WATCHMEN - Movie Discussion and Grading (SPOILERS)

[Admiral Buzzkill]

While the cinematography was excellent most of the time, except for Rorschach's fight with the police, all of the fight scenes came of as ridiculous.

That's funny, because in addition to Veidt putting the Comedian's head through a marble tabletop the other fight scene that really seemed ridiculous to me was Rorschach's fight with the police. He's just a guy - a scary guy, but a guy - and all of these cops cannot hit him as he runs across the landing and down the stairs even though the walls around him are exploding in a hail of bullets.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

As for Eddie, I thought he was just as much of a monster as Rorschach. The difference was that one took glee in his sadistic actions, while the other simply saw them as necessary. Rorschach's ruthless logic is much scarier than a flamethrower-wielding psychopath--Rorschach is, to borrow a phrase, dangerously sane.

Rorschach believes in the importance of the most direct and primitive and manichean ideas - absolute truth and an-eye-for-an-eye justice. The Comedian professes to believe in nothing.

 

[USS Mariner]

^To be fair, the cop who was shooting could have been dazed, but it doesn't help that every fight scene was done in almost continuous slow-mo, which makes the cops look even worse because they can't hit a target moving with the momentum of a drugged sloth.

 

[USS Mariner]

As for Eddie, I thought he was just as much of a monster as Rorschach. The difference was that one took glee in his sadistic actions, while the other simply saw them as necessary. Rorschach's ruthless logic is much scarier than a flamethrower-wielding psychopath--Rorschach is, to borrow a phrase, dangerously sane.

Rorschach believes in the importance of the most direct and primitive and manichean ideas - absolute truth and an-eye-for-an-eye justice. The Comedian professes to believe in nothing.

Part of me just thought it was odd that the government would allow Eddie to use lethal force openly on civilians, if that's what they intended to convey. It's hard to tell what he was shooting at the crowd, or if he shot over them.

 

[ATimson]

Part of me just thought it was odd that the government would allow Eddie to use lethal force openly on civilians, if that's what they intended to convey.

For the scenes in Vietnam, they probably didn't know--deliberately turning a blind eye. For the scenes in America, there was nobody to stop him, and (presumably) his actions are part of what lead to Keene Act.

 

[USS Mariner]

^That's true, I guess. It wasn't expanded on much, which is a shame considering how important the Act is in the story. Guess they had to make room for softcore porno and sloth fights.

 

[SalvorHardin]

I saw Watchmen last night and I enjoyed it.
I have never read the comic books and knew nothing about the characters before seeing the movie.

A B+ from me.

 

[Darth_Pinche]

As for Eddie, I thought he was just as much of a monster as Rorschach. The difference was that one took glee in his sadistic actions, while the other simply saw them as necessary. Rorschach's ruthless logic is much scarier than a flamethrower-wielding psychopath--Rorschach is, to borrow a phrase, dangerously sane.

Rorschach believes in the importance of the most direct and primitive and manichean ideas - absolute truth and an-eye-for-an-eye justice. The Comedian professes to believe in nothing.

Part of me just thought it was odd that the government would allow Eddie to use lethal force openly on civilians, if that's what they intended to convey. It's hard to tell what he was shooting at the crowd, or if he shot over them.

I thought that was consistent with the Nixon administration, but I think the problem was that it was so public, the Keane act was probably more of a PR issue for Nixon.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

I'd like to point out, though, that the paragraph Ted quoted was from ManOnTheWave's review, not mine.

Thank you.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Part of me just thought it was odd that the government would allow Eddie to use lethal force openly on civilians, if that's what they intended to convey. It's hard to tell what he was shooting at the crowd, or if he shot over them.

It looked in the last shot as if he was firing over them or firing something non-lethal, but that does seem a little bit of a cop-out given the character.

Bearing in mind that IMAO the opening montage establishes the American government in the Watchmen world as being more openly bloody in dealing with its citizenry than it even actually was during decades of unrest - that image melding the practice anti-war demonstrators used to make of putting flowers in the barrels of National Guard troops' rifles with a lethal volley ala Kent State seemed designed to make the point.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I thought that was consistent with the Nixon administration, but I think the problem was that it was so public, the Keane act was probably more of a PR issue for Nixon.

Which is ironic since the Comedian was the only one still active after the Keane Act.

 

[UssGlenn]

BTW, while I do recall the book had subtle hints that Nixon had the Comedian murder Woodward & Bernstein, I don't recall any about JFK in the book. Am I missing something?

It's joked about during a dinner party in the comic IIRC.

 

[Gojirob]

BTW, while I do recall the book had subtle hints that Nixon had the Comedian murder Woodward & Bernstein, I don't recall any about JFK in the book. Am I missing something?

It's joked about during a dinner party in the comic IIRC.

The W&B murders are; the JFK thing is alluded to in one of the back-up pieces, stating that Eddie was 'babysitting' Nixon in Dallas on 11/22/63, though no one had any idea exactly why he was there. Nerd that I am, I actually tried to find out if Nixon had been there in RL. So far as I can tell, he wasn't.

 

[hyzmarca]

Part of me just thought it was odd that the government would allow Eddie to use lethal force openly on civilians, if that's what they intended to convey. It's hard to tell what he was shooting at the crowd, or if he shot over them.

It looked in the last shot as if he was firing over them or firing something non-lethal, but that does seem a little bit of a cop-out given the character.

He was using a rifle and a grenade launcher. Most of the time, he was firing the rifle into the crowd. Then, he switched to the grenade launcher and fired canisters of tear gas in an upward arc, and finally shot a man with a tear gas canister.

 

[TGTheodore]

Still the best joke in the movie:

--Ted

 

[Turtletrekker]

^Which is straight out of the book, as seen in this article (4th picture comparison down)...

http://www.projectsilence.com/comics/watchmen-movie-to-comic-comparisons/

 

[ManOnTheWave]

BTW, while I do recall the book had subtle hints that Nixon had the Comedian murder Woodward & Bernstein, I don't recall any about JFK in the book. Am I missing something?

It's joked about during a dinner party in the comic IIRC.

The W&B murders are; the JFK thing is alluded to in one of the back-up pieces, stating that Eddie was 'babysitting' Nixon in Dallas on 11/22/63, though no one had any idea exactly why he was there. Nerd that I am, I actually tried to find out if Nixon had been there in RL. So far as I can tell, he wasn't.

The Comedian killing JFK was in the Watchmen RPG which had illustrations by Gibbons, and I believe info based on Moore's notes.

 

[DarthPipes]

Ozymandias is the one who reveals that The Comedian was in Dallas with Nixon on that day. During the scene where he's confroted by Owl and Rorshach.

 

[RAMA]

So Watchmen has made $90 million in 5 days worldwide. Not too shabby. Don't see why it can't cover the $120-150 million budget.

RAMA

 

[UssGlenn]

I should know better than to try and remember stuff like that without the comic available to check. I knew it was there, just not where.