xhonzi said:
CP3S said:
Tyrphanax said:
Watchmen was okay, but then I only ever saw the movie.
Then you've experienced Watchmen about as much as someone has experienced Batman by only watching the Joel Schumacher films.
I thought that Watchmen was a pretty decent adaptation. Just this morning I heard someone else dismissing it.
I think the movie ending may actually (literally) be my preferred ending... though I'm still thinking about that.
What's your beef?
I have to agree with 3PX here, but kinda xhonzi as well. While I do feel that the movie was a good interpretation of the book, it doesn't come close to the depth of the original. Maybe the Batman analogy was a little harsh, but I think a good analogy would be The Lord of the Rings - the movies were amazing, but they paled in comparison to the deep mythology and legend that were presented in the book.
With Watchmen the comic, every frame is carefully crafted to tell the story with art along with words, and the way the images mirror what is being said is remarkable. You don't see it often in comics, and certainly not done so well, and it's something you can't really mimic in a film. It really elevates the medium of comics to more than I ever expected out of them.
Another thing the movie fell short on was the ultimate themes of the book. There was so much grey in Watchmen, so much ambiguity and confusion. It showed the dark side of heroes - how little power they actually have, what it would take to really make a difference, and what type of person it would take to do so (not to mention the type who would challenge that person). It's a huge moral quagmire, and I don't think the movie portrayed that part of the story to it's fullest. And I think this is the whole heart of the story, so it really left me cold when I saw it in theaters for the first time.
However, since then I've grown to love the movie - particularly the Ultimate Cut: It's the long director's cut with the Tales of the Black Freighter cartoon edited into the movie, just like in the book.
So, like I said, while I do think the movie is a good interpretation of the book, it can (and did) only go so far.
It's no substitute.