"Who Watches the Watchmen?"

[Taco-Calamitous]

Who is excited for "The Watchmen" to come out this Friday? I am.

When I first saw the preview this Summer before watching The Dark Knight, I almost was disappointed that it wasn't the movie I was about to watch. Even though I had not yet read the graphic novel. This weekend, I bought the novel, and I finished reading it today. ...wow. Just for a brief explanation: the novel is about a world in which costumed heros actually existed, and what they might be like.

There have been few forms of media that have gripped me like that over the past few years, from the opening page, reading Rorschach's first journal entry. An amazing read; complicated, deep characters, little tidbits of information in the form of clippings from "news articles" and "autobiographies" and the like at the end of every chapter, gray areas in morality and motive, ambiguous outcomes... I highly recommend you read the graphic novel before seeing the movie, if you have the chance.

That said, watching the trailers, it looks like some things are changed (or I'm just not sure which part of the novel they're interpreting). Still, looks really awesome. I will not read any reviews for this movie until I've seen it. I almost did by looking at the front page of Rotten Tomatoes today and seeing its Tomato Meter, but then I left again. I highly recommend the same; read the novel, then see the movie. Unless they highly deviate from the Alan Moore's story, I promise it will be awesome. ...if you're in to that sort of thing. Anyhoo...

Wuv, Yer Mom

[Furore]

I'm wanting to see it myself. I'm also curious about the xbla game that'll be released episodically. The one that'll also be on steam, PSN and possibly Wiiware too I think.
Haven't seen the graphic novel, but the hype around has gotten me excited. With any luck I won't be disappointed.

[Azuteor]

Hell yeah, Watchmen is gonna rock! A friend of mine wanted me to stop reading manga for a while and handed me the comic book. I'm glad I did. Only a few more days till the film is finally released! I didn't read any reviews, but I looked at the ratings that many of the critics has given the film. Oh...Why must movie critics be so cruel? We will just have to see for ourselves.

[T.G. Oskar]

I also must admit, one of the reasons I'm eagerly awaiting to go to the movies for.

I must say, I haven't seen the graphic novel, so it will be quite a bit of an experience, but I know the story is quite impressive. As far as I've seen, it's a very well done translation of the comic experience, though it's a bit tough when the creator isn't as excited over the movie as most people are. But hey, that's how Mr. Moore is over his work; can't blame him.

I also heard the ending will have some differences, something I'm eager to look since the original ending (while I haven't seen the comic, I've seen how the story goes, hence why I desire to see the movie) is pretty shocking.

[Bleachfangirl]

I haven't read the comics, and I hadn't heard of them until I searched up Watchmen on Google, but I'm still pumped to see this movie. It seems really exciting and I hope it is. My friend keeps nagging me to not see it since it's from DC Comics, but he's going to watch it too.

I don't even know what it should be about...but I guess I'll find out by the time I'm done. =D

[icemageofkatrac]

might be good, im gonna watch the dvd evantually

[Azuteor]

might be good, im gonna watch the dvd evantually

The crap?

Do you plan on watching the film? Do you know anything about Watchmen? Are you familiar with the comic book, if I may ask? Are you posting to increase your post count?

C'mon, I'm pretty sure you can type something that states your opinion! The DVD won't even come yet in months or within a year.

x_x;;

Anyways, no sweat. I'm really excited to seeing Watchmen with my friends this evening. I like how the heroes are just regular people with actual problems of their own, although, Dr.Manhattan is an exception. As for the guy behind the characters' problems, I wasn't expecting it to be him. Whoever read the comic book among TFF may know what I'm talking about.

BTW, check this out. Saturday Morning Watchmen

[T.G. Oskar]

As for the guy behind the characters' problems, I wasn't expecting it to be him.

Precisely the reason why Watchmen is so awesome. That twist ending really closes an in-depth mystery with a bang. Even now, the fact that you realize the culprit right as it gets revealed makes it all the more worthwhile. Have to see if that specific part gets "translated" with precision in the movie.

[Azuteor]

Haha, I sorta laughed when he said that he wasn't inclined to reveal his plan to his pursuers like a cliche comic book villain. That's the right way of doing it! Although, the characters are neither good or evil. All of them have their way own way of perceiving humanity and right and wrong.

I watched the movie last night at around 7 o' clock. It lasted about 3 hours, man it was long, but well worth getting the butt sores. The movie pretty much summed up the entire storyline except a few important parts that were left out. One of my friends hated it, haha, I have yet to hear why she didn't like it. Watchmen is multi-layered. IMO, I don't think a person can fully understand it without familiarizing with the comic book. That's where the movie fell short, other than the constant transition of music and the weird song that played in the sex scene in Nite Owl's Archimedes. There were bits and pieces that didn't get a chance to breathe until the end where everything made sense. If Zack Snyder was able to cover everything, the movie might have lasted 2+ hours from the original running time. He did a great job and stayed faithful.

Overall, the film was awesome! The action was really cool, but there were times where it was unrealistic and gruesome. Haha, it left my friends and I cringing in pain and cursing under our breathes. The movie was as stylized as the comic.

[Bleachfangirl]

I went to watch it just this morning with my brother, and it was a lot more bloody that I had originally thought it would be (though it is rated R). I don't know how the comic was, so maybe the movie's just following how the comic was, but it could have been a little more PG to me. The fights were kind of cool, but the obvious blood and gore was kind of scary. But other than the blood and smex, it was pretty good. Definitely different from other movies I've seen with super powered men.

All of them have their way own way of perceiving humanity and right and wrong.

Totally true. While watching, I kept thinking about each character "How is this dude a good guy?" At the end, I figured that no one was, which made the movie for me, since that's how it is.

I'm a little interested in finding the comics now just to compare the two.

[Taco-Calamitous]

Azuteor, that cartoon is pretty awesome. Take out the reference to cancer, and I bet that's what the 80's Saturday morning Watchmen cartoon would've been like.

Yeah, the amount of violence and sex is escalated in the movie (mostly the violence. Although there was that one sex scene where all my friends and I were like "...okay... it's still going... yup... heh heh... yeah...") Although you gotta remember; this was the director of 300. But there definitely was more emphasis on action than there was in the comic.

In my opinion, the movie was about as close to perfect that a Watchmen motion picture could be. I was surprised athow much of the dialogue was actually the same from the book. There were a few things that were changed, but nothing I really minded all that much. In fact, there was at least one change that I appreciated:

Spoiler: the fact that someone actually cared that Rorschach died. In the comic, Daniel is all like "I'm gonna have sex with this girl again, and then later on not even acknowledge what happened to my best friend."

They couldn't really include every little detail from the comic with what happened in the past, but I thought the opening credits was a pretty good way go about it. They pretty much included every detail of the story of the main characters, though, which was good. Also, if you want to see some of that other stuff from the book, they're making a direct to dvd release of Under The Hood and the Black Freightor comic book.

So yeah; overall, I thought it was a great adaptation of the graphic novel. About as good as they could have done without "pandering to Alan Moore and making it exactly like the novel, page by page," as my friend put it. Anyhoo...

Wuv, Yer Mom

[EthanElephants]

I really enjoyed this movie. they were very good at adding most of the detail in the novel to the movie, even down to the extras looking the same... it was a little awkward for me though because my girlfriend kept telling how much she loved john because of his "appendage." i liked the visuals and the addition of many of my favorate songs to the soundtrack.

[foster kid]

i watched the movie last night and i not gonna lie i really had no clue who the watchmen were til i heard about the movie.....don't judge........ but besides that i think it was an awesome movie even though i had to manhattan mans ....tool for 3 hours that wasn't a fun time lol but other than that i really liked it.. i did't think i would have liked it but i was impressed for real better then the movie i see on my birthday.......paul blart mall cop

[Benjisan]

To be honest, i hadn't heard of the Watchmen until the trailer for the movie came out. To present, i've seen the movie twice and i thoroughly enjoyed it both times. Though i have yet to read the Graphic novel, the film on its own was excellent. The use of 80's music, and even the characters were fascinating. My favourite character in particular was Rorschach, beacause of his twisted and interesting brand of justice

Even the ending of the movie was interesting and unexpected, as the "villain" of the movie i did not expect. Overall, the movie was fascinating and i highly recommend that sceptics see it before critiscing it.

[Furore]

I saw it myself and quite enjoyed it.

And it was very interesting to see the character's motivations unfold for me, particularly those of Rorschach and the Comedian. And though they both seemed to be a bit extreme, their thoughts on the world often seemed rather insightful.

On another note, the game of the film also seems pretty awesome, though it might get a bit repetitive if it's just more of the same. I can't say as I've not gotten the time to play it much yet.

[Corwin]

Saw it with Azuteor, thought it was a fairly faithful adaption. I found that I liked the ending in the movie a bit better,

Spoiler: because it made more sense to make it seem like Dr. Manhattan is against the world instead of, y'know, giant inter-dimensional-psychic-squid-thing out of nowhere.

Seemed a little out of place for someone as nice as Dan to go around cracking bones and stuff in the fights, but that's just a minor nitpick.

[Dan558]

I saw the movie, It was ok. Thats it. Just ok.

I'm tired of these movies that keep coming up that people get their balls all greased in excitement following the mob mentality. So many people are all of a sudden these big fans even though they have never mentioned it before, i've never seen them show any interest in previous merchandise (if there ever was any other then the "Graphic Novel" a.k.a. Comic book). Movies like this just show how simple people can be...

As I am sure most people have noticed all of the watchmen crew are basically just re-hashes of previously established (some far better) superheroes; Batman, catwoman, Question, Captain Atom, and possibly a "good" Joker and Vandal Savage

[Sean]

I really really enjoyed it.

I loved the character developement, the storytelling, the world, the way the back story was told to you in small parts, the violence, the camera work...

The movie was everything I expected it to be, very amazing.

[Zargabaath]

I saw the movie a few nights ago. It took it sometime for the story to progress, as the beginning was character development for the cast and their past relationhip with The Comedian. Most of the characters were interesting, but I do not like the ending and disagree with it 100%.

No one has the right to use force against another person (when I say "use" it means initiate, people have the right to defend themselves). Ozymandias' view that he has the right to kill off people to save the world is completely wrong. Every person has the right to their own life, no one has the right to take over it. If a person does, that is the path of the tryant, the dictator; they abolish all rights to life and embrace that they can judge who lives or dies. Ozyamndias believes that the ends justify the means, this is completely wrong. The end never justifies the means, that way of thinking treats humans as chattle, sheep who can be used in any way for any reason that is perceived to be good. If how you accomplish your goal through violating the rights of others then your goal is not good, but a mutilation of what is good. Those who believe in this, reveal that their own life is worthless, meaningless, and have no self-esteem. It is a gross error in epistemology in thinking that inalienable rights can be broken, inalienable means that they can never be broken or else the person who does is commiting high cirmes against humanity.

Dr. Manhattan agrees to this view because even though he says he values human life, this view contradicts it. Because of his power and existence he has lost association with human life and thus value life. Since his existence has transcended mortallity he has lost the concept of values to him. For it only through the life that values can be established. Since he is no longer mortal he has lost all values for nothing can now help or hinder his goals. It will happen no matter what happens. Also Dr. Manhattan sees his future, but that is only one future, by believing that must happen, he acts to fulfill, something similiar in Tales of the Abyss, he could have chosen to do something different changing the future but he became a slave to the future he saw, this happened in part due to him losing all values. Because he became disconnected with life and himself being immortal the future and human events meant little to him.

[Sean]

According to the graphic novel, which I sat down and read tonight, Dr. M can only see the future, and in no way can change it or shape it to what he wants. He can see the outcome of his actions, but ultimately his actions are predetermined, as is the entire future. It's as you said, he acts to fulfill the future he sees, but he does so because he is powerless to change it.

The movie did a great job of incorporating most of the graphic novel, and was more or less true, with only a few things changed for cinematic flair and, to be expected, a lot of scenes removed.

The soundtrack was also fkin amazing. Songs that were quoted or displayed in the graphic novel were added. In the novel, the scene where Rorschach and Nite Owl II at the end when they confronted Ozy, in the novel that's the end of a chapter, and the quote at the end was the lyrics of the Dylan song All Along the Watchtower. "Outside in the cold distance, a wild cat did growl. Two riders were approaching, and the wind began to howl" and they did an amazing job of incorporating that with Hendrix's version playing over the scene with the lyrics synced nicely.

There was a lot of little things in the movie I enjoyed, and the people who are pissy about the background story telling, well.. it's how it was presented by the original authors of the graphic novel, so QQ to them.

[Calvan]

I saw Watchmen day before yesterday.
It was good. But most definately intended for mature audiences.