Slashdot Mirror
Watchmen Movie Trailer Is Out
I forgot to mention the other bit of exciting comic book movie news this week: DaSpudMan noted that the Watchmen trailer is out — from the Director of 300, which spawns mixed feelings at our office. But it looks pretty good.
I have fond memories of my first boyfriend reading me the Watchmen, and many scenes in the trailer looked like they were taken right from the comic panels so I should be excited--but I don't know...
The Comedian didn't look like quite like the vicious rascal I had hoped he would (but I only saw him for a few seconds so we'll see.)
Ozymandius's costume looks completely different (I miss his purple one!), and Silk Spectre's costume is pretty generic looking.
Nite Owl looks too much like Batman. (Sure they are similar characters, but very different also. I feel Nite Owl is not a very "dark" character, and making him into a 2nd rate Batman would not be doing his character justice.)
Also I thought Rorshach's voice was a more distinctive monotone. He sounds just like any random guy whispering in this.
And they didn't show any footage of the "vintage" comic book characters (i.e. the first generation Watchmen) so bummer on that.
But based on the production clips it seems like the director is really trying to be true to the story and look of the comic, so as long as they don't change the ending I don't see that it could be THAT horrible, no matter if Alan Moore has already disowned it (he disowns like ALL his movie adaptations, doesn't he?)
That said, I still wish Darren Aronofsky had taken over the directorial reigns.
Btw, is Smashing Pumpkins doing the soundtrack or is that just for the trailer?
Careful What You Wish For....
If you'd seen The Dark Knight, you'd have seen this trailer.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Who watches the Watchmen trailer?
Oh, right. That would be us.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
The trailer for Watchmen got the E.T. treatment.
Just in case you were afraid that the character on screen was going to shoot you, his gun has been replaced by a walkie-talkie.
"300" had Nine inch nails in the trailer. And then nothing in the film... I was let down!
Every scene shown brings me back to it's corresponding scene in the comic. The characters look spot on. Damn is this getting my hopes up. It's going to be hard.
"You superiour intellect is no match for our puny weapons" - The Simpsons
... you don't have a lot of pumpkins.
Check that, Jingoistic gay porn...
Populus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur...
"Force shits upon Reason's back." - Poor Richard's Almanac
I saw the Trailer during the midnight showing of Batman, and though I've never read the comic, It looked amazing.
Hey now. Read the comic, otherwise you may actually watch the movie without a sense of bitterness and outrage. :)
Those who believe the Internet is private,
find their privates are on the Internet.
tells me they don't have a lot of faith in this movie. February and March are typically dumping grounds for films that got made but nobody has confidence in.
Dog is my co-pilot.
It is like nothing else out there and it's worth knowing the story before seeing the film. The comic's author is adamant that it's a different art-form and should be considered as a comic so it's worth seeing the comic first so that your first impression is of the story in its intended form. That said, I'm going to see the movie of course!
Reality is defined by the maddest person in the room
Could anyone tell about Rorshach's mask? I always pictured it continually in (slow) motion, almost like a lava lamp... but it looks like the blots were unchanging. Maybe it just changes from scene to scene?
http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
Thought the trailer looked quite good - although given how iconic the bloody smiley is, I was surprised I didn't see it there, unless I missed it.
Given the complexity and layers of the book, I don't expect it to be slavishly followed by the movie - in fact I hope it doesn't, and neither should any of the books fans as there's no way a movie could successfully manage that.
I want a good Watchmen movie, one that has the themes and idea of the book, one that always has something new to discover in it and one that entertains.
Simply copying the book would be even worse than van Sant's duplication of Psycho. I want the spirit to be kept true to, not the actual pages.
"Realistic" in the sense that it's closer to how the world would react to super heroes/villains and how those super heroes/villains would probably react to the real world. In the real world, we're not going to be ok with some masked vigilantes running around enforcing justice. And the world's problems aren't going to be solved by someone just because they can fly or are super strong.
But there is no massively oversimplifying Eastern philosophy in the guise of a kung-fu movie so it's not really that similar to a Matrix sequel even if it might look that way to someone.
That what you saw was Meet the Spartans.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
It IS changing.
Try the HD one if you can't make it out.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/watchmen/
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
The comic won a Hugo award, and I believe it may be the only comic ever to have done so. At the least, it's one of a very elite few. In other words, definitely worth reading.
The trailer came on an no one knew what the heck it was, and it was dead quiet when it ended. Basically all I got from the trailer was "Glowing blue guys".
There's a scene by scene comparison of the trailer and the relevant panels from the graphic novel here. It looks remarkably similar and I'm quite hopeful that this will be a credible conversion now.
Input error. Replace user and press any key to continue.
When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.
c. s. Lewis
... the entire point of that scene is to send up the comic book trope.
In particular: A major issue with comic heroes is the ends/means issue. Comic "heroes" regularly "fight crime" using methods that are forbidden for that purpose. Warrantless surveillance (such as Superman's hearing and vision), terroristic threats (such as Batman's whole schtick), etc.
Ozy's plan just scales up the moral quandary to a global, survival of humanity, scale, and rubs the heroes' noses in it.
Ozzy made his choice. But he isn't sure he made the right one. So he wants a sanity check from his peer group - and suitable punishment if they decide he did wrong: "... on the mercy of the court.". To keep them honest he puts them in the same position he was in. If they decide the other way they can punish him - and in the process undo what he did. If they decide the same way they're accessories after the fact. And if some decide each way the ones that side with him are left with murder of the others as the only way to maintain the achievement of the "good end".
And thus are they enlightened - about him, about each other, and about themselves. Big shock.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
It's actually "The Beginning is the End is the Beginning." The quieter one.
They show Nite Owl doing a jump kick to some prisoners face. Nite Owl is supposed to be a pudgy, middle aged loser at this point in his life.
The action looks to be from the highly stylized school of superhero movie violence, which might look dated after seeing Dark Knight.
It looks like the coloring has been played with a lot, making it look more surreal. If anything, making it look like one of those 70s cop movies would fit the comic better.
This is not a "No" vote or anything. I'm going to reserve judgment on whether or not to see it after the story trailers come out. This was just some of the stuff that occurred to me while I was watching the trailer.
Of course, I could just be hyper-paranoid that they will make a crappy movie out of an outstanding comic book.
Also SPOILERS:
Ozzy made his choice. But he isn't sure he made the right one. So he wants a sanity check from his peer group - and suitable punishment if they decide he did wrong: "... on the mercy of the court.". To keep them honest he puts them in the same position he was in. If they decide the other way they can punish him - and in the process undo what he did. If they decide the same way they're accessories after the fact. And if some decide each way the ones that side with him are left with murder of the others as the only way to maintain the achievement of the "good end".
Not just that. They can either undo what he did, or keep quiet and effectively be accomplices. They all are now in the same boat.
Understandably, Rorschach realizes this and refuses to be complicit in Ozy's crime. He's a zero-tolerance type. Burn the world down if you must, but crime must be punished. That is why he refuses.
It's also probably why he dares Dr. Manhattan to destroy him. He knows he has to go public and that will most likely be the end of the world. Better he should die than bring about Armageddon.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/watchmen/hd/
Beauty is in the beholder of the eye.
Shame, shame, shame on all of you. It is well past time to put away childish things and grow up.
Graphic novels bear the same relation to novels as stage plays/movies/TV shows bear to live storytellers.
If one form is inherently "childish" than so is the other.
Time to grow up and "put away" plays, opera, and movie theaters. Throw out that TV and those DVDs. It's all kid stuff. You're an adult now - you should be getting your live entertainment solely sitting at a campfire with somebody who can spin a good yarn.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Although I certainly didn't put 2 & 2 together enough to realize this when reading, Ozymandias gives a hint of his attitude when he repeatedly compares himself to Alexander the Great.
Alexander the Great wasn't called that because he was a great guy. He was called that because he ruled a vast piece of territory and brought prosperity to those he ruled. He achieved that rule by killing lots of people who hadn't done anything wrong other than oppose being ruled by him.
But I unpacked most of them when I got there
I know, heresy. But I always thought Watchmen was vastly overrated.
In its day, it may have been novel - though the groundbreakingness is overrated. But I think it's coasting on the teenage memories of a lot of people who haven't read it in 20 years.
The writing isn't that great. The stories aren't that good. The characters are not that interesting. Everything is overdone - in fact, to me it reads like high school prose. Not much subtlety to anything and quite a bit of boring violence. I have nothing against violence, but for example the rape scene is reminiscent of what a young teenage writer would think about if he was trying to write a rape scene. That is one example of many.
And God if there isn't a lot of really tedious exposition!
It's not tripe. It's just not nearly as impressive as everyone thinks.
Side note: I've noticed that the things people remember about the Watchmen are mostly the artwork - Rorschach, the Owl's craft, Doc Manhattan, etc. The art is much better than the writing...I will be nice and refrain from extending that analysis to the rest of Alan Moore's work ;-)
Advice: on VPS providers
You know, it suddenly occurs to me that Rorschach is the closest thing in Watchmen to a classic comic-book character; four colour morality, only kind of in the opposite direction. Where Superman is always good and right, Rorschach is the mirror image of that; black and white, the negative side of utter uncompromise.
And he dies for it. It's all a metaphor for the old style of comics being killed off for being utterly unable to adapt.
Or something.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
You know, it suddenly occurs to me that Rorschach is the closest thing in Watchmen to a classic comic-book character; four colour morality, only kind of in the opposite direction.
Rorschach is a Psychopath, attempting to compensate by becoming rule-bound (and doing it poorly). Moore has the personality dead-on.
(It's interesting that the inspirations for Rorschach were apparently Steve Ditko's "Mr. A" and "The Question" - attempts at Objectivist superheros. Objectivism is a philosophy that starts from pure selfishness and derives the nonaggression principle and motivation for other behavior traits that keep its adherents within the law and make them people who, while often not likable, can be gotten along with. As such it's accessible to psychopaths. Teaching Objectivism to career criminals, motivating them to adopt its behavioral ruleset as a compensation, may be the only consistently successful rehabilitation program that has ever been studied.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
It's more than that. Rorschach wandered outside in Antarctica and didn't come back. Dan knows he didn't take the owlship. One way or another, they're all complicit in Rorschach's death -- they didn't ask questions when he disappeared, and there's no sign that they even looked for him.
They gave up being heroes, gave up any pretense of changing the world for the better, because they were overwhelmed and outclassed. Probably for the best, in their situation. ...but me, I would have been Rorschach.
Genocide Man -- Life is funny. Death is funnier. Mass murder can be hilarious.