My understanding of the ending:[spoiler]The whole thing about artists, scientists, etc disappearing has been cut. The threat of the alien invasion, as represented by the big dead squid-splosion in New York, has been replaced by the threat of Dr. Manhattan himself, as represented by Veidt’s simulation of Manhattan-like energy causing explosions in many large cities simultaneously. Different specific threat, but same general principle: millions of lives sacrificed (more than in the comic, certainly) to force people to unite against a (faked) danger. Apparently has the benefit of causing the people to turn against Manhattan as a savior, unifying his exit at the end with the overall storyline.
This may be wrong in the details, but it’s what I’ve gleaned from the comments of people who have seen the film. And some people say it doesn’t really work, while others say it works remarkably well, and makes the movie-version plot much tighter. We shall see.[/spoiler]
Has Alan Moore said anything one way or the other about this yet? I seem to remember him really hating From Hell, and at one point I know he said he thought that a Watchmen movie was impossible.
I would be curious to see what he or David Gibbons think about how things turned out now that it’s happened.
That’s pretty much it; however, what you claim is a benefit I see as being somewhat problematic and not quite in line with the original ending, since the menace that unites the world is now not really something from outside, but essentially something manmade, even if it far transgresses the boundaries of humanity. Humanity’s greatest thread thus, in a sense, remains humanity. Plus, Dr. Manhattan’s apparent change from protector to enemy introduces an element of betrayal that doesn’t sit well with the overall intent of unifying the world – everybody’s gonna look over their shoulders constantly, with a sneaking feeling of ‘Manhattan betrayed us, why shouldn’t the Soviets/Americans/whoever?’. And even more, somebody will find a way to blame Manhattan’s apparent attack on some human fraction. That was all nicely circumvented in the book with having the apparent threat be something fundamentally and utterly non-human, and removing this undercuts the whole ‘humanity can’t save itself’ point. Eh, the more I think about it, the less I like it, so I guess I’ll just quit now.
Well, I just got back from a benefit preview showing of Watchmen, and I have to say that it was much better than I was expecting. I enjoyed it quite a lot, actually.
The plot is somewhat simplified, but I don’t see that as a bad thing. Cervaise’s understanding of the ending above is essentially correct, which didn’t really bother me either. I just reread the graphic novel last night, and was impressed with how much actual narration (in the form of Rorschach’s journal) was kept word-for-word.
It’s pretty graphically violent, although I suppose that shouldn’t be a surprise.
Saw it. I had read the book and wasn’t all that impressed, so I was somewhat surprised to find that I enjoyed the movie for the most part. It wasn’t great and it certainly isn’t The Dark Knight, but it held my interest pretty well.
However, most of the others in my group hated it, including a friend who absolutely loves the graphic novel. I can understand most of the complaints, which were basically: lousy acting (with the exception of Rorschach); no real “tone” or “feel” to the movie; a laughably bad sex scene - it really is something to see!; a distracting amount of full-frontal male nudity from Dr. Manhattan (my audience snorted and snickered through most of his scenes); a lot of meaningless backstory (I know it’s lifted directly from the book, but all the stuff about the 1940s Minutemen and Silk Spectre’s mother could have easily been left on the cutting room floor); a ludicrous nose/makeup job on Nixon!; a rushed ending (Veidt’s big plan occurs and is over so quickly that I thought for sure it was just a build-up to the real plan…but nope. Just a quick glance at what’s going on and then a lot of talk and talk and talk about what it all means).
So there you go. I can understand most of these complaints but I have to say they didn’t really bother me too much while I was watching the movie. I enjoyed it but, based on conversations with others afterward, I definitely have the feeling that this movie will be a disappointment for most.
Most of the objections of Stephe96’s friends are on point. The acting isn’t that great (Rorschach and Nite Owl are good, Silk Spectre and Ozymandias are terrible, Manhattan only succeeds because he’s Manhattan and he’s supposed to be bad at acting human). I saw someone else say Tom Cruise would’ve been perfect for the Ozymandias role, and I agree. They definitely needed someone better than the guy they got.
The movie adheres very closely to the book, and it shows. It keeps it from getting out of control, though - by doing so they manage to keep in a bunch of the themes and stuff I thought might get lost in the translation. I was really worried they WOULD just go for the “its a typical superhero movie of superheroes being badass” albeit with a more dark/gritty feeling, but by adhering so closely to the plot (such as keeping in all the Comedian flashbacks) it still manages to set the tone of the underlying “are humans really just savage violent beasts?” question.
OTOH, the fight scenes… ugh. Definitely look like something out of 300, and they clash with the above idea horribly. It’s violence for the sake of looking cool. Don’t get me wrong, I liked 300, I just think there’s a time and place for it and it was contrary to the themes of this movie. Do we really need to see Nite Owl hit a guy so hard his ulna jut out of his arm?
I also agree with Half Man Half Wit regarding the ending. They try to keep the same idea, but the details of it just don’t work the samel. It definitely loses something. And the extra stuff they added in with Nite Owl just doesn’t work either, IMO.
So, on the balance, not bad, but not great either.
I’m sorry - I am at work and can not read all this thread now.
I know that there are people who will pan and nitpick it - but I went to the midnight viewing last night and overall I was very, very impressed by what they were able to put across on screen from the book.
Obviously, there was some heavy glossing over that only someone fairly familiar with the film would get, like the whole opening credit sequencing - but I like how even the story lines they had to cut were given homage.
I only read the Watchmen last winter in anticipation of the movie so it was fairly fresh in my mind. I’ll be interested when I read this thread tonight to see how people less familiar found it.
But for the record, all you nelly naysayers beware: you are not raining on my parade. I am glad that I’m at work on less than 2 hours of sleep.
Saw the movie today, and I enjoyed it. I last read the graphic novel a couple of years ago now so the little details aren’t that fresh in my mind.
If it matters my wife who had very low expectations and doesn’t normally like this sort of movie actually enjoyed it to.
The ending? On one hand I liked it, in the senses that it was a little less ‘comic-bookie’ and required a little less back story to make it understandable, but as has been ably stated above I have a niggling doubt that the ending used would actually achieve the same outcome as the space squid within the reality. With the doomsday clock so close wouldn’t the risk that the Soviets would have detected the destruction of Moscow - related it to Dr Manhattan and decided he’s an American - hit the button?
Saw it at a midnight showing last night. I should, I suppose, note that I’m a comic-book fan in general, and enjoyed the Watchmen book when I read it in '88.
Sadly, I didn’t enjoy the movie very much.
It was extremely graphically violent in places; I suppose that level of graphicness supported the tone of the film, but I found it offputting and unnecessary.
The acting was pretty wooden, particularly Silk Spectre II and Ozymandias, as others have noted. OTOH, Jackie Earle Haley was very good.
And, yes, I know, there was a lot of story to tell, but when we got to the 2-hour mark, and I was checking my watch, thinking, “crap, there’s another 40 minutes”, that wasn’t good.
Saw one of the midnight shows here last night (the googleplex had at least three auditoriums set up for it) and came away very impressed at what they were able to accomplish in adapting this to the screen.
The ending change works, and the biggest loophole it leaves (mentioned above, that it only unites humanity insofar as humanity remains worried about Jon coming back) is addressed in the film, so it’s not like they simply didn’t think about the implications. They had to cut stuff out, and tighten up what they could that was left over, and they did a fine job of that.
The moron reviewer quoted in the OP who didn’t think “All Along the Watchtower” was appropriate where it was used is beneath all contempt and that opinion alone, IMHO, invalidates any thoughts he may have on the quality of the film.
I haven’t seen the movie yet–I’m going tomorrow morning. I’ve been looking forward to this ever since I saw the first trailer (before that I was scared to death they were going to screw it up). I do have one question, though, for those who’ve seen it (feel free to spoiler box the answer–I don’t care about being spoiled, since I know the story): How graphic is the violence? It won’t matter–I normally avoid movies with very graphic violence (I love House, though–go figure) but I’ll be seeing this one no matter what. Just want to be forewarned.
I’ve heard other people say this, too, holding **The Dark Knight **up as the epitome of superhero movies. I don’t want to hijack the thread, but I certainly don’t see why, personally. I thought **TDK **was too long and dark (and I like dark movies), I thought Bale was terrible as Batman (lose the gravelly voice, dude!) and that the whole thing could have benefitted from a good editor. Only Ledger’s performance as the Joker held any interest for me at all. But anyway, I’m expecting that **Watchmen **will well surpass **TDK **in my mind. For me, the movie it has to beat is Iron Man, which I consider the best superhero movie since the original Batman.
