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Happened upon Adam Hughes's DA page with some Watchmen designs he did for the movie with a nice little reads

Nite Owl

Silk Spectre

Ozymandias and The Comedian

Shame his Nite Owl wasn't used.

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Adam Hughes, you say?

*jumps right to Silk Spectre*

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Spoilers I assume (haven't seen)

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Just put this book on hold at the library, can't wait to read.

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And some reviews
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/watchmen/

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This is out tomorrow, I know the Canadian Connection has a crew together for Dylflon's birthday.
Anyone else plans on catching it manana or even at a midnight showing?

Also it currently stands at 66% on RT.

And a MUST WATCH Video
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/485797

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That cartoon is f&%king brilliant

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Hahahahahah. That was awesome.

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Saw the midnight showing.

Enjoyed it, but it didn't get close to the epic feeling of Dark Knight


Worth the 3 hours though :-)

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Fantastic movie! Eerily brilliant casting choices (especially Rorschach and Rorscach's Psychologist in Jail.) Even the small characters like the comic-book reading kid by the Newstand. Even the newstand guy was spot on.

This is also the first movie that I don't think will piss off any serious fans of the comic. Everything was represented accurately and with reason. And if anyone does complain? It's fucking Solid Snake himself, David Hayter who wrote the screenplay. It's golden.

However, TERRIBLE soundtrack. The only decent piece was the music playing during Manhattan's backstory. The incidental music was terribly composed. This is coming from Warner Brothers who spent more than a pretty penny on gorgeus orchestral music for Batman, which was a kid's television show. However, they figured out there was giant gaps, and filled them with crappy licenced songs.

99 luftballoons? We all laughed.

Sound of Silence? Really?

HEY GUYS LET'S HAVE A RIOT. Oh by the way all the music we have is KC and the Sunshine Band because LOL WE'RE IN THE SEVENTIES. Really? SHIT.

Oh shit Manhattan is huge and kicking ass! Let's play... Ride of the Valkyries. Don't reorchestrate it or anything, just play the most popular version.

And finally.. Leonard Cohen's version of Hallelujah? Really? Of all the covers, they had to choose the crappy original? Also... why that song? Hallelujah that he's HAVING SEX? Alright guys.

The only good song choice was the Philip Glass track, "Pruit Igoe & Prophecies" playing during Manhattan's backstory. However, it's not something they composed. It's in Grand Theft Auto IV on the radio.

So... music aside, go see this!

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Bob Dylans The times they are a changing in the opening was alright.


Think the worst part was Jimi Hendrix cover of all along the watchtower. Really didnt fit at that moment in the film.

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I was going to mention All Along the WatchTower, but after reviewing the lyrics, they kind of fit. Sort of. So I let it slide. Hahaha.

But yeah, Bob Dylan's first song was fine where it was. KC and the Sunshine band, however, was totally awkward.

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Just got back from seeing this with Combine.



Not enough penis

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Jeff Buckley FTW.

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I think the best part of this movie was the hilarious IMAX laser show promiting IMAX itself that happened before we all watched it. I kept expecting it to tell my life would be better with surround sound in high def, and needed more laser racecars whizzing by.


Anyways, I've never read the book, but I loved the movie a lot. I thought it was really well done, except after talking about the book on the way home, some things just aren't flat out explained and didn't even needed to be included in the movie considering they werent imperative to the storyline itself.

I thought the music choice was good, actually. I thought the selection of music was supposed to be a comedic poke of juxtaposition to what was actually going on at times.

I would see this again and again.
Just not in IMAX, if they keep showing that goddamn laser show.

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I think me and Combine are going to see it next weekend in IMAX.


I remember when I saw Dark Knight in IMAX and it did the laser show. All I could think was that IMAX is an arrogant dick

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So good!

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I've watched it and digested it. Here are a few notes:

1) Music - Yes, it was distractibg at times (Sound of Silence, 99 Luftballoons), but after thinking about it I thought most of it was appropiate. I will agree that the Jeff Buckley should have been used, but then again Shrek kind of stole that thunder, but the Hallelujah wasn't abnout sex... the sex wasn't about sex... it was about them finding their calling again.

Boogieman, Watchtower were especially well chosen, IMO. The score was not especially good, apart from the Manhattan sequence, but not distracting.

2) Aside from Malin Ackerman (she was kind of just "there" I thought the performances were very good - excellent. Jackie Earle Haley (I CALLED IT) stole the damn movie. He IS Rorschach. Morgan was also a standout as The Comedian, and that character was even more effective on screen. He was more dispicable and yet more relatable at the same time.

And I liked Patrick Wilson's version of Night Owl better than Moore's version, because the movie version seemed to be a man searching for his lost manhood rather than in the book where I wondered how he ever was a hero in the first place.

EDIT: Can't forget Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan. I will be the first to say I was wrong about there being no effects on his voice. The character needed that human element and Crudup played a man so detached but regretful of the detachment that it was a little painful.

3) Apart from the ending, which seemed rushed, I thought the movie was incredibly well edited and directed. The cemetery flashbacks and Manhattan scenes especially. Also, the inevitable comparisons to DK will comes, and one area where I will ay Snyder has it all over Nolan is fight scenes. Snyder knows how to block a fight scene and it was nice to see somewhat extended shots make it into the Bourne era cut/violence/cut/violence style. And no, the slo-mo wasn't distracting at all, and I found most of it appropriate and effective.

In the end, I'm eager to see the extended version as I think I lot of questions will be answered and hopefully the rushed ending will be fleshed out a bit more.

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I forgot there'd be an extended version.

I think that will be the first blu-ray i ever buy.

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Reading the IGN review reminded me of something I thought about during the end of the movie, but completely forgot after which may make it a moot point, but still.

Mimicking Dr. M's powers made sense especially after snapping on live TV, but yeah why wouldn't the rest of the world view it as America's weapons gone rouge or wild. Why would other countries form up with the US? I can see them forming their own union to protect themselves, but really why include the US if responsible for this mess.

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They thought of Dr. Manhattan as punishing the world, and they say something to the effect that nobody will try anything again while they think he may be watching since they now believe he has the balls to blow shit up.

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I don't know how extended it will be. They just came out with a Watchmen Bluray with the entire Pirate story in animated form, as well as a whole Minutemen feature. I'm wondering if they'll release these again in the form of an ultimate director's cut along with the film and its deleted scenes?

This is what I'm talking about:

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/movies...55&show=review

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And they released the whole motion comic last week as well

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Also Dyne,

Don't a whole wack of the songs in the film represent quotes Allan Moore used in the Watchmen novel? He quoted a buttload of songs at the ends of various chapters.

In fact, I think he quoted 99 Luft Balloons at the end of a chapter...

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Yeah, that bothered me....and the music took me out of it...(except for 99 luft balloons...that increases the awesomeness of everything it touches)

...other than that a so-so action flick that wished it had more action and thus milked every scene a fist was thrown.

As a whole I didn't care for it. Was just cool seeing a few scenes played out...and the actors did a fine job.

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One other thing that bothers mw when compared to the comic, is how they dehumanized Veidt. In the movie he never questions his actions, or doesn't until the last second, but in the book he openly weeps, expresses joy and then regret. I thought that would have been much more effective than the "comic book villain" they made him out to be in the movie. In the end, if you sympathize and feel more for the Comedian than you do for Veidt, you've failed that character.

I've never been orthodox in my books to movie transitions, but in this case I think the movie would have benefitted greatly from treating the end more like it was in the book, because in my opinion the end of the movie is what keeps this very affecting film from being a GREAT one that would have been remembered for changing superhero films even more than DK.

As for the actions sequences, though obligatory, I thought they added to the experience because it gave people an idea that these people were more than JUST troubled people in costumes, but were actual "heroes" which I think makes their tragic faults even more regrettable and gut wrenching. As I said before, the original Nite Owl was too much of a wuss and he needed a more masculine constumed side for his character to really work, IMO.

I'm still thinking about the movie days after it's release, and I'm eager to see it again, and I think that in itself says something for it. Hopefully they filmed an aletrnate, extended ending, and seeing how reverent Snyder was with the previous two acts, I wouldn't doubt the extended director's cut will have a slightly different and longer ending.

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Looking forward to that 3.5+ hour Watchmen DVD with all the added Black Freighter Animated story scenes, Hollis death, etc. All in all, I don't think a better movie adaptation of Watchmen could've been made. I mean really, you can get all nerded up and bicker about shit till the cow's come home, but at the end of the day, it was the bloody Watchmen in movie form and it rocked.

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I know will get some upset, probably not here, but they could have modernized it a bit. I mean some of the ideas are a bit dated or have been done to death in recent comic book movies, which is why I guess this does not stand out as much.

Also on Professor's point, and I hate to keep harping on the ending, but it removes a human element to it, I think. Sure we now have Nite Owl II witnessing the death of his friend, but in that we lose out on Veidt questioning his own decision, Dr. Manhatthan losing his final bite of humanity when he finds Silk Spectre/Nite Owl together, and well the carnage of the exploding beast instead of a bomb.

Due to the story being cut, we also lose the newsstand/customer hugging, we get the scene, but we don't know the characters. What's the point?

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Well we'll get the newspaper dude/comic kid in the super extended ultimate edition, hopefully some more psychiatrist guy too, he was a cool character. I'm wondering if the extended cut of Watchmen will have a Kingdom of Heaven type of effect. And by that I mean, the theatrical version was so-so, and then the extra dvd footage brought the story together brilliantly and it was like watching a whole different movie (I'll take this opportunity to highly recommend the 4 hour extended edition of Kingdom of Heaven).

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So wrong that it hurts.


Modernizing it would be a terrible idea. One of the main points is it being set in the cold war. Threat of nuclear annihilation.

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I was worried they'd bring it even further back and dedicate the first half of the movie to the Minutemen fighting crime. Or even the Watchmen fighting crime. Eep.

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This is what I'm hoping for as well. As it stands I think it's a very good and effective movie. But it could had been great. I suppose I'm lamenting it's potential, rather than the final execution of the film, which might be unfair but when you make a movie version of literature you have to expect this.

As for modernizing it, I can tell you it didn't feel dated to me at all. If anything, it brought back old/bad memories of the Cold War. Being the council elder on these boards, I have distinct memories of the Cold War and I think I was in the finaly elementary school classes to do the "sick your head between you legs and kiss your ass goodbye" drills.

Apart from the rediculous Nixon presidency addition, I thought tension was built quite well using the 80's as a period backdrop, a period that is rarely used.

I guess my biggest complaint with Snyder as director is that whenever he made changes to the source material, he seemed to go in the direction of satire, such as the absurd Nixon makeup and impersonator and overly detached and "perfect" Veidt. Watchmen is not an overtly satirical film, it is a grave warning against putting faith in those who would "protect" you. It seemed his changes made to transfer to film made the movie less human than it could have been.

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I saw the Watchmen movie, and, I don't know. I'm seeing it again because a friend has no one to go with, but I'm not sure if I liked it all that much. I felt it was a really great tribute movie, but as a film, I think it may fall flat.

I agree with BaB's point of losing humanity in the end. While I'm fine with the bomb instead of the squid, I think the handling of the ending was very displaced as if these choices were just drawn out. Veidt had as much humanity as Dr. Manhattan and I think that is wrong.

My major complaint, when it came down to it, is that comics and movies are different mediums and DIRECTLY translating one to the other is almost disrespectful for the forms. Godfather and Lord of the Rings were amazing books, however, they were also amazing movies because the director realized that they weren't making a motion comic, they were making a movie and made intelligent changes to make that amazing movie. But I don't think Snyder has that kind of directorial intelligence. Personally. And I liked 300 and Dawn of the Dead.

Finally, I disagree with the point that there could not be a better Watchmen translation. There are a lot of things in the movie that could have been fixed (like more focus on character work and having the actors make active choices). I'm not going to bitch about them till the "cows come home" but I refuse to believe that ANYTHING is the epitome of perfection.

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You just proved the point that people will find anything to complain about.

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Thank you! I did prove that!

More to the point is that I am commenting on the idea that this is the best possible Watchman there ever could be. Everything has flaws, everything isn't perfect. And as long as that axiom exists, there is no such thing as "best ____ there ever could be".

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You misunderstand my meaning of "best adaptation there could have been". It is has nothing to do with being "perfect". You have to consider the possibilities of a Watchmen movie in the hands of some other director, or studio. Even just a few years ago, before movies like the Dark Knight and 300 proved that violent, intelligent comic book movies were successful, the thought of an almost 3 hour long, rated R Watchmen movie that was faithful in any way to the source material was absurd.

What I'm trying to say is that we can nitpick as much as we want, but it could have been so much worse, like a stupid PG13 90 minute piece of crap. I'd rather just be thankful for what we got.

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I absolutely agree that perhaps 5 or so years ago, this couldn't have been possible. (I believe three it could have since I think the process started about three years ago) I don't mean to play a game of semantics, but I do hear a lot of "best adaptation there could have been" from people who mean exactly those words.

But as I heard somewhere else, the fact that we can nitpick, and that we all pull something from the movie that was off is just a testament of how good the novel was that we found even the details to be important.

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wow i just saw the film...

I actually sought out the graphic novel and read it before seeing the film. Normally I don't do that, but this comic in particular intrigued me.

I have to say, changing the ending so as to put the blame on Dr. Manhattan....I thought it cheapened the point of the original ending.

I thought Dr. Manhattan was one of the few beacons of hope in Alan Moore's dreadful dreary of a distopia. At the end of the novel he sees some good in humans, so much in fact he goes to stop the inevitable nuclear war...only to find that Ozymandias was the mastermind behind it all. He informs Ozymandias that the plan will only be temporarily successful (if that), we then see the guilty and emotional side of Ozymandias (which was also missing form the film), and then in a beacon of positivity and hope Dr. Manhattan leaves the love (Silk Spectre) he can no longer have since he is no longer human and he goes off to create new life elsewhere.

Blaming blue balls and making Ozymandias the supervillain and then leaving the film on a note with a united word........totally cheapens the ending in my opinion.

It was cute that at the end they find Rorschach's diary. I guess it is implied that the plan is a failure anyway.

Otherwise I thought the movie was fucking brilliant. The ending seemed rushed and I'd like to see a director's cut with the original ending since the original ending is better.

Better for who? Us comic nerds. As was stated in this thread I'm probably nitpcking. But the way I see....most people are going to hate Watchmen the movie unless they have read the book. It's heavy, depressing stuff. It's all over the place thematically too. So my question is, how many people are we REALLY alienating if we put a big squid creature in at the end?

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I'm just surprised that Snyder would follow the comic pretty much to a tee until the final chapter.......and change the ending and personality of Adrian.

I thought the casting was great.

I thought the comic to movie visuals was as good as it will get (just look at 300, it was EXPECTED).....

I even enjoyed the music, although some of the choices where a bit cliche and Dr. Manhattan's theme was by far the best....

I mean I almost came during the murder of The Comedian at the beginning.....the cinematography was BEAUTIFUL! And the whole prison scene with Rorschach was epic. It was just a beautiful film. So what the hell....

....why take creative liberties in the last 20 minutes of the otherwise perfectly translated vision?

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I think that it would be easier for movie audiences to accept Dr. Manhattan rather than a giant space squid with psychic powers.