Watchmen Trailer Online

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by shivkala, Jul 17, 2008.

  1. Cary L. Brown

    Cary L. Brown Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    All of which, I think, you hit perfectly on the head. It'll take a bit of "historian-ism" to learn more... but I suspect we'll definitely see a remarketing of the graphic novel at the time this film comes out, and it'll sell very well.
    The filming style is definitely a bit too derivative to the "300" style, from this brief trailer... but I hope that the actual film isn't so much that way. I'm not a fan, AT ALL, of the "music video" style of moviemaking.

    There's no question that the recent... "re-advent?"... of the superhero movie is behind this finally getting green-lit. But Watchmen was never a "ripoff" of the superhero genre. It was, alongside Alan Moore's other work of the time, "Swamp Thing," really the first ADULT-oriented comic work. Seriously, there's stuff in this book I'd never let a kid under 14 read. Sexual, violence (real, not "comic book-ish"), deep political/philosophical stuff, you name it.

    Basically, when Moore wrote this, the idea was a totally new one... what if there were really "superheroes?" What effect would they have on the world we actually live in? What kind of people would they REALLY be? (Hint... no clear black and white answers, and no "make the world a better place" happy-happy answers).

    Watchmen basically redefined everything in the genre. I still keep my inch-thick paperbound copy on my bookshelf next to Dickens, Conan-Doyle, Wells, Stevenson, etc.... I consider it a true classic of the same level.
    As has been commented on by others by now, I'm sure, this more than a little bit true... but separated by a few degrees of separation.

    In the '60, Charleton Comics came up with their own stable of "superhero" comics. These included, among others, The Question (who wore a trenchcoat, fedora, and a mask that hid all aspects of his face), The Blue Beetle (a normal, if rich, man who used his fortune and his technological skills to fashion a crimefighting persona), Captain Atom (a man who was disassembled in a nuclear test and reappeared as a living nuclear reaction) and a lot of others...

    When Charleton went under, its assets were eventually purchased by DC, but left stagnant for a long time. Moore decided to take these characters and put them into a "real world" situation. Eventually, though, DC decided to reinvent these various characters and bring them into the DC fold. So Moore had to "reinvent" his reinventions again... The Question became Rorschack, Captain Atom became Doctor Manhattan, The Blue Beetle became Owlman, and so forth.

    Each kept it's core aspect in his reinvented storyline, but each was renamed to keep the "original" character names available for use.

    So... technically... this is Moore's riff on a character who, originally, was a 1960s Batman ripoff. You're 100% correct!
    The term is really more appropriate... comic books, by definition (at least at the time this was published) were by definition INTENDED FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES (with a few exceptions like "Heavy Metal"). Most people, when seeing the term "comic book" immediately assume (or at least did at the time ) "appropriate for children.

    The decision to use this term to describe the book was in large part due to the extended, complicated, and extraordinarily prose-heavy nature (there are large portions of the book which are NOT "comic book" at all but are direct written prose) but more importantly to keep the kiddies away from stories of "superheroes" who are self-destructive, emotionally and psychologically perverse, drug-abusing and sexually ... ahem... unusual. Who, for the most part, are extremely UNHEALTHY personalities and in no fashion whatsoever "role models."

    At the time, this was totally unheard of. (The closest they'd ever come, before this point, was the brief period in the early 70s when they'd had Green Arrow go from another "batman rip" into an extreme-leftist icon, and they'd had his ward become a heroine addict for a while... this, while viewed critically as important, was never accepted or commercially successful so it went away quickly.)

    "Graphic Novel" is undoubtedly the best term... I think this book may well have INVENTED the term. But you're right that many people will see this as "self-aggrandizement." If they go out and "read the comic book" afterwards, though... they'll change their mind quickly enough!
    ??? What "Zach Snyder connection?" Maybe I'm out of touch with "those young people today" but I'm not aware of his being a big name, huge box-office draw. He's a virtual unknown as far as I can tell... no more or less well-known than, say, Chris Pine. Am I mistaken?

    Of course, this teaser barely gives you a glimpse...and tells you ALMOST nothing about the world of "Watchmen" or of the ideas behind it. I hope that later advertising does a better job... but realize that this trailer really was targeted at "the faithful." Every image in that video was one of the most iconic, recognizable images from the book.

    It's up to the later advertising to illustrate that, say, due to the presence of Doctor Manhattan, who single-handedly won the Vietnam war for us, Nixon is still serving in his eight term as President... and "costumed adventurers" are outlawed unless in the direct employ of the US Government (like The Comedian or Doctor Manhattan). They need to play the appropriate songs... "All Along the Watchtower" for instance... which played so heavily into the story.

    Marketing needs to demonstrate that this isn't "just another superhero riff" but is, instead, "our world if these people existed."
    The only real fear that most of us have is that there is WAAAAY too much story to possibly tell in a single movie. It's more on the order of "Lord of the Rings" which also couldn't have been told in a single movie (hell, even the three extended-length editions left out huge chunks of the story, remember!).

    If you see this movie, what you'll be seeing, at BEST, is a "Cliffs' Notes" version of "Watchmen." An massively invasive abridgement.

    Whether or not they somehow manage to still keep the kernel of the story remains to be seen. I'm hopeful but skeptical.

    At least they've gotten MOST of the look right. My one massive complain is Adrian Veidt... his "Ozymandias" costume was intended to be utterly reminiscent of a Caesar... Roman in every way... brightly colored robes, golden circlet, bronze breastplate, sandals, and what is VERY important (and totally left out of the movie costume as well), the "All-Seeing Eye" symbol. The movie "Ozymandias" costume looks like "just another superhero outfit." Which totally misses the point of this character who sees himself as a God just as the Caesars did.

    See this page for images of both.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias_(comics)
     
  2. TheArsenal

    TheArsenal Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    It looks like they just moved the All-Seeing Eye to the belt. But your point is still made.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  3. Cary L. Brown

    Cary L. Brown Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Re: Dr. Manhattan, I like it... as long as it's "subliminal" and no so "in your face" when he's at-rest.

    Look closely at the various shots of Rorschach. I haven't seen two images where the patterns on the mask were identical. So it DOES change... the question is, does it change in "real time?" I'm sure we'll see a few CGI'ed "glory shots" of this but in most of the action sequences I doubt it. Probably they've done hundreds of different air-brushed versions and will just "tweak" them around the edges in CGI when appropriate.
     
  4. Cary L. Brown

    Cary L. Brown Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Well, this film CANNOT be G or even PG-rated without gutting way too much of the core content. It needs to be R-rated.

    I believe that "non-excitational" frontal nudity is allowed in R-rated films, isn't it? (Add to that that it's fully CGI...)
     
  5. The Nth Doctor

    The Nth Doctor Infinite Possibilities... Premium Member

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    Yes. 28 Days Later briefly features Cillian Murphy's dong while unconscious and it's R-rated.
     
  6. TheArsenal

    TheArsenal Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    The promotional material list it as "Not Yet Rated" which makes sense for a film this far out and no final cut. The Entertainment Weekly article this weekend noted that it was to be rated "R" and discusses it in those terms.
     
  7. JoeZhang

    JoeZhang Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Ozymandias looks more like a Junkie than anything else - just not handsome enough.
     
  8. Ethros

    Ethros Vice Admiral Admiral

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    So we had the Comedian looking like Robert Downey Jr, and now... is it me or does Ozzy look a bit like Tobey Maguire?
     
  9. Cary L. Brown

    Cary L. Brown Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Hi Arsenal,

    I'm not arguing with you here, really... yes, there is an "Eye" motif there, sort of... but not the ancient religious symbol I referred to. The eye in the pyramid... the one that's so often associated with the Illuminati and their successors... the one that's on the back of the US one dollar bill...

    This one...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_of_Providence

    They seem to have replaced it with the "Eye or Ra" on his belt... which, while also interesting, doesn't have the ties to the (real or imaginary) "secret powers running the modern world" fears so many people have, and which is at the core of Adrian Veidt's role in this story.

    Look again at the illustrated Veidt, and he has the "eye in the pyramid."

    [​IMG]

    But this guy doesn't. That was my point, really. Hope that clears up any confusion for anyone who might've missed it.

    [​IMG]
     
  10. S. Gomez

    S. Gomez Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    ^It still fits, though. In that Wikipedia article they note the Eye of Horus, which carried the same symbolic weight with the ancient Egyptians. And that's what he has on his belt. It seems a little more appropriate in some ways.
     
  11. JonathonWally

    JonathonWally Admiral Admiral

    If you look closely in the trailer, you can see the mask moving, and not just seperate images, you can watch it morphing around.

    When he's standing delivering his line, and when he's fighting the guy in the room.
     
  12. TedShatner10

    TedShatner10 Commodore Commodore

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    It looks like the Trashcan Man/Max Headroom has been cast as Moloch and he isn't fighting Rorschach, but being roughened up and pushed around his hovel.
     
  13. USS Mariner

    USS Mariner Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Preach it, brother! :techman:

    I find myself re-reading it over and over again, finding new things each time. Very few books have that kind of staying power for me. Usually, once is enough, even for tomes like Harry Potter.
     
  14. Turtletrekker

    Turtletrekker Admiral Admiral

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    Absolutely. I just re-read it after seeing the trailer, and I'm still picking up new things from it.

    I haven't seen it mentioned on the board anywhere, but recently Time magazine did a listing of the top 100 english-language novels from 1923-present, and Watchmen was the only graphic novel/comic on the list.
     
  15. Bad Bishop

    Bad Bishop Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    This past weekend I started reading Watchmen over again. I think it's just possible to get all the key elements of the book into a 150-minute film. To get the film to the running time desired by Warner Bros., Snyder probably scrapped the story-within-a-story material. The bits about the shipwreck survivor? Gone. The Black Freighter? It'll be on a separate DVD release.

    I think we'll find that Snyder's Watchmen possesses some integrity when compared to the book. According to Entertainment Weekly, previous attempts to adapt Watchmen would have gone in other directions. Maybe fans should be grateful that Snyder got the project.
     
  16. Allyn Gibson

    Allyn Gibson Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Correct.

    The Paul Greengrass version would have been updated to a post-9/11 timeframe. (Rumors had it that Dr. Manhattan would have plucked the hijacked planes from the sky.)

    I seem to recall that the Sam Hamm script disposed of Rohrshach altogether.

    I believe that Snyder was quoted as something something along the lines that if someone was going to mess up making Watchmen, they could at least mess it up while trying to make it right.

    Dave Gibbons' praise for the designs carries a lot of weight for the film's ultimate authenticity, imho.
     
  17. USS Mariner

    USS Mariner Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I'll confess. After reading a bit more into the production and history, this should come out quite nicely.
     
  18. Caligula

    Caligula Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I also find that I pick up new things from it each time that I read it. After seeing the trailer, even my sister, who is generally not THAT into comics (with the exception of X-Men) is reading it! I envy her as she experiences it for the first time....
     
  19. Yassim

    Yassim Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    Anybody got a link to the footage shown at Comicon?
     
  20. Temis the Vorta

    Temis the Vorta Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    The marketing will pump up the "by the director of 300!!!!" connection. Even if people don't know his name, they know the movie. And yeah, I think he's become reasonably well known.