That's cold man. But also genius.

I argue that any form of media that an observer can't understand the point of or the bulk of in one sitting isn't good media. Media is supposed to communicate. Is Hayter saying that Watchmen doesn't?

As for his open letter - maybe a major Hollywood studio won't make a film like this again. Plenty of other film makers in the world that will.

"Because face it. All this time...You there, with the Smiley-face pin. Admit it."

Huh?

"Like the Comedian on the=2 0Grassy Knoll. I know, I know..."

What?

"If you care about movies that have a brain, or balls, (and this film's got both, literally), or true adaptations -- And if you're thinking..."

Where did those two dashes come from? And then you decided to just start a new sentence?

It's a bit like Christopher Nolan making a Youtube video to tell us how great his new movie is, except the Youtube clip has shoddy editing and is out of focus.

Jesus fucking Christ. I don't know about if a Comedian died tonight, but my belief in Hollywood scriptwriters certainly fucking did.

If the story is meant to have resolution and a protagonist, then is it Ozy? Did he supposedly do right by performing the lesser evil? If so, the entire premise of the movie seems flawed given Russia and the US both decided to begin disarming nukes on their own. If the point is that no one is right, and everyone is a facist, then that story has some merit, but that is pretty fucked up.

You can tell a story with no protagonist, but do you want to?

Might also be good for the fucked up studio system to recognize that Watchmen is a unique story, it's not superhero, it's not action, it's not sci-fi, it's not something that can be easily pigeonholed, and as such, there's nothing else like it to hang on the success or failure of this particular film.

Fuck you. You're on a fucking website devoted to geek shit like the new Wolverine movie, Battlestar Galactica and constant coverage of Watchmen. And yet you decide to have a go at "comic book geeks". Well, you're on a fucking talkback devoted to a movie based on a comic book. You're in no position to attack people because they enjoyed the graphic novel. Hold your breath and count to five billion. Slowly.

None of that is why it's not getting better reviews and word of mouth though, it failed there because the overall execution has its share of problems - problems in the edit, problems in pacing, problems with acting, problems with conveying emotions, problems translating comic storytelling to cinematic storytelling. I applaud everybody who wanted to make this movie, you did a good job, but by not doing a BETTER job (and that falls heavily with the screenplay and directing and producing, if we are being honest), you also failed the material.

And I've said it before, and I'll say it again. The film's ending is better. It makes more sense. It adds more meaning to the characters. It seems like a much more logical conclusion to everything that preceded it. And it resolves things better.

Dr. Manhattan did care about people, and thusly he was hurt by the notion he may have given cancer to people close to him. He was hurt that he couldn't make his relationship work with Laurie. He tried to tell himself that he didn't care about humans, and that he couldn't make a difference. When he attempts to save the day, he discovers that he has been used to kill others. There is emotional weight in the hero trying to save the day, but eventually serving to destroy them unwittingly. Doesn't that PERFECTLY sum up what the book stands for? No other character serves as a "superhero" so much as Dr. Manhattan. And his involvement gives him all that much more reason to leave, resolving the conundrum of "God" on Earth.

christ, we get it....and by the way, your movie ain't Blade Runner and Kubrick's name belongs nowhere in your letter.

Whats wrong with supporting a movie that was close to being great? It could have been a LOT worse.

Real classy, hayter.

It was fine to see once--nothing made me want to see it again. Rorshach was GREAT, Comedian was GREAT (but under utilized), Carla Gugino was wasted, and everyone else was dull as dirt with characters as thin as tissue paper.

The Times A Changing opening was a great standalone piece of cinema magic, but sadly, it Was Standalone....

Also, I think the letter is gauche. But I come to expect this shit in genre stuff.

Anyway, I'm seeing it again this weekend or next week.

Reading and re-reading something, mentally congratulating yourself for 'getting it' doesn't make you smart, in the same way as filming two broads kissing make this flick 'ballsy'.

I think showing Comedian punching the shit out of a civilian woman, and that getting a laugh out of a largely uninitiated crowd is pretty ballsy for a flick. They sure as fuck didn't laugh during Revolution Row or whatever the fuck.

Can't say it enough: the squid was needed.

Bruddah shoulda' wrote that in. S'mattah? He was faithful to the material until the end? Sad. WERRRRRRRRRRR, BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM, EXPLOSIVE SPECIAL EFFECT. F*&kin' things should come with a laugh trax in every film the damn 'splosion ending is so f*&kin' overused!!!!!

The squid would've put "Watchmen" the film firmly in cinematic history. THERE IS NO ENDING LIKE IT.

Moviegoers have seen that kind of 'splosion (so what if it was light/metallic BLUE this time?). Typical Hollyweird ending,

Brotha' COULD have banked on a strong second week if the dripping, overwhelming squid/tachyon appeared instead. ALL THIS WEEK folks would've been, "man, how's that monster in that Watchman movie, yeah?" "Man, that ending just creeped me out." THAT ending would've HAD people who didn't even CARE about seeing Watchmen in the first place seeing the film this week

And those who've read "Watchmen" over the years would've come back in droves as well.

To those of you who say the squid wasn't needed, think of this checkmate and trump on you: if the squid was KEPT IN, NO one, NO ONE, not the most casual fan, not the most die-hard fan of "Watchmen" would've said, "geez, the film should've ended with Ozymandias manipulating Dr. Manhattan and, oh, yeah, we should be treated to a Death Star explosion, yeah, yeah, we haven't seen THOSE in a while!"

Not. One.

Spread the f*&kin' word, and, uh, Mr. Screenwriter -- make sure you get that f*&kin' squid back into the DVD. Maybe THAT'll help what you're trying to do.

Loved the film. I give it a solid B+. Frankly. it's easier to get into the parts that didn't work rather than the parts that did, since they are legion.

Ozy was all wrong. Those ignorant of the source material had him pegged as the villain from the very beginning. He wasn't humble or pure as the character in the comic was. Consider that this is a man that gave away his inheritance to rebuild himself. Ozy didn't form the Crime Busters (aka movie's Watchmen team) for this reason. And we had no sense of how much Bubastis meant to him, which gave her sacrifice zero weight. Goode played with arrogance, not humility. Maybe this is how he carried the role. Maybe this is how he was directed. Or, maybe this was how you wrote the character. Or some combination between.

What would life be like if super heroes walked among us? Answer -- They'd be just as fucked up as the rest of us. This is the Watchmen story on the surface. The lack of regular Joes in the film was unfortunate. We never got their perspective. The lesbian cabbie, the two Bernies, the reporter, the two detectives, the arson victims. Granted, there is only so much screen time to devote to such characters, but there was no grounding of the fantastic/super normal by way of giving us something to gauge a comparison. Perhaps these were cuts that Snyder chose to make. Or, perhaps they weren't cuts because they were never fleshed out on paper in advance.

Lastly, the crucial "Nothing ever ends line." Here we have the smartest man alive asking -- feasibly for the first time -- asking the demigod if he did the right thing. And the demigod answers with a line that is equally subjective as it is cryptic. Leaving Ozy to marinate in his self loathing. That's tragedy. That's missed opportunity. And this one is all your fault.

I have minor nitpicks -- like Dan and Laurie killing, which indistinguishes them from Kovacs -- but the above are the big three gripes I'll stick with.

The movie is so nuanced and gets so damn much right that I can't possibly dislike it. I even have little problem with the ending. This is a film that must be digested on multiple viewings just like the books and I love it for that. Thank you so very much for what you have helped to give us.

The original Last House on the Left. That movie was fucked up, ballsy. Oh, and Straw Dogs. That movie was also ballsy. What I was referring to was not the violence, but the laughter the violence evoked....the 'I get this, it's abhorrent, but I'm laughing' response that non-geeks had at the theater I watched it at.

But I forget, you're fucking stroking it over your copy of Watchmen and thinking 'I'm so smart, I equated his comment on violence with real violence', so I won't bother you anymore. But, real violence is not screen violence...and my anonymous internet fuckhead, nor is internet bravado the equivalent of balls.

Hope you die in a fire

Love, Micturatingbenjamin.

As for Dr. Manhattan, he's a known commodity AND he represents 2 things the world was already afraid of before Veidt's plan went into effect: he's a superhero (the world being angry and afraid of superheroes now), and he's a nuke. The whole point of Veidt's plan in the original was to get a great variety of minds together to come up with something that would bring the world together, and those minds came up with an unknown alien from beyond the stars - Veidt merely used knowledge and tools (like genetic engineering to make Bubastis) to create a new, unknown, fantastic threat that seemed so outlandish until the world was actually faced with it being made reality.

Now, I get why you of the squid love the squid...it's what makes the book a comic book. It's what unabashedly pushes the comic into new/retread territory and comes out the other side as something new.

Would it have worked on the big screen? Who the fuck knows? But the time that it would take to tell that story would have been FAR too long to make the flick profitable, I think.

I dare HIM to put his dick in a fan

Also, the dick's just there, guys...it doesn't wag, and yeah, in IMAX there's roughly 8.95 stories of other shit to look at...but hey, you want to keep watching every vein of his big blue hog? Yeah...that's what's bringin' YOU back to the theater. :)

I'd say the movie is uneven; sometimes I got bored but not for too long. I think a lot of people are just scrutinizing it way too intensely, though. I watched it with as open a mind as I could and it ended up good for me. I actually liked the ending, or at least how it was handled.

I think where they went wrong strategically was to concentrate on character. Neither the plot nor the characters are that great in the comic, even. What greatness there is to Watchmen is the crafting of it, the almost mathematical structuring. I think that's why Alan Moore said it was really only going to work as a comic, because all that insane detail and structure could never happen in a movie. Any film based on Watchmen will be good at best because the elements of the comic that can be ported are not its strongest elements.

My problems with these movies goes far beyond just the writing or the character treatments. It's the utterly asinine directing and laughable displays of "special effects". Honestly, movies like these try so very hard to make it ridiculously obvious what the "money shot" is supposed to be. So they completely ram it down your throat.

"Ok, let's make the audience say 'WHOA COOL' by suddenly throwing everything into slo-mo during the explosion so we can get that cool shot of her quickly whipping her hair around in bullet-time, then speed it back up after the audience has gotten a good view of that smooth flowing hair-action. Then let's throw it in every trailer since it's such a badass and dope shot. Aw man the kids are gonna LOVE this."

You can (and will) argue into the ground the problems with the movie versus the source material, I don't know a damn thing about it. But as much as I enjoy David's work, people like him still just don't "get it". There ARE ways to stay faithful to the source material WITHOUT completely losing the general audience. There ARE ways to adapt a comic to a film in a serious, meaningful way instead of just throwing your hands up and saying "Welp, it's a comic, scenes like these are supposed to be cheesy". The problem is these people just don't have the skill to do it. They think that it either has to be faithful to the source material and completely lose everyone else, or make it appeal to everyone by dumbing it down and altering the story to make it "work better as an easy-to-follow-for-everyone movie". That's how limited their scope is. I can think of a billion ways movies like this could've worked better on BOTH levels even without knowing the source material. I'm no professional, it's just film-making common sense. And the people who are given these projects just don't have it.

He's not asking those of you who are apathetic about it to go see it again.

PAY ATTENTION.

He's asking those who liked it and who *plan* to see it again to NOT delay and to see it THIS weekend since studio fucks only care about opening weekend grosses and the second week dropoff.

So if you hated the movie or just didn't care- fine. But stop trying to turn this around into some sort of pathetic attempt at begging for more fans.

and most of all, artists shouldn't write self-justifying letters to fans in an attempt to pimp their work.

i think Snyder and Hayter did a decent job, except for the ending which - i'm sorry to say - they blew. not by taking out the squid but by pinning it on Dr Manhattan and not underlining Ozymandius's ultimate uncertainty. But overall i respect what they accomplished more than what they failed to get right.

But Hayter should still shut his mouth.

It never comes off as anything other than self-serving. I saw it for a second time yesterday. I liked it a lot the first time and I liked it a lot the second time. But I still have the same minor problems with it. The movie didn't change from Friday to Wednesday. Saying that it needs to be watched twice is basically saying people didn't know what they were watching, if they didn't love everything about it, and that they need to see it again because they were obviously mistaken about something. Pissing off your base is re-tard-ed and that's exactly what that does.

Oh, and why the hell would I laugh at Ziggy Stardust or Silhouette unless I was some kind of goddamn homophobe?

If that remake with the Rock wasn't a remake with the Rock, I'd go see it just for spite. :p

GOOD!

Make something better then it wont fall off of face of earth.

Just to be straight up here, I'm saying that there is an amount of drugs that Alan Moore did that made him a total genius and batshit insane. So fuckin crazy he actually - get this - is not afraid to analyze and deconstruct his own artistic process. And he purposely and very delibertely used Watchmen as the first example of basically using subliminals and sigils and hidden occult symbols in a work of comics. The thing about the squid is that if you look back, the book Watchmen is nothing more than a giant subliminal magic trick. The squid is there all along. It's building up to it bit by bit in secret coded ways so that when it hits your brain is taken out of its typical subconscious reference.

Take it from me, a guy who used to mix cocaine and steroids in the speedball.

On the other hand, don't give me too much credit, cause Watchmen has lots of pictures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v =OAwxdMKlTog

The opening credits alone are the most imaginative opening to a movie of the last decade. WB and Snyder should be rewarded for that.

But you gave me yet another reason to call you a moron: your unprovable, unasked for, and ultimately unneeded statement (bc honestly, who the fuck cares?) that *you* have seen more films than me. A conclusion you came to because of only ONE post from me.

"But I've seen more films than you and I've seen better by directors you haven't even heard of."

Really? Do you realize how much of a laughing stock you are for such a ridiculous assertion based on a singular comment from me that was 100% not film-related?

Though I did love the Snow Owl Suit.

You want to see a 3 hour film just drift by in no time, talk to kevin costner, Mel Gibson, Peter Weir.

This film may hold itself in high regard but here are a couple films which sping to mind which 'did it' better.

Dark other worldly (Batman 89)

cringe worthy horror scenes (Evil dead 1, 2 & 3)

raunchy sex (Highlander 3, the big hit - with the chicken)

Over all dark and bleak tone with a desperation to set things right but with little chance of success (Revenge of the sith)

3 hours of easy flowing action (Dances with wolves, Master and commander)

here's a question... why does this film have no fucking score???? THAT is death to any film

Nice ramble, Dave, but sadly I have to say all those things about your movie.

For the record, I've seen it twice at IMAX and I'll probably buy the DVD, so there's you're support, but honestly, it's more than this movie deserves.

It does have its moments, but really that's just when it occasionally mimics the book successfully. It never finds its own footing, and the rest of the time it feels like something between a bad amateur dramatics play of the comic and some kind of Meet the Spartans spoof (specifically of Apocalypse Now and Kubrick).

As for seeing the movie more than once compared with reading the "novel" again? The book's ending leaves you reeling, compelling you to revisit it, and when you do you find so many hidden messages and easter eggs. The film? You need to see it again in the hope it improves. Which it does, somewhat, in so far as you know what to expect.

And after seeing it twice, I just think you and Snyder missed the point. You missed the point with your portrayal of Adrian, you missed the point with Rorschach's pivotal flashback (everything else with him was great though), you missed the point with the chainsaw scene, and you really missed the point with the ending.

And you've openly said that that was a choice you made. So, if it drops off the radar after the first weekend, you only have yourself to blame.

You could have written a unique, brain-frying jaw-dropping finale that ripped unsuspecting movie-goers' minds open and then chilled them to the marrow. Instead you burped out a hum-drum forgettable finish. Word of mouth, baby.

No wonder you're here now, sitting on the edge of the talkbackers' bed, drunk and crying like a baby.

You replied telling me the same thing as you are to Hayter, to "Get over yourself", and proceeded to "educated" me that there are lots of people at AICN who have been here for 12 yrs too.

What you misunderstood was this: Bubblehead and I still have our same names and were part of a core group of posters that posted at the very first AICN message board. When I said I'm the only one still around, I meant the only one from that group 12 years ago.

I'm sure you don't give a shit, but I meant to set you right.

Who cares if Hollywood doesn't make any more of these films. I'll take dark knight over dick tracy vs the shadow any day.

but i never read the graphic novel and knew nothing of watchmen til it sprung up here last year. that said, you screwed me out of my cash and i even dodged a toilet break in case I 'missed' anything. I missed my instincts to just walk out - like half the cinema did.

also, the word of mouth is destroying this film. I've yet to meet anyone who actually 'loved' it.

Why didn't he just ask him, to start with? They were mates, right? They were working together?

Fuck me, Manhattan was already on his way back from Mars to do the job. Adrian only had to wait another 35 minutes and he could have saved himself the effort.

Verdict: No Adrian, you didn't do the right thing (not that he asked).

Case in point- your belief that the scene where Rorscach throws boiling cooking fat on another prisoner. YOU think it should be Sam Raimi funny?

Someone else might think you're nuts. Another might say you're an idiot.

And still another might say "Everyone in my theater laughed at that moment" or that they "cheered with glee".

Same goes for the arms being cut off. Its opinion man. Get used to it.

But I've started posting more and more in the past 2 years, finding some charm in certain TBers and the way TB politics can be extremely predictable at times, and at others wildly surprising.

And to be fair, that last TB, I checked back days after it had already fallen off the Top Ten to see if Bubblehead sent me his email address. I don't think I posted a reply bc I was sure no one else was going to ever read it again. Which tends to happen when stories fall out of the top ten =).

And, if studios, as a result of us not all going out and spending our hard earned money to see it again this weekend, will decide against future endeavors that are shallow, vicseral interpretations without depth of character, story, and offend the dedicated fans of the original with almost no regard, well, I would say they will have made a good and correct choice.

But it was a shallow, visceral interpretation. You're not wrong there.

The point i was trying to make is that when something happens on screen, the resulting audience reaction really ought to be that of a positive nature - even for the most grizly of scenes.

seeing a man in agonizing pain is just too real. Now, lets say we actually saw a look of sheer utter disbelief from the oil victim, followed immediately by the dismisal of this character and his plight by throwing in some swift footwork - this guy could leap up the side of a building - or was that just for some 'coolness' and never to be explored?

I'm not opposed to horror and violence in film. But i do demand that it be enjoyable and relevant - as if the filmmakers and cast are treating the audiance as if we are somehow "in on the gag". This film had nothing at all like that. I don't want to hate it, i just do, is all.

In fact, I'm embarrased for all the guys taking girls out on dates to this film. nights like that can destroy all chances of sex with a gorgeous pristine woman. you all know this to be true. so unless you like fucking Goths, this aint a date movie... but it never claimed to be i guess so i really should just stop ranting and get back to work

it's just that i know the makers are reading and I have some honest things to say

"next time, lighten up a little"

On a technical level, it was BRILLIANT the way they used make-up effects on the same level as that used by film makers of 1980s! True creative prowess, sir. Sure they spent kazillions on modern day CG but you can overlook that because so much of it looked so shoddy that you could almost believe they were created using the latest Atari circa 1991! At no stage did that blue man ever look to come into physical contact with his co-stars. Which is good, because that guy gives people cancer. Blue cancer.

By making him look completely separate from his real life co-stars, not only did they keep it looking like it was filmed 80 years ago, but they kept away any kind of tension or …. excitement that would arise if there was a possibility that he’d bump right into them. Or make their hair move….

You’re right about there being brains. The Mars scenes were cool AND educational. For example, I had no idea that Mars was completely hand drawn. True! It’s like I’ve never been on Wikipedia or watched He-Man!! Newb alert, CyanBlues36 has entered teh chit chat room!! LOLed my arse off!

I’ve actually read a few pages of the Watchmen graphic novella before I stopped and decided to build a boat out of toothpicks & sleep wax and I could see the same pacing on the screen. Captured!! Normally when a filmmaker adapts a comic book, the first thing they do is wrench the words free of their constrained one box per sentence settings, and evolve them, extend them into a more natural, free flowing cinematic river of wonder, like those hacks did with The Dark Knight. Thank god you stuck to your pow-pows and the stilted dialogue, we’ve all grown to love and not memorise remains as unengaging as ever.

To be honest I was a bit worried that Zackary may attempt to distract us from the short exposition heavy sentence and plotting by playing fitting music to evoke the emotions and time period, but, saved again! He must have had his Slony NPEG player stuck on random so none of it made any sense and would remove me completely from a movie experience and plunge me back into those few pages I’d managed to choke down so many weeks before. I’m gonna draw a hat, but it on my head and then take it off to you Captain Zacko!

And now that I think on it and take in my fellow cinema-going colleagues and well-wishers arguments as to the thickly disguised brilliance of Watchmen (is it called watchmen coz they anticipate the audience checking their watch constantly? “Foresightful filmmaking”, that’s what I call it!), I can see how it’s a good thing that Watchmen throws off the shackles and clichés of every other comic book movie and does the opposite thing to having actors that look like the presidents they’re playing, practical plot lines, memorable scores, invisible make-up effects, blip-on-a-radar villains, unhead untiltingly unodd blue lion-rabbits and fun, inspired action set pieces (every time I think of that batbike scene in The Fart Knight, I gag heaps). Thank God for progress. Let’s hope that it makes a MINT in Mexico so I can get a fully loaded El Directo Cutto of the film that features an additional 220 minutes of long stares, paced walking, blue penguin elephants, added blimps, more shots of the twin towers, an outtake reel featuring funny shapes in rawsharks hoodhead thing and a directors commentary where ZcG explains more of the symbolism, metaphors and other subtle nuances that the characters didn’t elaborate and spell out during the course of the prison sentence, I mean ‘runtime’. Oh wait, the characters already did demystify any kind of subtlety the movie had to offer? Oh well, just give me more monologues from that blonde villain coz I could listen to him read cereal ingredients for 12 minutes (in fact I think I did) and think it was a wordy chocolate milkshake for my thirsty, chubby ears.

Yes, Dave, I now see the light. What a great, great achievement Watch[outforthegreatgoodmovie] men is. And, yet, I could write more. I won’t because I have restraint, something I pray to the gods Zack Snyder never, ever, ever learns. We should start an online partition demanding he direct a movie about sea turtles! He’s perfect for it. They don’t anything, move only in slow motion and last 200 years!!

Set it up, champ!

The boiling fat scene was a bit more serious (bc there was not as much setup), but the audience I was with was happy to see Rorshach hold his own against a bigger brute, and glad to see him improvise with the boiling fat (or were glad to see it translated faithfully).

As for the amputation scene, I don't remember it happening like that in the book, but found it demented, a feeling that was helped by the fact that "Big Figure" was cast as Kramer's friend from Seinfeld.

The next time a studio focus groups the shit out of a movie it will be YOUR fault for shitting on Watchmen.

Seriously go see it.

For months now, Snyder, yes Hayter, and even that shill Gibbons (who I still love as an artist) have airily talked about how they'd changed the ending and "not to worry, it wasn't essential, we found something equally as good, better!"

Well, the proof's in the profit. People are coming out of that film utterly non-plussed.

Too late to sit here crying for support now, Dave. You guys knew what the fans wanted. Go beg to the mainstream audience you were so desperate to cater to before.

It's odd; Snyder isn't as good a directer as Gilliam or Aranofsky (maybe he's in the same league as Greengrass)... but I think he made a far better Watchmen movie than they could have. Just the right person at the right time. The others would have all made FAR bigger changes than just the squid.

cunts.

Anyway, Hayter's right, in a way. There's more talent and imagination in the opening credits than most recent comic films combined. This movie needs to make a respectable gross or else you can look forward to a sprawling, 85 minute epic version of the Dark Knight Returns directed by Ratner.

"WATCHMEN, the novel, must be read through more than once to even have the faintest grip on it." bullshit! it was great at first read! you read it again because you want to, not because you lack the brain power to appreciate it thefirst time.

this letter is just pathetic! is this the time ever someone plead in public to have people watch their films? what's next? spielberg gonna send his secretary to beg us for more weekend box office when tintin bomb in the first week??? 'oh do it for the sake of jackson's version!'

you got that right! that's why you will never understand why some critics/fans dont love it.

"Watchmen failed to entice an international audience to match its huge marketing blitz, extremely wide release and hype as an intended blockbuster, meeting a similar fate as Speed Racer, Max Payne and Body of Lies." - BoxOfficeMojo

In the comic, Tales of Black Frieghter are told through a kid reading comics. The comic within comic used to give commentary on the story, characters as well as the readers of the comic. Now, won't it have made sense if in the movie we had the kid watching a movie being played on one of those electronics shop on large TVs? The kid coming back to watch the same movie again and again, only we see him watching different parts at different times?

So yeah, the movie stays true to the comic, visually, but it also shows what Alan Moore meant when he said it was a story meant to be told in a comic. Yeah, it has balls and all but lacks enough brains to translate the 'deconstruction' process from comic to movie.

It should've been an R-rated movie.

Watchmen WAS good, but they really wimped out with the destruction of New York. A big hole in the ground doesn't have NEARLY the impact and horror of seeing the streets and skyscrapers of NYC overflowing with bloody corpses. It significantly lessens the evil act Ozymandias has committed in the name of "peace."

And if you HAVEN'T seen the new Punisher film, SEE IT! It truly IS the Punisher movie fans have been waiting for! This guy looks, acts and sounds like Frank Castle and does some truly wicked things to evil people who usually deserve it. A shotgun blast to the face of a mobster being read his Miranda Rights certainly isn't PG-13! >:)

"Put your movie in me, Zack! Oh-hhhhh! It's so BIG. Don't hurt me... don't hurt me! Ah-hhhh..."

LOL

When will the studios learn that hype brings you diminishing returns, and, if pushed into overdrive (citing specifically the ham handed approach AICN takes at hyping movies) can actually serve to DECREASE interest in a movie.

Seriously, figure it out. Or at least go viral with your marketing, people are so inundated with hype and marketing the only thing that works anymore is to at least give us the illusion of NOT pandering directly to us.

Why do you think so many directors avoided this material? Can't be because they were all stupid. Why do you believe Moore, (who imagined and wrote the entire fucking graphic novel) himself didn't believe it should be adapted into a movie. Hmmm, maybe these intelligent, informed artists were onto something, jeeze some of you people will just buy anything you are told.

The failure of Watchmen is going to be the death of the faithful adaptation. I'm laughing so hard I almost spit the gerbil out my ass.

No, I won't. I won't buy the DVD. I won't suggest your film to friends. I will no longer say anything positive about anything you do, If that keeps 0.02 cents from your wallet in a lifetime, it will bring me joy.

I will, however, go out of my way to repeat your asshole comment. Grow a fucking brain.

I hope you have a daughter, that grows up to be just like me. Good luck with that.

I won't be seeing this movie because frankly it never looked all that interesting to me. I never read the comic, so what the fuck do I care?

I don't want my superheroes to be a bunch of sick assholes. I'm sorry that so many of you do. You always want your heroes to be sad sacks of shit who occasionally take out the trash. Sucks to be you.

"But the fans left him to starve in a hovel of an apartment on La Brea with $.27 in his bank account and nobody but a three-legged, blind and deaf mongrel to count as a friend. In the end, not even Gary Coleman would stop by to visit poor little Jackie Earl. Poor little Jackie Earl..."

Man, David Hayter must feel terrible that he didn't set up a "Save The Jackie Earl" Fund. There's still time, David. There's still time.

I just don't think it's the type of story that has mass appeal to draw people to the movie theater week after week. It's not like other superhero movies that have big name stars and tons of action.

Spiderman. Not as cerebral as Watchmen, but has more generic appeal to people than the intricacies of Watchmen. Plus it had Toby Maguire, Willem Dafoe, James Franco, and Kirsten Dunst.

Look at it this way. Take two Shakespeare plays and turn them into movies. Which one is going to make more money? "Romeo and Juliet" with Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal or "Cymbeline" with John Doe and Jane Doe?

If Watchmen is perceived as a failure by the suits, enjoy the next 20 years of watered down bullshit.

As it is, I can't in good conscience recommend this movie to most people I know. I respect the intentions of the people involved, but it just doesn't have that wide appeal that gets great word-of-mouth and does big business.

Move on losers.

Sorry, but I want to live in a world where a work like From Hell would get a real adaptation and not a glossed over piece of shit that barely has anything to do with the source material. Better yet, a world where original and thoughtful adult oriented movies are made. A world where a Watchmen movie made as faithfully as this one was is not such a world.

So go ahead and nitpick it to death. I hope you like the Fantastic Four movies.

So I find it to be an...all too rare of a TREAT...to have such a run at the movies, with IRON MAN, THE INCREDIBLE HULK, THE DARK KNIGHT, and now WATCHMEN.

Bless you, Hollywood. --Please keep it up.

Oh, you didn't know? Well, WB has been putting out those trades since the miniseries ended to fuck Alan Moore's asshole and own his property in perpetuity. So, if you read this in trade form, and not in the comics, you paid to fuck Alan Moore in the ass.

Financially speaking.

And, unfortunately, I didn't care about the whithertos and whyfores of comics back then, I just thought this was a fundamentally disturbing take on comic heroes, and was the kind of shit that should exist to push comics forward. Since, I've read lots of Moore, got into the Sandman series. Drank beers with Neil Gaiman, and chatted with him about lying on resumes, and how quantum mechanics means that it's not wrong to do so.

So, if you bought this in trade form, you're complicit in fucking the artist over. If you own the comics, good on you...I think the flick is great, saw it for a third time, and brought friends. Then, on Hayter's suggestion, raped them.

I must have been napping. I remember Ozy saying the Comedian "figured it out", but that's it. They made it clear he had to die because of how he REACTED to what he knew, but not HOW he knew it.

I really loved WATCHMEN! Kudos to all involved!

In Ozy's little speechlet thing he talks about Nixon knowing, and then the Comedian finding out and being soft about it...it's right after a bunch of evil looking punishment to Rorschach...as Ozy's heading up the stairs.

Don't get the feeling that I get all weepy eyed over Moore's situation. He's been more than enough of a prick in his own right, I'm just saying that all these people who feel some kind of loyalty to the book should at least say, yeah, fuck the guy that wrote it, fuck the guy that drew it...but the story is sacrosanct...and that makes them a buncha hypocritical twats.

And don't forget to call me an asshat for daring not to think exactly as you, you fucking wankers! Hahahah! Mus be cuz I got no reedin comohenzen eh Dr. Suess??

Ok, sorry bout all that. Had to vent a little, make myself present in this potentially minor legendary TB, be a pretentious asshole, etc...usual shit for a Friday I s'pose. Farts in elevators can be easily covered up with a simple clearing of the throat. In fact, this works anywhere. No need to walk in pain at the grocery store! Clear the throat, release the hounds!

FluffyUnbound is right. I would just add on to his post that Watchmen is awesome and there is an awful lot of unnecessary nit picking going on out there.

The suits are watching. Are they going to give their directors something closer to free reign or will the focus groups rule? Think carefully before you shit all over this movie.

GREENGRASS, COME BACK ! REMAKE AND REBOOT THIS PIECE OF TRASH JUST LIKE LETERRIER DID WITH HULK !

Then again, I'd love to never ever see big studio money spent on shit like the FF movies or (ugh) Catwoman, Daredevil, etc so even if it is artificial or even wrong, it's better than getting more chuckEcheese bullshit rom-com comic book movies.

now since the movie is a flop as u can see here: http://tinyurl.com/bmpnwy

so solid snake cries and begs us to go and watch his and snyders crapfest,because the things arent going very well for this franchise.

what am i saying? FUCK YEAH AND FUCK THEM.MOORE GOT HIS REVENGE.

You guys didn’t make an amazing, widely appealing film. So, don’t ask for an amazing, wide spread box office.

Desperately asking fans to support the film just so more films like it will be made is faulty logic at best. That’s like saying “eat whatever we feed you or we’ll let you starve. And if you starve, that’s your fault.” How about this? Make an entertaining film that is respectful of its source material and accessible and engaging to everyone and we’ll fervently support it.

If WATCHMEN blew everyone away, you wouldn’t be writing this letter. And it’s not about being authentic to the source material or catering to fans. DON’T HIDE BEHIND THAT EXCUSE! Peter Jackson took liberties with the “Lord of the Rings” films from the source material and those movies did just fine. Why? Because they were entertaining to fans and non-fans alike. Same as “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight.” Neither of them were slavish adaptations but still found the life inside the material and projected it on the screen. I have never read an “Iron Man” comic book in my life but I had a great time watching the movie.

Don’t put the blame on the fans for not supporting this and that it is somehow our fault for not embracing your film. A great movie is a great movie. Period. And if you had made a great movie, we wouldn’t be having this discussion in the first place. So, please, don’t ask the fans to act as if this is a great movie and try to give it a great box office simply so you guys will have another opportunity to make another soulless adaptation further down the road.

The Lonely Dachshund

Do you think people will still be talking about and watching WATCHMEN 20 to 30 years from now as we do 2001 and Blade Runner? I think this is highly unlikely.

Dr. M: "A live body and a dead body contain the same number of particles. Structurally, there’s no discernible difference. Life and death are unquantifiable abstracts."

Nurse: "Er, so what do I tell the family?"

Sure, some women are attracted to alpha male types. Some women have no interest in that. Some women like an aggressive guy for a good one night stand and nothing else. Some women are attracted to abusive assholes. And in that last case, that often stems from fucked up past events that have shifted their view of what constitutes good or bad treatment, so that even being treated like shit isn't so bad compared to what they've already been through. Or they rationalize the past abuse by "choosing" to repeat it. Or etc. etc. etc.--the list goes on and on, because women are not a bunch of walking vag-bots, always responding in kind. Seriously though, you really looking to exploit/exacerbate other people's trauma?

You're also assuming that just because a woman stays with a guy who's a dick, it's because she wholeheartedly enjoys it. Does she? Or does she simply not feel safe enough to outright fight back, instead seething with resentment until the day that she works up the balls to smother or castrate the guy in his sleep, or slip poison into his coffee?

Have fun finding out which it is, dude...

sorry. pernicious myths and broad generalizations regarding approx. half of the world's population tend to piss me off.

and you can fuck yourself with your patronizing "feminist lit" comment. Heaven forbid someone should disagree with you.

any argument that the squid would have been absurd when talking about a sci fi comic book movie is just stupid. everything about comic books is absurd!

leaving out the squid was a half-assed attempt to help the movie connect with the larger movie going audience which i seriously doubt it did. when i first read the Watchmen i was left very confused by what was going on and i love comics. i can just imagine what the average movie goer (who loves their easy to digest storylines) is thinking while watching this movie. Four people walked out on the theater i was at. 2 before the first hour of the movie. Maybe they just went to the restroom, but it was a small crowd and i didn't see them come back.

this movie had very little chance of immediately appealing the mainstream movie goer with or without the squid. Hopefully its an acquired taste and over time people will learn to appreciate it more.

getting back to the squid. while i loved the movie, leaving in the squid would have made the movie so much better. having veidt frame manhattan was just too formulaic; essentially this movie is a murder mystery and in almost every murder mystery the bad guy tries to frame someone innocent. that's what made the squid scene in the comics so great (and when i first read the watchmen i thought the whole squid thing was stupid).

the squid is completely out of the blue(no pun intended), in terms of veidts crazy masterplan it makes perfect sense and it fits in perfectly not only with the sci-fi comic book genre but with the DC/JLA universe. i know these arguments have been repeated ad nauseum on this site, but after watching the watchman i couldn't resist repeating them.

i disagree, however, that the ending Snyder went with doesn't make sense because the Soviets would never believe America's Superman would go rogue and betray his homeland. The fact that veidt destroys NYC would be enough to convince for the most part. NYC is the heart of America in so many ways (Wall St. and Madison Ave). The Soviets would never believe the U.S. would cripple itself to such a degree, just in order to launch a nuclear attack that they could not be held responsible for. Its like stabbing someone in the back and then stabbing yourself in the heart in order to convince them you didn't do it so they won't retaliate.

the squid should have to left in to keep the fanboys happy. their enthusiasm for the GN would have driven the initial box office surge for this movie and maybe that enthusiasm would carried over to the general public. Even as i was buying my ticket the kid working the theater was complaining about no squid. I think not having the squid really hurt the word of mouth enthusiasm for the movie. the studios suits probably thought they could generate artificial enthusiasm with their marketing blietzkrieg, but unfortunately i don't think it'll work. I don't want this movie to fail, b/c its performance will determine whether or not Hollywood makes more comic book movies with R-ratings.

blowing up the world trade center is not the the same as destroying the entire city.

if you read what i wrote i said "in many ways" NYC is the heart of the U.S. i didn't say it was the heart of the U.S. which is why i mentioned Wall St. and Madison Ave. I think any sane person would agree that without NYC the U.S. would be severely crippled and things would not "go along just fine". Sure the country would keep going, but without NYC the nation would be seriously hurt.

Keep in mind I'm not really pro- or anti- squid. Whatever works, works.

Well, excuse me if I'm the first person to point out the emperor's nakedness, but it has to be said that the much-revered 'cult-classic' "A Clockwork Orange" is, in fact, an unwatchable piece of boring shit.

It had a fantastic score though.

Plus you adapted the material, and not all that well I might add.

"Trust me, you'll come back, like Sally" Let me guess, this is what you said to casting agents in your vengeful dreams, only to awaken to an empty answering machine for years until you found some tracing paper alongside some issues of Watchmen.

Didn't work for your pitiful acting career, isn't gonna work now.

P.S. - I love how you beg on your knees and then immediately after you're done wiping the tears out of your eyes act like you are such a genius we'll be begging you to smell your shit.

Rarely has the saying: "Beggars shouldn't be choosers" been more applicable.

http://tinyurl.com/bljpuw

Disney's family adventure "Race to Witch Mountain" should race to the top of the domestic heap this weekend after ringing up an estimated $6.7 million on Friday

So much for movies with balls and philosophical weight, we get more of THA ROCK.

Can you smell what the rock is cookin'? More shitty movies.

That is a very short sighted attitude.

I hope so too man. ZS fought the studios to make a Watchmen movie that is very unconventional. Anyone who thinks the ending didn't have the punch that it had in the GN, did you see what the studio wanted to do to it?

Watchmen's failure would be a failure for all movies with unconventional story telling.

After that article I linked to a few posts up, I'm worried.

I thought David's script (at least what I saw in the final cut) is fairly good, but wretched by the producers that mistake indulgence for bullshit artistic value. All style and no substance. A total stinker. This is my honest opinion. Alan Moore was right that a comic book that has characterization and story so deep it cannot be "successfully" adapted into another art form (film) in positive aesthetics. WATCHMEN movie remains one of the greatest botched adaptations produced yet.

Bottom Line - Film is a serious disappointment considering its budget - when the "greatest funny book EVER" cant beat out Paul Blart MallCop - thats kinda sad.