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.

[Scan_Man]

That trailers is kick ass. Watched it 20 times. I always loved that version of The End is the Beginning is the End for the trailer music.

[tanshin]

shit man that gave me goosebumps. What a great trailer, and yes that music kicks ass. I want to download it!

I'm gonna need to read the book a few more times in anticipation, haha.

[Crushinator]

New Trailer

http://io9.com/5066933/new-watchmen-footag...d?autoplay=true

Dr. Manhattan The Comedian Rorschach

[Crushinator]

OH shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit!

Not only is Watchmen: The End Is Nigh a prequel (fleshing out many of the brief flashbacks hinted at in the graphic novel), it's episodic, and it's downloadable. EGM has the full reveal, including over 20 screenshots and interviews with 300 and Watchmen director Zack Snyder, original Watchmen illustrator Dave Gibbons, and veteran comics author/End Is Nigh scripter, (and Alan Moore's original mentor on the Watchmen series) Len Wein. In fact, EGM went all the way out to Copenhagen, Denmark to visit with the development team, Deadline Games (which features an international cast of talent, including one designer who worked on Shenmue, Super Monkey Ball, and F-Zero GX). We also spoke with the game's producer, Soren Lund. The issue not only features everything you need to know about the game, but also insights and secrets to the upcoming movie, straight from the mouth of Zack Snyder himself.

While your first instinct regarding a movie/comic-based licensed game might be a poor one, EGM's James Mielke (a serious Watchmen fan) came away genuinely impressed with the authenticity, treatment, and care Deadline Games is devoting to the prequel. They know they have a huge fanbase to convince, and it shows in their work.

[Crushinator]

HD: http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/watchmen.html?showVideo=1

[Crushinator]

[Crushinator]

EDIT:

Holy shit, I didn't know they were doing a full DVD release for "The Black Freighter" too! Looks sick. Comes out shortly after the movie does.

[Knightsword]

Sweet, I figured that was on the chopping block for the movie, nice that they didn't forget about it.

[Crushinator]

[tanshin]

I saw the movie at midnight on thursday night. I don't want to discourage anyone from seeing it, but I was a bit disappointed. The characters were done really well, all the cool lines and stuff are there, and done well. I feel like too many cool parts about the story were sacrificed for more action/sex scenes. Also, wtf were they thinking with the important plot change at the end? I guess the whole philosophical point remains intact, but god damn. I didn't expect them to be able to include every little detail of the book, but I guess I feel like they sacrificed a bit of being faithful to the book in order to satiate rabid action hungry american fans.


3 stars.

[Retehi]

I just got home. But almost 3 hours, oh jeez.

I really liked it overall, tho it suffered Dark Knight syndrome where I thought the movie was gonna end, and it just keeps going, haha. And yeah, the sex scenes just seemed rather. . tacked on, but what can you do.

Anyway, I'd write more, but I'm tired as hell, and now I'm going to sleep. Guess we can talk about it on the next podcast or something.

[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.

[Knightsword]

[Crushinator]

Hahahaha, that was absolutely brilliant!