HBO’s Watchmen - NOTHING EVER ENDS...Except When It Should

[BrunoMattei]

Yeah the movie had flaws but it was a pretty solid stab at the material.
And I'm fine with framing Doc instead of the squid.

I go back and fourth on the Squid or lack thereof. The Squid was more of a left field narrative shift that made sense. You could argue that the attack being done by aliens let the attack have an air of ambiguity. Who knows if Doc Manhattan could one day die? Maybe the U.S. government knows of a way to kill him? It being the Doctor just takes a little something away from the ending.

I get the impression that Snyder or the studio rejected the Squid because they thought the CGI might render it to be laughable.

 

[NN 401]

I am also going to add that Adrian Veidt was not a gay man. That was a paranoia minded thought Rorschach had about him.
I hated that about the movie and the actor they got to play him allowed that to inform his performance. I couldn’t unsee it.

I’m sure the woke crowd will run with it.

 

[XYZpdq]

I go back and fourth on the Squid or lack thereof. The Squid was more of a left field narrative shift that made sense. You could argue that the attack being done by aliens let the attack have an air of ambiguity. Who knows if Doc Manhattan could one day die? Maybe the U.S. government knows of a way to kill him? It being the Doctor just takes a little something away from the ending.

I get the impression that Snyder or the studio rejected the Squid because they thought the CGI might render it to be laughable.

I thought the squid was supposed to be a "because lol capes amirite" sort of thing.

 

[MuuMuu Bunnylips]

I thought the squid was supposed to be a "because lol capes amirite" sort of thing.

Anyway, it was supposed to 'die' when it teleported in, so it isn't as though it would be doing anything to require CGI.

 

[Duncan Hills Coffee]

This is just gross. Why the fuck would you make a show based on Watchmen but then do everything in your power to make it not resemble Watchmen outside of a few key characters? Who is this even for anyway? Watchmen fans aren't going to like it, and the woke crowd sure as shit isn't going to keep it afloat. At least the movie tried to be as faithful to the comic.

 

[Gordon Cole]

IIRC, Lindelof said that he's going for his own different take on Watchmen instead of a straightforward rehash of the original, kinda like how the remake of Suspiria was radically different from the original. Who know what it'll end up actually being though.

 

[Guts Gets Some]

Controversial opinion: I liked the Zack Snyder movie. There were a couple of choices I didn't like such as the ending and out of place wire-fu but overall it was pretty damn good.

It was good enough that it got me into the rest of it. I'll give it that.

 

[QB 290]

I used to dislike the movie because it seemed so plastic and boring compared to the comic. But then you get older and realise that you really couldn't recreate the magic and capture that lightning in a bottle the same way that Alan Moore's comic did, there was just too much to adapt, too many theme's to keep and honestly, it's a comic that's way too smart for your typical normie or capeshit sperg to understand. The movie is serviceable and if nothing else; mostly faithful to the comic and I'm glad Zack Synder of all people could adapt the work in a believable way. I don't see the same thing happening here.

This is just gross. Why the fuck would you make a show based on Watchmen but then do everything in your power to make it not resemble Watchmen outside of a few key characters? Who is this even for anyway? Watchmen fans aren't going to like it, and the woke crowd sure as shit isn't going to keep it afloat. At least the movie tried to be as faithful to the comic.

So they can scupper long term gains for short term profits, haven't you heard? Everyone's doing it nowerdays

 

[frozenrunner]

I began to have doubts with the logo, and it looked kind of odd then I heard the show runner would Damon Lindelof ( known for Lost, cowboys vs aliens , the star trek movies and prometheus) this is when I begun to have my doubts on the show mostly because the showrunner's track record leaves much to be desired

To be fair, Lindelof did The Leftovers, and that was fucking amazing.

This is going to be dog shit no matter what, though.

 

[Ruin]

If it manages to keep the comic/movie's theme of "humanity sucks everyone sucks" it will probably be ok/decent. Hoever I fear that like almost every modern tv show it's going to heavily skew into white people/Republicans bad territory and probably have a thinly veiled Trump analogue as a villain.

Rorschach will probably be changed for sure because if he really existed he'd be considered nationalist/alt right and I don't think modern Hollywood would accept someone like him as a hero or even an anti hero.

 

[Marco Fucko]

Is this related to those dozen Watchmen prequel comics they did a few years back?

Considering Irons is playing Veidt it's going to be some shite-arse sequel set in the present day.

I usually try to be open-minded about stuff but Watchmen was rather specifically a story about the cold war. Literally every aspect of the story was informed by events from the 50s to the then present 80s. I have no idea how they plan to make a meaningful sequel set today. Try to tackle the issue of embedded bureaucracy and business people controlling things with Veidt as some sort of main villain?

This will most definitely be trash.

 

[friedshrimp]

I wonder who'll be the intended audience tho. Fans of the original Watchmen won't like the changes and I don't think the Tumblr crowd would be attracted to this comic, too "alt-righty" and "grimdark" for their tastes.

 

[Lensherr]

This could work.

 

[Stab You in the Back]

I wonder who'll be the intended audience tho. Fans of the original Watchmen won't like the changes and I don't think the Tumblr crowd would be attracted to this comic, too "alt-righty" and "grimdark" for their tastes.

Its HBO, so the audience is middle class normies who never read the comic but are tangentially aware of its existence and will pretend to be experts on it after the first episode.

 

[Replicant Sasquatch]

There's only one inaccurate to the comics adaptation of Watchmen I'd like to see.

This is like the most accurate adaptation of the comic ever made though. Alan Moore said so himself.

 

[StarkRavingMad]

I think that Alan Moore was right that he intentionally wrote Watchmen to be "unfilmable."

Because, here's the thing: The Giant Squid at the end is an awesome ending to the comic book. Throughout the entire 12 issues, we got this dark and gritty deconstruction of superheroes. These were "heroes" that were washed up, pathetic, and crazy while the threat of nuclear war (a very REAL fear back in the 80's) was looming over everyone. The world that Watchmen had set up was very grounded in reality. The Squid is a giant subversion of what we had been reading in the previous issues.

Veidt literally called the Giant Squid "The World's Biggest Practical Joke." Humanity is so paranoid and crazy that of course it would take a giant squid monster to shake sanity into people to avoid nuclear destruction. For me, it's genius storytelling.

Framing Doctor Manhattan misses the point of the graphic novel. Veidt created the squid because he thought that humanity would only get along under the circumstances of a common enemy. That common enemy would be something other worldly or alien in order for the ENTIRE planet to get along. Manhattan is an American creation. Both the graphic novel AND the movie emphasize this. If Manhattan killed millions of people, I don't think it would bring about world peace. It would have the entire planet blaming America for creating the monster/god, thus giving Russia a reason to wipe the country off the map via nuclear weapons (which is what Veidt wanted to avoid).

Yeah, sorry, the movie's ending sucks dick, and I hate it. Zack Snyder kept selling this movie as "edgy" and "unique." Bullshit. If this movie had balls, it would have stuck with the original ending.

Ah, 10 years later, and I'm still pathetically salty about it, apparently.

 

[Zaryiu]

juck fuckind end me now, at least i won't live to see everything i like turned to shit in one way or another

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

So, Watchmen is getting the Star Wars treatment now?

Only question is: will this be so atrocious that it'll be fun to bisect it in morbid fascination or will it be just like one huge, drawn out slap to the face of everyone that would give a shit about the franchise?

 

[Tookie]

So uhhh....what? The backdrop of the Watchmen and all its themes were in the Cold War. It doesn't work in modern day because we don't have any analogue to the cold war. We've got no Doomsday clock. And don't make me laugh and tell me North Korea is the same shit. China doesn't work either because China would rather kill itself than nuke its major trading partner. We have no real end of the world parable to focus Ozymandias' literal genocide to. So....what? Also, NYC was MAJORLY important because of all the loss of life there, the danger, you felt like the stakes were high. Tulsa, OK? You fucking kidding me? A hick town? You jokin me dude? A hick town gets obliterated, who gives a fuck.

They're going to reeee about Trump/Russia and how evil red state Rethuglikkkans are mean to migrants. You know that's what it will be.

Also:

HBO appears to be challenging the idea that Watchmen is an untouchable text by setting its story decades after the fact and casting Regina King as its lead. The comic arguably features no lead female characters and definitely no black women. In an open letter to fans that was shared when the show was announced, showrunner Damon Lindelof highlighted the diversity of his writers' room and why "understanding the potential" of Watchmen through the eyes of an inclusive audience was key.

 

[Secret Asshole]

They're going to reeee about Trump/Russia and how evil red state Rethuglikkkans are mean to migrants. You know that's what it will be.

Also: