Watchmen

I remember reading Watchmen for the first time in high school detention.  A whole week of internal detention, sitting in an abandoned "portable" classroom, with a shitload of comic books - Secret Wars II, Ambush Bug, The Dark Knight Returns, and Watchmen.

No other comic made me look at superheroes the way Watchmen did. More than The Dark Knight, the story infused the worst of reality into the most believable cast of comic book personalities to hit the printed page at that time.

The week I spent in detention was my induction into the world of comic books as literature, and not just comic books as a silly past time.  Other great stories were written over the years, but nothing would ever come close to Watchmen.

Hopefully, we cans start a discussion of not only how cool the new trailer by Zack Snyder looks, but also the significance of The Watchmen, and why some people - like me - are just pleased as punch that this movie has finally been made a reality... and most importantly, done so by a director that seems to completely understand and respect the source material.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/watchmen/

I couldn;t agree more with everything you've just said. Watchmen IS wy all time favourite piece of literature, and the interenet trailer just made me drool. I'm going to see Dark Kninght in 4 hours, and I'm probably almost as excited for the Watchmen trailer on a big screen.
Question:
How do you think the Quotes and extral material at the end of each chapter be handled in the movie.
One of the greatest parts of Watchmen was the quotes. 

"At midnight, all the agents and superhuman crew go and round everyone who knows more than they do."
-Bob Dylan
My favourite one.

Quote:

i honestly can't think of a better way to start that series.

you know, i was really skeptical when they announced this film, but after watching the trailer, i'm starting to get a little optimistic.  It's not going to be as good as the comic.  it can't, and it simply won't, but if it's even a fraction as good, it'll be well worth it. 

it's just that Alan Moore comics have a poor track record on the screen.  League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was well, bad.  as was Constantine. and V for Vendetta wasn't anything to write home about - i know that a lot of people love it, but it's basically just a lot of purple prose with thinly-veiled Anti-Bush rhetoric, all dressed up in a lot of style but shallow in substance.  i haven't read the original comic, but Moore himself leveled similar criticisms, so i assume that his original comic had to be better than that. 

so will Watchmen be a good film? i sure hope so.  will it be up to Moore's very high standards? unlikely, but i won't discount it before i see it.

I just came back from seeing The Dark Knight so therefore, I saw the Watchmen trailer on the big screen (I'd seen it a bunch before over the internet, watching it repeatedly. It looks epic. I have it on my ipod.) As the self-proclaimed resident Watchmen Fanatic here, I just wanted to bring up a few things-

1- What do people think happens after the end of the graphic novel? If the New Fronteirsman does run Rorschach's journal, what happens to the peace that so many died for?

2- Why do you think Alan Moore is so adamantly against the idea of a movie of Watchmen?

3- What do all of you people think about that pirate story inside the graphic novel? Is it boring, annoying, or do you find it's metaphors for the characters interesting?


Also, as V for Vendetta was one of Alan Moore earlier works, it's really nowhere near up there with Watchmen. Personally, I liked the V fo Vendetta movie more than the graphic novel.

I have a friend that's convinced it's going to suck... so he adds a great contrast to any discussion about the upcoming movie.

What I tell him is that, to understand how you compress such a work without losing it's integrity, you have to understand the difference between the mediums we're discussing.

Movies are visual and dictate pace while the viewer is under the control of what's on screen.  Comic books, although visual, allow for more details - much like a novel - but it also gives you *time* to digest all the details at your own pace.

In terms of Watchmen, you can't really cut anything out... but you can't keep everything in verbatim - so the best way to convey chapters of Oz's book, Rorschach's Dossier, etc.would be in flash backs, or in dialogue.  Ten minutes of reading the dossier can legitimately be compressed *visually* into a few lines of conversation, 30 second flashbacks, the psychologist actually writing the dossier in a one-minute montage as he writes it, etc.

I will actually be doing a reading of Absolute Watchmen this week, and I'm going to time how long it takes me to go from beginning to end.  Then I'll be better able to assess what they're leaving in, and what they'll be making concessions for.

Rorschach113 - I'll get back to you on your excellent post as soon as I finish my reading early this week.

I also think one reviewer said it best.  Zack Snyder proves he "gets" the material he's directing by trading the obvious, more iconic/marketing-friendly blood-spattered smiley for - instead - showing a clockwork city inside the lettering of the "Watchmen" title.

Ladies and gentlemen - I think we've got ourselves a winner.

Well, yes, I suppose the time-to-take-it-in factor is one of the reasons Alan Moore is aginst the whole idea of the Watchmen movie.

It really is something to "digest" (used again, for lack of a better word.)  I think it can logically be used as a bridge for novel readers to crossover into other heady graphic novels like Brian Talbot's impressive A Tale of One Bad Rat, Gaiman's pretty amazing Sandman series, or the bowel-disrupting Transmetropolitan.

I'm also buying a softcover edition so that I can scan anything I need to do side-by-side comparisons of the comic panels to the trailer screens... which - to say the least - seemed mind-bogglingly accurate.

Rorschach is played by the same cat that was Kelly Leak in the Bad News Bears.

I don't if this is the right place to draw comparisons, but the way Heath Ledger committed himself to the Joker...we need to see that kind of devotion to make Rorschach work.

As for Alan Moore being anti-Watchmen film, I think it has alot to do with the way that Watchmen is presented outside of the main comic strip. From characters reading their own comics within the confines of the plot, or different essays, news journals and commercials at the end of each chapter.

Quote:

He was also the burned-out dude who wins the basketball shootout contest in Semi-Pro.  He's a really good actor actually - but yeah, it's crazy that he was Kelly in the original Bad News Bears.  lol

Mr White, as a writer myself, I have to agree and disagree with Moore.  On one hand, it's a seminal piece of literature, essential when embracing or learning about the true power of the medium, but it's not end-to-end perfect.  There *is* fluff.  Example:  Scene with Rorschach when he's breaking the dude's fingers in the bar.  Okay, we get the idea... the guy's a bad ass.  He just grappled into the penthouse of a high-rise, investigated the murder of the Comedian, uncovered a conspiracy, and had a conversion with his ex-crime-fighting partner in the secret lab where he keeps a spaceship.  He's badass, and people know it.  No doubt.

Result...

WATCHMEN: -5 mins of screentime.
FRAGIMUS_MAX: +10 ability, proofreading

Now, in the comic, it's a cool scene... but ultimately, everything we see in it is seen elsewhere in the story... and done better.  So, yeah, there's plenty of material that can be cut from each issue, and scenes that can be combined to an equal or greater effect.