MetaChat REGISTER   ||   LOGIN   ||   IMAGES ARE OFF   ||   RECENT COMMENTS




artphoto by splunge
artphoto by TheophileEscargot
artphoto by Kronos_to_Earth
artphoto by ethylene

Home

About

Search

Archives

Mecha Wiki

Metachat Eye

Emcee

IRC Channels

IRC FAQ


 RSS


Comment Feed:

RSS

06 March 2009

I saw the "Watchmen" last night, And I liked it. Please validate me!
*stamps joelf's forehead*
posted by mudpuppie 06 March | 14:06
I've read the book half a dozen times, eaten the cereal, watched the Saturday morning cartoon. Well 2 of those are lies. But I did read the book.

I thought it was a fantastic realization of the comic.

I'm wondering what you all had to say about it? Is there anyone here who saw it, and hasn't read it?
posted by joelf 06 March | 14:08
I"m seeing it on Sunday, I'll post back then.
I'm almost done reading the book!
posted by rmless2 06 March | 14:09
I have to disagree. You didn't enjoy it at all.
posted by ooga_booga 06 March | 14:14
I'm seeing it the thirteenth (da-daDUM!) and I CAN'T WAIT! Got another mefite coming over from Denmark too because the premiere is earlier here than in Copenhagen! WhooHooO!
posted by dabitch 06 March | 14:17
I am seeing it noon on Saturday, haven't read the book. I tried, but I always have difficulty reading graphic novels. This saddens my boyfriend.
posted by rhapsodie 06 March | 14:19
SPOILERS: Darth Vader is Luke's father.
posted by ooga_booga 06 March | 14:21
It was total fan service. If you liked the book, i think you will like the movie. At leas me and my friends all did. I'm really curious to see how it will hold up without the rich background of the book.

I'm going to have to see it again.

Also Dr. Manhattan is Keyser Söze
posted by joelf 06 March | 14:25
I liked the comic.

Bad news: I'm not seeing it till the 28th of the month.

Good news: IMAX baby, IMAX!!!
posted by TheophileEscargot 06 March | 14:48
Seeing it in IMAX tonight. Look forward to it with equal amounts of excitement and trepidation. We'll see....
posted by dersins 06 March | 15:26
I just saw it earlier today. On the whole, I'm happy with it. It's flawed, in places pretty gratuitous, but overall I think very well done.
posted by middleclasstool 06 March | 16:50
I can't believe they left out Tom Bombadil!
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson 06 March | 18:17
I can't believe how accurate it was.

I liked it. I went with a couple of peeps who had not read the comic. For them, it wasn't as good. They didn't like the ending either. Go figure.
posted by seanyboy 06 March | 19:07
The casting was nigh on perfect too. Except for the girl who can't act.
posted by seanyboy 06 March | 19:10
I haven't read the graphic novel, but I read at least one Metafilter thread.

Ro & I saw it 2 days ago, and we both thought it was pretty damn good. Ro knew nothing about it other than what I mumbled from memory of what I've read on the intermanet. I thought it had some flaws, but it was still full of awesomeness and awesomosity. LOVELOVELOVE.

and yeah, the girly was a bit wooden and I didn't like her outfit much, especially the colour.
posted by goshling 07 March | 06:08
Alright, I'm going to try to do this without any spoilers...

I wanted it to be good. I really did. It looked good. Hell, it looked beautiful. The production design was perfect. The shots were wonderfully composed. In fact I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they used the book as their storyboard in a lot of places. (Except for the one major change, of course, which I'm not going to give away). And the effects were masterful.

But overall, I thought it was a pretty terrible movie

For one thing, it was TOO faithful to the book. The story needed to be updated. Sure, those of us who were around at the time can remember the existential dread that comes from feeling like you're constantly living on the brink of nuclear war, but that fear just no longer resonates. We have new things to fear now and there's no reason not to update that aspect of the story. I mean, sure, it might have irritated the hard-core fan-boys, but it would have made it a better movie.

And as for the script, someone needs to tell Zak Snyder and the screenwriters that just because dialogue works really well on the page of a book doesn't mean it works on camera. At all. Some of the more over-the-top dialogue (and narration) from the book, which I loved and still love in its rightful place, comes across as overblown and overwrought when spoken out loud.

Other than Kelly Leak as Rorschach, the acting was terrible and the casting deeply misguided. Billy Crudup's voice is all wrong for Dr. Manhattan. Nite Owl wasn't pudgy enough. Ozymandias was just a fop rather than a foppish mastermind. And don't get me started on Silk Specter II. In the words of the New Yorker's Anthony Lane, "[her] line readings suggest that she is slightly defeated by the pressure of pretending to be one person, let alone two."

And the soundtrack. Jesus fuck are you kidding me with the soundtrack? The music supervisor should be keelhauled. Every time a song started playing, the audience started to snicker. The choices were so hackneyed, so cliched, that I would almost believe they did it on purpose, except the movie clearly took itself far too seriously to poke fun at itself. The song choices were so preposterous that it completely took me out of the moment every time one started.

Damn, I went in with such an open mind, and the first 20 minutes or so made it feel like it was going to be pretty damn good.

But.

Yuck.
posted by dersins 07 March | 15:53
Note to future directors of superhero movies: If you are going to lift the dialog from the comic book virtually verbatim, you need an A-list cast.
posted by Ardiril 09 March | 19:11
Coffee has become boring. || Holy hell, Toby is cute.

HOME  ||   REGISTER  ||   LOGIN