Watchmen, The movie 2009 Options

[Crushinator]

http://gizmodo.com/5026434/nerdgasm-watchm...web-a-day-early

I guess the trailer was supposed to premiere with Batman tomorrow, but its out on the web now!

Watchmen has to be pretty much the best thing I've read, EVER. Its directed by the same guy that did 300, and it looks nothing short of AWESOME. I'm completely stoked for this release next year.

[Crushinator]

As a huge fan of the comic, I really enjoyed the movie. I don't think the sex or fighting was too over the top (starring sylvester stallone.); it lent a brutal feel to the crime fighting style of the heroes. I'm actually really glad they didn't "hold back" on showing any of the violence when they needed to, so many movies feel neutered these days. Obviously the change in the ending was disappointing, and they could have handled it better. But i can understand that if they had stuck with the original end then the movie would probably be pushing 4 hours

I think with as sprawling as the narrative is for the original story, its impossible to expect them to fit EVERYTHING into a single film. However, they did an excellent job of recreating the universe. Even if they couldn't fully flesh it out in depth within the time frame of the film for newcomers to the story, all the details were there as service to fans. Things like the opening montage with the minutemen, Veidt products and commercials, Bubastis, etc... its clear a lot of care was put into making everything "authentic" even when it may not have been able to be included fully. Visually, I don't think they could have done the comic any better justice.

I'm glad the backstory of all the main characters were fleshed out properly -- I was a bit worried that they'd cut some of that content -- but the really delivered on that part. Every actor really "got" their characters too, although towards the end Ozymandias seemed a little too "evil genius", whereas in the comic he always seemed cool and in control at all times. The music, on the other hand, was a bit "ham fisted". It felt like they went out of their way to put in well-known songs that were "about what the action on screen is about", rather than going with something more subtle. The most glaring ones were playing "The Sound of Silence" at the funeral, and "All Along the Watchtower" as Archimedes is approaching Antarctica.

A couple of other quick spoiler-y things:
-Why did they cut out Hollis Mason getting killed by the random gang violence?
-Changing how Rorschach gets his costume back?
-Turning the world against Dr. Manhattan at the end, he's my favorite character :(
-The whole Veidt unlimited energy thing as the catalyst for the changed ending... in the comic Veidt industries and Doc Manhattan had already made advances in energy and flight so (NYC at least) was powered by advanced electric sources. I guess this a conession we have to accept since they cut out the whole alien invasion thing, though.

Even though it kinda sounds like I have a lot of negative things to say, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It pretty much delivered on everything I was expecting, and I already knew of the ending change beforehand so its not like it was a shock or anything. I think anyone coming in from not having seen read the comic will be missing out on the little fanservice touches, but they won't be lost or disappointed in the story either, the movie contains itself very well.

On the Crushinator scale of cartoon cats, it gets 4 out of 5 Bubastis'.


... and a crappy Rorschach guitar fanart for good measure.