• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Rottenwatch: WATCHMEN

Status
Not open for further replies.
SpeedingUptoStop said:
Didn't Alan Moore say he hasn't picked up a graphic novel/comic in like 10 years? What's he doing with his life?

According to wikipedia:

Moore plotted the six issue mini-series Albion for the Wildstorm imprint of DC Comics. The series is written by his daughter Leah Moore and her husband John Reppion.

With Steve Moore he is writing The Moon and Serpent Bumper Book of Magic which is set to be published by Top Shelf at some point in 2010.

It has also been recently announced that Avatar Press will be publishing a comic book called Light of thy Countenance at the start of 2009 (which is based on a short story Moore wrote, originally published in 1995) and a horror comic series called Neonomicon.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume III: Century is coming out somewhere between March and April 2009.
 
shagg_187 said:
If you're talking about me, then not only have I read Watchmen, I own every other Watchmen related book out there. I've also watched the motion comic and preordered both released, and I own the soundtrack.

I am still excited about the movie and can't wait to see it this coming saturday.

It's really not hard typing
and [/ spoiler] :)

If you really appreciate things that you like, you don't want to ruin the experience for them that you experienced when you first encountered it. Maybe it's just me but when i dearly love a movie, I tend not to tell much to my friends about the movie and when I'm usually asked questions like "Wait... what's happening in the movie", I say "I don't know. Keep watching. You'll know."

Maybe it's just me.
I'm not talking about you. I'm saying, why should we tiptoe around people who can't bother to read a fucking comic book or watch a TV show in a timely manner. Besides, the notion of spoilers is pretty retarded in the first place. Revelations aren't what makes entertainment or art interesting. It's the telling not the tale. That's why we can watch Romeo and Juliet over and over again.

The fact that they suicide at the end is shocking only to the dense. It's watching their fates unravel that makes re-approaching the story worthwhile. And that's something that can't be spoiled.
 
Flynn said:
I'm not talking about you. I'm saying, why should we tiptoe around people who can't bother to read a fucking comic book or watch a TV show in a timely manner. Besides, the notion of spoilers is pretty retarded in the first place. Revelations aren't what makes entertainment or art interesting. It's the telling not the tale. That's why we can watch Romeo and Juliet over and over again.

The fact that they suicide at the end is shocking only to the dense. It's watching their fates unravel that makes re-approaching the story worthwhile. And that's something that can't be spoiled.

True. Very true. It's just that no one is aware of "The Watchmen" (God damn, the addition of "THE" in Watchmen for every media review, video and showtimes pisses me off). Ofcourse, hopefully, this thread becomes open to spoilers in a few days/weeks (with appropriate thread title change IF POSSIBLE! LOVE U MODS!) cause I would REALLY love to discuss the movie with people who are completely unaware of Watchmen :)
 
If anyone goes to the IMAX tonight ... please post what trailers end up being shown before it.

Sometimes they aren't the same as the ones in the standard theaters.
 
Using prophecy and such to reveal the outcome of a tragedy is a storytelling choice, not proof for why you should be able to go around spoiling people.

Like it or dislike it, the GAF policy is not up for debate. Deal or leave.
 
Flynn said:
I'm not talking about you. I'm saying, why should we tiptoe around people who can't bother to read a fucking comic book or watch a TV show in a timely manner. Besides, the notion of spoilers is pretty retarded in the first place. Revelations aren't what makes entertainment or art interesting. It's the telling not the tale. That's why we can watch Romeo and Juliet over and over again.

The fact that they suicide at the end is shocking only to the dense. It's watching their fates unravel that makes re-approaching the story worthwhile. And that's something that can't be spoiled.

I totally agree with this, but don't impose your "why" on others. For many, the revelations are a big part of it. Also, I'd agree somewhat with you on the open discussion note if this was just any old discussion thread, but this is for the movie- i.e. clearly there will be people in here interested in the story who have not read the graphic novel. Spoiling stuff in here would be akin to going into one of the rerelease threads in gaming (like the DQ5 or Chrono Trigger ones) and spoiling for those, untagged. Yes, the stories themselves are old enough to be talked openly about, but you're in a place where people who have not experienced them will specifically congregate. Besides, like others have said, it doesn't take much to tag, warn, or link seperately.
 
Onix said:
If anyone goes to the IMAX tonight ... please post what trailers end up being shown before it.

Sometimes they aren't the same as the ones in the standard theaters.
Yeah I'm seeing it at my local Sundance theater which is a great place but they rarely show the multiplex trailers. I just know I'm going to get some black and white film festival shit about two blind Lithuanian farmers crying over a potato in the 19th century.
 
Onix said:
If anyone goes to the IMAX tonight ... please post what trailers end up being shown before it.

Sometimes they aren't the same as the ones in the standard theaters.

I would do it, but once the movie's over my friends and I will be driving down to Disneyland (we live in Northern California) and I don't know when I'll get computer access.

If anything though, I'd probably guess at least a new trailer for Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince would be attached since it's WB.
 
EviLore said:
Using prophecy and such to reveal the outcome of a tragedy is a storytelling choice, not proof for why you should be able to go around spoiling people.

Like it or dislike it, the GAF policy is not up for debate. Deal or leave.

I'm fine with adhering to GAF policy. I'm just decrying the culture of spoilers that has cropped up over the past couple of years. I think it's gone overboard.

Can I add that if you haven't read Watchmen already we probably can't be friends?
 
traveler said:
For many, the revelations are a big part of it.

I'd argue that these people are wrong. They're only experiencing the surface. It's like that conservative idiot saying that Rorshach's decrying of liberals wasn't enough. How dense do you have to be to miss that the character isn't badass. He's not a hero. He's fucking pitiful. He's Moore's evisceration of the libertarian/Ditko vigilante.
 
A little OT, but also overheard after seeing Troy:
"I don't get it, why did he shoot Achilles in the heel?"
Surely at that point you can put 2 and 2 together.
 
Flynn said:
I'd argue that these people are wrong. They're only experiencing the surface. It's like that conservative idiot saying that Rorshach's decrying of liberals wasn't enough. How dense do you have to be to miss that the character isn't badass. He's not a hero. He's fucking pitiful. He's Moore's evisceration of the libertarian/Ditko vigilante.

Yeah, the adoration that Rorschach has received in the past few months regarding his badassery is completely mystifying to me. Seeing someone dressed up as him at Comicon is just like...what? Have you read this book?
 
Stood in firelight, sweltering. Bloodstain on chest like map of violent new continent. Felt cleansed. Felt dark planet turn under my feet and knew what cats know that makes them scream like babies in night. Looked at sky through smoke heavy with human fat and God was not there. The cold, suffocating dark goes on forever and we are alone. Live our lives, lacking anything better to do. Devise reason later. Born from oblivion; bear children, hell-bound as ourselves, go into oblivion. There is nothing else. Existence is random. Has no pattern save what we imagine after staring at it for too long. No meaning save what we choose to impose. This rudderless world is not shaped by vague metaphysical forces. It is not God who kills the children. Not fate that butchers them or destiny that feeds them to the dogs. It’s us. Only us. Streets stank of fire. The void breathed hard on my heart, turning it's illusions to ice, shattering them. Was reborn then, free to scrawl own design on this morally blank world. Was Rorschach. Does that answer your questions, Doctor?

:o
 
Man I can't wait. I think it's going to be awesome, but I won't be heart broken if it sucks. I don't have deep emotional attachment to the comic, so I'm excited.
 
Flynn said:
I'd argue that these people are wrong. They're only experiencing the surface. It's like that conservative idiot saying that Rorshach's decrying of liberals wasn't enough. How dense do you have to be to miss that the character isn't badass. He's not a hero. He's fucking pitiful. He's Moore's evisceration of the libertarian/Ditko vigilante.

I hear what you're saying, and I think people make too big a deal out of spoilers too...but still. Experiencing what will happen is a huge part of watching movies or programs, hell I tune into BSG every week JUST to see what will happen. Since the source material for Watchmen has been out for decades I don't see why we shouldn't be allowed to discuss the story openly, but still it's related to a movie and there is an audience that hasn't read the book and spoiler tags aren't really that hard to deal with anyways. But yeah...the joy of hearing a story is in the way it's told or expressed. Revelations are still welcome, and a little more so if they hadn't been told to us before experiencing them firsthand.
 
BenjaminBirdie said:
Yeah, the adoration that Rorschach has received in the past few months regarding his badassery is completely mystifying to me. Seeing someone dressed up as him at Comicon is just like...what? Have you read this book?

Yes, he's a mentally ill quasi-homeless fascist murderer, and does threaten and maim people without much realistic justification sometimes, but there's badassery there for sure. Badassery in his overwhelmingly uncompromising attitude towards justice and life (and then the culmination of that at the final moments), the way he psychologically dismantles his shrink and perfectly antagonizes the midget, how he'll use everything around him in a fight as a deadly weapon, and really just the way he carries himself in general. Dude's scarier than the Punisher, and he's unarmed, totally human, and wears a fedora and trench. Definitely a badass.
 
BenjaminBirdie said:
Yeah, the adoration that Rorschach has received in the past few months regarding his badassery is completely mystifying to me. Seeing someone dressed up as him at Comicon is just like...what? Have you read this book?
somebody on some other forum i post at said that they can't wait to see rorschach, their reason for living :lol
 
EviLore said:
Yes, he's a mentally ill quasi-homeless fascist murderer, and does threaten and main people without much realistic justification sometimes, but there's badassery there for sure. Badassery in his overwhelmingly uncompromising attitude towards justice and life (and then the culmination of that at the final moments), the way he psychologically dismantles his shrink and perfectly antagonizes the midget, how he'll use everything around him in a fight as a deadly weapon, and really just the way he carries himself in general. Dude's scarier than the Punisher, and he's unarmed, totally human, and wears a fedora and trench. Definitely a badass.


Word.

Couldnt have said it any better
 
EviLore said:
Yes, he's a mentally ill quasi-homeless fascist murderer, and does threaten and maim people without much realistic justification sometimes, but there's badassery there for sure. Badassery in his overwhelmingly uncompromising attitude towards justice and life (and then the culmination of that at the final moments), the way he psychologically dismantles his shrink and perfectly antagonizes the midget, how he'll use everything around him in a fight as a deadly weapon, and really just the way he carries himself in general. Dude's scarier than the Punisher, and he's unarmed, totally human, and wears a fedora and trench. Definitely a badass.

You forgot to mention how he obsessively munches sugar cubes like a child.
 
I really enjoy the 4 issues of the motion comic I've seen on BRD. They look great too.

Seems that they cut the comic within a comic here too. Disappointing.
 
StoOgE said:
I really enjoy the 4 issues of the motion comic I've seen on BRD. They look great too.

Seems that they cut the comic within a comic here too. Disappointing.

What? You would think that it should be complete. maybe it jsut has not shown up yet? I don#t remeber when the first Black Freighter stuff started.
 
shagg_187 said:
From all I know, Terminator Salvation and Harry Potter will definitely be shown. Usually in IMAX, the trailers shown are only meant for movies coming out in IMAX.
The only trailer officially attached to it is Star Trek. The others will be as well I imagine but Star Trek is the only one officially known to be attached to every print of the movie right now.
 
Cheebs said:
The only trailer officially attached to it is Star Trek. The others will be as well I imagine but Star Trek is the only one officially known to be attached to every print of the movie right now.

Didn't see it in IMAX but the trailers I saw were Star Trek and Transformers 2.
 
ChrisGoldstein said:
No GI JOE?
There is no GI Trailer yet, just tv spots.

Xater said:
Didn't see it in IMAX but the trailers I saw were Star Trek and Transformers 2.
I am guessing Trek is the only one attached to the print then. All the other trailers are up to the theater.
 
Xater said:
What? You would think that it should be complete. maybe it jsut has not shown up yet? I don#t remeber when the first Black Freighter stuff started.

crises averted, I was only two chapters in, its in there at the beginning of 3:D

The only thing that is missing is the extra stuff between chapters (under the hood, etc).

I do have to say, comic within the comic is hard as hell to keep up with though in this medium.
 
StoOgE said:
crises averted, I was only two chapters in, its in there at the beginning of 3:D

The only thing that is missing is the extra stuff between chapters (under the hood, etc).

I do have to say, comic within the comic is hard as hell to keep up with though in this medium.


Well that would have been difficult to do. It would just be text on the screen, read out loud.
 
Xater said:
Well that would have been difficult to do. It would just be text on the screen, read out loud.

I agree with the choice, the between chapter stuff would not have worked. But, the motion comic is really fucking nice. it's hard to call it a 5 star transfer because the animation is so rudimentary, but the image quality is really that crisp.
 
Hurray!
Just picked up my ticket!
Only 8 hours to go!
 
DanielPlainview said:
How was the Star Trek trailer? It's being released online tonight at midnight.

Lots of action so if you are into that you'll like it. I felt kinda indifferent to it. I am a Trek nerd and this just doesn't feel right.
 
Flynn said:
I'd argue that these people are wrong. They're only experiencing the surface. It's like that conservative idiot saying that Rorshach's decrying of liberals wasn't enough. How dense do you have to be to miss that the character isn't badass. He's not a hero. He's fucking pitiful. He's Moore's evisceration of the libertarian/Ditko vigilante.

...joke post? Or are you seriously saying that it's wrong to enjoy the story on the surface? That you're so full of yourself that you're unwilling to let me enjoy a movie based on a super hero comic book in the way I choose?

Just because you apparently think it's art comparable to Shakespeare doesn't change the fact that it's also a movie containing costumed superheroes, big explosions and eyecandy CGI.

I'm not saying you're wrong--enjoy the comic and the movie however you choose. But don't try to stomp on others' enjoyment out of some arrogant idea that your way is the One True Way to enjoy something.

I like tales. Tales are fun. Enjoy your telling, but don't spoil my tale, mkay?
 
I finished Watchmen for the first time on Saturday and as such I won't be watching the movie, mainly because I fear they'll butcher some things I consider integral.

One question/comment I wanted to make though...

The one part of the book that didn't sit well with me at all was Dr. Manhattan. Here we have a character who is basically a humanoid manifestation of God; able to conceptualize, construct, and comprehend matter and existence down to its smallest molecule, and yet he's still so shallow as to leave his first girlfriend for the younger Silk Spectre? I could understand if that was meant to establish that that is his link to his humanity or that love in in itself is so imperfect as to be a contradiction in the first place, however that just makes his "abandoning Earth" speech on Mars later on even more confusing. Did he really not understand the imperfections that make humanity beautiful? Or was he just being a dick to Silk Spectre because she left him?
 
Saw it, fun movie, bad adaptation, loved Dylan's song along with the intro.

Snyder went overboard with gore though, I mean, really overboard, kinda missing the whole point of the comic's violence. But hey, at least it was fun to look at, I guess.
 
BenjaminBirdie said:
Also, can you do one for The Comedian? Because I saw plenty of those, too. That shit just weirds me out, man.

Set me up with the easy one, only to lead into this, eh!

One thing to take into account is that we're seeing The Comedian, 100% of the time, from the perspective of the other characters. We never really gain much insight into the main beyond what we see of his actions around them, which puts him at a disadvantage compared to Rorschach or Ozymandias. There are hints of humanity in a few spots, like when he shows some caring for Laurie, the untold relationship he had with Sally, in his drunken conversation with Moloch, and in the abject fear in his eyes right before his death (repeated many times). The bar shooting will immediately and permanently define him as a bihilistic fucking bastard to most if the attempted rape didn't, but these are just as brief insights as any of the other moments. Any of his potential badassery happens off-screen, like when he wins a fight against young Ozymandias (downplayed as much as possible by Ozy), and when he infiltrates the island only to be screwed by the bug in Moloch's house. A complex character, I'd say, despite the screen time.

But hey, he's one of the cornerstones of the story and his little smiley face is hugely iconic. Probably enough for most.
 
What I don't understand is why he thinks there's this logic to dressing up as these characters to conventions. That they should only dress up as ones who are morally admirable.

When most, or all of them just dress up because they think the costume looks cool. And they should all be ashamed of dressing up as a comic book character, not just a morally detestable one.
 
Flynn said:
I'd argue that these people are wrong. They're only experiencing the surface. It's like that conservative idiot saying that Rorshach's decrying of liberals wasn't enough. How dense do you have to be to miss that the character isn't badass. He's not a hero. He's fucking pitiful. He's Moore's evisceration of the libertarian/Ditko vigilante.

I think wanting to experience a narrative as it was written, rather than having someone divulge the details beforehand is perfectly reasonable.

If an author wants to tell a story with the audience having full knowledge of the ending, they are free to do that while constructing their narrative. However, a lot of authors don't do that. They let the reader experience the things as the characters do, and with only the same limited knowledge that the characters have. It provides a more intimate connection with the narrative for some people and increases enjoyment.

Sure, you can enjoy the telling of a tale 1,000 times--but if I want to experience it in its pure form as the artist intended it for the first time, why is that wrong?

Why you'd argue that as wrong is beyond me... It may not be important to you, but I don't see how it is wrong.
 
Flynn said:
You forgot to mention how he obsessively munches sugar cubes like a child.

Obsessively like a child? I always assumed it was him being hungry and needing energy all the time due to his obsessive dedication to eliminating evil. He doesn't have time for meals when he becomes himself (nothing suggests he eats properly ever) hence he eats whenever he has the opportunity whether it be sugar cubes, tins of baked beans or raw eggs. Well, that and I've never seen kids munching on sugar cubes.
 
BenjaminBirdie said:
Also the way he
saw his mom fucking some stranger and then she beat the shit out of him
.

So hot.

But seriously. That Rorshach stuff is the purple prose of an anti-social thirteen-year-old who is just a tiny bit too smart for his own good. Alan Moore nails it dead on. Makes it pretty and makes it attractive to those with similar mindsets.

It's a play that wows and shoots over the heads of the groundlings.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom