Who's watching the Watchmen?

[EmilyBee]

I really liked it, and I'd deflated myself from huge fangrrlness before I went in. I liked it in spite of some yawntastic acting. Rorschach was WOW.

[Spaztique]

I watched the Watchmen, and not only liked it, I loved it, and now I want some more of it with the graphic novels and the Director's Cut edition. I've read bits and pieces of Watchmen, and when I saw them recreate the entire opening of the first book, along with nearly all of the crowning moments of awesome, I thought, "This is how you make an adaptation." And to think, the screenplay was written by David "Solid Snake" Hayter!

I liked it in spite of some yawntastic acting.

Personally, I think the acting was underrated. I gotta give it to give it to just about everyone: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, and even Malin Ackerman and Matthew Goode (who both gotten the most flak over their performances), but above all else, I must applaud Jackie Earle Haley for some total grade-a badassitude as Rorschach. Watchmen fans mostly agree that Jackie Earle Haley IS Rorschach, and I think I can agree with them.

[kaci_beeler]

Saw this tonight, just got back from the theater.
I didn't expect to like it, I didn't dig the trailer, but it was actually very engaging with some compelling characters and story lines.
I'd recommend it.

[Lants]

I've boiled my feelings about this movie into two Spoiler-free lists:

WORKED

- Rorschach (amazing, best part of the film, he was so Bad News Bears)
- Manhattan's first "away" scene (when good writing meets good acting, sprinkled with some fine editing)
- Most of Night Owl
- The dedicated look (everything looked almost exactly like the comic brought to life... that's undeniable)

DIDN'T WORK

- The Make-up (wow, how bad was that? Sally Jupiter? Do older actresses just not exist in Hollywood? Why would you take everyone out of the film like that?)
- The Music (can we please get more obvious and boring needle-drops?)
- Silk Spectre in general... really bad acting and poor development.
- The need to "be true" to the comic... it's called "Adaptation" for a reason, you have to understand you're dealing with different mediums... this is what ruins Harry Potter movies.

I think Jastroch's the only with me on this so far... right bro?

[Jastroch]

Hah! Yes.

It was decent, as far as adaptations go, but they got the action sequences all wrong, sacraficing grit and realism for bad-assness. And that spoke to the larger problem of the film. It looked like a comic book, when it should have looked more like the real world, in my mind. I mean, that was the whole point of Watchmen, right?

I know quibbling about the fight scenes sounds 12 years old, but making Rorschach and Nite Owl ninjas kind of deflated Veidt in my mind. I mean, he and Dr. Manhattan were the only two people with extra-human abilities. And I just didn't get that, even though they shot Veidt in slo mo. It made him WAY less threatening of a villain, because I believed from previous fight scenes that Nite Owl and Rorschach could take him out probably. When the Veidt reveal happened, I was like, "Oh, so what?"

Also, there were little moments they got wrong that totally missed the point. Nite Owl screaming "Nooooo!" when Rorschach gets fried totally nerfed one of my favorite moments.

That said, I did enjoy it a lot. Which you totally wouldn't get from my rant.

[beardedlamb]

Watchmen Theatre Presents
starring Mikey D, Dana V., and Jeremy Me.

The Rorschach one is my favorite.

aotb