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The Secret Origin Of Watchmen's World-Building
How 9/11 Changed Watchmen
San Francisco, 8:35 PM
Wed Dec 9
28 posts in the last 24 hours
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03/01/09
03/01/09
So, any guesses as to what the catch phrase would have been?
"Look on MY works, ye mighty, and despair!"
03/01/09
"Whoo watches the Watchmen? Whoooo? Whooooo?"
cuz he's an Owl right? I'm going to be saying this in my head til Friday.
03/01/09
03/01/09
03/01/09
03/01/09
Perhaps the sparkles are the luminescence induced in air molecules resulting from the increase in Cerenkov radiation emitted by Dr. Manhattan? Cerenkov radiation is a hand waving explanation for why he is blue - high speed electrons leaking from his atoms generate electromagnetic shock waves on the blue-uv portion the spectrum.
Perhaps his beta ray emission increases when he is excited with Laurie? (Insert lame sex joke here).
03/01/09
02/28/09
I don't think Snyder needed to fight so hard for the blue wang. I'm no prude, but even I wouldn't begrudge them putting Dr. Manhattan in the black speedo deal he wears for parts of the book. Maybe Snyder could've gotten more minutes added to the running time by agreeing to cut the nudity!
I kinda wish they HAD split it into two movies. Seriously, the more of the original story they can fit in there, the happier I'll be.
Casting unknowns was probably the way to go... But in my head, I still see John Cusack as Nite Owl and Jude Law as Ozymandias.
02/28/09
02/28/09
Besides, the director's version is about half an hour longer than the regular. That seems to mean a lot more than blue dicks and elderly kicks were edited out.
02/28/09
Oh well, I can live with that. Though it is a favorite sequence of mine, what with the cute widdle kiddies finding a blood spattered Mason and all, but it's not directly related to the major plot threads, so I can let it slide.
The only really major disappointment I have is that Dan's momentary snap when he beats the shit out of the Knot-Top probably won't make it...
02/28/09
"Who did it? Tell me who did it, you slime! Who murdered Hollis?...
You tell them! Tell them they're dead! You know how much fire power I have floating out there?"
And then Rorshach, of all people, pulls him off the top-knot. It really shows Dan's dark side: how pudgy, laughable "mister costume fetish" would have been a serious badass back in the day.
02/27/09
02/27/09
02/27/09
02/27/09
WTF people?
Just let me see everything. If I can't handle it and go insane, you know what?
That's how life goes. Consider it evolution in action.
02/27/09
02/27/09
02/26/09
02/27/09
02/26/09
02/27/09
02/26/09
Mmmn, tandoori...
02/26/09
"Tandoori to go. that's all they went out for, these people...
Tandoori to go."
Wow. it so works. Screw the special effects or the genengineered Squid, a line like that brings it all home and makes so much more real. More Human.
02/26/09
Guess I have to dig this chestnut out again.
Jesus, you people are babies. This ending doesn't even FIT anymore without the squid.
You honestly believe a studio putting up a huge amount of money is going to allow these images? There is no such thing as a "compromise" to get something worthwhile in toto done in your eyes, is there?
Freakin' saddens me.
02/27/09
The *ending* of a movie is not the part you choose to compromise to get something worthwhile done. It is the resolution of everything you've been working for in the telling of the story in the first place.
If you don't have that, you don't have anything.
02/27/09
Oh, bullshit.
How you GET to the ending is what is worthwhile. And if the ending is fundamentally the same, you haven't lost anything.
If you think the vaporization of millions is somehow less affecting that showing piles of bodies, then you are a helpless, nitpicking fanboy and there is no reasoning with you.
Hope your absolutism gets you through the day.
02/26/09
I hope they didn't just ignore these questions and leave the last act mostly intact accept for this.
02/26/09
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from what I've read he reproduces Manhattan's 'energy signature' - and destroys a bunch of places, not just NY, so everyone thinks that it was done by Manhattan...and everyone comes together against the common threat...
02/27/09
The whole point of Veidt's plan was to scare people into cooperating against an alien threat. To take all the back and forth political finger pointing on Earth and set up a situation where everyone on Earth is pointing their fingers in the same direction. Manhattan is not an alien, he's an American and America will be blamed. That's why in the comic the New Fronteirsman picking up Rorschach's journal is so ominous. If people suspect a human is responsible it destroys the unity. If Manhattan is thought to be responsible, does it really matter if people find out that Veidt did it?
02/27/09
exactly - the USSR would probably launch strikes against the US if there was even a HINT that Manhattan was behind it, even if NYC was trashed along the way by Manhattan's temper tantrum.
the entire focus of US vs THEM, being Earth vs intelligent aliens, is what brings the countries together. Not everyone vs Manhattan.
this may very well be one of those movies you only see once and then buy on DVD so that you can skip the ending.
*if* this is what happens, then shame on you Hollywood - again, you miss the point. A big point.
Shame.
:(
02/27/09
He's absolutely divorced from morality in the comic book at the end, and his helping humanity was a last fond effort before he leaves the whole solar system to go create new life.
I don't know how you can't see that thematically, this works and is actually pretty attuned with the old comic book.
Well, I know how you can't see it - because you don't want to, because you're mired in a sort of pompous "my view of everything is better than yours" nostalgia.
02/27/09
Manhattan is not a human being. And he's probably the most terrifying thing on earth.
02/27/09
Veidt placing all the blame for the attacks on an American is stupid. Manhattan being publicly blamed might unite some people temporarily, but then they'll just remember that he was created because of a desire for US military supremacy. It doesn't fix a damn thing. The death is still the result of man and man will be blamed.
My problem isn't that Manhattan is blamed, but rather that him being blamed doesn't end war. All it would do is create more animosity towards the USA because they created the monster. It's not a problem of blind adherence to the source material, but rather a change to a well thought out idea being replaced with something that flat out doesn't work.
02/27/09
02/27/09
Manhattan's whole deal is that he grows further and further away from America, ceasing to care about politics, about the country. The very reason the world is edging towards nuclear destruction IS PRECISELY BECAUSE Manhattan is ceasing to be human, and ceasing to care about the fate of the country, and his role as nuclear deterrent. The only reason he remains part of the army is because they leave him alone to work and he likes his girlfriend. So if it's that pronounced in the book, then obviously it can work in the movie.
Clearly the movie is going to explain how he distances himself from the American military, and clearly they're going to explain how the ending works.
So unless you have a better argument that "it's not the comic books", don't bother.