tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post611483001887674113..comments2024-03-21T19:12:11.065-07:00Comments on Every Day Is Like Wednesday: Everything I have to say about Watchmen (the movie)Calebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01391759187396994380noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-21282814615450173402009-03-22T15:10:00.000-07:002009-03-22T15:10:00.000-07:00Regarding your comment about Laurie slamming her h...Regarding your comment about Laurie slamming her hand on to the flame-thrower button, so that Archie ejaculates flame into the night sky:<BR/><BR/>You can blame Moore & Gibbons for that one - almost those exact images play out on page 27 of Chapter VII, except it's Laurie's elbow that hits the button.<BR/><BR/>Snyder can be blamed for being too exact, too precious and too juvenile in interpreting the scene – I know I found it laughable.Payohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13935541901524846458noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-25717419302891443442009-03-19T19:44:00.000-07:002009-03-19T19:44:00.000-07:00"Ozymandias, The Smartest Man in the World, sure h..."Ozymandias, The Smartest Man in the World, sure had an easy computer to break into"<BR/><BR/>In both the comic and the movie I'm pretty sure Ozy purposefully left all the information readily available for Dan and Rorshaq to find. He knew they were investigating things and, being `old friends' knows exactly what the two are capable of. He wasnt at all surprised when they turned up at his watchtower and knew they were going to attack him. He's a lonely man and wanted people he has somekind of respect for (as mild as it is) to be there to witness his actions. As for `why millions of people, why not just ask john? why not kill nixon' he's arogant and in love with the past; he desires and needs a huge glorious intricate plan in much the same way that Nite-Owl cant get it up without the spandex.Earlofthercshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09987828244296944382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-29467243345978831532009-03-16T08:44:00.000-07:002009-03-16T08:44:00.000-07:00Regarding Dan's melodramatic "noooo," I've just be...Regarding Dan's melodramatic "noooo," I've just been assuming that he emerged from inside just to see Dr. Manhattan obliterate Rorschach, and responded to that, having missed the dialogue between Manhattan and Rorschach, specifically Rorschach's resignation towards his death. <BR/><BR/>But perhaps the filmmakers could have made that more clear. <BR/><BR/>Regarding the ending, while it certainly can be picked apart, it works about as well as the ending in the comic does. Granted, it's been about a year since I last read it (I've avoided re-reading it since I wanted to enjoy the movie on its own merits as much as possible) but how, exactly, does an alien squid killing millions of New Yorkers lead the Russians to peace? <BR/><BR/>I mean, if the perception was that the alien squid was a harbinger of an alien invasion, wouldn't the Russians assume (or at least, propagandize) that the aliens are clearly Communist and on the Russian's side, since, after all, the alien's first strike was at the center of the capitalist empire? No Russians died in the alien squid attack, so why would the Russians automatically fear it? <BR/><BR/>Personally, those kind of questions don't take away from my enjoyment of the comic's ending any more than the questions regarding the movie's ending takes away from my enjoyment thereof. <BR/><BR/>What matters about the ending is that a perceived hero took an "ends justify the means" approach to securing world peace resulting in large numbers of dead innocents (and that he did before the other heroes could stop him). The details of that approach, be it alien squid or traitorous demi-god, for me at least, are fairly arbitrary and interchangeable. <BR/><BR/>Finally, regarding Ozy's password, that's a pet peeve of mine that shows up in many, many movies. I've often joked that if I was any kind of villain, I would go out of my way to ensure that NOTHING is within eyeshot of my computer that could lead an enemy to determine my password, yet every villain in every movie in which someone must deduce a password does that. <BR/><BR/>More importantly, however, I'm always bothered by how computers in movies show what is being typed in for the password: every password I've ever entered appears on my screen as "****".Austin Gortonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14281239771248780430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-36744008574624240112009-03-16T05:45:00.000-07:002009-03-16T05:45:00.000-07:00I liked it all right, although I don't have as muc...I liked it all right, although I don't have as much attachment to the original as some do. I did not need that large coke for this one, though...<BR/><BR/>Anyway, some other blogger pointed this out as a weakness in the GN, but I think Ozymandia's computer is <I>supposed</I> to be easy to break into. Bait for the trap. <BR/><BR/>It also occurred to me that Dr. Manhattan, if he had wanted to, could've easily imprisoned Rorschach forever instead of killing him: perhaps in a biosphere on Mars or something. Not that it would been doing him a favor or anything.googumhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17843267619711712271noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-88662495075740476842009-03-16T04:04:00.000-07:002009-03-16T04:04:00.000-07:00"I can't stand the guy's art, but to say that he h..."I can't stand the guy's art, but to say that he hasn't achieved a certain level of success would be a complete lie."<BR/><BR/>I'd never say such a thing, but you said that we ought to attribute the amount of talk his name inspires to the success he's achieved. I suppose there's some truth to that - if his books sold poorly and he only worked for small publishers, we wouldn't know enough about him to say anything.<BR/><BR/>But surely the reasons we talk about him aren't those to which he would want to attribute his success.Hdefinedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14402669731760470459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-68648538895753962212009-03-15T17:07:00.000-07:002009-03-15T17:07:00.000-07:00The superhuman aspect of ostensibly non-superhuman...The superhuman aspect of ostensibly non-superhuman characters threw me off, too. And I was really surprised about how blase Nite Owl and Silk Specter were about killing. Not just the muggers and prisoners, but Rorshach murdering the midget and Nite Owl doesn't react at all when the Comedian says he assassinated Woodward and Burnstein. You can make an argument for killing violent criminals, but how can a "hero" just let the murder of two innocent civilians go? <BR/><BR/>Both also seem surprisingly unruffled about the murder of 15 million people. Even if you can justify that by saying the ends justify the means it's still <I>15 million freaking people</I>. That's more than Hitler. That's heading towards Stalin territory and even he needed years to pull that off. Ozymandians can, in theory, do it any time he wants and they just leave him there?Tracer Bullethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09423793849234700428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-31872620508905831972009-03-15T16:15:00.000-07:002009-03-15T16:15:00.000-07:00@hdefined, who do you think has a better chance of...@hdefined, who do you think has a better chance of landing an art gig for a comic: Liefeld or a literally unknown artist? The unknown artist might be actually better, but Liefeld, for all the jokes and bad press he gets, still has a lot of fans that will buy any book that he draws. <BR/><BR/>I can't stand the guy's art, but to say that he hasn't achieved a certain level of success would be a complete lie.<BR/><BR/>And to tie this to the original topic of this entry, here's a little image I found on the internet...<BR/><BR/>http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/1676/watchmenliefeld.jpgMatt Duartehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07320627525337447814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-39244540663932856362009-03-15T15:45:00.000-07:002009-03-15T15:45:00.000-07:00Jacob: That's interesting, and a little disappoint...Jacob: That's interesting, and a little disappointing, but I'm okay with my interpretation of the movie not being what Snyder intended. It still works for me as is.B.G. Christensenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01604354633985676126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-66562420760994652152009-03-15T15:44:00.000-07:002009-03-15T15:44:00.000-07:00"hdefined, he still gets work, so probably."So doe..."hdefined, he still gets work, so probably."<BR/><BR/>So does that also mean you ascribe to the mentality that "bad press is better than no press"?Hdefinedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14402669731760470459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-76739883052741126882009-03-15T15:42:00.000-07:002009-03-15T15:42:00.000-07:00Fob Have you ever heard Snyder interviewed? He ope...Fob <BR/><BR/>Have you ever heard Snyder interviewed? He openly admits the only comics he read as a kid were issues of Heavy Metal, and that comics without fucking and killing were boring. It's sad, but all the violence was totally meant to be cool. Like I said before, Snyder was the wrong guy for the job.Jacobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02555828362599394315noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-11214593587446180232009-03-15T15:06:00.000-07:002009-03-15T15:06:00.000-07:00hdefined, he still gets work, so probably.hdefined, he still gets work, so probably.Matt Duartehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07320627525337447814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-10168421336715876622009-03-15T09:08:00.000-07:002009-03-15T09:08:00.000-07:00I agree with Dr. K's take on the ending and on the...I agree with Dr. K's take on the ending and on the violence--I don't think the extreme violence was intended to be cool, which would have undermined the point of the film, but to be so over-the-top that it was repulsive. How many times have we seen a fight scene where a couple heroes beat the crap out of a gang of thugs and the point was to show how cool the heroes are? The scene with Dan and Laurie breaking bones made it clear to me that there's nothing cool about it. <BR/><BR/>Similarly, I think Ozymandias's costume was a deliberate parody of Joel Schumacher's bat costumes and achieved the same effect as the original Watchmen series showing how ridiculous more traditional superhero costumes are. Nite Owl's, meanwhile, didn't succeed in that department because it was just too damn cool.B.G. Christensenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01604354633985676126noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-59072712688136541532009-03-15T07:09:00.000-07:002009-03-15T07:09:00.000-07:00"I think the fact that we are still all talking ab..."I think the fact that we are still all talking about it means that Snyder succeeded somehow."<BR/><BR/>We all still talk about how poor an artist Rob Liefeld is. Does that mean he succeeded too?Hdefinedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14402669731760470459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-4000784612656563552009-03-15T05:39:00.000-07:002009-03-15T05:39:00.000-07:00Very interesting and well written post. I think wh...Very interesting and well written post. <BR/><BR/>I think what most people are overlooking is the fact that Manhattan left the United States in a very public way. The U.S. knew it, and the Russians knew it as well, which I guess would explain why they did not think Manhattan was still working with the U.S. This is the reason that in the comic (I don't remember if it happens in the movie) the Russians start moving in against Afghanistan, they know that the U.S. no longer has Manhattan to protect themselves and their allies. <BR/><BR/>And I guess the reason that Ozy didn't ask Manhattan to do all this was because he wasn't sure to go along with it (and we saw how pissed Jon was when he found out). But once it was done, he knew (gambled) that he would put him in a stalemate and avoid getting vaporized. <BR/><BR/>Oh, and Archie "ejaculating" was also in the comic. It didn't look as silly because it didn't have that song over it, but it's there. <BR/><BR/>I overall liked the movie, but it wasn't without it's flaws. I think the fact that we are still all talking about it means that Snyder succeeded somehow.Matt Duartehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07320627525337447814noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-42257415843319395032009-03-15T05:09:00.000-07:002009-03-15T05:09:00.000-07:00I will read this post when I finally go see Watchm...I will read this post when I finally go see Watchmen, but I'm really looking forward to what you have to say. (The folder full of spoilery reviews that I'm gonna get to after I get home from the movies is getting kinda big... I better get on that.)Philliphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00679456592657711270noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-78099334359310847402009-03-14T23:52:00.000-07:002009-03-14T23:52:00.000-07:00"It’s too early for a Watchmen film."Exactly. Ther..."It’s too early for a Watchmen film."<BR/><BR/>Exactly. There just isn't enough context of the superhero genre established in film media for Watchmen, as a reinterpretation of the genre, to be meaningful yet.Hdefinedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14402669731760470459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-74459217047623145262009-03-14T21:41:00.000-07:002009-03-14T21:41:00.000-07:00Dude, you nailed my problem with the new ending ri...Dude, you nailed my problem with the new ending right on the head. The world was supposed to unite because of an external menace, and they made way to big of a deal about "god existing and he's American" for that to make any sense.<BR/><BR/>And don't you have to be intimately knowledgeable about super heroes to enjoy a comic or a movie that deconstructs them? At least on the level you're supposed to?<BR/><BR/>That said, I enjoyed it well enough.Roodleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07077368940343633160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28855039.post-31504579356711644962009-03-14T21:11:00.000-07:002009-03-14T21:11:00.000-07:00I thought "All along the Watchtower" was alright b...I thought "All along the Watchtower" was alright because that's what they used in the comic, but I would have prefered the Dylan version.<BR/><BR/>Zack Snyder was the wrong guy to direct Watchmen. I could see him directing a Mark Millar adaptation, but Alan Moore? They just don't mesh.Jacobhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02555828362599394315noreply@blogger.com