The Big Picture: There Will Never Be Another Watchmen
- Thread starter MovieBob
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Yeah, the prequels being lame has nothing to do with Alan Moore not writing them, it has to do with them being either pointless retreads (all the most significant stuff for any of the characters happens in the original) or hack fuck ups of those characters that make the original make no sense.
the end of the film is by far the least of it's problems (shit they had to do something with it) it's more the use of slow mo and the action sequences suddenly turning mostly ordinary people in to superhumans and making it ultra violence porn that makes the director seem like he missed the point as much as people like rob liefeld did.
the end of the film is by far the least of it's problems (shit they had to do something with it) it's more the use of slow mo and the action sequences suddenly turning mostly ordinary people in to superhumans and making it ultra violence porn that makes the director seem like he missed the point as much as people like rob liefeld did.
Satosuke said:
First of all, I can't believe that the sentence "well the fake giant space monster makes a lot more sense" is spoken by a so many people.
OT, everyone knew that Dr manhattan was insanely powerful and they knew that he had (inadvertently) killed protestors with a flick of his wrist. After that, they saw that he was clearly not human during his TV interview. This is enough to cause a lot of people to worry a little but then he completely flipped his shit and teleported away. Suddenly, an entire city gets killed of and the smartest people in the world all say that the manhattan radiation is everywhere...not to mention that it is fairly difficult for anyone other than him to do this. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't say: "maybe this was actually a massive conspiracy made by the worlds smartest person".
OT, everyone knew that Dr manhattan was insanely powerful and they knew that he had (inadvertently) killed protestors with a flick of his wrist. After that, they saw that he was clearly not human during his TV interview. This is enough to cause a lot of people to worry a little but then he completely flipped his shit and teleported away. Suddenly, an entire city gets killed of and the smartest people in the world all say that the manhattan radiation is everywhere...not to mention that it is fairly difficult for anyone other than him to do this. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't say: "maybe this was actually a massive conspiracy made by the worlds smartest person".
I liked the movie ending more...it just seemed a lot less likely to have been thought up during a drunk party.
I dont think this is inherently a bad idea. Sure its not Alan Moore, but as Bob said, alot of talented people are working on this. It might end up suprising anyone who reads it.
You dont have no read them, but no need to rage reguardless.
You dont have no read them, but no need to rage reguardless.
Wait, there was a different ending? I've only seen the film so didn't know.
Anyone want to enlighten to me what the alternate ending is??
Anyone want to enlighten to me what the alternate ending is??
Actually, I only heard about the prequels last week, and fully intend to ignore them. Your comments about the state of the Marvel/DC universe, though, give the principal reason I haven't read comics on any kind of a regular basis since about 1986. Except for a couple of minor "gee, that looks vaguely interesting", there really hasn't been anything worth reading.
This is why if I were to create something that became a success like Watchmen (or Star Wars, or Star Trek, or Superman, or indeed anything) I'd refuse to give up the rights to it to a corporation and I'd be sure to maintain 100% creative control and all times.
This just reinforces my stance on the comic industry being in one, big stagnant state ever since the post-Dark Age collapse. The closest thing comics have had to a second Watchmen has been the Batman film series.
JasonBurnout16 said:
The comic's ending is roughly the same in terms of mechanics. However, instead of using a copy of Manhattan's energy to do the deed, Ozymandias teleports a genetically engineered "alien" creature with the massive cloned brain of a human psychic filled with imagery of anger, violence and hate into the city. Teleportation technology kills anything living once it reaches the other side (only Manhattan can teleport people safely), and when it dies it unloads a psychic shockwave that kills everyone within X miles, hundreds of thousands more just outside that range are driven mad by the psychic visions, and "sensitives" around the world are flooded with this imagery, enough to be convincing that a force bent on wiping out the human race has arrived.
Even shorter version: instead of nuking cities, Ozymandias drops a psychic bomb on the entire world.
Even shorter version: instead of nuking cities, Ozymandias drops a psychic bomb on the entire world.
Personally, while I think the film's altered ending makes more narrative sense in tying the characters so tightly to the events, I think the comic's ending - as bizarre as this is going to sound, considering what that ending is - works better in terms of likeliness to succeed. As others have mentioned above, though he is definitively inhuman, Manhattan is definitely seen as a distinctly American figure.
"American powerhouse gone rogue" just doesn't have the same nation-binding impact as "Aliens invade Earth."
He's not BAD he just has this habit of really oversexualizing his female characters. Which I guess is ok for some people, but considering MovieBob is supposed to be a forward thinking comic book nerd that threw me for a loop.walsfeo said:
The Liefeld remark might have been a little overdramatic...
EDIT: and as bad as he is (IMO) he's certainly no Greg Horn http://www.blogcdn.com/www.comicsalliance.com/media/2011/04/batman-and-catwoman.v4.jpg
OK I don't want to say you're wrong or bad or anything like that, you read whatever you want I don't want to come across as telling you what you should enjoy but my inner comic nerd won't let me rest unless I post this for the record.Diane Miller said:
A Condensed List of Great Comics Post-1985:
Hellblazer,
Animal Man,
The Sandman,
The Invisibles,
Arkham Asylum,
From Hell,
Transmetropolitan,
Kingdom Come,
Marvels,
The Ultimates,
Planetary,
The Authority,
Top Ten,
The Filth,
Irredeemable,
Wanted,
Final Crisis,
And probably more that I can't remember right now.
Am I the only one that likes Watchmen, both comics AND movies, but thinks they're far from sacred holy ground that should never be tampered with?
Can you imagine if only Stan Lee was ever allowed to write Spider-man, Fantastic Four, or X-men? Can you imagine if Bob Kane was the only person to ever touch Batman? Even Todd McFarlane's Spawn received a boost from new writers and artists.
Watchmen is good. It is. But it's very narrow-minded to assume that NO good stories could be told in that universe, that NO good character arcs and new characters could come from new creative talent, and that NO work will ever surpass the originals due to sheer nostalgia and narrow-minded thinking.
To me, that's like saying Empire Strikes Back should never have been made because George Lucas didn't direct it, the new "True Grit" movie shouldn't exist because John Wayne was great in his role decades ago, or that they should never have made more than one Final Fantasy game because the creators didn't intend on the original game spawning a franchise.
Can you imagine if only Stan Lee was ever allowed to write Spider-man, Fantastic Four, or X-men? Can you imagine if Bob Kane was the only person to ever touch Batman? Even Todd McFarlane's Spawn received a boost from new writers and artists.
Watchmen is good. It is. But it's very narrow-minded to assume that NO good stories could be told in that universe, that NO good character arcs and new characters could come from new creative talent, and that NO work will ever surpass the originals due to sheer nostalgia and narrow-minded thinking.
To me, that's like saying Empire Strikes Back should never have been made because George Lucas didn't direct it, the new "True Grit" movie shouldn't exist because John Wayne was great in his role decades ago, or that they should never have made more than one Final Fantasy game because the creators didn't intend on the original game spawning a franchise.
I like Watchmen, although I don't hold it in such a high regard as most people, maybe because I read it just few years ago. As far as Alan Moore's work goes, V for Vendetta is my favourite.
In any case, I'll probably end up checking them out eventually, if just to see what they did.
But I'm not going to pay for them. I'll get them for free.
(from a library)
In any case, I'll probably end up checking them out eventually, if just to see what they did.
But I'm not going to pay for them. I'll get them for free.
(from a library)
Further note on the ending, the absurdity of the comic version is also more cohesive with the overall story arc of the Comedian. The ultimate joke if you will. The Manhattan version does not work as well in this context.
As for the whole prequel thing, beens said already, but there just isn't anything interesting to tell there. All the important character evolution has already been seen.
As for the whole prequel thing, beens said already, but there just isn't anything interesting to tell there. All the important character evolution has already been seen.
Yes but they shaped it in very different ways, Watchmen made things smarter, more detailed with mutilayed narratives and more intellectual dialog, DKR just made thaning darker and more manly. Watchmen paved the way for Vertigo, the British invasion and ultimately Kingdom Come. DKR conversely set us up for Rob Liefled, Image and the Ultimate universe. Now not all of the former have been good and not all the latter have been bad but overall Watchmen did far more good than DKR did.j-e-f-f-e-r-s said:
My opinion of 'Before Watchmen' is that I trust Azzarello will write two interesting stories that will be well worth reading even if they are needlessly expanding upon a story that had it's conclusive beginning, middle, and end. Definitely interested in reading his stuff. The others I can live without.
Don't lump an entire medium into the superhero genre. There are some fantastic books coming out right now outside of the DC/Marvel sphere.Aiddon said: