why does everyone love watchmen?

[IkeGreil29]

I can't speak for the movie. But judging from the fact it was pretty close to the comics,
I'd say it's because they're different heroes. It's not another Superman, but that perfect blend of Batman and Spawn, where in the end what matters is the bigger picture, a very utilitarian and amoral viewpoint where almost no heroes stand because... well... then he's not really a hero. He's an antihero.

 

[Les Awesome]

"Men go to jail......DOGS GET PUT DOWN!!!!!"

 

[SomebodyNowhere]

As long as it was(and I prefer the somewhat longer director's cut), I still found it incredibly enjoyable. I really enjoyed the performances from the actor. I wouldn't consider it a favorite, but it is one that I could easily sit down and watch with little protest.

 

[Lilani]

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

Partially it's because what the comic did for comics. Until Watchmen, super heroes were essentially perfect, infallible figures. You know, like Superman--all heroic and with basically no flaws or real personal demons. Just an average guy out to save the day.

But Watchmen challenged that. It has heroes, but all of them come with baggage. Laurie was conceived when her mother was raped by the Comedian. Night Owl was in the middle of a mid-life crisis, and in the past struggled to keep the team together when people hated them and the Comedian was going around murdering innocent people. And Rorschach had a very, VERY screwed up childhood--from seeing his mom in the act of prostitution to biting part of kid's face off.

Before Watchmen, those were NOT the sorts of people that became heroes (if you can really call them that). Those weren't even topics comic books ever discussed. Watchmen caused comics to grow up, in more sense than one. It flung open the door for darker subjects, deeper characters, and made everyone question the conventional definition of a hero. It pushed what comics can do in just about every way imaginable.

As for the movie's success, I think the movie pretty much embodied the main idea of the comic. They knew what to show and what to leave out, and the characters were true to their nature. The movie gave me just about the same feelings I had when I read the comic (which I read after the movie, mind). I think that's really all you can ask of a film adaptation of anything.

 

[Princess Rose]

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

As far as I can tell - because people really liked the comics.

I watched the movie recently - hated it. Well, except for the part at the end, where the bad guy is monologing, and the heroes vow to stop him, and the villain says "do you think I'd be telling you this if I didn't complete my plan half an hour ago?" That part was great. The rest of the movie not so much.

Honestly, I thought Kick Ass did everything Watchmen did, but better.

Been meaning to pick up a copy of Kick Ass, actually. Great film. ^^

 

[Ganji]

I thought it was good, and I've never read the watchman comic. In fact, the first I ever heard of the comic was when the movie came out.

But then, there have been several game/movies/etc that I've heard lots of bad reviews of and still liked. I don't know if that's a bad thing or a good thing.

 

[Cbargs]

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

As far as I can tell - because people really liked the comics.

I watched the movie recently - hated it. Well, except for the part at the end, where the bad guy is monologing, and the heroes vow to stop him, and the villain says "do you think I'd be telling you this if I didn't complete my plan half an hour ago?" That part was great. The rest of the movie not so much.

Honestly, I thought Kick Ass did everything Watchmen did, but better.

Been meaning to pick up a copy of Kick Ass, actually. Great film. ^^

This here is an example of why many people seem to like Watchmen so much, it alters the formula and packs an intellectual message. What I mean by "This here" is that the moral areas are so grey that it is hard to tell who is good and who is bad, if such a line could even be drawn. Would you call Rorschach, a militant fascist, a hero over Ozymandias, the man who saved the world from imminent nuclear war? I know English Professors that teach the graphic novel alongside Shakespeare.

Also, not to start an argument, but the only similarities between Kick Ass and Watchmen I can see are the somewhat similar messages(although the messages heavily conflict with each other; Watchmen says that costumed vigilantes don't help, but create more problems, while Kick Ass goes for the opposite) and the premise of heros without superpowers(which would relate to Iron Man or The Dark Knight as much as Watchmen).

One more thing, if you enjoyed Kick Ass you should check out Super, its premise is almost exactly the same (the directors of both films are actually close friends who bounced screenplays back and forth during production), but it comes off as a much more mature, meaningful, and hilarious (in my opinion) film about the average joe super hero.

 

[C.G.B.S]

I guess the main reason I like is because it's different. A lot of superhero movies feel so similar it's nice to have a change.

 

[jackpackage200]

Well i got my answer. I'm really impressed with this board not calling me a noob and most of you answered my question with intelligent answers. I may not like the movie but i have a fair understanding in its popularity.

 

[Jegsimmons]

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

same problem until i read the comic.

READ THE COMIC!!!

and actually on a few re watches its actually not bad...could have ended up like that shit adaption of V for Vendetta

 

[ZPowers]

I don't care for the movie. It's mediocre. The plot is there, but it abandons all the heart and style in favor of a sleek look and over-stylized slow-mo violence and sex and unrealistically attractive actors that thematically belongs nowhere in Watchmen (with the exception of Dr. Manhattan). The plot is mostly there, but a lot of the heart isn't. Ozymandias doesn't doubt himself, Rorschach never gets examined and is just some by the numbers badass, Nite Owl and Silk Specter are as forgettable and two dimensional as all get-out... I'll give them a decent go at Manhattan, though. The fact that the plot was so full in the graphic novel means that, except for a few times, the real examination of each character and their fully different modes of morality weren't as effective. And I must disagree with DJDarque: Large portions of that soundtrack are godawful. That My Chemical Romance cover of Bob Dylan's "Desolation Row" (my favorite Dylan tune) was utterly unbearable.

 

[The Youth Counselor]

Only half the people I know like the movie. I personally hated it, and upon finding out that screenwriter Alex Tse was attending an event held by a community organization we were both part of, I contemplated confronting him with a Deringer.

However the comic is my favorite book of all time. It's not just my favorite comic or graphic novel but any book. Nothing composed of pages bound together compares to it. It completely changed the way I think of story structure, comics, superheroes, and what it means to be super, human, or heroic. It's because of it, that I study in the arts and entertainment.

 

[AdumbroDeus]

The reason the movie isn't anything special is because seinfeld is unfunny.


I mean it's good and all, but it's coming after the genre it created. The dark and complex epics that followed the watchmen in the comic world have preceded it to the silver screen, probably the best example being the Dark Knight.

This makes it look trite and overdone, with the only true unique aspect being the Ozymandias' (and by extension the remaining watchmens') choices being left truly morally ambiguous.

That and the only individual who can be seen as acting heroically in that case did it because of his complete inability to compromise, which ultimately made him just as morally ambiguous as the others.


It was good, because it truly was an excellent example of film noir in superheroes fiction, there really WERE no heroes.

At the same time, it was far too late to be great.

 

[WolfThomas]

I'm ambivalent about the movie, one the one hand I take some issues with it, the hyperstylized nature that missed the point that heroes aren't meant to be glamourized, the cutting of all smoking for PC reasons even when it's integral to the characterization and even plot at one point and the fact Ozimandas was made far more noticeably darker and wasn't physically impressive.

But on the otherhand it's one of the most accurate rendition of a comic to film, most of the characters are perfect and I heard that Synder fought a significant amount of excutive meddling that would have cut all the flashbacks, put the film in the modern day and have Nite Owl kill Ozimandas and stop the bombs.

 

[Hoplon]

The Film really wasn't that good, every time the clumsy numbnuts that did the screen play started adding dialogue it grated on me.

The graphic novel is up there as one of my favourite books of all time along with Catch 22, Snow Crash, The old man and the Sea and the Blind Assassin.

 

[Scarim Coral]

For a superhero movie it's different compare to the past one since these superheroes were reated more like wanted crimials and that they address to each other by their real names (except for Rorschach).
Also the theme and tone of the film is dark and a complexing one as there is some what a moral to it (there's alot of hate in that world).

 

[No_Remainders]

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?

Being someone who actually read the graphic novel and then saw the movie, it might work the other way around, but I absolutely despise the movie.

Main reason? Y'know the bit at the end where

Spoiler

the explosion goes off?

Yeah, that happens differently in the graphic novel.

WHY WOULD YOU CHANGE THAT?

Among other things, the movie itself was just bad.

 

[AdumbroDeus]

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?

Being someone who actually read the graphic novel and then saw the movie, it might work the other way around, but I absolutely despise the movie.

Main reason? Y'know the bit at the end where

Spoiler

the explosion goes off?

Yeah, that happens differently in the graphic novel.

WHY WOULD YOU CHANGE THAT?

Among other things, the movie itself was just bad.

Changed it and now it sucks...

I mean the

Spoiler

alien squid

would've definitely worked perfectly in the context of a movie, it's definitely not one of those things that needs to be changed to work within genre.

And the extra component of the demonization of doctor Manhattan was a great choice, especially since he had to stay silent about it adding to the impact.

Sorry, what made it not as good as the graphic novel was that it was late, not because it was inherently a bad movie.

 

[Cenequus]

Liked the film to be honest mostly because it wasn't super cheesy as many superhero films are. I'd say I don't like the characters but they are perfect imagining from the comics. I'd say dunno why people likes Watchmen as a franchise,they don't seem very different from the "bad guys" if not by the fact you are told they are "the good guys". Really awkward at best,still the film was okish and deffinetly in the top 5 of all the superhero films released so far.

 

[Gaiseric]

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 . . .

You sir put my feelings about the movie into words

Also I have no problem with long or slower paced movies so that aspect has no negative affect on me.