Watchmen Review: Unfilmable

Watchmen Review: Unfilmable

Pretty disappointing...

Review Opinion
By CBMcontributor - Mar 06, 2009 05:03 AM EST
Filed Under: Watchmen

I mean, what can I say. The unfilmable movie, remains unfilmable. I really do think that Zack did as good a job as he could have and I have to give some credit, but its just not a story that holds up in film. The pacing of the book and all of the little side things (under the hood, kovacs' psychoanalysis, etc.) is the stuff that makes everything that happens so much more powerful. If I was not already in love with the comic and judged the watchmen on the movie alone I would not really understand what all the hype was about. I really really want to be optimistic about the whole thing, but I can't. One thing I have to say is that everyone who hates on Mr. Goode is being ridiculous. I was very impressed. My initial doubt came only because I didn't think his stature would get that dominating presence that I always associated with Veidt, but the way he spoke and the way he looked down at everyone really made Veidt come to life. *applause* The Comedian was well acted as well, although there wasn't any hate directed toward him so I don't really have to defend that point =)

WATCHMEN CHAPTER I Clip Recreates Two Big Scenes From Alan Moore And Dave Gibbons' Iconic Graphic Novel
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SGA
SGA - 3/6/2009, 9:38 AM
While I don't agree with the part of this movie being disappointing. I do have to applaud you for writing a mostly grammatically correct article. Bravo. lol.
rawshark
rawshark - 3/6/2009, 10:04 AM
saw WATCHMEN last night .....
BRAVO !!! Say what you will about it not being 100% from the comics, it was damn-near close for a movie.
IT WAS AWESOME !!!
deaditeminion
deaditeminion - 3/6/2009, 12:07 PM
The back story as to why Laurie Jupiter goes to visit Dan, her relationship issues with Jon, her resentment towards her mother......all this stuff adds so much more depth to Laurie, and none of its in there. That was my biggest problem with the movie. Overall tho, i loved the movie.


For the people who are whining about the changes made to the movie, think back and try to remember one BOOK-to-MOVIE adaptation that was 100% faithful to the movie

Clockwork Orange ends with the 20th chapter of the book, and leaves out every single thing from chapter 21. The movie leaves out Alex's suicide attempt. They even left out the part in the book where Alex and his cellmates kill a man who gets put into Alex's cell.

The Shining cut out EVERY chapter that dealt with the ballroom and they changed the motivation of the ghost. The movie only depicts about half of whats in the book

No Country for Old Men drastically changed the shot out in the streets. The book had a group of mexican gangsters show up during Llewelyn and Anton Chigurh's gun fight and it results in a clusterf*** of epic proportions.

I could name more, but you get the idea. Those 3 movies are looked as classics, yet there is a lot of stuff changed from the books their based on. If you went into Watchmen with a copy of the book on your lap try to go word for word with it....well, that's just plan stupid cause you set yourself up to be disappointed right from the get-go
NoobMike
NoobMike - 3/6/2009, 3:55 PM
well deaditeminion, snyder had promised the most faithful comic book to movie adaptation ever done...and after seeing sin city, well that is something extremely hard to accomplish, so maybe snyder is the one to blame, after all he did break his promise. Heading out in a few minutes to see it... I'll try and review it as soon as possible.
Pierce_Highmen
Pierce_Highmen - 3/6/2009, 4:38 PM
@ deaditeminion

"For the people who are whining about the changes made to the movie, think back and try to remember one BOOK-to-MOVIE adaptation that was 100% faithful to the movie"

Umm, THE GODFATHER!!!!

I will agree many books, are changed when put to the screen. Even The Godfather, omited some plots lines for the movie from the book. They rarely used a "script", they worked mostly from the book. Alot of the films dialoge was word for word from the book. They cut out all the right stuff, and even used those plot lines in the 2nd and 3rd movie. I.E. Vito's backstory & Fredo in Vegas.

And, The Godfather is viewed as one of the Top 5 movies of all time.

blacksword7
blacksword7 - 3/6/2009, 4:49 PM
umm i'm sorry noob, but i believe we were promised the most accurate comic to film superhero movie ever made and yes, that was accomplished. snyder has said that his reasons for cutting a lot of stuff like laurie's past story, mason's death, black freighter and news stand etc. was because of time restraints. snyder's director's cut will be released limitedly in the summer and on dvd in the fall, all of that stuff missed in the theatrical will undoubtedly be in the director's cut. this is not snyder's watchmen, this is the WB's watchmen. we won't get snyder's watchmen for a few months. it's over three hours i believe. there's an extra like 30 to 45 minutes of stuff they had him cut out.
moonman
moonman - 3/6/2009, 6:22 PM
The movie was good as its own thing. But when you compare it to the book, then the film was a complete let down and over simplified everything.
ForSatori1919
ForSatori1919 - 3/6/2009, 6:50 PM
I agree with the reviewer almost entirely except when it comes to Snyder doing "as good a job as he could have". I feel there were many things Snyder did to cheapen Watchmen. I'm not a stickler for gore and over the top sex if it's in the right kind of movie, but it didn't belong here. In my opinion Snyder's over the top sex and violence was clearly pandering to teenage boys, NOT people who enjoy intelligent, unique fiction and film. I'll give a few examples, Dan and Laurie making love in Archimedes, all the thrusting in the moonlight was just entirely unnecessary. In the comic it's a few panels and most of those are post-coital. Another would be the prison scene with Rorschach and the saw. This was absolutely absurd. In the comic they simply slit his throat. I know I sound a bit like a purist and I understand that with book-to-film adaptation things HAVE to be omitted. Yet these were completely unneeded changes, they saved no time in the film all I found them to be was a distraction and like I said, cheap. I also have some other beefs with Snyder, IMO he simply is not a good director. From a lot of technical standpoints I found him to fall completely on his face. His use of music was awful, from what I recall there was not a solid 10 mins in the movie where some kind of music was not playing. Music in films these days are overused as it is but Snyder took it to new heights. Also his choice of songs were completely cliche and dull, this is not in reference to the quality of the artists he used, I'm a fan of most of them but it was all overused.

Snyder has solidified what I thought of him to begin with, a flash-in-the-pan, Style and no substance director. He needs to leave comics alone and maybe do video game movies or remakes of stuff from the 80's, he seems to be better suited for that kind of thing....
thisisvik
thisisvik - 3/8/2009, 9:44 AM
daymn, forsatori1919
I agree, the movie was poorly made, but come on man the music was solid, truly as i've said before the Watchmen would have made a better soundtrack than movie.
How did you not like the music though?? I'm perplexed??

Bob Dylan - Times are a changing --- perfect for the opening scenes in which they were separating reality as we know it from the reality of the world in this movie.

Simon & Garfunkel - Sounds of Silence ---- come on! there is no better funeral music, especially because it made me chuckle as I'm sure they intended, it was the comedian's funeral.

And 99 red balloons!! Man how can you not love that song.

Da-ymn, and I'm not even Caucasian.




Oh but he's right and the reviewer is right. This was a terrible movie. And its not the changes that will be given in the deleted scenes, people seem to forget the difference between changes and omissions. The changes are the way Dr. Manhattan was actually quite connected to the human race. Veidt picked up on subtle facial cues, Dr. Manhattan was the one annoyed with Rorschach not laurie, and did it not seem that Dr. Manhattan wanted to help Jane Slater??? The changes deviated the poetry of this book, and the movie was not made well. What they needed to do was take the concept and try and make a movie, rather they slapped together a poor adaptation that failed in its attempt to copy the comic.
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