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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Watchmen movie news

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We're The Great Old Ones Now

10:13 / 19.02.09

Oooh. I crave. Have they all gone?

13:37 / 19.02.09

I think they sold out in about 10 minutes. The website that was selling them creaked, sputtered and ground to a halt during the process.

For £25.00 a ticket, this had better be a bloody convincing alternate New York.

ONLY NICE THINGS

16:27 / 19.02.09

SEONE used to have a robot bartender. No more. Peu, peu.

We're The Great Old Ones Now

16:53 / 19.02.09

*sigh* I just met someone at lunch who has an invitation to a screening, and she's not even sure she wants to go. It's always that way with stuff like this - they give out loads of tickets to people who have no earthly notion of what the fuss is about. Grrr.

09:21 / 20.02.09

For what it's worth, an insider from the official forum saw it and gave a quick, level-headed summation of the overall feel of the movie and said it was clunky and rushed, not to the point of incoherence but dangerously almost so; he gave it a 6.5/10, and said that any anticipations of awesomeness would have to be curbed until the Ultimate Edition DVD came out...

09:57 / 20.02.09

Having watched the clips I'm hugely impressed. Clearly Zack Snyder picked up on Alan Moore's repeated Brechtian references and decided to direct the actor's performances using the principals of Verfremdungseffekt, or 'Distancing Effect'. The over-mannered performances and stilted dialogue create the profound sense of alienation that you would feel if you lived in the dark alternate world Alan Moore envisaged. Almost as good as David Cronenberg, or The Star Wars Prequel Trilogy.

10:35 / 20.02.09

Clearly.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

15:16 / 20.02.09

Ah yes, lifelike dialogue is clearly what Mr Moore is famous for.

18:00 / 20.02.09

Touché

20:54 / 20.02.09

So why is the acting terrible too? To match the static nature of comic book panels?

21:16 / 20.02.09

I heard Alan Moore said he cursed the movie. Maybe it's that. If you ask me, no squidlessness shoud go unpunished*.

I'm almost tempted to bypass that movie all together and wait for the long long version to come out on DVD, I admit. But alas, me gots to see it the bigsies screen, my precioussss...

* Cthulhu is my roomate

The Natural Way

14:48 / 22.02.09

Well, clearly you didn't- you watched it as a comic adaptation. Otherwise you'd not have given it the name of the comic instead of the movie, wouldn't you? You thought it was Hellblazer. Which is exactly the opposite of what I meant by watching it AS A MOVIE.

Do you know what? I'd probably refer to Constantine as Hellblazer, not because I privilege the comic over a movie adaptation, but because I JUST FORGOT THE TITLE.

And why are we still defensively trotting out the old 'But you have to watch it as a mooooovie' argument? We all know that. I get the impression that most of the people posting about how awful they think this film will be simply feel that way because they've seen 300 and, weirdly enough, thought it was utter shit. Not because they love the, ahem, graphic novel or anything like that, but because the film dived headlong into self-paraody at every turn. What I always wonder about with Snyder is whether or not he's aware of sub-Milleresque leanings. There is NO answer to that question that makes him not a cock.

17:13 / 22.02.09

As the release date approaches, more and more film clips surface on the net.

And, by seeing them, I find myself forced to the not-quite-all-that-awesomeness of it all. Bad acting, corny fighting sequences (why claim you didn't have enough time to properly hint at the Squid, and therefore the Squid is gone, and then go ahead and waste oh so much time with slo-mo?? I just want to know...). I think it will feel to me like V the Movie felt: pretty fine if you never read the source material, but sort of disapointing for us who did. It looks not like the movie adaptation of the graphic novel. It looks like the movie adaptation of the videogame adaptation of the graphic novel.

Oh well, I'll probably enjoy it anyway...

21:41 / 22.02.09

Prison break sequence

Looks like a fucking B(lade*) movie. Oh-so-unsubtly wanking over the fight moment? Check. Shit, amped up dance music? Check. Slo-mo ass whoopin'? Check. Sexy ladeez? Check. Balletic violence that feels totally consequence free? Check.

Ah, but it's an iconic moment from the comic. Snyder is RESPECTING the source material.

*Not that there's anything wrong with Blade movies, you understand, but I thought Watchmen might aim a little higher. And, you know, Blade movies have the good grace not to take themselves at all seriously

ONLY NICE THINGS

22:25 / 22.02.09

Well, Guillermo del Toro also directed Pan's Labyrinth and The Devil's Backbone. I think he basically knew what he was doing with Blade II. Blade was, of course, directed by Stephen Norrington, who also directed The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. It's the circle of life.

00:04 / 23.02.09

Prison break sequence

That was not so good. On a strictly action flick level it was poorly directed, but more to the point, the pathos of the scene seemed to go exactly where Big Figure's about to, in the storyline.

(Can't decide if the above remark's witty, or if I may as well be sitting here in a replica of the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, with my pants round my ankles)

If Zack Snyder knew he was going to have problems with timing, studio cuts and so on, then why oh why indulge in all these overlong fight scenes? It's not as if he's any good at them. Or, it seems, much of anything else - the characters seem laughable, but not in the right way.

Could be this be the 'Heaven's Gate' of the comic book movie boom, a high budget disaster too far? Based on the ten or so minutes on you-tube, it looks possible. Does Zack Snyder have any idea what he's doing at all?

04:13 / 23.02.09

>>>That was not so good.<<<

Ay yi yi, what an understatement. One of the YouTube comments got it right in saying that was almost a parody of itself, it's everything that was feared would happen when the director of 300 got his hands on it. It wasn't even a good action sequence taken on its own merits, it was slow and dull and clumsily choreographed and edited. Sheesh.

lord nuneaton savage

09:15 / 23.02.09

Got tickets for a press screenng on Thursday. Am somewhat excited. No good reason for posting this, of course, just gloating.

Gloaty-gloaty-gloat-gloat-gloat-gloat.

10:04 / 23.02.09

I hope you enjoy the prison break sequence!

...it's everything that was feared would happen when the director of 300 got his hands on it

Yeah, it is isn't it. Does not bode well

Ah, but it's an iconic moment from the comic. Snyder is RESPECTING the source material.

Can’t stress how much I dislike the music in that clip. It’s a million miles away from the score that Snyder claimed he wanted, and that I hoped we would get. It’s just so predictable, so pedestrian, so lacking in subtlety or imagination. Oh, and it comes complete with novelty fucking noises.

Note: I have heard the excerpts on the Watchmen site – with the exception of Ozymandias’s rather dull, conventional theme I thought it all sounded quite good. Sadly the clips I’ve been watching don’t work to reinforce the promise of quality; the music that accompanies the fire rescue scene was particularly bad

What bothers me, when I stay up late at night dwelling on fantasy debates, is the possibility that there are people (Snyder included) out there who think that that prison break sequence is genuinely thoughtful and respectful. I imagine the argument runs thus: it is a cathartic moment, where-in the players re-engage with their super personas fully. The sequence is supposed to be triumphant, pleasurable, even erotic – that it should have been constructed as fight porn is appropriate. Oh fuck, I can just picture some bloody bell-end trotting that argument out right now…

11:13 / 23.02.09

Apart from the length of the scene (and at 1.30 it's a minute too long) it was the winking and smirking I couldn't take, as if Laurie and Dan were middle management types, after an illicit fumble in the stationery cupboard at the firm's Christmas party.

11:47 / 23.02.09

That wasn't fightporn. That was fightsitcom.

As one of my least favorite Alan Moore stories/properties, I thought I couldn't care one way or the other about this flick. But, no, now I just feel sorry for the people who love Watchmen.

Hallo, Paper Spaceboy

20:27 / 23.02.09

Thank god Promethea's virtually unfilmmable.

21:29 / 23.02.09

I imagine the argument runs thus: it is a cathartic moment, where-in the players re-engage with their super personas fully. The sequence is supposed to be triumphant, pleasurable, even erotic – that it should have been constructed as fight porn is appropriate. Oh fuck, I can just picture some bloody bell-end trotting that argument out right now…

Um. Well, I, uh...

...let's just see how it plays in context, shall we?

ONLY NICE THINGS

06:22 / 24.02.09

So, just to keep score, are we still grasping at straws for reasons not to expect it to be awesome? Because if so, I am ready to argue that this entire scene is part of an ambitious and auteurial process of reflection of the different ages of superhero films - in this case, the fights against the ice skaters from Batman and Robin - and that there will also be an Adam West fight, a Superman fight (in which someone creeps up behind Doctor Manhattan and hits him with a crowbar), a Superman 3 fights (in which Doctor Manhattan splits in two, one of whom has stubble), an X-Men fight (in which a frog gets hit by lightning), an X-Men 3 fight (where nobody really cares about the outcome) und so weiter.

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

07:12 / 24.02.09

Shit, amped up dance music? Check.

I refuse to believe that's the soundtrack for this scene. I don't believe anyone, upon viewing that, would think "alright that scene's a wrap, let's move on". Not even Snyder.

...it was the winking and smirking I couldn't take, as if Laurie and Dan were middle management types, after an illicit fumble in the stationery cupboard at the firm's Christmas party.

I'd like the scene to be reinterpreted as such from now on, in any future alternate media representations.

08:22 / 24.02.09

I'm still itching with excitement despite the inevitable disappointment- I know it's going to have bits of Snyder all down it's face and make Alan cry into his beard, but I'm going to come out of the cinema remembering the good bits and saying AWESOME! a lot and going 'What about the bit when...' because these days I watch movies for the FX, which look great.

But thank god Promethea's virtually unfilmable (I heart Papers).

08:52 / 24.02.09

Still waiting for that movie to hit the screen? Why not enjoy some Nite Owl Dark Roast while you´re at it. It´s Adrian Veidt´s favourite choice of java!

"Once inside the Owl Ship, the survivors are offered what else? Coffee."

"World's First Movie Tie-in Coffee!"

"With just one run of 10,000 cans produced, this is sure to be a distinctive and unusal collectible."

Whisky Priestess

10:09 / 24.02.09

"World's First Movie Tie-in Coffee!"

They say that ... like it's a good thing. I'd certainly like to see what other crappy merchandise Veidt Enterprises will be trotting out in advance of the release, though. Ozymandias popcorn for the cinema?

(I actually would totally buy that).

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

13:09 / 24.02.09

Well, you CAN get David Lynch coffee.

And why are we still defensively trotting out the old 'But you have to watch it as a mooooovie' argument? We all know that. I get the impression that most of the people posting about how awful they think this film will be simply feel that way because they've seen 300 and, weirdly enough, thought it was utter shit. Not because they love the, ahem, graphic novel or anything like that, but because the film dived headlong into self-paraody at every turn.

Well, the argument's particularly relevant in this case because Watchmen is just as famous for what it does WITH the medium as what it does WITHIN the medium, and that's something that can never translate faithfully. Now, it doesn't mean it's not going to be shit, but it does mean that, for me at least, issues of fidelity to the source material are secondary if it FEELS right. Which it may well not do, admittedly.

...this is gonna be the part where everyone loses all respect for me because I really loved 300, isn't it?

13:12 / 24.02.09

(I would totally buy that)

14:56 / 24.02.09

Through a weird series of circumstances I'll be seeing a preview of it tonight. I'd love to take some of the more enthusiastic board members but there's only one ticket and only I can use it. I'm mostly going for the free food and drink. If I get any other film-related freebies I'll pass them on to more deserving people. Wish me luck...

15:18 / 24.02.09

Stoat, I secretly really want to love this film. Just so you don't feel all lonely, like.

16:41 / 24.02.09

A range of Rorscach menswear, each pre-distressed item guaranteed soaked in the blood of an Alsatian before it hits the shops!

Anyway, reviews starting to come in. Empire's given it four out of five, while Mark Millar, when not droning on in an increasingly unattractive fashion about his celebrity mates and industry connections over on Millarworld, reckons it's a bit like a three hour edit of a series of The Wire, while at the same time over-long. More enjoyable if you're familiar with the source materal, basically, so you can fill in the blanks.

Three hours though ... you should really only have to stock up on nicotine patches if you're leaving the country, I feel.

Poke it with a stick

18:28 / 24.02.09

New scene with Rorschach mumbling in the gutters and ransacking the Comedian's place. Least slo-mo heavy clip so far, and probably the best I've seen.

20:14 / 24.02.09

Yeah, I just saw those clips and was immediately reminded of... well, 1985. Miami Vice and Blade Runner. Growling tough guys giving voiceovers under fluorescent lighting while synths beep and make wind noises in the background.

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