thank god. Ive been hearing such bad reviews on other websites, so now you got me relieved. Can't wait to see this........
dfacks
· 9 months ago
this definitely clears up some of the worries i still had about this book-to-movie adaption. very much looking forward to the premier.
MrDeath
· 9 months ago
WHAT WHY IS THIS NOT AN A+++++ THIS IS THE WURST REVIEW I'VE EVER READ!!!
But in all seriousness, good review. I'm fairly excited to see this, but I don't have the same excitement as I did for The Dark Knight or Iron Man, so I don't know what I'll think of it.
Mack41
· 9 months ago
Just wondering, the breakups you mention, are they some what like Memento where it is an obviois switch that ties together later on?
codeBLUE
· 9 months ago
Thank you for being as honest as possible. I have high expectations for this, and now I'm definitely relieved that it may be what I'm expecting.
MORELOTH
· 9 months ago
You convinced me.......I WILL BE THE ONE WHO WATCHES THE WATCHMEN!!!!
curt
· 9 months ago
the description of who won't like it makes me want to see it that much more. i can't wait
Zak
· 9 months ago
Haha, AngryBroomstick! I see you on Photoshop Disasters a lot.
Cole_Abaius
· 9 months ago
Wow! This sounds great. It's weird that I haven't heard of it until now...
DMuff
· 9 months ago
Great review, I can't wait to check this out.
MoMo
· 9 months ago
this might be the most fair review i've read so far. can't wait for this.
Rob_Hunter
· 9 months ago
This is definitely a review! I may see this movie at some point.
Meatball
· 9 months ago
Wow, great read. Cannot wait...
entertainmenttod
· 9 months ago
Good review I have felt for a long time that this is inside material. As much as I hope I like this film My gut feeling is I will not. I have not read the novels and the trailers do nothing for me and neither do the clips.
dragonmum
· 9 months ago
Personally, I've been avoiding the novel like the plague. Not because I don't want to read it - after listening to my DH rave about it, there's nothing I'd like more - but because I don't want to step into the theater with too-high expectations. I've done that with Harry Potters 4 & 5, and been seriously disappointed. But if the movie is truly this good, maybe I'll go ahead and read it first... nah, still think I'll wait.
Matt
· 8 months ago
I think its a totally different story with Watchmen. You have to read to novel to realize what the big deal is. And to appreciate how hard it must of been to make this film because if you read it, it really does seem unfilmable. I know I wouldnt be half as excited for Friday as I am right now if I didnt read Watchmen. Which alot of people havent but its ok because its there choice to be lame and miss out. No offense.
djjeffhall
· 9 months ago
Robert - Thanks so much for the thoughtful review. You certainly approach this in an as objective manner possible. (Considering that everyone on this site, both professionally and as fan, will probably qualify as "comic geeks," this is no easy feat.)
I really appreciate the manner and "point-by-point" manner of the review. Great job, great read.
AndyIII
· 9 months ago
Screw it...I'm in.
As everyone's pointing out, this is a great review because it addresses the people who haven't read it or know much about it (me) as thoughtfully as the rabid fans. I think I might wait a little bit and let the fanboys and girls (I ran into one last year) have at it for a while. I don't want to hear any sighs or exasperated groans.
blckmanjew
· 9 months ago
ugh i give it an F, right up there with mall cop
Adam_Sweeney
· 9 months ago
This is that film about the Watchmakers' Union, right?
rommy
· 9 months ago
really a fantastic review. kudos. hits upon all my fears and gives a good rundown of the expected flaws. so excited.
790
· 9 months ago
Excellent non -spoiler review !!!!
My train is still on course for Watchmen!
laoe
· 9 months ago
great review..def gonna watch it!
dragonmum
· 9 months ago
"and girls (I ran into one last year)" You just ran into another. ;)
AndyIII
· 8 months ago
Well, as long as you don't practically call me a festering son of a bowery whore for not knowing about Watchmen, then we'll be ok.
It was ridiculous. The girl went off on me as if I hadn't seen Star Wars or something.
dragonmum
· 8 months ago
Meh, I'm not that hardcore. As long as you don't look at me funny for liking Star Wars, Star Trek, XFiles, etc etc, we're good. Hot, friendly fangirls exist... we're just rare. ;)
AndyIII
· 8 months ago
Hot, friendly fangirls are the hottest of the hot...and rare.
Sam_isusingan_
· 9 months ago
I'll be honest, I was going to see it even if it got panned everywhere. The visuals from the trailer alone made me want to see it. That being said, your review did calm my nerves a bit.
I think the studio did a good job of trying to parade Snyder's name everywhere in the months leading up to the release, because as you said, this isn't an easily marketable movie, but Snyder's success with 300 will bring people in who wouldn't have given Watchmen a second look. I think it's going to have a strong opening weekend, but I think any direct comparisons to TDK are unfair, though I get how TDK is now a benchmark.
RobertFure
· 9 months ago
I doubt we'll see another TDK like opening for years. The 3rd Installment will probably suffer (most 3rd installments do), especially with the loss of Ledger in this franchise. I think you'll see Transformers 2 open big and do well and Terminator: Salvation. Those will probably be high.
Watchmen is a guessing game for almost everyone, I think it might do something like $60 for an opening on the strong side. Zack Snyder fans will find that trademark Snyder style in a bunch of places, so they should be pleased.
I'm really interested to see general audience reaction and box office.
Sam_isusingan_
· 9 months ago
Yeah I think it's unlikely that any thing will reach TDK opening or general box office numbers for a while, but because it's the 'comic book movie that could', people will be drawing parallels to it all the time. But in the months leading up to its release, everyone knew about it. I would venture that 50+% of general movie going population hasn't heard of the Watchmen, or if they have, know very little about it. I agree that Transformers 2 & Terminator: Salvation will do well, and I doubt at this point, anyone could argue against that. If either of them are good movies isn't really the point.
I caught a synopsis of a review of Watchmen on digg that said something the effect that everyone he knew who hadn't read the book loved the movie. Some reviewer on joblo.com? I've never heard of the site before, but that doesn't mean anything. Anyway, i assume most people he was talking to were film critics who have an appreciation for film in general rather than your movie goer that helped Paul Blart make 33M on the opening weekend. I have no idea how it's going to be received by the general population (not having seen it, obviously) and with the generally bleak nature of it, it may not get "word of mouth business." An example of that, for me, was Before The Devil Knows You're Dead. I absolutely loved it, and recommended it to a friend who also like darker movies, and he couldn't finish it (because it was "so depressing") but said it was well crafted. I think that's the kind of response that we'll see. "It was well made but the story was too dark, or too confusing, or too etc etc for me to follow."
Now completely off topic, another friend and I thought that physically speaking, Charlie Hannum (Sons of Anarchy) could pull off the Joker look fairly close to Ledger's, though I don't know about how close his performance would be. He also likes to play "psychos" or fringe characters. Just a thought anyway.
joe_daddy
· 8 months ago
What are you talking about? You think that 50% haven't heard of the watchmen movie? With all the hype that's been poured on about this thing, I think most people have at least heard of it and seen a trailer or two.
As far as opening numbers, I'm CERTAIN it won't hit TDK's for the opening weekend. If you compare the numbers for Batman comic fans and Watchmen comic fans, way more are familiar with Batman - at least way more of the 18-30 year olds. On top of that, The Batman movie franchise had 4 other entries (most of which did ok at the box office) before Batman Begins. It was a fairly well-respected franchise until George Clooney showed up. It really looked like he had finally accomplished what all of the batman villains could not: kill the batman. Not that Val Kilmer did Batman Forever any favors, but alas.
I'm sure the reviews will be mixed, but to say that a large % of the population hasn't heard of it by this point is just plain silly. I have seen 4 Making of: The Watchmen specials on 4 different channels in the last week.
Sam_isusingan_
· 8 months ago
What I said was "I would venture that 50+% of general movie going population hasn't heard of the Watchmen, or if they have, know very little about it." meaning that even if a person has seen a trailer or a mention of it, they don't know what it's about.
Keep in mind that the average target audience starts at age 13, and also includes 40+ audiences in a total movie going population. What you're seeing is them marketing to your age group. Etc Etc. You may have seen a ton of 'making of' shows, but I've seen a ton of 'So What's Watchmen all about?' articles on sites like MSN etc. Meaning, again, if people have heard of Watchmen, they probably don't know what the hell it's about.
MWillig
· 8 months ago
Because of your excellent review, I'm confident I will be liking this film!!!
Matt
· 8 months ago
I really wanna see how those 'Non Watchmen fans' (yuck, those people are despicable) react to the movie. I was joking about that last comment but seriously you dont get to be rated top 100 of the best novels ever for nothing. Especially if its a Graphic Novel which no one EVER shows love for.
fanboy
· 8 months ago
To be fair, I loved the comics, but hadn't even heard of them until I saw the first Watchmen trailer in theaters what seems like about a year ago
dragonmum
· 8 months ago
None taken, I understand - at this point I'm going to read it simply 'cause it doesn't look like I'll get to see it in theaters. And I'm not completely in the dark on this, my hubby has read it and has told me some of what to expect. But for me, watching a bad interpretation of a story you've come to love is almost unforgivable. I'd almost rather not see the movie in that case.
Bransby
· 8 months ago
Saw the film last week and really enjoyed it. Am now reading the novel, and whilst I certainly wouldn't put it in a top 100 novels of all time (I mean come on, it's not Dickens, Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky) it is very entertaining and thought-provoking. I'm far from a comic book fanboy, but the film was a refreshing change from the usual comic franchise crap.
des
· 8 months ago
I just saw the film and it was great. Not in a hollywood kind of way but in a great story/characters/filmmaking kind of way. I purposely stayed away from the graphic novel so that I could watch the film and really experience the story with fresh eyes and an unbiased mind and I'm glad I did. Although I did find it slowly paced at times I never had any problems with the "vignettes" that the review was talking about. The characters were truly engaging enough that the story, for me, moved along fairly well. Truly the film is an immersion of Watchmen's world. It really felt like I was there and not just some audience in the cinema waiting for "what happens next". My grade for this film, not film-adaptation of a comic book but as a FILM, is a big A+. Now excuse me while I order the Watchmen (Absolute Edition) (Hardcover Comic) on Amazon :)
joe_daddy
· 8 months ago
You saw it already? I have a feeling I won't like it, but the "graphic novel," was awesome. And while we're on the subject, "graphic novel," is lame. It's a comic book.
blckmanjew
· 8 months ago
So obviously it wasn't that good.. but all you "fanboys" don't have the balls to say so.
Josh_Radde
· 8 months ago
I'll say it. It was bad. Bloated, pretentious, over-directed, under-written, and ill-conceived. Bad.
Techinically, it was amazing. Narrative-wise it's extremely inept.
Tim
· 8 months ago
Let me add balance to Josh Radde's entry:
The non-original music was poorly selected and distracting--some of the scenes with Night Owl and Silk Spectre II could have been re-written, but were not that bad.
Other than that though, narrative-wise, it was pretty good. I'd put it ahead of the Spiderman movies, daredevil, Catwoman, all the fantastic 4 movies, but not above the batmans and Iron Man.
Josh is just mad that he didn't get it and it didn't have shitty humor in it like crappy Coen brothers movies.
Josh_Radde
· 8 months ago
I gave a better analysis on the other article on this website (the one above this article). But I figured Jewish black men would want concise answers.
B-RI
· 8 months ago
A-
CaptainReg0981
· 8 months ago
Everyone complains a lot and who cares who likes it or not some people loathed it some loved it. The Graphic novel was one of the best top 100 books of all time for god sakes. M.........................Ok ok I'm done with all you you bitching bla bla blah. Watch the damn movie, if you don't like it you don't like it so just shut the F**k up! I will be watching it no matter what you all are bitching about (except you Robert, thanks for the review). What ever happens Fox studios will be sharing my $12.00 ticket into their shared sales profit no matter what. I read the Grpahic Novel and I'm ready what to expect.
RobertFure
· 8 months ago
In terms of writing, it's pretty insane that they picked Alex Tse and David Hayter. Look at their previous work - would anyone have guessed they'd be writing Watchmen?
Mr. Ink Blot
· 8 months ago
I think you guys hit the nail on the head with the B+ rating. My only problem with it is that I'm not sure if I would understand the plot if I hadn't read the graphic novel first. Also, the music was pretty terrible at times, and the tiger thing Ozzy has looked completely fake.
Anonymous
· 8 months ago
I think anyone who's actually read and appreciated the graphic novel will most certainly NOT be in heaven. It's an immature take from a director with a very immature style. The costumes are modernized to the point of looking 21st century rather than 70s/80s, the Nixon makeup is a joke, the plot is sort of chopped to pieces, the characters are made to look much prettier (removing more than half of the Comedian's scar is removed and Night Owl goes from overweigh to not being ripped), the soundtrack is horribly intrusive, and the sex scene seems so out of place that you feel like you're watching amateur porn rather than a recreation of one of the greatest graphic novels in history.
Alan Moore was right in not wanting to watch this or ever wanting it to be put on screen. It's a graphic novel, not a movie.
James Bradford
· 8 months ago
My biggest complaint isn't that things were changed - In most cases this seems to have been done to bring it alive on screen or format a complex source material into the constraints of the medium- but that many of the smaller changes done seem to be done for odd reasons.
The squid/Dr Manhattan changed ending bothers me a little, not so much because the squid was great - even Alan Moore admitted its a mcguffin - but because ultimately I think it changes what the ending means philosophically. In the book humanity unites to defeat a perceived common foe not to appease an angered god to prevent further "Sodom and Gommorah"-like attacks. But really this is a matter of nuance and really isn't that big of an issue.
Similarly the amped up action even for the characters who, unlike DR. Manhattan, do not have superpowers is a conceit that I'm willing to forgive to get asses in theater seats. Do I think It'd be a better film with out the tacked on action? Yes. Would it be successful in this medium without it? Probably not.
So really what bothers me are the changes that seem to be done for no reason. Normally in a film adaptation these kind of smaller changes would really pass unmentioned but in a film where obvious effort was expended to stick to the source these changes seem glaring.
For example Rorschach's "origin" with the dogs and their owner. Why was it necessary to have Rorschach kill the man with a cleaver (and brutally so) as opposed to letting him burn? Also why change the scene at the jail with the crime boss and the two thugs? Were these changes made to amp up the gore? If so why is this necessary? Do we need torture porn in modern R-rated Films?
Overall I think I fall into the group that accepts that this is about as good a Watchman film as our current film industry is like to deliver. At the end of the day the amount of discussion and debate the film has caused I think in many ways mirrors the impact of the source material, although for different reasons. Its hard to see that as a negative.
RobertFure
· 8 months ago
Legitimate thoughts of course, but I feel that the common foe is that Dr. Manhattan turned against the world. They're not joining together to appease Manhattan, but to try to fight him if he returns.
As for Rorschach's origin, a couple of people on net put forth the idea they had to change it because his comic origin is too close to the first SAW movie, which I'd say is valid.
tbits
· 8 months ago
My two cents. The cinematography was outstanding. It was a really enticing story dark and satirical, it didn't hold back. One of the greatest aspects was all the little sights and sounds in the movie, I'm definitely going to have to go back and watch it a few times to catch them all. I have a feeling that a lot of people arn't going to like it because it is the ultimate anti comic book world. I for one loved it and am now going to have to read the novels.
Writerbane
· 8 months ago
It's = IT IS Its = possessive Writers know this. Therefore=?
andries price
· 7 months ago
i like the watchmen the movie is good my favorite watchmen character is dr. manhatten rorscach silk specture and omyzaiz they are my favorite watchmen character i hope they make watchmen 2 i hope it's good dr. manhatten well be back rorshach will be back nite owl be back i think watchmen 2 will come out in june or july or august 2011 i like the watchmen the watchmen 2 coming soon then it's watchmen 3
All Comments
But in all seriousness, good review. I'm fairly excited to see this, but I don't have the same excitement as I did for The Dark Knight or Iron Man, so I don't know what I'll think of it.
I have felt for a long time that this is inside material. As much as I hope I like this film My gut feeling is I will not. I have not read the novels and the trailers do nothing for me and neither do the clips.
I really appreciate the manner and "point-by-point" manner of the review. Great job, great read.
As everyone's pointing out, this is a great review because it addresses the people who haven't read it or know much about it (me) as thoughtfully as the rabid fans. I think I might wait a little bit and let the fanboys and girls (I ran into one last year) have at it for a while. I don't want to hear any sighs or exasperated groans.
My train is still on course for Watchmen!
You just ran into another. ;)
It was ridiculous. The girl went off on me as if I hadn't seen Star Wars or something.
I think the studio did a good job of trying to parade Snyder's name everywhere in the months leading up to the release, because as you said, this isn't an easily marketable movie, but Snyder's success with 300 will bring people in who wouldn't have given Watchmen a second look. I think it's going to have a strong opening weekend, but I think any direct comparisons to TDK are unfair, though I get how TDK is now a benchmark.
Watchmen is a guessing game for almost everyone, I think it might do something like $60 for an opening on the strong side. Zack Snyder fans will find that trademark Snyder style in a bunch of places, so they should be pleased.
I'm really interested to see general audience reaction and box office.
I caught a synopsis of a review of Watchmen on digg that said something the effect that everyone he knew who hadn't read the book loved the movie. Some reviewer on joblo.com? I've never heard of the site before, but that doesn't mean anything. Anyway, i assume most people he was talking to were film critics who have an appreciation for film in general rather than your movie goer that helped Paul Blart make 33M on the opening weekend. I have no idea how it's going to be received by the general population (not having seen it, obviously) and with the generally bleak nature of it, it may not get "word of mouth business." An example of that, for me, was Before The Devil Knows You're Dead. I absolutely loved it, and recommended it to a friend who also like darker movies, and he couldn't finish it (because it was "so depressing") but said it was well crafted. I think that's the kind of response that we'll see. "It was well made but the story was too dark, or too confusing, or too etc etc for me to follow."
Now completely off topic, another friend and I thought that physically speaking, Charlie Hannum (Sons of Anarchy) could pull off the Joker look fairly close to Ledger's, though I don't know about how close his performance would be. He also likes to play "psychos" or fringe characters. Just a thought anyway.
As far as opening numbers, I'm CERTAIN it won't hit TDK's for the opening weekend. If you compare the numbers for Batman comic fans and Watchmen comic fans, way more are familiar with Batman - at least way more of the 18-30 year olds. On top of that, The Batman movie franchise had 4 other entries (most of which did ok at the box office) before Batman Begins. It was a fairly well-respected franchise until George Clooney showed up. It really looked like he had finally accomplished what all of the batman villains could not: kill the batman. Not that Val Kilmer did Batman Forever any favors, but alas.
I'm sure the reviews will be mixed, but to say that a large % of the population hasn't heard of it by this point is just plain silly. I have seen 4 Making of: The Watchmen specials on 4 different channels in the last week.
Keep in mind that the average target audience starts at age 13, and also includes 40+ audiences in a total movie going population. What you're seeing is them marketing to your age group. Etc Etc. You may have seen a ton of 'making of' shows, but I've seen a ton of 'So What's Watchmen all about?' articles on sites like MSN etc. Meaning, again, if people have heard of Watchmen, they probably don't know what the hell it's about.
Techinically, it was amazing. Narrative-wise it's extremely inept.
The non-original music was poorly selected and distracting--some of the scenes with Night Owl and Silk Spectre II could have been re-written, but were not that bad.
Other than that though, narrative-wise, it was pretty good. I'd put it ahead of the Spiderman movies, daredevil, Catwoman, all the fantastic 4 movies, but not above the batmans and Iron Man.
Josh is just mad that he didn't get it and it didn't have shitty humor in it like crappy Coen brothers movies.
Alan Moore was right in not wanting to watch this or ever wanting it to be put on screen.
It's a graphic novel, not a movie.
The squid/Dr Manhattan changed ending bothers me a little, not so much because the squid was great - even Alan Moore admitted its a mcguffin - but because ultimately I think it changes what the ending means philosophically. In the book humanity unites to defeat a perceived common foe not to appease an angered god to prevent further "Sodom and Gommorah"-like attacks. But really this is a matter of nuance and really isn't that big of an issue.
Similarly the amped up action even for the characters who, unlike DR. Manhattan, do not have superpowers is a conceit that I'm willing to forgive to get asses in theater seats. Do I think It'd be a better film with out the tacked on action? Yes. Would it be successful in this medium without it? Probably not.
So really what bothers me are the changes that seem to be done for no reason. Normally in a film adaptation these kind of smaller changes would really pass unmentioned but in a film where obvious effort was expended to stick to the source these changes seem glaring.
For example Rorschach's "origin" with the dogs and their owner. Why was it necessary to have Rorschach kill the man with a cleaver (and brutally so) as opposed to letting him burn? Also why change the scene at the jail with the crime boss and the two thugs? Were these changes made to amp up the gore? If so why is this necessary? Do we need torture porn in modern R-rated Films?
Overall I think I fall into the group that accepts that this is about as good a Watchman film as our current film industry is like to deliver. At the end of the day the amount of discussion and debate the film has caused I think in many ways mirrors the impact of the source material, although for different reasons. Its hard to see that as a negative.
As for Rorschach's origin, a couple of people on net put forth the idea they had to change it because his comic origin is too close to the first SAW movie, which I'd say is valid.
Its = possessive
Writers know this.
Therefore=?