

yeah, citizen kane with a big, blue wiener.
i swear I don't understand the decision to take off the dude's shorts for 80% of the movie.
It just seemed very gratuitous - didn't add anything to the flick.
I could see that making other folks uncomfortable.

It's a symbol of him becoming detached from human social constructs.

[GeneChing]

...a kempo & TKD black Belt...
Jackie Earle Haley on Watchmen (http://www.canmag.com/nw/13582-watchmen-jackie-earle-haley)
Published March 7, 2009 in Movie Interviews
By Fred Topel | Image property of Warner Bros
Watchmen Watchmen

Jackie Earle Haley spends most of Watchmen wearing a mask. As Rorschach, his visage features a morphing inkblot. For a portion of the film, he is captured and sent to prison under his real name, Walter Kovacs. To Haley, there was little difference.

Jackie Earle Haley Talks Watchmen

"Not much," Haley said. "I donned freckles. Yeah, I mean I looked at that and was thinking, 'What should I do there?' To me, it’s just, the guy is Rorschach. Walter is long gone, and I think he’s Rorschach, with or without the mask. So I’ve pretty much kept it in the same world. I don’t think that he throws on his mask and he completely changes his identity but I think when he’s in the middle of an interrogation or something, it might pump up his adrenaline and his syntax just like I think anybody would."

Haley can actually fight. He has a black belt in Kempo and Tae Kwon Do but that wasn't the style Rorschach was supposed to use. "He’s kind of more boxer-y but he does have some legs and stuff. I think what helped me with already having some experience with Martial Arts is that I didn’t need to show up two months before and start with the basics. I know everybody kind of went into fight training, and then into choreography. So I got to skip all of the fight training and just go into choreography. Then I also had the additional help that my character was covered so I had a kick ass stunt guy who was able to do most of it. But I did do some of it, and it was neat that the guys didn’t have to spend so much time teaching me how to throw a punch. It was just going right into the choreography of it."

The distinctive mask was a CGI accomplishment, but Haley got a sense early on of what it would ultimately look like. "We had some fixed Rorschach masks for stunt work and stuff that was further away from the camera, so obviously we could see an exact still representation. Then one day [visual effects supervisor] D.J. showed up on the set, he opened his computer he said, check it out. What they did with the blots I thought was incredible but it was kind of a challenge or concern, like wow, how am I going to go about this, kind of acting with the sock on my head, that first you’re kind of nervous, because you’re taking away your main tool, which is your face as an actor. But at the same time, you’re playing this character Rorschach, so there was something incredibly motivating by putting this thing on, so I think I struggled with it for a little while, just internally, and then I think as time went on all of that was just kind of reconciled in here and becoming Rorschach was a much easier process as time went on.

[SimonM]

Several people walked out of the theatre during the movie. I guess they thought they were going to see Spiderman, but wound up watching Citizen Kane instead.

RotFLMFAO!!!!! :D

124567

[Zenshiite]

It's a symbol of him becoming detached from human social constructs.

While the may be, he's not naked that often in the book. Mostly on Mars. The rest of the time he's in a black unitard or a black man thong/banana hammock.

[doug maverick]

While the may be, he's not naked that often in the book. Mostly on Mars. The rest of the time he's in a black unitard or a black man thong/banana hammock.

maybe zack snyder just wanted to see a blue ****, is that so hard to believe that he just wanted to show the audienc hey look at this blue **** isnt this hilarious.

[Lamassu]

While the may be, he's not naked that often in the book. Mostly on Mars. The rest of the time he's in a black unitard or a black man thong/banana hammock.

Maybe you read a different version than I did, Dr. Manhattan was clothed more times in the movie than in the comic mini-series. This is Alan Moore we're talking about, if you grab a handful of his comics, you'll see boy parts and girl parts aplenty.

[doug maverick]

movie. just watched this film last night ok here is my review:


there were plenty things to like aout watchmen, the visuals the action scenes and the general story was all great. the thing i hated the most about the film were the fact that i really didnt get a feel for all the characters and that is zack snyders failure as a director, i mean he is known as a "visionary" which is filmaker talk for above par hack, so i wasnt expecting much but seriously the onecharcter we should have all felt for who was thrown inour faces was roschach and we he died the audience should have been either in tears or outraged. but it was nothing not even a blanch it was like so what, i looked at other audiences faces and there was not even a stir. because while you my have liked this character snider didnt give us a chance to feel for him, here was a character who had to watch his mom getting porked by every tom **** and harry, who was drastically mentally disturbed, who admittedly took the law in his own hand and killed his enemies and you know what we liked him for it, but not enough to care when he died. next character was silk spectre II another character you should have cared about and been amazed when you found out that the comedian was her father, but once again it was like who cares. now the comedian he was the only character that you did feel emotion for, cause it was like what the **** makes this man a superhero, this guy kills anything that moves good or bad he is a ****ing sociopath that should've been locked up in a insane asylum somewhere, i mean he tried to rape his on teammate for Christ sake. and then there is dr.manhatten, who was so far removed from humanity that you shouldnt have felt anything for him but when you see that scene where his ex girl comes in with cance you do in fact feel for him and ill give snyder that. someone called this the citizen kane of super hero films, an i would say that is a gross exaggeration. this was what it was a good action film with a good story, tat wasnt about good guys vs. bad guys but about sacrificing for the greater good, its the answer to a question. if 100 people were about to die and you can save them but you have to kill one person would you do it?

[sanjuro_ronin]

movie. just watched this film last night ok here is my review:


there were plenty things to like aout watchmen, the visuals the action scenes and the general story was all great. the thing i hated the most about the film were the fact that i really didnt get a feel for all the characters and that is zack snyders failure as a director, i mean he is known as a "visionary" which is filmaker talk for above par hack, so i wasnt expecting much but seriously the onecharcter we should have all felt for who was thrown inour faces was roschach and we he died the audience should have been either in tears or outraged. but it was nothing not even a blanch it was like so what, i looked at other audiences faces and there was not even a stir. because while you my have liked this character snider didnt give us a chance to feel for him, here was a character who had to watch his mom getting porked by every tom **** and harry, who was drastically mentally disturbed, who admittedly took the law in his own hand and killed his enemies and you know what we liked him for it, but not enough to care when he died. next character was silk spectre II another character you should have cared about and been amazed when you found out that the comedian was her father, but once again it was like who cares. now the comedian he was the only character that you did feel emotion for, cause it was like what the **** makes this man a superhero, this guy kills anything that moves good or bad he is a ****ing sociopath that should've been locked up in a insane asylum somewhere, i mean he tried to rape his on teammate for Christ sake. and then there is dr.manhatten, who was so far removed from humanity that you shouldnt have felt anything for him but when you see that scene where his ex girl comes in with cance you do in fact feel for him and ill give snyder that. someone called this the citizen kane of super hero films, an i would say that is a gross exaggeration. this was what it was a good action film with a good story, tat wasnt about good guys vs. bad guys but about sacrificing for the greater good, its the answer to a question. if 100 people were about to die and you can save them but you have to kill one person would you do it?

Its the one issue I had with the book, you;d think that Dr.M would have figured out that the MEANS justify the ends, not the other way around.

[doug maverick]

it was an interesting conundrum, one that even now i cant really answer and hope to never be in such a situation.

[SimonM]

Its the one issue I had with the book, you;d think that Dr.M would have figured out that the MEANS justify the ends, not the other way around.

The thing is that Dr. M's ethical decision gets tangled into a predestination paradox as it is my understanding that he knows how things are going to turn out before they do.

So the question becomes whether his foreknowledge of future events causes him to go with the flow, regardless of the question of whether the ends justify the means, or is he playing out a pre-determined role?

As a tertiary question is he simply doing damage control for a situation that he has no desire to exercise godlike power to effect.

[sanjuro_ronin]

The thing is that Dr. M's ethical decision gets tangled into a predestination paradox as it is my understanding that he knows how things are going to turn out before they do.

So the question becomes whether his foreknowledge of future events causes him to go with the flow, regardless of the question of whether the ends justify the means, or is he playing out a pre-determined role?

As a tertiary question is he simply doing damage control for a situation that he has no desire to exercise godlike power to effect.

There is no such thing as pre-determination, destiny yes, not pre-determination.

One may be destined to get run over by a car because he tends to cross the road when cars are coming, but its not pre-ordanined that he will.

[MasterKiller]

There is no such thing as pre-determination, destiny yes, not pre-determination.

One may be destined to get run over by a car because he tends to cross the road when cars are coming, but its not pre-ordanined that he will.


Fate often saves an undoomed man if his courage is good.

[SimonM]

There is no such thing as pre-determination, destiny yes, not pre-determination.

One may be destined to get run over by a car because he tends to cross the road when cars are coming, but its not pre-ordanined that he will.

The predestination paradox is a situation in speculative fiction in which a character is aware that certain actions he undertakes will result in a specific result far in advance of the action. It's a tool used by authors to raise questions over the nature of destiny and free will.

Best example: Donny Darko
Worst example: Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure

Within the contex of that particularly literary tool events are predetermined if the paradox is resolved by the fulfillment of the predicted events as predicted. Events are not predetermined if the events, as predicted, do not come to pass.

[KC Elbows]

I dunno, in both the comic and the movie, Dr. Manhattan's reason for changing his mind is Laurie's story and the miraculousness of it, given that, honestly, her character was intended to be a vacuous former starlet who became the kept woman for one(sort of) man, untimately becoming the love interest of another, rich, man, who shared her danger kink and was human.

Dr. Manhattan was clearly a complication in human events. He did solve the pressing problem by leaving. Revealing all the world of truth to everyone was well beyond his ability to convey in any way that would help humans. Leaving was the right course. Additionally, he ruined Ozymandius victory, by pointing out that "nothing ever ends." He foiled Ozymandius by pointing out that, despite being the ideal human, Ozymandius' judgment was only human.

[dnovice]

i guess i'll be the devils advocate since everyone liked the movie.:eek:

i didn't read the comic book so the lack of character depth made the movie suck. From what i hear the people that like the movie are guys that have already read the comic strip, ie people that know the characters. There was way too much going on and little depth, it was classic surface scratching.

[doug maverick]

i guess i'll be the devils advocate since everyone liked the movie.:eek:

i didn't read the comic book so the lack of character depth made the movie suck. From what i hear the people that like the movie are guys that have already read the comic strip, ie people that know the characters. There was way too much going on and little depth, it was classic surface scratching.

actually not everyone liked it. you should read some of the stuff. said and others.

[KC Elbows]

Spoiler alert.

Actually, I saw it twice, all with people who had never read the comic. My wife was the only one who didn't like it, not because it wasn't good, but because she finds violence unsettling.

I liked it in one way, but one major thing made it pale beside the comic: the fight scenes. The fight scenes were very similar to the sort of choreography in the new Batman movies, which is fine in that context. But the fight scenes in the comic, and especially their approach to violence, was only really well achieved in a scene that was done differently in the movie: when Rorschach kills the child killer. Before he does it, you can hear his breathing, and it's frightening because of how frightened it sounded, so that the action was a moment that held some dread, not fun.

The fight in the alleyway was stylistically okay, the comic and the movie approach it as a thrill ride for the two, though the movie seemed over the top in this fight, but I'd have to look at the comic to see if they were trying to catch every frame and the translation was just off.

However, the fight between Comedian and Ozymandius had annoying parts that completely seemed to lose the point that they were not superhuman. The characters in the comic are referred to as costumed heroes, not super heroes.

And the fight with Ozymandius, Rorschach, and Nite Owl, was a let down. In the comic, before the gunshot, Ozymandius is not doing any sort of acrobatics in order to subdue the two, it's child's play, he is the supreme human after all. No exertion, just a straightforward brutal beatdown with a monologue. In the movie, he does like a twenty foot standing jump, which, again, misses the whole point of the comic. Parts matched, like the bullet thing, but again, the whole point got lost: no one is a match for Ozymandius, he simply has greater skill than every character, and such single minded purpose that, even though his vanity is tied up in his goals, in how he achieves those goals he is perfectly efficient. Having the fight being this "Hero A punches, now Villain B punches" sort of thing is so far off from the comic. I'm trying to remember if either Rorschach or Nite Owl actually get off a single attempted move in the whole fight in the comic; generally, while the two were starting to get to the point of throwing a punch, they were eating fist, or foreign object, what have you.

In the choreography, there were moves that I thought well suited to how fighting is dramatic in the Watchmen, like Ozymandius' flare for tossing people down into objects, but the decision to over choreograph was unfortunate, and the decision to make the costumed heroes occasionally superhuman was baffling.

I liked the movie, love the comic, I'd say that, while the movie missed important points, I will probably continue to appreciate where it did get things right: Rorschach, Comedian, Nite Owl. The Black Freighter section was really good, I look forward to seeing it in the DVD release.