The question of course, is "Who watches the Watchmen?"
I was so completely blown away by this, not just because it was a perfect adaptation, but because it was such an amazing comment on superhero movies in general. The people involved acted like ADULTS, complete with consequences for violence and people getting hot and bothered because of an adrenaline rush. Rorschach was PERFECT and even though I knew what was coming, it was still very sad when it happened. Comedian was also very much badass and felt more developed than in the comics, even though he wasn't a character you WANTED to root for or anything.
My only gripes, protected by spoiler vagueness:
- The eventual villain is pretty much telegraphed if you've read the original comics.
- Too much big blue schlong, although it was balanced out by Malin Akerman getting naked, seemingly as per her contract.
- Patrick Wilson probably should have been a bit paunchier, but he nailed the role as well.
Basically once we hit the Rorschach prison sequence my friend turned to me and said "This is EPIC!" and I'm inclined to agree. Probably won't be for all tastes, but it was definitely for mine. Highest recommendation!
I got to see this on IMAX today and it was awesome. There were some parents who brought their pre-teen kids with them and it made me chuckle as the movie is super gory and has a pretty graphic sex scene, although a super corny pay off to that.
For any die hard of the source material, like myself, it will feel empty in certain spots. Understandable as trying to fit everything into a 2+ hour movie was nearly an impossible undertaking. However, the dvd is confirmed to have an extra 30 minutes plus the freighter story. So just like LOTR, that will probably become the fans preferred viewing choice.
I enjoyed the movie, but I did have a couple of issues.
For one, why did Night Owl have to see Rorschach die? What did we gain from his big “NOOOOOO!” moment, other than flashbacks to Star Wars Episode 3? And was it really nessasary to have Night Owl then beat up Ozy while essentially spelling out the point of the damn movie? For a movie that was so faithful to the source material, it seemed like a rather arbitrary change, and a bad one at that.
Also, the violence was a little too over the top at times. What did we gain by having that guy get his arms sawed off? Shocking, yes, but also a bit ridiculous.
Saw it Thursday at midnight, thought it was tremendous. A few random thoughts, quibbles:
I felt that they kind of dumbed it down for the audience by [Minor Spoilers] actually referring to the group of heroes as “The Watchmen.” While some of the characters worked together in the past in the original series, they were never a complete group, much less called Watchmen. I assume they decided that since viewers would call them that based on the title that they would just go ahead and refer to them as such. That led to a lot of little changes, like having Drieberg warn Veidt about the mask killer instead of Rorshach, and Rorshach’s conversation with Dr. Manhattan no longer being cut short because he was “upsetting Laurie.” Captain Metropolis trying and failing to form the New Minutemen was changed into Ozymandias presiding over an aborted Watchmen meeting. It presented a picture of a closer-knit group than that in the original story. Not sure that’s a bad thing, just was something that really stuck out to me.
I was also put off at first by the ninja/Matrix fighting skills everyone employed in the movie, but by the end I was ok with it.
I was surprised Hollis Mason’s final fate from the story was left out of the movie.
I did approve of the major plot change late in the movie, feeling it was consistent with the original story.
I thought the movie had a great soundtrack. The opening title sequence was just… perfect. Also loved the shot of the smiley face on Mars, then the cut to Archie approaching Karnak as “All Along the Watchtower” kicked in. Beautiful stuff.
Great casting all around, except… I dunno, I just don’t think their version of Adrian Veidt worked as well as it did in the comic. He didn’t come off as sympathetic or benevolent as he should have. I also kept gettin this weird Natalie Portman vibe from Malin Ackerman but that’s neither here nor there.
Rorshach. Fucking. Ruled.
The crowd I saw it with (not a sell-out but close) was pretty rowdy. It was clear, though, that a lot of the people there really had no idea what the movie was going to be like or about, and you could feel them being caught very off guard by the brutality, gore and sexuality. There was someone in the row behind me who, every time they showed Dr. Manhattan’s doodle would hiss “penissssss!” EVERY time. Totally hilarious. I think a lot of people left the theater wondering what the hell it was they’d just seen. Was nothing like the midnight showing of “The Dark Knight,” where you could tell most everyone had been blown away by it.
Overall I liked the movie a lot. I’ll probably go see it again next weekend. Gotta say though, between it, the motion comic out on DVD last week, and Tales of the Black Freighter coming out on DVD next week, I’m getting close to Watchmen overload.
Do you think Doc Manhattan’s penis size was specified in Billy Crudup’s contract?
I have not seen it YET….but all the talk seems to be on uh Dr. Manhattan’s tallywacker. Now I’ve read the book numerous times but don’t recall Dr. Manhattan having a weiner it just sort of blank down there(could explain why she’d run off to Drieberg…rim shot)
Seriously? There is tons of blue wang in the book.
As someone who was just looking to see a good movie this weekend, I was totally disappointed by this movie. My friend and I at various times during the movie turned and asked if we knew what the hell was going on in the movie — neither of us did.
Maybe if you already knew what the movie was about because you’re an uber-geek for the graphic novel, you could follow this shit, but as someone who just wanted to have fun at a movie, this totally disappointed.
300 — I could watch and understand that without having looked at the book it was based on. This one I just couldn’t follow. If you’re a fan of the book, I guess it makes sense to you. But if you’re a normal person, go watch Madea Goes to Jail or the Jonas Brothers concert instead.
LOL. That last sentence makes me think you’re kidding. Because if you’re not, well…it’s not a very complicated movie/story to follow. I went with 3 people that had zero clue about the comic, the story or anything outside of the trailers they saw and they had no trouble following this very “complicated” story.
Just saw it w/ my girlfriend today. She’s sat through some pretty good (Iron Man and ofcourse TDK) and some really bad (TDTESS and The Happening). Didn’t really do much for her, but I thought this was visually stunning.
There were some parts that bordered on Fantastic Four BAD (like the middle portion of the film); however, after we got to the 3rd act this thing picked MAJOR momentum.
Also want to point out to my fellow geeks that there is an a director’s cut that’s gonna be released this summer that adds another 30 minutes to the film…
Can’t wait to see that bad boy on IMAX…
Throughout the entire movie, I kept thinking the guy who played Rorschach was the bully from A Christmas Story. It turns out he was in the Bad News Bears instead, but he really looks like a grown-up Christmas Story bully kid.
If you liked Jackie Earle Haley’s performance as Rorschach, check out Breaking Away, from about 28 years ago. I admit I always wondered what happened to him. For a while I thought he turned into Steve Nash and took up basketball.