Watchmen

[Watashi]

Pictures have finally surfaced online:

You can check out what looks to be Rorschach here.

[Henry Gale]

Wow, I definately like the look of that.

Any more pics?

[megladon8]

It definitely seems to have a good look to it.

[Sycophant]

Hmmm... I haven't declared on this incarnation of the site how I feel about this project.

The book is unfilmable. This project is doomed.

[

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I'd be thrilled to be proven wrong, you know. Of course, that won't happen, because I am right.

]

It does look nice and expensive, though.

[Sven]

I don't think it's unfilmable so much as it is doomed to be inferior to the book. I mean, as a straightforward plot translation, an adaptation should be pretty simple.

[Grouchy]

I don't think it's unfilmable so much as it is doomed to be inferior to the book. I mean, as a straightforward plot translation, an adaptation should be pretty simple.

Yeah, but plot for plot's sake is nothing. Watchmen is nothing without its retro-active storytelling and complicated assembling of plot lines in different scales. There's not enough room in a movie under 8 hours to make the adaptation it deserves. You could make a good film by simply aiming lower, of course. No doubt about that. In short, they should've done the miniseries.

That pic looks good, by the way.

[megladon8]

More pics...

[Sven]

Yeah, but plot for plot's sake is nothing. Watchmen is nothing without its retro-active storytelling and complicated assembling of plot lines in different scales. There's not enough room in a movie under 8 hours to make the adaptation it deserves. You could make a good film by simply aiming lower, of course. No doubt about that. In short, they should've done the miniseries.

All this gets a big "of course" from me. I'm just retorting to the "unfilmable" adjective. But I think, more and more, I can see a film adaptation being successful. Tell me, what is it about Watchmen that could not translate into cinema?

[Grouchy]

All this gets a big "of course" from me. I'm just retorting to the "unfilmable" adjective. But I think, more and more, I can see a film adaptation being successful. Tell me, what is it about Watchmen that could not translate into cinema?

Basically, everything annotated on this page, which is one of many dedicated to the way in which Moore/Gibbons use the sequential art and the structure of a comic-book panel. In Issue 5, Fearful Symmetry, for example, the page layout is the same in the first and last page, in the second and the page before last, and progressively so until the end of the issue. It's a feat of storytelling, because the panels actually make dramatic sense beside the gimmick, and the structure mirrors the story and themes of the issue. In another issue, there's a pirate comic within the comic being read by a boy and it paralells the larger events occuring in the larger, umbrella fictional universe. Or the progressively faster way in which non-linear time jumps allow you to see a lifetime's story simultaneously, just as the protagonist of the issue, Dr. Manhattan, sees it.

I'd be hard-pressed to turn stuff like that into cinema. Basically, Watchmen is a masterpiece because it's a story that has been told perfectly in the medium that fits it best. Masterpieces should never be adapted or remade. It's pointless.

[number8]

My favorite aspect of the Fearful Symmetry chapter is the awesome symmetrical panel of an egg being broken and [

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Moloch's death.

] Foreshadowing at its utmost finest.

[DavidSeven]

I saw The Dark Knight on a regular theater screen and IMAX, and I wouldn't say either experience was definitively better. I'm tempted to say I prefer regular screens because the compositions are easier to take in than on IMAX. I've found it challenging to focus on the entire frame on the behemoth IMAX screen.

[Sven]

I thought this was hysterically awful.

[Dead & Messed Up]

I just got back from a second viewing (my friend Melinda hadn't seen it), and I'm still a big fan.

I tried to pay closer attention this time to the slow-motion and Malin Akerman, since they were, respectively, my biggest and others' biggest problems. The slow-motion is still occasionally irritating, just as it was on a first viewing. As for Akerman...I don't know. I'm still convinced that the problem is her character, not her performance (which might not deserve praise, but hardly deserves scorn). When you're up against the world's smartest man, a potential sociopath, and a God, having daddy issues just doesn't stack up.

But yeah, still amazed by how good it is.

[Sxottlan]

Very well done Wall-E/Watchmen mash-up here.

[Ezee E]

Watched Tales of the Black Freighter and the Under the Hood (or whatever it was called) "doc" that's on the disc.

The animated short is alright, about as good as it could've been I guess, but it's the doc that I liked the most, and is a must-see for any fan of the comic book. It probably does better service to the comic than the movie did itself.

[Skitch]

I might try to watch this for the 3rd time this week.

[[ETM]]

As for Akerman...I don't know. I'm still convinced that the problem is her character, not her performance (which might not deserve praise, but hardly deserves scorn). When you're up against the world's smartest man, a potential sociopath, and a God, having daddy issues just doesn't stack up.

This is what has been bugging me ever since I read Watchmen - the character itself is the weak spot of the graphic novel. I didn't want to comment further because I haven't seen the film yet, but I always suspected it would take a muuuch better actress, and one who wouldn't run around half naked all the time, to do anything credible with that character.

[Grouchy]

This is what has been bugging me ever since I read Watchmen - the character itself is the weak spot of the graphic novel. I didn't want to comment further because I haven't seen the film yet, but I always suspected it would take a muuuch better actress, and one who wouldn't run around half naked all the time, to do anything credible with that character.

Huh... I disagree. Sally is a crucial part of Watchmen. She is the most human character and an example of a life profoundly fucked up by both parents. If she wasn't for her suffering and the realization of the circumstances of her birth, Dr. Manhattan would have never given Earth a second thought.

Malin Akerman is just a crap actress. The film adaptation is curious in that all the good actors (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jackie Earle Haley) give good performances and the rest just about suck.

[Dead & Messed Up]

Huh... I disagree. Sally is a crucial part of Watchmen. She is the most human character and an example of a life profoundly fucked up by both parents. If she wasn't for her suffering and the realization of the circumstances of her birth, Dr. Manhattan would have never given Earth a second thought.

So Sally's emotional arc exists purely to facilitate one key decision by Manhattan? That kind of supports my point.

Now that I think it over, Sally exists mostly to actualize other people, instead of herself. She helps Dan overcome his impotence. She helps Manhattan stay connected to humanity. She helps to humanize the Comedian. Sally exists to make men whole.

I always thought Dreiberg was the most human character. He behaves how must of us behave in real life: he's nervous, frightened, occasionally pathetic, but he genuinely wants to do the right thing, and he believes his works have value. And if he gets off a little on his vigilantism...well, who wouldn't?

[Qrazy]

Huh... I disagree. Sally is a crucial part of Watchmen. She is the most human character and an example of a life profoundly fucked up by both parents. If she wasn't for her suffering and the realization of the circumstances of her birth, Dr. Manhattan would have never given Earth a second thought.

Malin Akerman is just a crap actress. The film adaptation is curious in that all the good actors (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jackie Earle Haley) give good performances and the rest just about suck.

After watching Watchmen I sort of wanted to rewatch Breaking Away to retroactively mentally impose Rorschach on Jackie Earle Haley as a child actor.

[Dukefrukem]

Lindelof trying to turn this into an HBO series.

[Dukefrukem]

Lindelof trying to turn this into an HBO series.

Jeremy Irons cast

[dreamdead]

Hmmm. I like the crosscutting rhythm, not sure if Rorschach wannabes - if I'm reading this right -- yields much.

[megladon8]

So this isn’t based on the comics, but is rather an original story taking place in that world with some of the characters?

[Skitch]

So this isn’t based on the comics, but is rather an original story taking place in that world with some of the characters?

I hope so, because we got a pretty definitive version of the comics already.