Pencilbot: I could name about 4 things that pulled me out in the movie;

1. Silk Spectre I as an old bitch talking about the past being better than the future + Carla Gugino’s bad acting = I remember I’m watching a movie

2. Dr. Manhattan coming back from his memories on Mars and it’s absolutely silent for only a second, then the Phillip Glass track comes in. I think it came in a second too early.

3. “Hallelujah” in the sex scene. I’m sorry, but if I’m going to hear some Leonard Cohen during two people fucking, it better be “Suzanne”.

4. I forget. I think it might have been that all the superheroes kinda fight the same way.

Other than that, my belief is that this movie was a flawless depiction of how you can make a Watchmen movie work in a mainstream media form. There was tits and penis, how many mainstream ‘adult’ movies are rated R but shy away from showing some male genitals like it’s some big taboo? I was so glad that approached things with a more mature and developed nature than more mainstream movies, from the lesbians in the opening sequence (which I think grabbed me by the nuts in a second and never let go… though that might have also been the person next to me) to having hot sex in Niteowls whip. I think one of the more erotic things was Silk Spectre II sucking on Manhattan’s thumb while they’re knockin’ boots; that’s very realistic but I had yet to see it in movies till then.

Moving off the sexual tip, the movie as a whole was fantastic; it dealt with great questions that were in the source from what I remember and even put some more in it. Of course it didn’t go in as deep as the graphic novel that takes close to a month to read and fully digest, anyone who would compare the two as equals are retarded purists. *looks at Dr. Cyborg*

If you haven’t read Watchmen, you will thoroughly enjoy this movie, though in some parts, particularly in the funeral flashbacks, I can see some new peeps getting confused.

If you don’t watch or like this movie because of how holy you take the source material, you need a life or a new religion. In other words go fuck yourself.

Mandroid: Well, Punk bands emerged out of the late seventies/ early eighties singing songs about death, destruction, and bad government. Alan Moore was a part of the birth of punk in the UK, he grew up in Northampton (where he still lives) with the likes of David J (of Bauhaus) and Collaborates with him on music/ spoken word projects. Is it any wonder Thatchers regime would end up resulting in works pitching that message? They’re from the same time, place, and society, that’s why they have mutual themes.

True, rarely an individual stands up not only for himself but for the well being of others as well, but often we pint at him with distrust and disdain for being different and having radical ideas. Most people keep their heads down and try to stay out of trouble, those that do not end up finding trouble and do not end up alive long enough to see their society changing ideals come to fruition.

I find irony in your comments (as do I in the general public), as I had mentioned in the What is Watchmen article (https://www.bigshinyrobot.com/reviews/archives/2799) I wrote on the site a while back. It seems that the book has become over-hyped and overblown to the masses as it trickled into the mainstream consciousness. Watchmen is touted as the greatest graphic novel ever (despite being a trade-paperback), but really can such a thing live up to the hype? Not only that is it really a book for everyone?

Watchmen is the best comic ever written because it was done in a time where it was perfect for creating a beast of this nature. innovations had happened for years moving towards the compilation of the efforts of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons collaboration that is a magical homonuclious of all that came before it cast in a new light. Stemming from the modern age of comics ushered in by people like Denny O’Neil and Neil Adams (who in the 70’s revitalized DC with collaborations on Green Lantern/ Green Arrow and Batman) with socially conscious superheroes not only trying to punch out their respective arch-foes, also trying to better mankind through reaching out to the fellow man and trying to change society for the better. As stated before, Watchmen is more about comics than the surface story about a murder investigation involving a bunch of masked vigilantes. Also, it’s deconstruction of the medium and genre while putting it back together again, the latter a factor often missed by not only arm-chair readers but those creative types attempting to recreate through the filter of “grim and gritty”. Without Watchmen many modern comics would not in fact exist and the medium could still be languishing in the gutter like a used condom or cigarette butt.

Watchmen was the game changer for comics, true you can look at it’s simplistic story in a quaint fashion, but it’s so much more. Layer upon layer it’s not only a brilliant comic, it’s thee brilliant comic! It’s a delivery system for metaphor, morality, society, and humanity in it’s beauty and brilliance and ugly darkness as well. I personally think Dick Nixon broke America’s heart and made us all jaded, distrustful, grim bastards that sometimes can’t accept the beauty of things as we stare down the abyss of a toilet full of shit. We like to complain and judge before we even possess all factors involved, don’t let yourself be deprived of what could be possibly joyous or magical due to “hype”.

Back to the subject at hand, I’d say try and rid yourself of any pre-conceived notions or hype or general baggage and just take a day to sit down and read the book. Only then can you really judge the material on it’s own merits, hopefully. And even if you don’t enjoy it, at least it’s an adventure!

Dr. Cyborg: Well since this is already a twenty-two page post about a movie that wasn’t really that good I figure there is approximately 0 readers for my paragraph, which is okay by me. (I don’t fuckin care.) I wish I could have watched it and not compared it to the book, but I did, every time something happened I immediately filed it as A) Same as the book, or B) Not the same as the book. There were some really great moments, and it wasn’t boring to me. So in some regards it was a success, but I am also about to let loose a few things that bothered me about the film. First off I think this movie felt like sand slipping through your fingers. It tries to do a little bit of everything and give a thousand nods to the reader, but with out any sort of pay off or justification. The reason “it was in the book” is a poor excuse. This is poor cinema. For example when Rorschach was being interviewed by the psychiatrist, they gave the nod to the comic book by having Rorschach tell him lies about what he is seeing in the Rorschach test. In the comic book there was a reason he was lying to him, and he eventually after a while tells him about himself because he knows he isn’t going to give up. In the movie they use the same scene to give the nod, then have the doctor ask him another question and this changes his mind for the simple reason that he was asked. “Okay I’ll tell you about Rorschach” I think this describes the lack of heart in the depiction. They didn’t have a purpose other then to copy the comic. This is barbaric screen writing at best. The next thing I will complain about is from the following scene. Rorschach breaks into telling about Rorschach for no reason and he tells the story of what actually turned him into Rorschach instead of a man dressed as Rorschach. (Which was poorly explained because they were so focused on giving nods to the comic book.) A little girl is butchered and fed to the killers dogs. Rorschach shows up sees the evidence of this man’s brutal killing and waits for a confession to axe him in the head. In the comic he sees the evidence and gives him an ironic slaying where he would have to cut himself up like he must have done to the little girl or else burn to death. Rorschach does not wait for him to confess, Rorschach knows, and that’s good enough. Trading away a scene of sharp poetic justice for a few seconds of gore. This movie surgically removed the heart from Watchmen in it’s souless tracing.  Also the bite baby Rorschach gave to the other kid was almost sensual.

So I am not saying it was bad because it wasn’t as good as the book. On the other hand, there was a problem that it didn’t understand why and what it should take from the book and how to make it work. It was entertaining though, and it ranks above LXG.

Pencilbot: Go fuck yourself.