why does everyone love watchmen?

[jackpackage200]

The movie was way too long, it was boring, and i could not sympathize with the characters. why is this movie so special?

EDITT: my problem is exclusively the movie

 

[DJDarque]

I never really understood the appeal. I absolutely hated the movie. The only thing I found good about it was the soundtrack. I've had people tell me that I need to read the graphic novel to really understand the appeal, but after watching the movie I have no desire to. Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose?

 

[Distazo]

Because it imho it challenged our common perception of what a superhero movie is and the very concept of what it means to be a hero. It calls into question if temporary evil is acceptable if long-term good is the result. It calls forth a cast of characters that are complex, well developed, and flawed in equal degrees.

Plus the graphic novel is wildly popular and the movie was a fairly decent rehash of that.

Idk if the movie was "special" but its one of my favorite movies of all time so yeah . . .

 

[SovietSecrets]

Because it was a good comic, though I was under the impression a lot of people hated it.

 

[pppppppppppppppppp]

inb4 the tidal wave of Watchman fanboys.

I thought it was pretty good. Aside from a better ending (you know, with the city), the comic was better in many ways. Most, if not all of the characters weren't meant to be sympathetic. It was supposed to show that superheroes in real life would all be psychotic, ineffectual assholes. Basically, they deconstructed the superhero before it was cool.

But yeah, the movie drags on too long, and there were some bad casting choices. It could have been better, but still worth seeing.

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

Well, one guy explains it better than I, so allow me.

*Ahem*

Unfortunately, Linkara failed to see what made Ozymandias's decision such a moral conundrum. Ozymandias was "the world's smartest man," a former superhero who realized that a bunch of costumed vigilantes would never accomplish anything good in the long term. He decided to throw away his super hero past in order to generate himself untold riches, and then use those riches to do what he felt was needed to "save the world": drop a squid bomb on New York that kills millions of people, but brings the U.S. and Soviet Union together to fight a perceived "bigger enemy", and ultimately save hundreds of millions more from an otherwise certain nuclear war. Its the age old dilemma of "would you kill one to save a thousand," and the story doesn't even hint at whether or not Ozymandias's choice was supposed to be good or bad; it's left ambiguous, because Alan Moore knows how to write with subtlety.

And I felt they did that well with the movie. Again, I can see why you wouldn't like it. But this is why I did

 

[elbowlick]

The movie isn't particularly special, except that's it's kind of pretty to look at. It's only relevent because of the comic which it's based on, that's the thing that everyone loves. The story's narrative isn't really appropriate for a movie. It probably would have worked better as a high budget tv series like Game of Thrones.
I suggest that you'd better read the comic if you want see why people like it.

 

[SEPECAT]

People love it to spite you.

jk, I'm not really sure, although I was always under the impression that it was as liked as much as it was hated. I never read the graphic novel but I admit the trailer for the movie alone got me interested, so when the movie came out I was intrigued enough to want to know more about it. (I liked it)

And the fact that they go to Mars for no reason and make a big glass thingy for no reason that flies and breaks I found to be a unique enough reason (or lack thereof) to give the movie points. I enjoyed it, but it was one of those things that I'm not committed to enough to try to seriously defend and totally understand someone else not liking it.

Christ that took to long to say.
TL;DR I liked the movie. Not liking it is also completely justifiable.

 

[ShadowsofHope]

Because it imho it challenged our common perception of what a superhero movie is and the very concept of what it means to be a hero. It calls into question if temporary evil is acceptable if long-term good is the result. It calls forth a cast of characters that are complex, well developed, and flawed in equal degrees.

Plus the graphic novel is wildly popular and the movie was a fairly decent rehash of that.

Idk if the movie was "special" but its one of my favorite movies of all time so yeah . . .

Pretty much this. The movie wasn't special or anything, but it was worth my time, in my opinion.

Also, your thread title mind as well be a rhetorical one. "Everyone" does not "love" Watchmen. Many like it, many dislike it. You are not one individual whom has some amazing revelation about a personally perceived "bad quality" movie, after all.

 

[bassdrum]

Because Watchmen isn't a movie, at least not primarily. I'll agree with you--the film was too long, and a bit incoherent at times, and worked so hard to fit everything into one movie that it glossed over a huge amount of what made the comic so good.

I finished reading the comic thinking that it was pretty spectacular. I finished watching the movie thinking that it wasn't.

 

[A Weary Exile]

I loved it, not only because it was a very intelligent deconstruction of the superhero genre, a political drama, and a detective story all rolled into one with very heavy philsophical themes, but it was also a gorgeous-looking film. Well-acted too, for the most part, anyway. I thought Laurie and Dreiberg's actors were a little boring, although I guess Dreiberg is supposed to be boring.

I don't know where you're getting this perception that everyone loved the Watchmen movie, everyone I've ever met that's seen it says they didn't like it, usually because of Dr.DonghattanManhattan.

Just for the record, I've seen the movie and read the novel. I prefer the movie. Guess I'm weird for that.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I think the movie was made more for fans of the original graphic novel. I got more from the GN than from the movie to be honest. I don't even have a clear memory of how the movie ended.

 

[Frost27]

I thought it was garbage, personally. I can respect people's opinions of it if they loved it but each person is going to see every film differently and I thought Watchmen was a boring, overdone, and overlong film with a pointless story.

 

[Thaluikhain]

It's a watchable enough movie, with decent ideas and some originality behind it. On the other hand, it has a big naked blue guy in it, which is just wrong. This was the major criticism leveled at the movie, that there was non-female nudity, which was massively confusing and upsetting to heteronormative male movie goers.

But mostly it's because of the importance of the graphic novel...unfortunately, the movie had been in development hell for ages, so it could be argued it was less relevant for a modern audience than if it had been made closer to when the novel was. Additionally, the graphic novel was a response to charactes of the time (Rorschah is The Question, Silk Spectre is the Black Canary etc etc), it'd help if you are familiar with they way they were back then.

You could also argue that the graphic novel was one of the worst things ever to happen to the comic book industry. You have dubious/borderline psychotic heroes, and it's popular, so making a comic exclusively about batshit crazy psychopaths would be even more popular, right? This type of thinking dominated comics for the next 20-30 years, and still hasn't faded away totally. The movie Rorschach comes across as painfully cliched at times, because everyone since the graphic novel came out has been ripping him off.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

It's not about the movie; the countless Watchmen fanboys are almost exclusively fans of the graphic novel first, and the movie second -- assuming they liked the movie at all. As for why it's so popular, it's two fold: for one thing, it's a darned good read, but more importantly, it did things with comics that hadn't been done before, and it pushed the medium forward in ways that nobody had really tried to do until that point.

 

[Rigs83]

The movie was way too long, it was boring, and i could not sympathize with the characters. why is this movie so special?

Don't confuse the film with the original source material. I can't read Tolkien because of all the D&D and films made. Why do you think their was so much nerd rage when "The Expendables" slaughtered "Scott Pilgrim Versus the World" last (?) summer.

 

[Ruedyn]

Rorschach and smurf penis were two big selling points in my opinion.

 

[jackpackage200]

The movie was way too long, it was boring, and i could not sympathize with the characters. why is this movie so special?

Don't confuse the film with the original source material. I can't read Tolkien because of all the D&D and films made. Why do you think their was so much nerd rage when "The Expendables" slaughtered "Scott Pilgrim Versus the World" last (?) summer.

I guess thats fair. I am hating on the movie not the graphic novel

 

[Distazo]

It's not about the movie; the countless Watchmen fanboys are almost exclusively fans of the graphic novel first, and the movie second -- assuming they liked the movie at all. As for why it's so popular, it's two fold: for one thing, it's a darned good read, but more importantly, it did things with comics that hadn't been done before, and it pushed the medium forward in ways that nobody had really tried to do until that point.

I am a pretty big watchman fanboy but ironically I actually liked the movie first. I took me a few reads through the GN to really fall in love with it. I adore both but I guess because I saw the movie first I like how it played out more.