Posted by Undead Johnny
on March 12, 2009, 8:44 pm, in reply to "Re: The Watchmen Movie"
68.73.80.202
I gotta disagree with you. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. I actually had the same reaction as I had to Rob Zombie's Halloween, lol! Which is a movie I have bought and watched again on DVD...but that I still think compared to the original is not very good and that almost every decision made was the WRONG decision.
I don't know. I admire them for making it, for making it R, etc. But I just didn't like it all that much. I'm really not a big fan of Zack Snyder as a director I'm learning (DOTD was "okay" 300 was way overrated) and a lot of stuff here I did not like. I didn't like the era specific songs used (though I did like the actual score.)
Moments in the comic that filled me with awe either went by too fast, or not fast enough, or just weren't how I wanted them. (although strangely I will say again, that the Motion comic is brilliant and everything was almost EXACTLY how I imagined it...even with someone doing the dialogue.)
I probably need to see it again, but I thought it feel kind of flat...and that some stuff was just too on the nose. I thought the film lacked a layer of subtlety that the original had.
and SPOILERS
I thought the ending sucked. Okay..it doesn't have to be a squid per se...and I understand needing to dump the island for time, etc. But it changes the whole message for me. In the comic, the world is fooled into peace. But not FORCED into it. If the earth is all that there is, we look around and see black, yellow, red...we see differences and hate each other. But if the Universe is the playground, when we look around, we see we're all human...we're all earthlings. It's "us vs them" if attacked. So while the attack wasn't real, we thought it was and joined together realizing in the bigger pictures our differences were really nothing.
In the movie, we're not tricked. We're forced. It's basically GOD (as Dr. Manhattan is referred to as a type of god many times) it's God looking down at us and punishing us for misbehaving. It's us afraid of him seeing us be bad so we play nice. It's like US and Russia shaking hands and smiling while whispering to each other "I still hate your guts, but he may be watching."
I think it changes the whole theme and point. Also, shying away from the huge death toll visually...a hole in the ground is pretty detached...also makes the sacrifice a little cheaper and easier to swallow.
Oh yeah, and Dan seeing Rorschach die and screaming "noooo!" was bullsh%$ and stupid.
END SPOILERS
So ultimately I gotta say I was disappointed. It felt a little cliffs notes to me. But I'd give it another shot. I do think if I hadn't just watched the motion comic I would've liked it better. As I haven't read it in years I wouldn't have remembered it as well and noticed what I didn't like in terms of changes etc.
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