Sorry, going through pre-TDK symptoms.

I can't fucking WAIT for the Talkback on this one come 2009.

But, the rest looked fucking cool. I can keep an open mind about it, but how are they going to do this story? I just cannot see it.

But seriously, that looks like shit. He's bringing back all the same tricks from 300 that didn't work the first time around. Maybe I'll download the movie if I have trouble sleeping.

to be honest, though, i don't mind if this is a sleeker Watchmen. although it's plainly one of the great graphic novels, it's not untouchable. the ending, as i've said before, is particularly pants.

i dont know how well zak can do on the script front, i still have my reservation, but visually... this movie is just absolutely gorgeous!

as great as ironman and darkknight are... but those movie have really really mediocre trailers. this one i can watch hundreds of times over and over again. it's soooo just amazingly done.

Watchmen is very much a creature of its time, suffused with Cold War paranoia and fear of imminent nuclear war. Maybe you ain't old enough to remember that, but the whole post-9/11 atmosphere is another kind of existential dread entirely.

Snyder made the right choice keeping this thing in the 80s.

Still not sold on Ozymandias (Matthew Goode is a great actor, it's just the look that bugs me) or the ladies (did we even see Silk Spectre I in this trailer?), but that could definitely change over time.

Not a good taste of things to come, at least for those who didn't surgically erase B&R from their mind.

My favorite shot is of the three Manhattans. That shit give me an actual chill. Like, for real.

As someone who really enjoyed the comic, I have been looking forward to seeing this film since it actually started production (was dubious it'd happen until then.) And everything up to this point has led me to believe it'd turn out well. But this much positive hype on AintItNegative's TB makes me dubious about how well it'll turn out.

Unfortunately, this like this just can't live up to their trailers COUGHPhantomMenaceCOUGH

Hellboy did surprisingly well last weekend and I was really afraid it would bomb, so who knows. I doubt many people outside of the comic book reading minority even knew who Hellboy was before the first movie. Although, the advertising Hellboy very smartly played up the humor of the film. Snyder doesn't have much of a sense of humor to his films.

The thing you have to remember about 300 is that Snyder presented it pretty much as it is on the page (except he added a bit more story to it, if you can believe it.) Like 300 or not, if you read the graphic novel, then see the movie, it proves Snyder is highly capable of "faithful" adaptation, which is what gets me the most hopeful for Watchmen.

In my opinion, Snyder makes the most glaring change in the character of Ephialtes. In Miller's version, after Ephialtes asks to join the Spartans, Leonidas tells Ephialtes "I can't use you" and then turns his back as Ephialtes jumps off a cliff. In the film Leonidas suggests that Ephialtes carry the dead off the battlefield or take other non-combat jobs before he throws himself off a cliff. Later in the story it is Ephialtes who betrays the Spartans by showing Xerxes the pass that allows him to outflank their position. In Miller's version, if Leonidas, and by extension, Spartan society could have mustered the imagination to find a place in society for everyone, then they would never have been outflanked. While most of 300 the comic book exalts the Spartans, Miller still has the insight to slyly critique some of their shortcomings. Snyder completely misses this point, and while reading the comic probably wondered why Leonidas wasn't a little gentler to poor Ephialtes and decided to add the line about carrying the dead off the battlefield. This was a mistake. If Snyder isn't able to understand the slight complexities of 300 then there's no way he's going to understand the mass complexities of Alan Moore's Watchmen.

I gotta say that is my only regret in this film is that I already know the amazing twist...but it is still gonna be sweet!

But yeah, I hope that slo-mo crap is just cut that way for the trailer.

Even if while watching it my mind immediately screamed "Nipples on Clooney!" as surely as the RDJ/Paltrow chemistry smelled like Kilmer/Kidman in Batman Forever... There are sour tastes you can't get rid of, but unlike some pessimistic peers here I'm cautionously optimistic about Snyder. He managed to deliver a solid Romero remake and that is no small feat.

perhaps in another 10 years.

http://tinyurl.com/5waxap

Co-incidence ? Hmmm....

hopefully the effects will get better...Dr. Manhattan looks too glowy and misty or something...just looks like a floating special effect...And a little too much slow motion...hopefully thats just for the trailers. Other than that...looks rad!!!!!!!!!! YAY people we're finally getting Watchmen!

I definitely have more faith in Carla Gugino than Akerman, mainly because I'm not familiar with the latter's work at all, and she just looked pretty awkward to me in this trailer.

..."And I'll look down and say 'No.'".

I'm gonna go for the Rorschach, and I'm gonna stay for the Comedian. As a bit of a social liberal, I gots me a soft spot for two Right-Wing kooks. :)

Actually, at the website, there's a badass webisode about the costumes that shows some pretty cool shit if you're a big fan of the comics.

What can I say? Give it up for a guy who knows how to shoot a fucking comic. My only gripe, and believe me, it's a tiny one, is that the Martian Sphere-thingy didn't look like a bunch of gears for a clock. One of the pieces of visual symmetry all through the book which makes me as a writer thoroughly envy guys like Alan Moore, whose minds work like 3-D chess as they write. Either that, or Moore has a shitstorm of notes between projects as he's writing. This is a brilliant novel (not just comics, boys and girls, I'm talking NOVEL, like 'Slaughterhouse Five' and 'A Clockwork Orange' and '1984'.

Alan Moore...this might shut him up. ...Nah. But I still love the hairy bastard. ;)

First, Ozymandias doesn't want to get the gang back together...that's Capt. Metropolis. Ozymandias thinks it would be a good idea, until he learns that the Comedian is just as smart as he is, and hits the nail on the head.

Second, Nite Owl looks that way because it's from the scenes in the 60s and 70s when he and Comedian are breaking up the Police Strike riots. He was buff and toned back then.

The only one here who seems out of place might by Ozymandias, but in the book, he's portrayed as a forever-youthful guy who was fond of Alexander the Great. Seems like this blonde ponce fits that bill entirely.

And I take back the comment I made above, because it was my first reaction. There's clockwork and gears aplenty in this badboy and fuck, man, Snyder's definitely got the look of this shit down, and Rorschach works.

To the haters, hate on brothers, I ain't listening. But you should check this shit out or torrent it or however you get your hands on it just for the Rorschach shit. No fucking lie, man. Rorschach is the fucking man.

God, I hope they keep the 'NEVER.' scene in there as a flashback. Again, I say, Rorschach is the fucking swinging hairy dog's bollocks.

If that's who you're named for. Anyway, I forgot about the fucking badassness that is Moloch...It seems like this isn't gonna be a little movie, it's going to be a big ass movie, and that makes me happy.

Put simply Ozy is Charles Atlas in a costume that befits Egyptian Royalty. There are reasons for both of these things in the novel and it surely can't be overlooked that he HAS to be old enough for the early flashbacks to work. Perhaps there's some kind of fountain of youth sub-plot Snyder has thrown in and perhaps the "dark" suit only comes out at the antartic retreat. Whatever, it's not a film killer just disappointing but it is baffling since most of the other characters are correct or close enough. (Nite Owl never looks flabby in action only as Driberg and in repose.)

I agree that the floating Martian construct should be cogs and gears but I also want the Mars sequence to look like Mars and the colours are too stylised in that short clip. These are minor points indeed though as having Night Owl kick ass in the prison breakout is good as is Silk Spectres rooftop rescue becoming a little more heroic.

The Trailer works. Period.

Frankly I had no idea the music was also used for the shit Batman film, since I never watched it and never wanted to. So perhaps that's why it works all the more for me.

P.S. I notice the idiots who were previously and pathetically trying to say this was like Mystery Men have been well and truly silenced.

P.S. NOBODY FEED THE TROLL HE WILL BE BANNED SOON ENOUGH.

Not forgetting that the climax to the "plot" even if is slightly different from the books will need a MAJOR amount of time in post and especially if Snyder wants there to be an element of real set to it. (which would be wise) As it needs to feel "grounded" and real to emphasize what it's all been about and what was at stake for everyone.

And yes, you should always experience the original format of a given work before any adaptation of it. Read the book before seeing the movie. If the adaptation is good, it tends to heighten you're enjoyment of seeing it up on screen. I'll never forget how giddy I was picking out each character in that early trailer of LOTR where the nine come over the crest of that hill. This trailer doesn't top that experience, but it is looking damn good.

I don't believe it. Are they going to pull this off?

"Are you sure?"

PLUS, isn't it funny when many TBers will piss and moan about bad CG until something like this comes along and then it is excused because of their attachment to the material. I understand Snyder has a different style... look at "300". But I'm wondering what draws the line for some of you people. If that was an X-Men, Superman, or Batman trailer... as far as visuals, you'd all be pissing and moaning about the bad CG.

I love Snyder. It looks DIFFERENT, which is good. I like different. But still think this is strictly fanboy only. Time will tell. Hope it's awesome.

And the HighDef version is a MUST. As only there can you see the awesome detail properly like the Martian Construct which IS actually fairly similar to the Novel when you see it "properly".

LOTR ROTK came in at how long in the cinema ? I'd say he was pushing his luck with the studio if he went much beyond that. But I wouldn't be surprised if we ALSO get a rather tasty Directors cut DVD.

Oh, and it didn't do that tired-as-hell "Carmina Burana" choir thingie, or even the Peter Gabriel "Rhythm Of The Heat" drumbeat ripoff thingy either.

March is suddenly a long way away...

If you like to read fiction but have never gotten into comic books, then I would recommend that you give "Watchmen" a try. The plot centers around a murder mystery involving two generations of masked human vigilantes and a bunch of other stuff that I don't want to spoil. There's only one super powered being (Doctor Manhattan, the result of a 1959 atomic experiment mishap), so no need to fear if you aren't really into the super-human thing. The present day of the story is 1985, but the creative team uses flashbacks, fake magazine and newspaper clippings, text character autobiography excerpts, etc., to backfill the story to around 1928. There are a lot of clever techniques used to weave together this compelling work. It's not just the story, but also the way in which it is told, that garners high praise for "Watchmen". Available at Amazon.com for a little less than $14.

Oh and Ozy DOES look older in front of the bank of monitors than in other photos.(but still a bit too young and not Charles Atlas. meh, they may just be going for speed over power as we see with the gunman spinning takedown to make one particular scne at the end more believable.)

The song is for the trailer and bears more than a passing resemblance to an Alan Moore Documentary trailers tune. Who says it will even be IN the final Movie ? And if you associate it with Batman and Robin more fool you for watching that pile of shit.

Have you SEEN some of the pics of Batmans costume from The Dark Knight ? I've got News for you it's a plastic and rubber suit that looks like a bat. Nite Owl isn't much sillier. (considering it was intentionally meant to be inherently faintly ridiculous for the purposes of the plot.)

So they actually used C.G. Lazy bastards. Why didn't they get a Camera crew out to mars ? Or build a colossal glass artifact or a working flying owlship or clone a 100foot tall superhuman. It's CG gone mad!

I've quibbles with this but they are trivial and this trailer kicks every other trailer into touch just now. Man up and accept it. For it be truth.

The Movie might disappoint in the end or it might not but this trailer hasn't and we'll see just how effective it's been soon enough when TDK goes boxoffice ballistic.

I suspect it might. ;-)

It's threads also run through the entire story so whatever he's cooking up will have to seamlessly fill in the gaps left by the original plotline.

Well no doubt we'll hear hints about that as well as the final running time in due course.

Yes, it looks like 300, but that can work for this -- I hope.

after chewing on it all night, i've decided Zack knows exactly what he's doing with this. hope i'm right.

Look at “V for Vendetta” – the film utterly and completely missed (or changed) the subtle political and emotion points of the novel, but people still mistakenly raved about it as a perfectly faithful adaptation of Moores work. Overall I don’t give a shit how this film looks as long as it captures the tone and sentiment – and a great part of that is that these characters aren’t, for the most part, admirable: and in fact very few of them are in any way likeable.

It’s like Snyders tip of the hat to Moores Chapter ending song lyrics mirroring the stories themes. Clever stuff.

Wow.

cuz he won't be happy with the movie.

A choice quote: "In my movie, Superman doesn't care about humanity, Batman can't get it up, and the bad guy wants world peace". It also mentions the first thing Patrick Wilson doing to prepare for Night Owl was put on weight to give himself a pot-belly/paunch. And it includes a picture of what looks to be the young Comedian about to try and rape Silk Spectre. Sounds to me like he's doing it right.

cuz Wall-E can't come back to life in this story.

But I will say that that does look pretty damn tasty! And it is apparently the best comic book ever. So yes, I am excited for this one. If its half as good as you lot hope it will be, then I shall be a happy movie fan :)

And Dawn of the Dead remake absolutley ROCKED!! As a HUUUGE fan of the original I was so geared up to hate the new one....but I was blown away by it. If he does the same to your precious adaptation, then we should all be happy movie fans indeed!!!

Still think Ozy's too young, though...

I was impressed with a few images. However, I was really turned off by the poor choice in music and what appears to be the same murky CGI-meets film grain used in 300. And it looks like we'll be getting more dramatic slo-mo actions shots that appear to Snyder's trademark move. So be it.

Look, I'm aware of WATCHMEN's place in comic history and I know that it means a lot to the story's fans that it be brought to the big screen. However, I've yet to see anything from Snyder that proves he's capable of bringing the depth and themes of this story to light beyond recreating comic book panels. For the WATCHMEN fans, I really hope he's able to do the piece justice.

* Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Ong Bok

Die Hard

Above the Law

Raiders

The abyss

Casino Royale

Total Recall

The Killer

The Warriors

this is just off the top of my head. The requirements for me are simple: push the plot along, use slo-mo sparingly, have fury and the big one:::> SHOW THE ACTION.

No movie can live up to an incredible trailer. And the way peopel were talking about this trailer, I thought for sure it meant Watchmen was not going to turn out well. Having now seen the trailer myself, I'm not as concerned. It was a "good" trailer, but nothing that made me cream my jeans. it was basically what I would have expected. Which is just fine.

I'm unfamiliar with the watchmen but i've been meaning to check out the book. This teaser looks pretty awesome, and I look forward to a full length one that actually explains the movie a bit.

But as a long-time Watchmen fan, that preview did indeed give me a geekgasm.

2) If you haven't read the graphic novel, read it first. In fact, go read it now.

3) Yes, that's Nixon. Yes, it takes place in the 80s. Yes, that's Vietnam.

4) Yes, there's CGI. Or did you expect them to construct a floating timepiece on Mars?

Admittedly, "Tarantula" is pretty good once you get past the opening line and I enjoy the bizarre "Pomp and Circumstance." If I have enough beers in me I even like "That's the Way My Love Is." He does a great job of layer his guitars like My Bloody Valentin meets Black Sabbath. Unfortunately his effortless songwriting skills aren't what they used to be. But to give credit where credit is due, Siamese Dreams will always be one of the best albums of the nineties. No matter how obnoxious Corgan gets, you can't take that from him.

The look of Dr. Manhattan and Rorschach is spot on, Love the Rorschach voice also. And, framing-wise, Most of those shots look exactly like the panels in the book.

But the the color palette is off, and the characters look badass, which they shouldn't. Don't like the look of Veidt either, it's just off. I know these are minor complaints, and they are forgettable if the movie can live up to it's name, but this is not the thing that worries me the most.

What worries me the most is that it's directed by Snyder. I didn't hate 300, and I don't mind the slow-mo stuff he overuses, hes a competent action director. But that's it, hes just an action director. And Watchmen can not be an action movie. In both his DOTD remake and in 300 the plot/character driven parts where so boring, you only sat through that stuff because of the action that followed. For me, he did not prove that he can direct a story and character driven film.

And in my opinion, he did not direct a single good movie yet, so that gets me worried when this film gets mentioned.

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0 ,,20213273,00.html

I know you were joking, but that trailer sounds awesome. I guess I am a fan boy. Crap....

*SPOILY* As for Squiddy.... Poor Squiddy. :( It's a loss and it was there in the comic for so many reasons. It was a homage to the innumerable comic book teams and heroes that culminated in a face off with some unspeakable monster. Moore knew how bizarre it was and it's no accident it's artificial and there's much talk about it's "creation" but it's horrific effects are precisely right and it's the "outside the box" solution akin to the Gordian knot one that is required.

Instead we seem to be getting a manufactured pissed off manhattan. There are one or 2 nice things about this solution but it's certainly not perfect and you could pick an awful lot of holes in it.

Whatever, the book isn't going anywhere and it's not going to stop me seeing this even if I would have loved to see a fully realised amazing looking squiddy.

P.S. Another thing Squiddy always reminded me of, I believe the first ever Justic League Comic featured all the heroes teaming up against "starro" and that's the homage I think Moore may well be referring to, but it's just speculation.

A CITY OF JUSTICE! A CITY OF LOVE!

Really R. Kelly? Gotham City always seemed like a place where you could form a gang just by offering a pack of Newports to new members.

Anyways, so when I heard that Wanted was a comic I ran out on Comic book day and bought it and read it up. I had already heard about Watchmen and had bought that to read....haven't gotten around to it. Took me a while to get back into comics, but now I think I'm ready. But after how terrible I thought Wanted was, compared to all my idiot friends that didn't even know Wanted was a movie until a week before it was released let alone know that it was based on a comic. I don't know if I want to have a shitty time at the movies come Watchman Day 09. Plus I really hope they didn't 300 the movie and give me all the money shots in the trailer, I jized all over the 300 trailer so much that come movie time nothing was cool and the bad ass NIN song was replaced by a snake charmer. I just feel like reading that comic and watching....wait I can't because my computer sucks balls right now...over and over I won't enjoy the movie as much as Jo Blo cubicle buddy who never heard about Watchmen until he read about it in the issue of Maxim that comes out a month before the movie. But I'll probably read the comic while listening to my Batman and Robin Soundtrack on REPEAT!

Hey remember when we all thought Zach Snyder was gay for re-making Dawn of the Dead?

Even Rorschach for all his quasi-fascist thuggery was broken by a case which pit him against a child murderer. And he never wavers. Not for a fucking second. He was brilliant strategically in the past and it's only he who penetrates the mystery and only he who has the staying power to do so.

Ozy is an athletic prodigy. His backstory covers why. His is the compromise of cold logic and limitless ego that weighed hundreds of thousands against Billions.

Nite Owl IS a flabby washout BUT he is galvanized by Silk Spectre and when the chips are down and the years of self-doubt are blown away he IS an extraordinary person.

Even the minutemen did some good and weren't all misguided fialures certainly to begin with. We simply don't see much of the characters in their "glory" days but the book does tell you they all had them when they took out drug rings and child pronography rings and gangsters and thugs.

But The Comedian knows on a global scale they are pissing in the wind. And the coming of Dr Manhattan just emphasises that.

Besides it's not all fun and Games "playacting" as heroes they all pay an extraordinary high for being a "Hero" some are killed some are driven insane all have scars mental and physical but they tried. Even if in the end they were naive and misguided, they tried. And Moore never lets us think this is a one dimensional story of "pretend" heroes and nihilism. It's about the struggle even if it ends in failure. You simply wouldn't care about the story if you didn't care about the characters, and you do. Or at least everyone I know who has read Watchmen does.

Rorschach CATCHES the child killer but it costs him his sanity so that scene is supremely tragic. If Watchmen was just unremitting black horror no-one would give a fuck. Moore is far cleverer than that. He looks at these characters and see the flaws but he sees the good in them too. His is an unflinching gaze but he wouldn't devote a life to writing comic books if he thought they were all assholes with no redeeming features and Watchmen is his love letter AND cynical postmodern dissection of the Superhero Team just not a childish infatuation more a realistic appreciation. Warts and all.

Though anyone who wants to keep the Movie as a surprise should really avoid ALL forums & message boards about it from now until release.

***MORE SPOILERS*** Actually without being too specific the final panel is SUPREMELY Brilliant. Because we will never know exactly what happens but Rorschach in the end outsmarted EVERYONE. Ozy and Manhatten. (though Manhatten knows this is only a temporary "solution" and tells Ozy as much.) What's Genius is that Rors journal falls into a the hands of a Magazine that will never be taken that seriously so in my mind the peace will hold BUT the truth will also be as they say "out there". So in a sense Ror succeeds. He wins. But Armaggeddon was still stopped.

October 12th, 1985.:

Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face.

The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown.

The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shoud "Save us!"...

...and I'll look down and whisper "No."

HOWEVER seeing Manhattan get blasted in the chamber at the beginning was way cool and many of the shots are greatly loyal to the comic, I was able to see the comic through the scenes shown.

However I'm not totally impressed with some of the CGI, particularly Doc Manhattan who I don't think you can put into a movie, it just looks unusual and sort of floating in front of everything else on screen.

Yeah, being a nitpicky Watchmen geek I'm freaking out a bit, but I don't think this will be the movie I was hoping for, hopefully, I'm wrong.

In it Daniel and Walter (NOT Nite Owl & Rorschach, you will note) finally clear the air between them and we see there is still a small piece of Kovacs buried deep within Rorschach that reaches out and knows Driberg was and is his friend. It's not a huge scene it's not done with flowery language or profound gestures, it's simple yet it humanises Rorschach like nothing else. That's not unremittingly bleak. It's touching yet in no way sentimental.

It's one of my favourite moments and it had better be in there Snyder ! heh.

It's also very cunning as we see Rorschach & Nite Owl as real partners for the first time then soon after it's Nite Owl's turn to transform and he becomes almost Rorschachian in the bar when he learns about Hollis.

Reading Watchmen, yes, the characters are all losers, has-beens, yesterday's celebrities trying to fit into this world theyve burnt out of. They are losers, in mid-life crisis's, all with very HUMAN problems and relations. But to say they aren't heroes is so wrong, in my opinion. They are heroes. Moore just deconstructs them to not LOOK like heroes. People read their comics and magazines expecting their heroes to look the same as celebrities with big muscles, cool fighting moves, etc. yet these heroes (Ozymandias not included) are just regular people, they aren't the glamor that the media expects them to be, which is why they don't get the admiration and appreciation they deserve. Ozy could even be a hero depending on how you view his morals and his choices, the ambiguous choice of whether or not Ozy is a hero is what makes Watchmen very fascinating.

I agree though, the trailer shows these characters as the type of glamourized superhero that the novel goes so far to say they are not. The suits are poor, however I like Ror's, I'm not picky enough to complain about whether or not it's tailored. And yeah, the action is just for pure Hollywood popcorn blitz to attract people to an action movie.

But I do think the characters are heroes, I just think they are HUMAN heroes, not SUPER heroes.

I'm not saying he's got M.P.D. I'm saying that for the briefest moment the Kovacs Rorschcach that Driberg worked with for all those years "resurfaces" from beneath the mask just like the Owlship "resurfaces" from beneath the waves in the very next scene.

It's a fleeting glimpse but it's there. Just as we see the fleeting glimpse of Dribergs hidden streak of Rorschach when he threatens to take out the entire neighborhood with the Owlship's firepower as he learns of his mentors fate. And who brings him back from the brink ? Irony of Ironies, Rorschach.

What if Nite Owl had been helping when Rorschach was tackling the child killer could he have brought Kovacs back from the brink ? Just one of the many questions this book makes you think about.

And Walter isn't strictly accurate it's true. But it's the Kovacs Rorschach not the post child killer Rorschach that reaches out to Daniel for that one moment.

But hey, it just shows how Superior Watchmen is when there is rarely just one "correct" interpretation of the characters their actions and their motivations, so complex are they.

Not quite "HULK SMASH!" is it ;-)

Somehow, I fucking doubt it.

You know how I know that the theme is FEAR?

Because I was repeatedly hit over the head with a large mallet emblazoned with the word FEAR whilst I was attempting to watch the movie. Even as I left the theatre, I could hear Liam Neeson yelling after me, "FEAR AFFECTS THE FEARFUL AND MAKES THEM FEAR FEAR ITSELF AND THE OTHER THINGS IN LIFE THAT ARE TO BE FEARED! REMEMBER TO FEAR THE FEAR, THE FEARFUL AND THE AFEARED!"

As for Watchmen, I have several reasons for being FEARFUL of how this movie will play. Of course the trailer gives absolutely no indication as to whether the movie will be any good; I've yet to see a trailer that does. All you can really say from the trailer is that it looks like a professionally-made movie - as opposed to one made by amateurs. But there are a couple of things that concern me all the same:

At the moment it's looking too clean, too polished and too slick. Watchmen needs to have the feel of grimy pulp fiction. We were promised that Snyder was going to draw inspiration from TAXI DRIVER for the look of the movie. So what the hell happened?...

Why has Rorschach been given a Batman 'Hero' voice? In the comic book, Moore and Gibbons deliberately corrupted his speech bubbles, which indicates that his voice should be dripping in decay - or should in some way reflect his disturbed state of mind.

The slow-mo and speeded-up film effect they keep using. Er, they're not REALLY going to use that in the final movie are they? THis isn't the Matrix. And he already used it in 300. Which leads me on to...

300. Great comic book - mainly because of its layout and style: visually it's very powerful . But it made for a mediocre movie. Sure, Snyder pulled off a clever trick - referencing Miller's graphics etc, but the mistake was to stick so slavishly to the comic book: the plot was just too thin for a movie.

Because we have much HIGHER expectations of movies than we do of comic books in terms of plot and writing. Which leads me to:

Sin City. Another faithful frame-by-frame translation of a comic book. An interesting visual experiment; a very dull movie.

This leads me to my final FEAR: I've no doubt that Snyder will be faithful to the story. But I think this may be to the detriment of how the story might work through the medium of film. I don't think the movie will be terrible. But I suspect it may be pretty boring.

HEAVY GOTH SONG!!!!
CUT RANDOM SCENES TOGETHER!!!!!
SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW MOTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weak.

When these people see the movie they are gonna be floored I think to see this is NOT the average superhero movie and a welcome relief in a time where they may start to be getting saturated. This will give everyone a welcome breath of fresh air b4 heading into the next group of superhero movies.

I mean...here you dont have exactly the most common heroes. A washed-up superhero with insecurity issues (Nite Owl), a girl lost without an identity and getting older without purpose in life and a boyfriend that becomes increasingly colder (Silk Spectre, a self-proclaimed god who regards humanity with extreme indifference (Dr. Manhattan), a guy who raped one of his teammates, joyfully burned Vietnamese soldiers, stabbed to death the Vietnamese girl he got pregnant among other atrocities (The Comedian), a detective who plays downright dirty and has a childhood that would make the most experienced psychiatrist crack (Rorshach) and then SPOILER Ozymandias who is the only guy among the bunch without a single flaw....and he turns out to be the main villain of the story.

So, yeah I think this one is gonna really impress people and the box office.

What I also think, though, is that studios are interested in making money uber alles.

When I talked about being honest about the film's origins and not trying to sell it as a 'graphic novel' is the fact that the term 'graphic novel' was invented so that people wouldn't be embarassed to say they like 'comic books.'

I, personally, would have merged illustrations into the images and shown people it has its origin as a comic book. Which is what it is. Not a graphic novel. It's a comic book. They're - the - same - thing. And trying to deny it by inventing some half-assed term like 'graphic novel' is just a weak attitude, IMO. My thinking: let people deal with it in their faces. If they choose to miss it because it's a comic book, then stamp their foreheads with FAIL. I hate pandering to the lowest common denominator like that, and I think artists who do that don't deserve respect, nor films nor studios, nor marketing campaigns. So right there, from the moment they say "FROM THE ACCLAIMED GRAPHIC NOVEL" they've lost my respect completely.

"Sin City, V for Vendetta, 300, Road to Perdition, and A History of Violence," you say. And one - one of those - was a box-office hit. The others fell FAR short of studio expectations or hopes. One. So, yeah.

RE: Removing Dr. Manhattan - yeah, I'd remove him, because you're going to instantly cost the box-office of this movie a good percentage by admitting you've got a super-powered man in it. There are a TON of people who just flat-out won't go to see it because of that. I recall vividly a conversation with a couple who were standing outside of a theater debating what movie to see (they were a bit like the 'Two A-Holes' on Saturday Night Live - therefore, the vast majority of the viewing audience - and all of America) and the woman suggested they see LION/WITCH/WARDROBE, and the man, chewing his gum, said "That's a fuckin' cartoon, though, isn't it, babe?" and then a woman walked by them and said "NARNIA is beautiful - it's just, a great movie, you should go see it." and he said "But it's a fuckin' cartoon, right?" and she said "No, it's got live actors and sets." and he said "But there's, like, a talking lion, right?" and she said "Aslan, but he's not a cartoon." and he said "If he's a talkin' lion then he's a cartoon. C'mon, babe, let's see somethin' else. I don't wanna see a fuckin' cartoon." Welcome to the American Viewing Public.

The Dark Knight is 2 and a half hours and though it ain't perfect it couldn't be farther away from Hancock and special effects fight fests.

Has the trailer worked ?

THAT is the question. And I am hearing sales of Watchmen have Rocketed and will continue to Rocket. So it HAS peaked the interest of a large portion of those who seen the trailer in TDK and know nothing about it.

Will it make TDK's BoxOffice ? Frankly I can't see that happening under any circumstance. But I myself see no reason why it won't do good Box Office. Yes there is the "Meet Dave" portion of the Cinema viewing public but it isn't the only one and those who like a Movie that they think is done well often see it more than once.

What seems to be missing here is the fact that some of the "scenes" in Watchmen will translate superbly because they are Superb unforgettable scenes.

That's good Box Office however you slice it.

**SPOILERS** The 2 Fridge scenes. Think they won't be superb ? Particularly the second. hehehe. Rorschach in the Prison ? That's ALL Gold and the escape is action aplenty. Vietnam should be gripping and Mars could be breathtaking.

But lets be honest here BoxOffice is BoxOffice and that is all it will ever be. Money. If this is a good Movie that brings the characters to life and interests a far greater amount of people in the original then job done I.M.H.O.

But in all honesty if we ARE speculating (and nobody knows for sure so absolutes and declaratives are misplaced) I think it will make it's production costs back fairly easily and then surpass them by quite some margin when the DVD special editions appear.

Squiddy will always have a place in Watchmen fans hearts but I'm not going to join any boycott the film style outrage because of it.

It's not the book. It's a Movie. Simple as.

There would ALWAYS be something to piss the die hards off who are expecting an EXACT word for word retelling of the book.

Anino's right, the book isn't going anywhere so if you want the original vision reread or buy the book. Problem solved :)