Watchmen

[Mister K]

You know, movie didn't show the secondary stories (which were at least good), but it had better ending than comic-book.
No seriously, recreating Manhattans powers is way better than false alien invasion.

 

[gorfias]

(fails a bit at the end...

try and imagine the ending being filmed. Try and picture a nine hundred foot tall floppy one-eyed vagina-squid teleporting onto a city and doing a gigantic rubbery bellyflop. The problem with a lot of graphic novel-to-film adaptations is that you find a lot of what works on paper doesn't work live action. A good example is the X-men; try and picture their costumes in real life. The reason for this is that no movement is present in a graphic novel.

I can guarantee if they'd have filmed Veidt's original plan and included it it would have got a laugh, no matter how brassy the music you stuck over it would've been. The other problem is that when you bring his situation to life in film it interjects a certain note of reality into the film, what seems plausible for a comic book villain just seems ridiculous for an actual person.

My only critiques of the film are very minor but they irked me when I looked back on it:

1. Less slo-mo PLEASE.
2. A few scenes would've worked better if they weren't shot-for-shot recreations. I wish Snyder had taken more risks.

I was OK with the change, (Manhattan vs. Squid ending) as it made the story more original, while Moore had to tip his hat to outer limits episode for the Squid idea. No, just, I would have liked Manhattan telling Veidt that nothing ever ends after walking on water. And I didn't like Night Owl punching out Veidt like he did.

But I disagree about your points about what works on screen and doesn't vs other formats. It was that kind of thinking that made the crew of the Enterprise, in the very first Star Trek movie, wear pajamas rather than their red/blue/gold outfits that looked just fine for the most recent outing. Gimme the spandex.

despite having a few mayor problems, mainly a hokey pacing, especially in the theatrical version, and an at times horrible soundtrack (even though it has moments of brilliance) it's possibly the best Watchmen Adaption one can ask for and a oftentimes pretty cool movie to boot.

True. I read the Sam Hamm version (guy that wrote Tim Burton's Batman I think) In that, Veidt's ultimate plan was to rip open a hole in time and shoot Dr. Manhattan before he gains his powers, as Veidt sees him as destabilizing global politics. Kinda lame, glad they didn't make that version.

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

The scenes didn't mesh together well enough. It ended up being a collection of short stories that bombarded you one after another with no time for them to sink in and brew, so things that held emotional weight in the comic, did no such thing in the film.

That was my problem with it. Zak Snyder did all the right things for the wrong adaptation.

 

[gorfias]

If you want a clearer idea of what I mean take a look at Night Owl's cold weather gear on the way to Veidt's base. Now try and picture how a human would move in it. If you answered 'like a penguin' we're roughly on the same page. The Enterprise example is a good one actually, the uniforms were functional and could be moved in so they really didn't need to change them. I was thinking specifically of translating a static medium to a moving one.

I have to say that I wish Veidt's condemnation had been toned down a little, I liked that in the graphic novel everyone could sort of see his logic but that he was starting to doubt himself. I'll need to watch it again though, it's a wee bit fuzzy. Night Owl punching him seemed redundant though, they were supposed to be so shocked that they were incapable of action. Plus it gave him a 'win', which completely undermined the point of the final showdown. it was supposed to be those two racing to the rescue only to be told "Ha ha, this is real life, the world doesn't work like that, your presence didn't achieve anything at the end of the day!"

You have a point about what physically wouldn't work in reality. And I think you better state what was bothering me about Night Owl punching out Veidt. A big point of the end of the book and Rorschach's fate is that the Watchmen (except for Rorschach)become morally complicit in Veidt's scheme, accepting it. The punchout doesn't work.