Superhero Filmmakers: Where's Our Watchmen?

adam is a fanboy.
i think he hates the film.
http://thequietus.com/articles/01215-the-watchmen-reviewed-has-it-killed-the-comic-book-adaptation-dead

only requirement is that the system define the good/acceptable and the bad/unacceptable.

Good how? Bad how? Good for health? Legally good? Aesthetically? Scientifically? Religously? Ok there might be some overlap between some these terms but you can't get away without defining any terms whatsoever. Obviously humanity is the concern of human morality - which is the only kind we currently know. And I would argue that suffering, or lack of, is intrinsically a concern of morality. A system that ignores suffering or even promotes it is by definition amoral or immoral.

The morality question is a major philosophical discussion that could make up its own thread. Personally, I think the inherent ambiguity of the terms "good" and "bad" render this statement incorrect: A system that ignores suffering or even promotes it is by definition amoral or immoral. The reason I believe this is because I do not think morality in its strictest terms is about alleviating suffering; it is about adhering to a code of ethics, whose rules in and of themselves have been designated as desirable or "good" based on a set of observations and principles that are by no means guaranteed to be liberal, humanistic, or particularly nice.

Y'all need one (1) of this:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51wSCX%2BqQFL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA240_SH20_OU01_.jpg

i'm a clicking, but i still cant look inside.

want/do not want

morality discussion sinkhole: Morality - Ethics

adam is a fanboy.
i think he hates the film.
http://thequietus.com/articles/01215-the-watchmen-reviewed-has-it-killed-the-comic-book-adaptation-dead

― mark e, Friday, February 27, 2009 9:56 AM (39 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

anyone who writes this annoyingly hating it makes me wanna see it opening night

more from adam re the film away from the OTT-ness of that review :

My girlfriend never read watchmen and she thought it was shocking. Without knowing the source material, a whole gang of it doesn't make sense!

i guess thats more on the button.

Why are the people who hate this writing so badly about it? I look forward to reading a decent review, positive or negative. "The worst comic book movie ever to see daylight?" Ah, calm down and shut up.

(He's wrong about the new ending too - it's actually cleverer and more logical than the book.)

ledge:

1) "Humanist" does not mean "concerned with humanity.

2) Thinking about morality exclusively in terms of alleviating suffering is a very modern, Western phenomenon. In most pre-modern or non-Western cultures, lack of suffering is at most a fortunate side-effect of moral behavior, and morality is defined largely through other concepts. (cf. Confucianism)

no

http://www.matt-d.com/ghetto/spoiler.jpeg

plz

plot spoilers that is i don't mind morality spoilers.

Sorry - didn't think that counted as a spoiler.

nah but it could lead to discussion of the end of the film, i know it's different somehow from the comic but not keen to find out how till i see it.

o man what is the deal with that quietus review

o man what is the deal with that quietus review

Holy jesus is that a horribly written review. I thought The Quietus had much higher standards than that.

IFmaths and HIDERE OTM re: morality. the "good and bad" i mentioned earlier merely refer to the moral dimension of human behavior. good = morally good, bad = morally bad. the moral system is simply that which defines and attaches value to the distinction. a moral system could, for instance, simply state that strict obedience to a tribal code = good, and any deviation from that code = bad.

A system that ignores suffering or even promotes it is by definition amoral or immoral.

― ledge

this is only true from within the confines of your own moral POV. it is there better described as moral judgement regarding moral sytems than as an objective definition of such.

...too much "simply"

and, yeah, that quietus review, while daunting, is also fantastically annoying

fine don't use the thread i bumped for this then [cries]

good = morally good, bad = morally bad

eh but we're arguing exactly about the definition of morality!

ie what does 'morally' mean there?

n most pre-modern or non-Western cultures, lack of suffering is at most a fortunate side-effect of moral behavior, and morality is defined largely through other concepts

um this is a weird thing to say. Buddhism springs to mind - Hinduism too, to some extent, insofar as the "goal" is to get oneself off the Wheel of Karma

I will grant that most pagan cultures were not particularly concerned with suffering.

ha was about to say, druids and Aztecs?

those vikings just wanted what was best for everybody!

my point, ledge, is that "morally good" has no meaning outside the confines of a moral system. moral systems are arbitration devices. they're like god. they simply label certain things as "BAD" and other things as "GOOD". whatever god says is good is good. period. there need be no definition of "the good" beyond the understanding that it is what god likes.

therefore, when i say "morally," i simply mean, "according to the precepts of the moral system in play". some moral systems prize a kind of moral logic (for instance the idea that that which decreases suffering is more moral than that which increases it), but others do not. objectively speaking, neither approach is more moral or more valid than the other.

You're just avoiding the question! BAD how? Bad for my health? For my chances of getting into heaven? For my chances of not being cast out of the tribe?

According to your all-encompassing 'definition', 'being good at darts' is a moral law of my local pub darts team.

I don't know if it's a moral law but it's certainly a virtue!

thing about your darts team's expectations is that they (probably) don't result in moral judgement. to suck at darts isn't to be a "bad person", but rather to be useless for the purposes of the team. this is a pragmatic, utility-based judgement rather than a moral one.

i'm not avoiding your question though, just trying to reframe is. thing is, there is no single answer to the "bad how?" question. different moral systems define the bad differently. rorschach's moral system, for instance, defines the BAD as softness, weakness, relativism, cowardice, corruption, lust, etc. it does not seem to be based on a pragmatic determination that these things often cause unwanted effects, but rather on an idealistic judgement that they are intrisically wrong, regardless of what outcomes they generate.

can this all be put on hold until the movie comes out?

It's true that moral badness often seems to be intrinsic, neverthless there must something at the core of these concepts, otherwise why do we seem to know what judgements are moral ones, and why do moral systems always seem to convern themselves judgements about the same kinds of things? When examined properly, I'd argue that the domain of morality is (human) life and living - generally, how to live for the good (ie flourishing) of the tribe.

xp i did revive another thread for this but everyone wanted to play here!

or at least abstracted and moved to the morality/ethics thread

Morality - Ethics for those looking for it

but which of these desires violates Ape Law and which uphold it?

didn't wanna move to other thread, cuz then i'd feel compelled to read and deal. both of which i'm averse to. but i'll quit after this:

lemme just say that while i agree in general w what yr saying, ledge, i think the semblance of intrinsic-ness (intrisicity?) is a big part of what makes moral systems what they are. if a moral system were truly and transparently pragmatic in ALL respects, it wouldn't really be a moral system anymore. it would simply be a flexible, situation dependent, bean-counting approach to relative costs and benefits (costs & benefits being considered in as many senses as possible, objective & subjective, long & short term, individual & group, etc). i'd argue that moral systems are distinguished in part by their insistence on the existence and value of idealized & codified absolutes that do not require this kind of objective, outcome-based validation.

watchman dat ho

http://www.cracked.com/article_17072_7-stages-nerdgasm-fanboy-awaits-watchmen-movie.html

^^^left out the part where the movie sucks

I just assumed that everyone who reads this thread has read the book. If you read the reviews in the links - those are chock full of spoilers. Who in this thread hasn't read the book?

Morbius

Okay, I've got to talk about this notion of "An extremely faithful adapatation" nonsense. Obviously I haven't seen the movie, only some stills and promotional clips, but I think it's enough to say that this is an extremely wrongheaded belief. The usual evidence given in support of this notion is that Snyder used the comic as a storyboard and has been meticulous in his imitative attention to detail, putting exactly what's on the panel on the screen. This is much too reductive an approach to merit the 'faithfully reproduced look' claim.

The formal innovations of Watchmen go way beyond storytelling techniques and undermining genre conventions in the writing. The art is also, in its overall approach to the material, defying expectations for a superhero comic. A lot has been made, over the years, of the nine panel grid approach that is used for almost every page. This rigid structure (which is only broken at times of extremely heightened emotion) has the effect of making the spectacular and exotic of a piece with the drab and mundane, resulting not in a comic where the mundane is presented as a thrillride, but where rooftop rescues and prison breaks appear familiar and squalid (there are exceptions, of course, mostly when Dr. Manhattan is pictured.) Besides dramatic panel layouts, other typical comics techniques that Moore and Gibbons forgo are exaggerated, hyperdynamic poses in deep foreshortening, sound effects, 'bursts' to signify blows connecting, figures with bodybuilder muscles, and on and on. The clear intention of this is to draw the reader in, to immerse him or her in the world of Watchmen. It's not about being 'grim and gritty' it's about being believable and intimate. Moore and Gibbons undercut the idea of superheroism with visual strategies, not just literary ones. No matter how many Gunga Diners and Pyramid Sugarcubes and moving Rorschach masks Snyder piles on the screen, the fact that he can't resist digital effects and slow mo shows that he's completely missed the point of why the book looks the way it does. If he were serious about emulating the comic's approach with movie technique, Rorschach's outfit should look absurd, not cool. Dr. Manhattan should look like a dude with blue skin, not a glowing angelic presence. Actions sequences should resemble Michael Mann's or David Simon's, not The Warchowski Brothers' or Leung Kar Lau's. The guy doesn't get that Watchmen is all about deglamorizing the genre, not valorizing it. And that, essentially, is why the movie will utterly miss the point the book made.

tl, dr, I know...

It's probably UK-only but http://www.watchmenpromo.com has this deal where they'll send you a 'free' smiley face USB key (if you pay £2.49 for p&p).

Oilyrags, I see what you're saying -- and I do hope some of that will come through in the movie -- but I kinda think that, unless you got a serious A-list director with real chops, I think what you'd end up with is something whose aesthetic more resembles this.

Anyway, no matter what happens, it can ALWAYS be worse. To wit:

The script that the studio gave Snyder, when he first agreed to do the movie, ended with Nite Owl killing Ozymandias by crashing the Owl-ship into him via remote control. Nite Owl even says a cool catch phrase immediately afterwards.

Unfortunately, in this day and age I think Snyder is considered an A-list director with real chops. I have my problems with the latest crop of Bat-movies, but Nolan knows enough to shoot them like modern policiers, which is what I think is required here.

And you're right that it can always be worse, but even that ending is better than the idiotic one Sam Hamm came up with.

That's not entirely fair about Batman, on second thought. The character has been through enough different versions that any one of them is a legit interpretation for a movie. Nolan happens to like best the same one that I do.

Watchmen is a different animal. It's a novel where none of the characters have ever been reused in other stories. If your intention is to remain true to the text, there's really only one way to go about it.

Zack Snyder and all:

"Every day I think, 'I can't believe I get to make this come alive,' " said Snyder, who was a prisoner of the page long before that chilly afternoon outside Vancouver in an old paper mill that had been turned into a penitentiary for the director's $100-million film. "Watchmen" finally reaches theaters Friday and will arrive as the most controversial superhero film ever made. Snyder, an affable, 43-year-old father of six, has been the picture of patience in the face of private setbacks and public challenges to the film, but while filming that bloody riot last year he let a wicked grin cross his face.

"We're killing the comic-book movie, we're ending it," Snyder said. "This movie is the last comic-book movie, for good or bad."

...

Supporters of Snyder, though, write that off as talk by people who don't understand that "Watchmen" is a religious scroll of sorts. Deborah Snyder, the director's wife and a producer of "Watchmen," said this film has been "a million decisions made, and every one of them was to get the story on the screen with integrity." Strolling down the outdoor New York street set that was created for the movie, she said her team was not going to go down in history as the people who found the Holy Grail and then dropped it.

"We feel," she said, "a great responsibility."

...

Snyder said it's advantageous that "Watchmen" didn't get made sooner. Only now, with the superhero cinema truly alive, is the genre ripe for snuffing.

"Twenty years ago my parents wouldn't know who the X-Men were, and now everybody knows that stuff," Snyder said. "It means that deconstruction of the superhero is something you can do. All those movies have led to a point where we can finally have 'Watchmen' with a Superman character who doesn't want to save the world and a Batman who has trouble in bed. Essentially, I want to kill the superhero movie because now we can."

Superman Returns is going to be legendary,
― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Monday, 26 June 2006 02:27 (2 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Jesus, it's like Moore's ego stuffed into some dipshit Ron Paul supporter's tiny literalist brain.

> the fiery cellblock he saw before him looked nearly identical to the one in the hand-drawn pages of " Watchmen,"

THIS COULD NOT BE MORE IRRELEVANT TO THE QUALITY OF THE FLICK.

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/2009-02-24_cc_040.gif