Watchmen (Zack Snyder, 2009)

[Antoine Doinel]

One of Jeffrey Wells' buds calls the film a "staggering failure".

[domino harvey]

This sentence is amazing:

Zack Snyder is an outstanding director when it comes to composing a scene that looks fantastic.

[knives]

Unfortunately it's an empty, inert, meandering

Just what I thought it would be.

[Dr Amicus]

Latest from Melonfarmers - this IS being released as an 18.

Suggests that unless Zack Snyder has final cut which is being applied outside the US, that the 18 worthy material can't be easily edited out.

[Antoine Doinel]

I'm guessing the rape was crucial to Snyder's visionary film.

[MyNameCriterionForum]

Snyder should just get it over with and remake Pink Narcissus already.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

Now that would be a project.

[domino harvey]

"I'm at the historic Beverly Hilton right now for the Watchmen junket. While my one on one interview with Zack Snyder isn't until Friday, I ran into him in the halls of the hotel and talked about a little reference I caught in his movie.

There are potential spoilers ahead, especially if you haven't read the comic. Be warned.

Some fans have been up in arms that Zack Snyder changed elements of the end of the story, specifically removing a giant alien squid from the climax (told you it was a spoiler if you hadn't read it). More reasonable fans understand that a giant alien squid wouldn't quite work in the movie.

But eagle eyed moviegoers will realize that Zack DID keep the squid. Just maybe not in the way you might expect.

In the film Adrian Veidt and Dr. Manhattan are working together on a project that will replicate Manhattan's energy, providing free and unlimited power to the world. That project? SQUID, the logo for which is briefly visible.

"I'm glad you caught that," Zack said when I complimented him on getting the squid in the movie. And what does SQUID stand for? "Sub QUantum Intrinsic Device."

As for how that SQUID plays into the larger film... You'll have to wait until March 6th to find out." --Devin Faraci

[JonathanM]

Snyder should just get it over with and remake Pink Narcissus already.

I doubt even Warhol would have had the wantons to make a film about a 7 foot pouting drag queen in gold lame hot pants hammering away at the "hot gates" of a bearded Greek closet case.

[Antoine Doinel]

Screenwriter David Hayter says Fox is "Satan".

[Cde.]

The actual quote is much better.

There's something more than money going on at that studio and it has something to do with...uh...satan.

[Antoine Doinel]

Snyder's director's cut to be released in theaters in July.

[Cde.]

Oh wow.

Slow-motion helps me to enjoy the face-smashing even more.

This is the guy that was put in charge of Watchmen.

Spoiler

THIS IS THE GUY THAT WAS PUT IN CHARGE OF WATCHMEN

[knives]

God this is going to be cinematic rape of the not so good kind huh?
Also from these early reviews there seems to be a good definition to the camps.
People who loved it are just happy to see these beloved characters on the screen. The Gibbon's portions on screen while the negative camp notes an emptiness to the directing and are pissed about the lack of Mooreness to the affairs.

[JonathanM]

Well... I don't know about Mooreness.

To be fair I think the Watchmen film was ill conceived from the start. You can't deconstruct the politics of the superhero via a multi-hundred-million dollar block buster. Even if your actual film is subversive (as 300 clearly was), it will still come out looking like "yay superheroes!" simply because of the way these types of films are hyped. At best you try to say something lever and come of looking like a hypocrite and at worst you turn the whole thing into the exact opposite of the original comic's intent. So I think Snyder was onto a loser from the start.

As for Mooreness, I'm simply not a fan. I think he's grossly, insanely over-rated and that this has caused him to disappear up his own arse. His last 2 or 3 books have been so self-indulgent that they're practically unreadable and only a sacred cow could get away with calling himself a magician without people openly mocking him.

Though on the plus side, at least he's not Grant Morrison.

[domino harvey]

What was 300 subverting exactly?

[JonathanM]

What was 300 subverting exactly?

The absurd macho posturing of most action films.

The fact that most action films involve men sitting in a darkened room watching oiled up muscular guys flexing, grunting and waving weapons in each other's faces. 300 is the ultimate response to the testosterone poisoning of most action films. It's the cinematic equivalent of going "Oh get a room!"

[Cde.]

I think 300 is actually the ultimate example of absurd macho posturing.

I'm pretty sure Miller was completely serious when he made 300, judging by his output and comments over the past decade.

[somnambulating]

In addition to the nine clips plus the solo Rorschach,

there's reel after reel of B-roll up.

[knives]

Well... I don't know about Mooreness.

To be fair I think the Watchmen film was ill conceived from the start. You can't deconstruct the politics of the superhero via a multi-hundred-million dollar block buster. Even if your actual film is subversive (as 300 clearly was), it will still come out looking like "yay superheroes!" simply because of the way these types of films are hyped. At best you try to say something lever and come of looking like a hypocrite and at worst you turn the whole thing into the exact opposite of the original comic's intent. So I think Snyder was onto a loser from the start.

Just because I don't feel like talking Moore I'll go with this as I think it is entirely possible. Verhoeven has been doing it for years (Starship Troopers) He just needed to have the suits look stupid and have the only violence shown be absolutely disgusting. As for 300, I think it was accidental subversion, but I still enjoy Spartan Slo-mo Storybook Time nevertheless.

[JonathanM]

Just because I don't feel like talking Moore I'll go with this as I think it is entirely possible. Verhoeven has been doing it for years (Starship Troopers) He just needed to have the suits look stupid and have the only violence shown be absolutely disgusting. As for 300, I think it was accidental subversion, but I still enjoy Spartan Slo-mo Storybook Time nevertheless.

Hmmm. I think you're right about Starship Troopers but I think Starship Troopers is a much more limited critique than Watchmen. ST never, for even one second, suggests that the humans shouldn't be fighting or that their sacrifices are for nothing, instead it takes potshots at the suits and makes it clear that there's not much glamour to be had in the actual waging of war. In that respect, it's a bit like Generation Kill; the system's fucked, the bosses are jerks and the country and mission are probably not worthy of any kind of sacrifice but the grunts are all heroes full of wisdom and wit and so on.

It's probably not impossible but it would have to work hard to not come across as mean-spirited or insulting to the audience.

[knives]

Right you are, that's why so many smarter directors passed this up, to hard for so little glory. If done right Watchmen could be a career killer.

[Antoine Doinel]

Completely terrify your lover by whipping out an officially licensed Watchmen condom. You can apologize in the morning by making a nice cup of Nite Owl roast.

[domino harvey]

Completely terrify your lover by whipping out an officially licensed Watchmen condom.

Having seen the film, she'll probably assume you're going to attempt to rape her-- Great Promotion

[Orphic Lycidas]

First look at a completed scene from "Watchmen". I have to admit I laughed throughout. It's even worse than we thought.