Evening Reading
Hey, news:
- Capcom teasing new game announcements
- Dawn of War 2 stays on top in this week's PC gaming sales chart
- New GTA Chinatown Wars trailer
- The Godfather 2 has gone gold
- The Maw arrives on Steam
- Boom Blox Bash Party screenshots, trailer
- GamePro magazine becomes game publisher
- The Sims 3 screenshots continue surreal trend
- Resident Evil 5 viral video continues Kijuju trend
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Another WATCHMEN thread...
Cannot believe how big these threads have been getting, biggest for a movie...ever?-
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I'll throw in my two cents, which echo some of wtf242's complaints:
1) The most compelling attribute of Watchmen's story is the realistic take of everyday people becoming costumed vigilantes. But this distinction is somewhat lost in the movie as they appear to actually be super powered - the heroes take out dozens of bad guys without breaking a sweat and maintaining a badass look; they punch out walls without flinching; they do physics-defying jumps and acrobatics. In both the alleyway and prison actions scenes with Nite Owl and Silk Spectre, I never feel a moment of concern for their safety as they effortlessly take out a dozen enemies. What then makes Watchmen any different from every other superhero movie, other than having less cool powers, especially from the perspective of someone not familiar with the comic? There wasn't enough shown that the characters have day jobs and aren't just naturally super heroes 24/7.
2) It's been complained about plenty of times, but I agree that some of the music and/or volume were poor choices that dominated the scene. 99 Balloons was really loud and overpowering. Others have their song of choice to nitpick, but the worst for me was the jarring transition between a philosophical conversation on Mars into a raucous All Along the Watchtower.
3) A minor complaint, but there should have been a scene explaining Bubastis. It just shows up randomly and I guess the audience is expected to just go, "oh, weird ass mutant tiger creature, okay."
4) Casting for Ozymandias was off for me. I really liked Nite Owl at the beginning but in the latter half of the movie he came off a little young for the part.-
1. The comic had them doing the same things, from Ozymandias catching a bullet to Rorschach scaling buildings with a zip line. It was never intended for them to appear weak as heroes physically in the comics, only in the psychological aspects, that was Moore's main intention. That was preserved.
2. The music was great, 99 balloons was perfect for the time setting and the theme of the song for the ideas of war in the movie. Most songs were selected because they were quoted in the comic, and others seemed perfect for the time period they were representing.
3. Bubastis was difficult to explain, other than Veidt's talk of genetic engineering at the beginning of the movie, for Bubastis to make more sense the squid ending would have had to of been used, which would be even more ridiculous.
4. Ozymandias' casting was good, I always saw him as being more thin as the other heroes because he was a gymnast, and it was a good contrast to the Comedian's stature. Nite Owl was cast perfectly, and looked exactly like in the comic, although Rorschach/Walter was a close second.-
1. But the comic didn't emphasize the action at all, while the movie went the other direction, injecting a lot of glamour shots of the characters coolly breaking limbs and choreographed, perfectly executed martial arts maneuvers. I would be less bothered by this if I actually felt concern for the outcome for the fight, but they were predictable and the same kind of overly used eye candy scenes used in countless action movies.
2. It shouldn't matter if the songs were canon to the comic if the effect in the movie was out of place. Which for me, some were. -
Oh, it would also have helped if the action scenes were good, but they're forgettable.
Some good action sequences done in other movies: T2's harley chase, Matrix's rooftop shootout, and Kill Bill's opening house fight. Nothing in Watchmen is beyond mediocre, despite the attempt to glamorize the action. -
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Yeah, random as hell right? In the comic, they introduce Bubastis by explaining their progress in genetic manipulation and creation. This explanation should either have been included in the movie or they should have replaced him with a regular tiger, which would have maintained Ozymandias looking like a crazy super villain without confusing the audience (and less work demanded from the CG artists).
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I hesitate to say it was better, simply because it changes the context of what Ozy was trying to accomplish. In the original, the goal was to galvanize humanity against a perceived alien threat, accomplishing peace by giving people a common goal to work towards, and an enemy other than each other to focus on (whether that enemy exists or not), whereas in the movie, it was to incite fear of retribution by Dr. Manhattan if nuclear proliferation were to continue - peace via fear of retaliation.
The latter seems to paint Ozy in a much darker light - he's simply inciting fear to control the current situation. There's no over-arching "greater good", no looking towards the future. Simply a gross act of terrorism intended to exert control.
And it probably makes a better "Hollywood" movie. It's easier to understand, and requires no thought on the part of the viewer. No way to really see his action in the context of a greater good (beyond temporarily defusing the current situation, which seems pretty thin, considering how many die as a result of his actions). It paints him as undeniably evil, giving the non-graphic-novel-reading people a clear-cut villain to hate.
I enjoyed the "squid" ending better, because IMHO it makes for a deeper story, but I can see why they changed it, even if I don't agree with it.
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I have a feeling that Bubastis will play a bigger role in the longer Director's Cut. Same with the newstand guy and the kid reading the comic (I can't wait to see the Black Freighter stuff). I also hope they do more with the psychologist, that was my favorite part in the book and it felt like they glossed over it. My biggest complaint of the movie was Rorshark using a cleaver on the guy rather than giving him the choice to saw through his arm. I also wish they talked about the Keane act more and Rorshark's response to it
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cool writeup on some of the effects work here: http://features.cgsociety.org/story_custom.php?story_id=4947&referer=rss
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I watchmened on IMAX and I didn't get a bad vibe off the digital effects. In fact, I was pretty impressed with the integration overall. The only thing that bugged me was some bad match-moving that caused people's feet to slide around against the background in a few scenes. And I probably only noticed that because the screen was so effing huge that a couple of pixels for the artists would be like 2 feet for me on screen.
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