Watchmen

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  • Watchmen

    For what it is -- Damon Lindelof's take on the comic in an America 34 years after the events of the comic -- I guess it was fine. Does it bear anything more than a passing resemblance to the source material? I mean, old Ozymandius did show up for that one scene but . . .

  • #2
    Re: Watchmen

    I know nothing about the comics or the movie, so taking this on its own merits, I thought it was f*cking great.

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    • #3
      Re: Watchmen

      I tried reading the comic after watching the movie, which I thought was excellent. The original material read well, but it couldn't quite deliver the shiny latex excitement of the movie, no surprise there. Dunno what the TV series is going to be like, I'll look out for it when it appears here.

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      • #4
        Re: Watchmen

        i loved the film. a lot of people didn't. i'm not a GN follower, but am looking forward to watching. just a little hesitant, don't want to be disappointed. love Lindelof's work.

        i was in a panel over the weekend at AFF where one of the writers said they remembered the discussion where they had to figure out a reason for why they wear the masks, so it will be interesting to see what they came up with. i'm guessing anonymity-- protecting their identities against prosecution.

        love the music intro in the trailer.
        "Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy b/c you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say." -- Edward Snowden

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        • #5
          Re: Watchmen

          Originally posted by finalact4 View Post
          i was in a panel over the weekend at AFF where one of the writers said they remembered the discussion where they had to figure out a reason for why they wear the masks, so it will be interesting to see what they came up with. .
          Because masked people are ****ing scary!

          brings to mind that line from phonebooth when Keifer's character asks why people **** their weapons "Cos that sound is ****ing scary!" - I must watch that movie again
          Last edited by Southern_land; 10-29-2019, 09:19 AM.
          I heard the starting gun


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          • #6
            Re: Watchmen

            Originally posted by finalact4 View Post
            i was in a panel over the weekend at AFF where one of the writers said they remembered the discussion where they had to figure out a reason for why they wear the masks, so it will be interesting to see what they came up with. i'm guessing anonymity-- protecting their identities against prosecution.
            Not many of the worldbuilding touches make much sense to me. In an alternate history where superheroes are real (and were the thing that tipped the balance of the cold war to America), the only superpower i'm seeing so far is these masked characters just fight a lot better than the average criminal, i.e., Batman. Okay...

            Moore's reimagined America of 1986 in the graphic novel was dystopian but at least plausible in the context of that time, just with the superhero characters inhabiting it. The world of the show feels like one that was invented specifically for a television show (a white supremacist group executes a town's entire police force on Xmas eve and literally nothing happens from the federal government?). And where I could see Nixon hanging on to power after two terms, I don't buy for a second that Robert Redford would even be elected for one term. I just don't know, "figuring out a reason why..." gives me PTSD flashbacks to the Lost experience.

            Supposedly episode six (!) really ties it all together, so only three more hours of worldbuilding to go.

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            • #7
              Re: Watchmen

              *** p o t e n t i a l s p o i l e r s ***

              okay, two eps in and i'm not sure what exactly is going on. i mean, i like it, but it is unfolding a bit slowly-- which is fine.

              it's like a double-take to buy into the alternate historic line, like wait-- the Germans are good guys?

              and the Rorschach characters "seem to be" the bad guys? i thought Rorschach was a good v bad vigilante crime fighter? and here it's implied that they're linked to white supremacists? though i am expecting a twist in the next few eps.

              maybe the flip in their traditional character is flipped here, too? anyone got a take on it or did i misunderstand who Rorschach was?
              "Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy b/c you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say." -- Edward Snowden

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              • #8
                Re: Watchmen

                Originally posted by finalact4 View Post
                *** p o t e n t i a l s p o i l e r s ***

                okay, two eps in and i'm not sure what exactly is going on. i mean, i like it, but it is unfolding a bit slowly-- which is fine.

                it's like a double-take to buy into the alternate historic line, like wait-- the Germans are good guys?

                and the Rorschach characters "seem to be" the bad guys? i thought Rorschach was a good v bad vigilante crime fighter? and here it's implied that they're linked to white supremacists? though i am expecting a twist in the next few eps.

                maybe the flip in their traditional character is flipped here, too? anyone got a take on it or did i misunderstand who Rorschach was?



                Okay. The 7th Kavalry are basically a white supremacist group which was formed after the discovery of Rorschach's journal, via the right-wing publication "The New Frontiersman" (read the graphic novel or watch the 2009 movie). Obviously, Rorschach was a reactionary misanthrope towards liberal sensibilities, but he wasn't xenophobic. I think his journal was edited.



                As for the Germans being good guys, that scene was based in World War I, not World War II. Still, the pamphlet was propaganda to convince black soldiers to leave America, and this was before Adolf Hitler came about.


                Seeing the first two episodes, it's an interesting add-on that suffers by the original story's purpose, a dark satire that exposes society's conflicts, flaws, anxieties, inanities and hypocrisies. I think Lindelof wanted to start out with a heavy allegory to today's conflicts like Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons did with the Cold War. Does it work? Well, some fans of the original material aren't happy with the show, and those who fascinated with the historical aspects (Bass Reeves, the Tulsa massacre) are stumped by the original material. Me? I'm invested in the show and I'm a fan of the original material, along with the other sequel, "Doomsday Clock".
                "A screenwriter is much like being a fire hydrant with a bunch of dogs lined up around it.- -Frank Miller

                "A real writer doesn't just want to write; a real writer has to write." -Alan Moore

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                • #9
                  Re: Watchmen

                  thanks, Madbandit, that actually helps a lot.

                  i like it and am going to stick with it. i can't remember a lot of the movie. will have to watch it again.
                  "Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy b/c you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say." -- Edward Snowden

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