I just saw Watchmen last night. Ask me anything

[Bucky]

Since I read the comic book 15 years ago, so I already knew whodunnit. But even at that, and even given that I'm not a big fan of comic books anymore, this was just about the best and the most faithful to the orginal source, comic to movie adaptation I've even seen. Yet it doesn't fall into that comic-book-on-film trap that made Sin City & 300 kind of boring.

We had a big discussion afterwards about the differences between movies and comics as story mediums. There's a hell of a lot to see here & talk about afterwards. I can't emphasize this enough: when it gets a general release this weekend... go see this movie.

Of course, if you don't go to the offical premiere screenings, you won't get the coolest collectible matchbook cover ever.

<== Dood, it's blue!

[Ohio Joe]

1. Good to know

I'm looking forward to seeing it.

[driver8]

2. I have seen the theatrical release and the director's cut.

Since I had not read the comic books and knew nothing about the story, the director's cut made more sense. I did enjoy both, however.

I work at Warner Bros. and have heard that there is an "ultimate version" which is about five hours long!!

[Bucky]

4. Well, we only go the 3 hour version at the premiere (near-spoiler comments)

It's so exhaustive, I can't imagine what they could add on to make another two hours' worth--unless they edit in all that animated pirate cartoon stuff that's gonna be in the DVD. They cut out the (highlight for spoiler) artist colony subplot, as well as the psychiatrist's wife and news vendor subplots (which would mostly be unbearable to watch anyway). Unless they went deeper into the 1940s superheroes more, I don't see much worth adding.

[driver8]

6. I think you are right -- I think it is going to include the animated

stuff. I'm not sure, but I think that's what I heard.

[LanternWaste]

3. Seeing it Friday night at an IMAX theater...

Seeing it Friday night at an IMAX theater... The first graphic novel I'd ever read, and the graphic novel that illustrated (to me) that comic books are not simply sub-literate Tom & Jerry cartoons with capes and masks (as had been the vast majority of the DC & Marvel stuff I'd read growing up as a kid), but could actually be real literature.

And although I still avoid comic books for the most part, I do have a pal who's been collecting them since he was a kid and turns me onto some of the more substantial stuff he thinks I'd like. And so far he's been spot on-- Dark Night (and DK2) blew me away in not only plot, but in style and substance also.




Although I've been hearing some powerfully good stuff about Watchmen lately, I'll still keep my hopes high and my expectations low. :)

(Word on the street is the the Pirate sequences and a few additional scenes were shot specifically for the DVD release.)

[Bucky]

5. What I got told last night was.... (inadvertant movie review)

that the pirate sequences (which I found unnecessary and nearly unreadable in the comic book) only exist as a DVD extra--it won't be edited into the film itself. They did damn little story telescoping as it was. It's a real achievement. There's lots more you get if you've read the book--not just easter eggs, but real important plot points. The movie really works by itself as a movie. They're not just setting up iconic poses from the comic book the way the Frank Miller films do.

There is a downside to it all, of course. The movie lacks the emotional impact of the comic. It's too talky. The pared down version of the villain's master plan is less satisfying and even less sensible. And the actor playing Janey Juspeczyk doesn't really have the emotional range the part requires. There are places where it really just sounds like she's reading her lines. She's a dead ringer for the character Dave Gibbons drew, but I'd have gladly given up that visual bonus if they could've cast an actor who could recreate the character convincingly.

The Dan Dreiberg & Ozy characters were also a little too flat. Casting unknowns was not a good call here. The Rorschach & Comedian characters carried the movie, with a little help from the guys playing Nixon & Manhattan. But again, that doesn't take much away from the full awesome spectacle of the whole thing. Because we've viewing the movie two decades after the Berlin Wall came down, you don't really feel the threat of nuclear war, either. It works as a period peice, but the danger doesn't quite ever feel all that dangerous.

I doubt anyone could have made this movie 20 years ago, however. It is what it is.

[LanternWaste]

7. the pirate sequences were a metaphor for man reducing himself in civility to savagery

"that the pirate sequences (which I found unnecessary and nearly unreadable in the comic book)"

If you ever read it again, try it from this angle-- the pirate sequences were a metaphor for man consciously choosing to reduce himself in civility to savagery, which was for all intents and purposes, the major, arcing theme of The Watchmen. For myself, I found the Pirate sequences in the graphic novel actually more engrossing (though far more subtle also) than the main plot itself.

I'm hoping I disagree with you about Dreiberg after I see the film because (again, only to me) his character is not only the fulcrum on which the plot rests, but is also the only major character we, the audience as a whole, are suppose to empathize with (if the film does indeed stay true to the graphic novel in this respect-- I'd hate to see Rorschach given additional humanity simply so that we "like" him better... )

I guess I'll find out on Friday, and if it's not that great, oh well... I'm more than content in waiting for Michael Apted's vision of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in Dec of 2010... :)

[arcadian]

11. I liked the Pirate sequences as well.

At first I thought they were tedious, but there are some interesting subtexts in the story. There is the irony of destroying that which you love while on a quest to save it from a menacing threat and in so doing you unwittingly become that which you despise and fear most. Goes into the whole nihilistic subtext of the comic, the Nietzschean, "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster." and illustrates the madness of nuclear war.

[tigereye]

8. cool, my husband was wondering how true to the story it would be

[mzteris]

9. is it suitable for kids?

say 10 and 15? They really want to see it. . .

[driver8]

10. Fifteen year old could handle it -- I wouldn't take a ten year old.

It is very, very violent and there is a scene where a woman is severely beaten and about to be raped.

[elshiva]

12. Have you used the condom yet?

[Starry Messenger]

13. I'm so jealous of you.

I'm really glad to be hearing good things though. After they messed with LofEG, I needed some hope. That is the best collectible evah! I'm still laughing.