I think the 300 graphic novel lacked depth to begin with, so it’s not really fair to blame that entirely on Snyder. The trailers look great and even if the movie disappoints, the trailers are still faithful adaptations of the GN. Does that make any sense? Seems like most of the major plot developments are there and the striking imagery seems to have been accurately replicated. Plus, I can’t get enough of that Smashing Pumpkins song! But seriously, from the Comic-Con panel stuff, the cast appears to really have gotten the underlying motivations and truth of their characters, and that’s the driving force behind the greatness of the novel. It’s a brilliantly depicted character study. So I’m not too worried about the end result and I can’t wait to see the movie.

Drew, I get your Citizen Kane analogy, its pretty good, but you kill it with the “throw up” and “Dr. M’s dick”.
Why have you intentionally flamed yourself?

Hollis Mason FTW

Drew, I think the GN was supposed to confront you with ideas and philosophies you might not be comfortable with. If you weren’t bored but just disturbed by the content, the book did its job. Do film students dislike Citizen Kane because of the ideas behind it or because the pacing doesn’t effectively hold the attention? Unless it’s the former, the analogy isn’t appropriate. I’ve been bored by many classic movies but that’s not enough to make me actually hate them or to make me nauseous the whole way through.
Also, if you’re serious about being bothered by “Dr Manhattan’s dick hanging out” in 2 or 3 panels, seek help now so you can start showering with your eyes open (if you’re a guy).

I must admit, the use of slow motion leaves me with mixed feelings about this film. I really don’t like it! I wouldn’t have been liked it if Nolan did that in The Dark knight. I like Snyder as I love his Dawn of the Dead but We’ll see how the final product turns out!

Okay let me prefence this by saying I firmly believe we all have a right to our individual opinions and experiences. But there are some reactions to Watchmen that kinda bug me. Specificially the “it’s over-rated” opinion. That’s simply wrong coming from any true Fanboy/Fangirl – and if it came from anyone else but a true geek I wouldn’t bother saying any of what I’m about to say. I would like to point out why this is something that many fanboys need to stop.

I am arguing that Watchmen is anything but over rated. First and foremost that seems to be a reaction to the love many have for the series – as if there’s something wrong with that. But that love comes for a reason, and it’s an earned one. Watchmen is not a matter of the time it was written in, that’s a point you need to take to understand the scope of the story. Watchmen is a matter of what it represents, and here is where I feel those like you and Josh get it wrong.

I would like to illustrate my argument with the two things you guys was positive about, Superman and Stephen King.

Superman is the father of Superheroes. There were comic books before Superman, mostly collected comic strips from newspapers with some originals here and there. But until Superman comics had no real direction and might have vanished before we came along to love them. Superman was not a new concept either. Every culture has their Gods or over-men. Christianity if replete with men who spoke to mega-beings, fought the granddaddy of all evil and live lifetimes that were just impossible. There were flying men who both destroyed and protected, inspired and tempted. Mythologies are replete with such beings. But Superman created the comics Super-hero, giving comics something more to print then a collection of questionably funny polical cartoons you got cheaper and in more variety in your daily and weekly news prints. Superman created a genre that resonated with old and young alike, and spawned what we know today as continuities, great adventures and gave the four colored floppies long lasting life that take for granted today.

It was not Superman’s fault that so many characters were created gluttening the market. The Spirit would have been a different type of charact, for example, if not for Superman. (They insisted he had to have a costume, hence the little mask and gloves.) It is not Superman’s fault that so many comics have a “been there/done that feel.” That’s what happens with the first, the inspiration – it spawns imitation to the point of adnausium. Even Superman himself tends to get stale, but he’s been around for almost 100 years – you can be fresh all the time time living that long. So depite what was wrought in his wake, when you think of Superman you have to give respect to the fact that no matter what – he’s the father of all comics and that cannot be dismissed.

Steven King came along when horror was just getting to that stale point. The H.P. Lovecrafts and Edgar Allen Poes just wasn’t around anymore and everyone was pretty much aping them. There was no “horror” section in bookstores and libraries, until Steven King. Because King breathed new life into the genre, gave it a new feel even though basically he was telling the same kinds of stories. Steven King elevated Horror from slock short stories and cheesey Hammer films to something that could be scary and intelligent. He did and is still inspiring generations because he put something new into the genre that didn’t exist before.

It was not Kings fault that he became a king of horror and spawn so many imitators. It is not Kings fault that his inspiration was responsible for slasher flicks and torture porn. These things were a reactions to his books and stories. So while it can be pointed out that upon re-reading much of his work will give you a been there/done that feeling because so many have taken what he did and pushed it further, and did more the man must get the respect of taking what was once the popcorn genre for teenagers to waste a Saturday on (with the chance to cop a feel when his date cringed) and making it a viable genre that generates billions in various types of media.

Same goes for Watchmen. Like Superman, like King, this series is responsible for the slow elevation of comics from “kid stuff’ to something that today that more people then we geeks want to admit have come to respect. Watchmen elevated the comic writer to a level they have never been at before it came along. Of course it helped usher in the so-called “dark era” of comics. Of course it’s been imitated so many times reading it new these days gives one that been there/done that feeling. But as I pointed out with my prior examples that is not Watchmen’s fault. It fact it should be praised for what it gave us. Comics couldn’t stay in it’s myopic storytelling and last, the hobby had to change or it would have perished. Like the fans who collected it, comics had to grow up and Watchmen was the guide that showed it the way. This is why it’s so loved, Steven. Not because it “the greatest thing (I) ever read.” Not because for some unexplicable reason some fanboys are put off because of the massive love for the series. It is to be respected because like Superman, like King it brought something new to the medium. I will go as far as to say we owe Watchmen for where comics are today – and I mean the good where as well as the bad. Think about it, they are giving Thor 500 mil for his movie. Thor? Can you imagine this happening during the era of Disco Beyounder and Boxing glove arrows?

So I say unto you all who dismiss Watchmen with glib responses of “it over rated” or “maybe I should have read it when it first came out” remember what you are disrepecting when you say that. You are doing a disservice to a remarkable piece of work that inspired our drug of choice (comics) to being more then they thought they could before Alan Moore came along and showed it a better way. It’s why I consider it the literal Bible of comics because that’s it’s place, that’s where it belongs.

Sorry to go off on such a rant but as I said it irks me when fans dismiss the importance of this series.
If you read through this, thank you for the time. I know I probably didn’t change any minds but I hope I gave some wayward fans another way to look at Alan Moore’s most important work in comics.

Peace

Dafixer

(aka Umar)

“Watchmen is like the Citizen Kane of Graphic Novels and Comics. Yes, it changed the medium forever, it was dark and gritty and diffrent from everything before it but it did nothing for me.”

Citizen Kane does nothing for me, but I respect the movie for what it is, understand it’s importance in the place of movies and do not base how i feel about it on it being “over rated” which is proxy for being against it’s legacy based upon how other people feel about it. That’s what I’m saying. It might not do anything for me but I respect the place it holds in the medium it’s a part of.

Superman has had more bad stories then good, and the character is just too hard to connect to. That does not mean one displaces the importance or bases an opinion upon those who love the character.

Something doesn’t have to “do anything for you” in order to get that.

Man,I wish Film Junk had a comment deletion system. I reread watchmen and i’m a idiot for saying that stuff. You see when I picked the book up the first time i didn’t actually read the whole thing i just read through parts and judged it like that, I know, Incredibly stupid, knew it then, but now i really see how stupid it was. I think it’s because i have only read one or two comics in my life and they were just one off 10 page things. They weren’t graphic novels with really deep stories. And when I did my inital flip through the first time i saw things like when the comedian rapes sally jupiter and when he shoots the pregnant woman and when roscharch talks about the dog he killed and we see it’s head split in two. And I’ll be honest, I was disturbed by it, I had never seen something like that in a comic. So I sent it back to the library with no plan to ever return to it. But ever since that new trailer came out I was drawn right back in and i just had to give it a second chance. And now (even though i’m still working on finishing it) when I read it like a real book i realize how stupid of me it was to say those things. As Jay would say, i’m a fucking idiot.