What was the last movie you've seen?

[Fragems]

No it's deleted scenes. It's like they basically shot every scene from the comic and then started editing down from there . Or at least that's what it seemed like there might have been a few differences but it's been a while since I watched it.

Watched the motion comic before watching the director's cut and it was so similar that I barely made it through it .

[noiseredux]

I have the motion comic, but not really all that interested in watching it to be honest.

[Fragems]

It was pretty good from what I remember think I liked it better then the movie. Although it was pretty weird having 1 person voice all the characters and he tries to change his voice to match them even the female characters .

[isiolia]

That's a good point. I cannot think of a single change that would have moved this film from "pretty good" to fantastic. I certainly don't think it needs to be much longer. 163 minutes is pushing my attention span as is. Zach Snyder did everything right, yet I'm not in love with the final product.

Capturing how and why the comic is significant would require a much different approach than simply adapting some of it panel-for-panel. That's the basic issue with the movie, IMO. Snyder is a very visual director, but he's not too great at other aspects of movie making. As good as the movie is for throwing scenes from the comic up on the big screen, it's not that great at building the characters behind them. Could be that there's just not enough runtime without making it a miniseries or something.

Even the comic isn't entirely in the panels, as there's a lot of fake articles and all in there, and the parallel Black Freighter story.

[samsonlonghair]

Maybe it was just a bad fit from the start. Take a slow, plodding, depressing nihilistic story about the follies of humanity and impending nuclear annihilation. Then turn that into a big loud fun superhero movie. Can't do it, can you? To be perfectly fair, I couldn't do it either.

again, personal opinion but the fact that he made a movie out of a slow, plodding, depressing nihilistic story and kept it faithful is exactly what I loved about it. My wife said at around the 1 hour mark, "this doesn't even feel like a superhero story." Y'know? I mean the movie was big and loud... but totally not fun. It was dark, sad and actually difficult to watch at moments. I think the success was in NOT trying to tone it down and make it fun.

Well, there it is then. I want a movie to be fun to watch. Even Dr. Strangelove (with similar human follies and a similar pending nuclear annihilation) has a perverse sense of fun. Does Watchmen?

Jurassic world has kind of a stupid story, right? I still had lots of fun watching it. Watchmen had a brilliant story, and I hated the futility of human existence after watching it.

Watchmen was not fun to watch. Would changing the tone of the movie have fixed that? Probably not. Despite my criticism, I still bought the DVD. I've watched it a few more times over the past five years or so. Mostly, it sits on my shelf and reminds me that a movie should not be exactly the same as a comic book.

I think we see each others point of view. I understand why you like it. Watchmen is the movie that Zack Snyder set out to make, and he accomplished his goal exactly. Its a well-executed movie, but its not a fun movie.

[TSTR]

At this point, I've given up on trying to compare adaptations between mediums and now try to look at them as their own separate entities. Still difficult, but more rewarding for me.

[noiseredux]

I think we see each others point of view. I understand why you like it. Watchmen is the movie that Zack Snyder set out to make, and he accomplished his goal exactly. Its a well-executed movie, but its not a fun movie.

I think this is a fair point. Ultimately, we seem to see Watchmen exactly the same way as each other. But I like that way, and you don't. Which I can totally understand.

[samsonlonghair]

That's a good point. I cannot think of a single change that would have moved this film from "pretty good" to fantastic. I certainly don't think it needs to be much longer. 163 minutes is pushing my attention span as is. Zach Snyder did everything right, yet I'm not in love with the final product.

Capturing how and why the comic is significant would require a much different approach than simply adapting some of it panel-for-panel. That's the basic issue with the movie, IMO. Snyder is a very visual director, but he's not too great at other aspects of movie making. As good as the movie is for throwing scenes from the comic up on the big screen, it's not that great at building the characters behind them. Could be that there's just not enough runtime without making it a miniseries or something.

A mini-series might have been a better fit than a movie. I could see Netflix trying to turn Watchmen into a 12 episode series.

Even the comic isn't entirely in the panels, as there's a lot of fake articles and all in there, and the parallel Black Freighter story.

Alan Moore has addressed this part in particular as the reason its a bad idea to turn Watchmen into a movie. He wanted the reader to be able to flip back and re-read previous pages to notice little elements like these.

[samsonlonghair]

I think we see each others point of view. I understand why you like it. Watchmen is the movie that Zack Snyder set out to make, and he accomplished his goal exactly. Its a well-executed movie, but its not a fun movie.

I think this is a fair point. Ultimately, we seem to see Watchmen exactly the same way as each other. But I like that way, and you don't. Which I can totally understand.

Glad we can see each others views and politely disagree about what we like and dislike. Totally not being ironic here; I really mean that.

[marurun]

Another very good comic adaptation was Scott Pilgrim vs the World. A lot was changed in the movie, but I think it was changed for the better (for a movie, anyway). But I think the overall tone of the comic is probably better suited to movie adaptation than Watchmen.