I just saw Watchmen ...

[almeda]

... and man, am I impressed. It's a striking movie, and also -- to my recollection; I've not read it in years, though I intend to again soon -- incredibly faithful to the source material. Especially for an Alan Moore movie (most of which seem, to put it mildly, cursed

Comments

[jcw_da_dmg]

(nitpick)Deimos and Phobos (the moons of Mars) were FAR too big.
(/nitpick)

I liked a lot of things in the movie but overall I found it kind of annoying.

[batyatoon]

Far too big and not moving! They should have been visibly moving!

[jcw_da_dmg]

And neither of them looked like a potato.

[oneminutemonkey]

Now that I've seen the opening sequence (despite the studio's attempts to take it down all over the place), I'm even more impressed with the translation of graphic novel to film. It really does capture a lot in those brief snapshots of encapsulated history, especially the fates of some of the first generation of heroes.

Must see movie...

[almeda]

There's no way they could have gotten that MUCH backstory infodump done any other way I can think of.

It's an amazingly-constructed montage, very effective and infodense.

I hope they're up for an editing Oscar, too ...

I was amused to see Captain Atom's death scene, which was then later explained (aka, "The writing staff for the Incredibles had definitely read this book ...").

[happyfunpaul]

I assume you mean Dollar Bill? (Caught by his cape in a revolving door, then gunned down.) The writers of The Incredibles have indeed, IIRC, cited "Watchmen" as an influence. At the very least, the people who blame the "Watchmen" movie for "ripping off The Incredibles" need to get a serious case of clue.

Captain Atom, btw, was the "original Dr. Manhattan", so to speak. IIRC, "Watchmen" was originally going to feature the Charlton superheroes, then recently acquired by DC. DC decided to integrate the Charlton heroes into the DC Universe instead, so Alan Moore rewrote Captain Atom as Dr. Manhattan, the Question as Rorschach, the Blue Beetle as Nite Owl, the Peacemaker as the Comedian, etc. More info here.

[lhn]

Though something I only learned in the last few years: before the Charlton heroes, it was going to be the Archie/MLJ heroes. (The Shield, the Fly, etc., not Archie and Jughead or Pureheart the Powerful. :-) ) Moore talks about it a little in this interview

[bayushi]

Here's some 80s trivia for you: the guy playing Moloch was Matt Frewer, otherwise known as Max Headroom.

[nightface]

Happy birthday! (its after midnight here, so it counts)
:-)

[mcd000]

Seconded, from the world of 1:40ish am! Happy Birthday!

Who watches "Watchmen"? Quite a lot of us, apparently.

[happyfunpaul]

Agreed re Laurie and Dan.

Matt Frewer ("Max Headroom") played Moloch, and did it well.

I hadn't noticed the historical accuracies, but that's cool to note. (And even if they did make a mistake, well, it is an alternate history!)

I wasn't so fond of the cameos as you were, but they were OK as long as they were kept as background. (Too much Nixon, in other words.)

Veidt's accent was meant to be vaguely Germanic and was part of a backstory the actor himself made up. It's a little too cliche for my taste.

Agreement on nitpick: jcw_da_dmg is correct that the moons of Mars were too big. They got the terrain wrong, too-- features on the real Mars (like Olympus Mons) are indeed big, but they're not terribly steep.

My full review is here.

I am curious in particular how people felt about the music, as I seem to be alone in having major problems with the choices of songs (too obvious, too cliche, too unsubtle).

Re: Who watches "Watchmen"? Quite a lot of us, apparently.

[almeda]

I liked the music, though I see it as at least partly a Forrest Gump joke?