Official Off-Topic Thread

[NaCl]

I thought the soundtrack worked pretty well overall, especially the opening sequence with Bob Dylan. Also, I thought including Nena was AWESOME

[skw]

I think I gotta check that Watchmen stuff myself, never dared to do it before.

Guess it's better to start with the comic?

[EyeCraft]

Well I haven't seen the movie, but I don't really feel any desire to. I read the comic quite a while ago and loved it, and feel completely satisfied with it. Having understood that the movie is essentially taking that and delivering select pieces of it, I've concluded it doesn't overly appeal to me.

Not to say that I wouldn't watch it if it was put in front of me, though. Maybe.

[Helm]

The movie was very bad, as expected. I am amazed by people that have read the comic and seen the movie and liked it. It seems to me anyone that did must have not understood the comic deeply.

[Larwick]

Helm, do you feel there was any way they could have made the Watchmen film so that you enjoyed it?

[Helm]

Certainly. If they used the original as a conceptual springboard and were BRAVE with it, adapted it to today's political situation, dealt with furthering the speculation, not just mirroring it. Someone with vision that understood what the core elements of the work were and not just looked at its surface and adapted it for the screen. Kinda how Tarkofsky handled Roadside Picnick in STALKER.

[Ben2theEdge]

The world-destroying super weapon is a core idea of superhero stories so it needs to be dissected, but nowadays no one is afraid of them anymore and we have no such equivalent in the current geopolitical realm. I feel my sphincter clench at the thought of replacing it with a more hip crisis like "terrorism" or "global warming". Ugh. It's a bit of a lose/lose situation if you're adapting. I was haunted much more by his other point - that vigilantes and manufactured public heroes are basically fascists in their purest form, and I felt like that was the central theme that the film ran with as well.

Perhaps there are deeper themes that are lost on me.

[Helm]

There are. I think you should re-read Watchmen very patiently. I've read it a dozen times and I still unearth more.

but nowadays no one is afraid of them anymore

There is no world-destroying superweapon in Watchmen the comic. At all. In fact the exact opposite.

[huZba]

I'm going to see watchmen next saturday and i haven't read the comic. I think I'll read it before the movie and the rest of the party reads the comic after and we'll see what comes of it.

[Ben2theEdge]

There is no world-destroying superweapon in Watchmen the comic. At all. In fact the exact opposite.

No but the concept is pretty central to the story. You've got Nixon with his finger on a world-destroying button, the Russians with their finger on a world-destroying button, and another character that I won't spoil for non-readers with his finger on a button that will cause people to believe there is ANOTHER party who also has their finger on a world-destroying button that is far worse than all the other buttons combined.

Nobody's scared of people with their fingers on world-destroying buttons anymore, and that seems to be a pretty key part of the plot. S'all I'm sayin'.