Trailer: Watchmen
By Craig Kennedy - November 13th, 2008; 5:23 pm
After some initial skepticism, I drank the Kool Aid on Watchmen a while back. The more I see of it, the more I like it. It’s still hard to imagine a 2-hour movie doing the graphic novel justice, but Zack Snyder seems to have approached it in the right spirit and I admire the fact that he’s done his best to shepherd his vision of the film past the pinheads and bean counting stooges at Warner Bros. intact.
Thanks to Joel for the heads up on this latest trailer. Watch it here or head over to Yahoo to see it bigger and in HD versions.
Filed under: Trailers
Tags: Watchmen, Zack Snyder
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I’m tired of these trailers. Count me in the minority, I guess. When something like this just bombards me with how mindblowingly cool it’s going to be, how I’ve never seen anything like this before, how THIS is the dark and cynical superhero movie I’ve been waiting for all my life–instant turnoff. It just feels completely manufactured, coldly calculated to make fanboys worship Zack Snyder. And this business the Internet is still going wild over about how every shot mirrors the graphic novel, please. What a tough thing to do. That demands a lot of originality, doesn’t it?
Maybe I’ll end up loving it despite that initial reaction–happens to me with Tarantino films all the time–but for now, I remain unimpressed. I also feel that if I were to get as pumped for this one as it obviously wants me to be, that would create stratispheric expectations that it could not possibly match.
I like the music better, but it’s only because I already like Wagner and Glass.
I can see how the relentless hype would get tiresome, especially if you spend any time at all on the Internets. My approach to it is a long held assumption that they couldn’t make a movie out of the Watchmen, then crushing disappointment that the dumbass who made the supremely crappy 300 was going to tackle it, to dawning surprise that maybe he didn’t wreck it, to gradual hope that he might actually have done it justice.
It remains to be seen whether it’s actually any good or not.
Yeah, Philip Glass works much better than Billy Corrigan in this case. The first preview was OK but this one makes me take the movie a little more seriously.
Alas, if you think the hype is bad now … wait till January and February.
On one hand I agree with you jennybee. Comic book fans are their own worst enemies and they have such a rabid devotion to their own expectations that trying to extrapolate or deviate from the source material is usually a recipe for box office disaster. It probably is easier to just copy the source material and of course the marketing hyperbole on these things gets a bit ridiculous when every film is simply trying to be darker and edgier than the previous one.
Then again, when Hollywood doesn’t take the source material seriously or attempts to extrapolate from it, the suits invariably show their condescension and disrepect through the finished product. Most of the original Batman movies, Daredevil, Fantastic Four, etc all show a distinct lack of respect for the material and the audience.
I’d rather see a decent copy of the source material that shows respect than a movie that reduces it to spandex BAM! POW! KABANG! idiocy.
But then on the other hand, Batman Begins and The Dark Knight both show that a feverish devotion to the source material isn’t necessary to create great films either.
I’d like to add that this trailer gets me a little more excited for this, but I’m still deeply skeptical it will come anywhere close to what the material aspired to accomplish. It can’t, really. There’s likely no way to properly bring all that meta-commentary into a film, but I’m just hoping it’s entertaining and somewhat intelligent.
You’re right Harvey. No one has mentioned how early it began with Watchmen eiter. Maybe I’m just paying closer attention than I normally do to a superhero movie, but if the hype continues to be ratcheted up, it’s going to be deafening come next year.
Question: Should I do some homework for this and immerse myself in the world of The Watchmen graphic novel before this comes out or would I just be setting myself up for greater disappointment?
I read up on it in the summer, and it sounded interesting, if quite dense and intimidating, like the graphic novel “King Lear” or something. I do not have any faith in Zach Snyder, which probably helps my expectations.
Don’t reread. Big mistake. Reread it after you’ve seen the movie, otherwise the mental comparison is going to kill it.
I’d say the opposite, get wrapped up in the graphic novel now, before Snyder’s bigger, slicker version can crowd the visuals out of your head.
Why does Patrick Wilson keep getting cast? He’s the definition of milquetoast bland to me, which is sort of appropriate for Nite Owl, but come on.
Thank you both for the advice.
I have seen a lot of people, viewing the trailers, complaining about differences between the film and the original comics (ie calling themselves the watchmen, Dr. Manhattan wearing pants). Whenever someone makes a film adaptation of a comic book, I hope they capture the spirit of the characters, and that the film is memorable. If there are minor changes from the comic and the screenplay, I can live with it as long as the film is executed well. I have waited like forever to see this movie, And I am definitely not going to complain if Dr. Manhattan’s blue privates are not hanging out for two and a half hours (especially if Rorshach is lighting people on fire and stuff!).
You know Bob, I’ve noticed an unhealthy amount of Internet time spent speculating on the presence of Dr. Manhattan’s junk. I’m with you, if the movie’s good (and I hope it is) nothing else matters.
Thanks for stopping by.
Fan boys seem to have an unhealthy obsession with superhero naughty bits, male and female. It’s kinda disturbing.
I see lots of fidelity to the graphic novel’s panels in the trailers. But I don’t feel any hint of its spirit, gravitas, atmosphere/tone, or intelligence. Instead, all I see are the prosaic visuals and hero fetishizing that came with the excremental 300. To me this is completely wrong for a story that needs its superheroes to come across as very human anachronisms. My expectations at this stage remain very low.
I guess I expected a degree of dumbing down all along, but it remains to be seen how much.
My understanding is that the graphic novel 300 (never read it) wasn’t all that great to begin with.
The source material for 300 may not have been any great shakes, but Synder’s directorial style has a definite signature. One I experience as a scrawl.
I hope he raises his game for the richer material. Many of the comments he’s made feel like he ‘gets it’. If he blows it, I will join you in frying him in hot popcorn oil.
I’m all for your hopes being realized on this one Craig and my apprehension being proved wrong.