I went to see Watchmen last night, and walked out after an hour – which was gutting, because I was really looking forward to seeing it. But either my memory of the graphic novel is faulty or the film just didn’t work, because at no point after the clever opening credits was I even vaguely interested. Bored, annoyed, embarrassed that I’d persuaded Mrs Bigmouth to go, yes. Interested, no.
Part of the problem, I’m sure, is that I’ve been spoilt by films such as The Dark Knight. Watchmen’s “What if superheroes were real?” thing is no longer a novelty (I know it got there a long time ago, but it’s an old idea in movies now), but where Dark Knight made an effort to do something with the source material Watchmen felt like a shot by shot recreation of the comic. And for me, that didn’t work. Rorshasch’s voiceover sounded hackneyed and adolescent, which I don’t recall it being in the book (then again, I was a lot younger when I read it, so maybe it is). The dialogue was terrible. And as for the acting and direction: wooden and liking the violence a wee bit too much respectively. It felt like I was watching The Simpsons’ Comic Book Guy having a wank.
Did you go to see Watchmen? What did you make of it?
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0 responses to “Walking out of Watchmen”
Yep – I sat through all two and half hours of it on Saturday… but then I was blocked in by comic book guy from the Simpsons.
I saw some pictures of somone in the US who painted themselves blue and wore just their pants to go and see it, but then it was sold out when they got there so they couldn’t get tickets. There’s been a lot of hype in costuming groups so I suppose it depends if people will be blinded by memories of the comic book and love it whatever.
Haha, that’s brilliant. Moral of the story: book online before you reach for the body paint :)
I’ve never actually walked out of a movie before. I was very tempted with the last turgid and unnecessary half hour of “AI”, and I genuinely fell asleep half way through the God-awful “10,000 BC”.
These days the chance to get some uninterrupted shut-eye is preferable to walking out, for me at least.
The only one I recall walking out of previously was the second Matrix. Reviews put me off seeing A.I. :)
Don’t watch A.I. if you want to sleep at night for at least a month. It causes some really harrowing stuff in the subconscious.
Is it good? I’ve got the DVD somewhere but never got round to watching it.
I thought it contained lots of great individual bits which didn’t quite add up to a good whole.
I thought that Spielberg tried, but didn’t quite manage, to round off the hardest edges of the Kubrick nastiness, and the result was a strange movie that wasn’t quite one thing or the other. Jude Law’s performance was pretty laughable, but Haley Joel Osment’s was if anything even creepier than that in The Sixth Sense: as Heather says, deeply disturbing stuff. Not subtle.
Didn’t we know this was going to happen (people walking out)? I figured they would, The Watchmen is more a piece of art that takes a special understanding. This is not a garbage in garbage out movie and neither was the graphic novel. I’m not surprised that the masses walked out on it.
Hey, Gary, you’re a mass.
That’s right, Alex. I was too stupid to understand it.
Could be worse. You could be sheeple.
It’s a pity Alex didn’t leave a link to his blog, because I’d like to see the post where he predicted that this would happen.
Just wondering: is a “special” understanding similar to special needs?
Can I just say that there is a Google Ad at the top of your blog for a “dating site for comic fans”. Dear me, the humour possibilities on that one are endless.
Oh god, that may be the best site ever. They’ve got ten reasons why Geeks make the best dates, including:
Geeks haven’t formed bad relationship habits. After years of dating other people, the socially successful have become too confident to be intimate, think of partners as being only for their self-gratification, and focus on making themselves happy. None of this is true of a geek. The lack of past romantic partners allows the geek to approach lovers with the zest of a neophyte. Geeks are not full of romantic confidence. However, once encouraged, they are eager to please and enjoy their relationship.
Oh, and apparently:
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