Superhero Filmmakers: Where's Our Watchmen?

The music cue that really bugged me was "The Sound of Silence" for the Comedian's funeral. I understand him using iconic music for such an iconic comic book, but that one in particular didn't work for me. I've yet to sort out exactly why.

Maybe it works better than I thought, though -- Iconic comic book, with the movie version borrowing an iconic song from another iconic movie, which is a very dark and messed-up comedy, for the funeral of the Comedian.

Maybe I just like the song by itself too much.

Weren't some of the songs listed in the comic?

I think "All Along the Watchtower" was, right?

"Watchtower" was, yeah. I wasn't crazy about that, either. He synced the line about "Two riders were approaching" with a shot of the two guys approaching. In the comic, it's a short quote at the end of an issue, so it's nowhere near as much like, "Yeah, ok we get the literal words of the song, yo."

"The Sound of Silence" is played for no irony at all in the movie. The Comedian would not approve.

yeah, there are a few "i c what u did there" moments in the movie with music and symbolism ("Everybody Wants to the Rule the World" is playing when Veidt enters the room, because somebody in the test audience didn't pick up that when movies introduce Aryan-looking leaders talking about utopia via social engineering they're supposed to think of power-mad tyrants).

Call me ungracious in my opinion of Zack Snyder, but that didn't feel like something the test audiences made necessary.

i haven't even watched this shit yet

The fact that you didn't run to see it in theaters means that you care about as much as is appropriate.

Viedt's idea was that peace will continue because the entire planet will be having nightmares about his giant gooey pink-and-green asshole-faced alien for decades.

An idea of Viedt's that I think is easily lost in all the weird of the giant squid: a large part of his plan was not only inventing a horrifying thing, but one from ELSEWHERE. It wasn't just the worst thing ever seen, it was at the same time proof of extraterrestrial life. We're not alone, but the other shit out there, you don't want to see. So we gotta stick together in this deal.

Which is part of why shifting the blame to Manhattan works -- the Other is already among us. In a way, it's a bit darker.

i read the comic last year and thought it was pretty damn good, but def ultramegalols @ anyone who says that it's one of the 20th century's greatest pieces of literature tbh

xpost

It prob wasn't a test audience thing, I just remember there being a lot of obv. symbolism that was being bludgeoned over audience heads

Manhattan exploding Rohrshach and leaving a Rohrshach-like mark in the snow was completely, COMPLETELY unnecessary. It's not even symbolic of anything. I groaned audibly.

Sems to me like Snyder wasn't really smart enough to make this movie well, and anyone who might have been turned it down because they at least knew enough to know that it couldn't be done. Snyder stepped up and said, "You want a lot of shots that look just like the frames of the original comic book? I can do that!" He's an idiot, but he's an idiot savant.

I think that's all true. in a cinematic world, where better directors feared to tread...

I'm thinking again about the question of the violence. It is indeed a bit much sometimes. But worse than that, he doesn't seem to have the *sensibility* for violence. He seems to think it's about shock or gore. The fact that a lot of the violence in this movie actually occurs in the comic is a thin excuse -- it occurs, but drawn, and far more alluded to and insinuated than graphically depicted.

I think it was Ebert who pointed out that while people talk about "Pulp Fiction" as a very violent movie, if you watch closely, the violence isn't onscreen. It FEELS violent because of the tension, the build, the knowing what will inevitably happen, so that by the time it does, it hardly matters whether there's graphic depiction or not. You're already there. "Watchmen" shows in close-ups a man's arms being sawed off. I don't care that it's gross so much that it's dumb.

And oh my fucking god that sex scene. The only thing dumber than dumb violence is dumb sex.

Kenan notices that violence is better when depicted artfully, planet Earth experiences dawn of enlightenment.

"it's becoming self-aware!"

Go fuck yourself.

"it can hear us!"

Dr. Mankenan

I'm very disappointed, forks. Very disappointed. Gathering up my intrinsic malevolence was the first trick I learned.

What a wretched unwatchable piece of crap.

you watched this why?

hahaha I saw you'd posted to this thread, Alex, and was all "I bet he HATED this" to myself

If it's "unwatchable", by definition he couldn't have watched it.

"you watched this why?"

Someone one told me "well it's not the comic, but it works on its own terms". That person is getting a stern talking to.

Tell Harry K we said hi.

That person is getting a stern talking to.

lol

Even though I liked this movie, there are def. ppl I would never recommend it to.

The thing that kind of baffled me is how completely tone deaf to the material Snyder was. I mean if this is what he saw in it I have no idea why he would think the comic was remotely exceptional.

it was on that time list dude, just needed more kicking and stuff

I must again defend this movie's excellent jowl-reconstruction of John Mclaughlin.

I'm reading a book about taxidermy right now and it talks about how people love the animals so much that they go out, kill them, strip them down and painstakingly spend tons of money and time trying to make them look like they're alive again.
Just saying.

If only Snyder hadn't murdered Dr. Manhattan.

could not stay awake through this. kept falling asleep, waking up, not caring, going back to sleep.

I'd never noticed how much the raft's sail (in the Black Freighter comic) looked like Rorschach's mask

fucking awful film

> nolan batmen tbh

yeah but so's a nice biscuit

Stay far away from Sucker Punch, holy shit that movie.

never get tired of laughing at "Superman Returns is going to be legendary"

I still don't see what's so bad about it. It's about as faithful to the comic as a film's going to get.

Watchmen, that is

I watched it just before reading the book admittedly. Maybe my opinion would change were I to watch it again. I dunno.

"about as faithful to the comic as a film's going to get"

that's where it went wrong, though. Because the comic was (in addition to everything else) a very formalist critique of the comic form and movies are a very different medium. For one, they have moving images. Or at least THEY SHOULD.

and "Hallelujah" wasn't in the comic

::shudder::

Edelstein pretty well summed up how noisily lifeless i think it is ("Watchmen is dead on the screen, but I gotta admit it's some corpse: huge, loud and gaseously distended by its own dystopia"), but i'm also one of the only people who doesn't think the source material was all that perfect to begin with.

tons of people don't care for the comic. that said, alex in sf otm when he said the movie was completely tone deaf to the material - i think that's really the key problem with the movie from which all the littler problems emanate

yeah i guess that must be true -- i just got a very "that's it? that's all? van damme" feeling when i read it