Citizen-Bot: Well, I think i said pretty much everything I wanted to say before: (https://www.bigshinyrobot.com/reviews/archives/4257) I liked the movie, and also, the two Watchmen virgins I went with also really enjoyed it. Let me put it this way: I went to see this with another Watchmen nerd who really loved the source material. We both loved the movie, warts and all, the way I love my wife and she loves me: we know each others faults but are willing to look past them because of how much good and right there is and we don’t want to pick at nits. The Watchmen virgins I went with loved it like you love a new girlfriend in that pure “I”ve Just Seen a Face” sort of way. Which is better? You decide.

It’s been more than a week since I saw Watchmen, and the more I think about it, the more I want to see it again. That’s a good sign, in my opinion. As I said in my review, my main criteria was “Did they tame the beast? Was this Watchmen?” On the whole, yes it was. I felt it was a faithful adaptation.

I think the comparisons to Sin City aren’t quite apt. I see this more like, well… 300, also from Snyder. The violence was more brutal, the sex was overstated, but the themes were left intact. Ditto with Snyder’s “Dawn of the Dead” remake. Ok, maybe I just really like Zach Snyder’s movies.

Now I’m going to be the first person to defend the sex in Watchmen (amazing for anyone who knows me). Was it pornographic? Well, I don’t know any porno whose soundtrack is Leonard Cohen, but, well…. as I said in my review, it probably was a bit much. However, the issue of Dreiberg’s impotency unless he’s in the suit was really never explicitly mentioned, although alluded to. The elongated sex scene where he is obviously anything but impotent and where Laurie is able to feel pleasure in a way that the most powerful man on earth could never give here was, well… nice. I think it worked to theme, and worked to character development. So, suck it, boobie haters! The porno has artistic merit!

Ultimately, I think you need to think about this movie for what it is, and not what it isn’t. No Watchmen adaptation could ever fully satisfy everyone in the same way a Star Wars prequel couldn’t. We need to appreciate this for how much right they got, not what they didn’t get right.

Nuf said. Hrmf…..

Kill-tacular-tron: Citizen-Bot, I think you make some strong arguments. I want everyone to know that I love titties and sex with women. You and I have read the book and see the ties to his suit giving him more of a sexual drive, I just worry to a Watchmen virgin that it might seem excessive. I just want to close with saying I like seeing naked boobs. Breasts are great, wonderful and awe-some.

Citizen-bot: Oops! Didn’t mean to cause a ruckus or question anyone’s sexuality/manhood/robothood! Let it be stated that Citizen-bot accepts robots of all kinds, be they homobots, heterobots, or chastitybots. (Prudebots or Buttars-bots accepted only with redeemable coupon)…

Clang! Boom! Steam!: Geeks are a hard lot to please no matter what. I’m a geek and a huge fan of Watchmen and I had a great time watching some of my favorite comic characters on the big screen and so did my date, who was a virgin to the material.

For those who lose sleep at night nitpicking and trying to take the joy of any movie going experience – fuck you – stay home. Sure this movie, like all movies, had flaws – so did the book if you really want to get down to it, I just hope I don’t have to listen to a bunch of ass-holes bitch about “how they should have done it.” I love how every geek in the world thinks they hold the magical cure to any ailing plot or character in their mushy video game addled brain just because they happened to read a comic book or two in their lives.

Bottom line, I was really impressed with the execution of something that was considered (and rightly so) unfilmable for so many years.

The opening credits sequence was down right breath-taking. The amount of information that is flying at you, the bizarre history lesson, the unapologetically ballsy use of Bob Dylan – it’s all such a beautiful and stylish introduction to a strange and exciting world of masked adventurers.

The music was particularly impressive – and since sound is the most notable difference between comics and movies, I’ll concentrate on that.

Again, opening with Dylan, ballsy, brash and perfect. Loved the sex scene in the for a number of reasons,(Citizen-Bot defended it perfectly) but Leonard Cohen was one of the major ones. Who can deny the impact of Doctor Manhattan’s origin – my single favorite issue of the comic which only got better with Billy Crudup’s perfectly understated performance and Philip Glass’ haunting organ music. Simon and Gafunkel at the funeral, Hendrix in Antarctica, all risky because of their iconic status in Rock n’ Roll history which brings it’s own baggage, but never did I feel the characters or story crumble under the weight of the epic soundtrack – A ballancing act that is often not given enough credit in my opinion since it is so rare that it is pulled off so well. The bigger the song, the more daunting the task in my estimation, but I think Snyder pulled it off brilliantly and right out of the gates – never overstating the 80’s vibe but also never neglecting it, or any other time period/mood associated with the far reaching origins of the masked adventurers.

I can’t end without asking what the Hell is up with Budget-trons “teen angst” comment? I’ve heard some dumb ass reviews and comment’s and I’m sure I’ll hear more, but that one takes the dumb ass cake.

Clang, Boom, Steam speaks – and it is so!

Budgetron: Clang, all I’m trying to say is that everyone puts the story of Watchmen on a pedestal when all it seems to say is the same thing we’ve been hearing for years from teenage punk bands, “The government sucks and is tearing the country apart, people who have the power to make change don’t do it, people will always find a way to destroy each other despite the few who just want peace, people always want to blame someone for their problems instead of taking a stand…etc, etc, etc.” Also, it’s just a movie.

Clang! Boom! Steam!:Whatever dumb ass. Minor threat can suck it!

Kill-tacular-tron: I’m going to have to agree with Clang, I think that the music was a nice touch. It set the tone and feel for a lot of the characters.

Swank-mo-tron: I think the music was the best choice Snyder made. Directing is about choices and that’s about the only thing (other than the change in the ending) that he actually made a choice about. Everything else was just filming what was in the book. And Budgetron, the book gets a lot deeper than the angsty “We Hate the Government!” thing… There’s a lot about the characters and their motivations and there’s Ozy’s plan that didn’t get explained very well in the film. The book did have a much wider scope to the overall story that I think the film missed.

You’d be well served to read the book.

And it’s not just nerds that revere this book, either. I mean, TIME Magazine put it on their list of 100 greatest NOVELS of all time along with real books. There’s a literary quality to it that moves beyond the angst and idiocy of comic nerds.

Citizen-bot: Budget-tron, I think the story is iconic NOT because of the teen angst and anti-authoritarianism. That’s the backdrop of the story– the chords of the song, not the story of the lyrics. You can read Watchmen that way, but, in my mind, that’s like watching The Simpsons to see Homer get hit on the head or in the groin, thus missing the underlying satire.

Watchmen is about morality. Ozymandius’s plan is one that asks the ultimate moral question: do the ends justify the means? We have Rorschach who chooses to not compromise because morality is black and white and willingly dies because he would rather die than compromise. We have Nite Owl and Silk Spectre, who are impotent to do anything and so accede because they are simply beaten, mere mortals in a world of supermen, and, to an extent, they accept the morality of the immorality. We have Manhattan, whose detachment from life makes it easy to make a “rational” decision (kill a million people to save a billion), and defend it, even by murder, to cover up the deeds.

Which one are we? Do we submit to authority, do we play the authority, can any of us be trusted with that authority? If I ask myself honestly, I am a Dan Dreiberg. I would do what he did, and then have major guilt the rest of my life.

And, finally, was Veidt RIGHT? Could you murder a baby if you knew that doing so would cure cancer? How about 100? Is mass genocide justifiable if it would keep the extinction of the species from occuring?

And what if you were wrong? (Cue the “Tales of the Black Freighter” side story) What if you actions unwittingly made the situation worse? So who do we trust to make these decisions?

Put all THAT in a minor threat song!!! (Although, I think I heard Henry Rollins talk about this one time…..)

That being said, I respect Budget-tron’s opinion. I just think he’s wrong.

Look for part three shortly…