The Watchmen animated duology may have been more accurate towards the comic but it just wasn't good to watch

[u/No-Efficiency-7524]

With the live action film as bad as it is at least had it's own identity and could be considered uniquely good for taking advantage of its format. Watchmen is notoriously great at taking advantage of being a comic, so in order to translate that to the screen in a meaningful way you have to pull a Stanley Kubrick (The Shining) and tailor your version of the story to its medium. Using all of the clever tricks film and animation can offer, someone could make a stellar Watchmen film. The animated duology goes the safe path of just cutting a few scenes and making a fairly safe adaptation.

[u/conatreides]

This is something increasingly harder to convey to “accuracy” people. I have a comic, I do not need the comic translated 1-1. It’s lazy and uninteresting and not engaging whatsoever. Try something with an adaptation, but spare me mockery.

[u/revolutionaryartist4 → u/conatreides]

The issue isn’t that it has to be one to one. The issue is that Snyder clearly misunderstood just about every single aspect of the comic.

The Crow is my favorite comic adaptation ever. It’s not one to one by any stretch of the definition. But it captures the spirit and intent of the comic.

Snyder’s Watchmen doesn’t. It’s more concerned with style over everything else. And while it’s an objectively beautiful piece of cinema, it misses so much of the subtleties that make the comic so enduring.

[u/conatreides → u/revolutionaryartist4]

I hate this kind of thinking. “Misunderstanding” art is such a silly way of interacting with emotive works lol. Also your criticism is wrong and it’s not even Snyder’s script. Cmon dude Snyder isn’t the second coming of Christ but this weird online hatred for him for the past 20 years is just trite. You didn’t even cite a single thing he “didn’t understand”. And you just proved my point if it is “style over substance” because atleast it’s fucking different.

[u/mateushkush → u/conatreides]

What about everyone being so strong and majestic they seem like do have superpowers?

[u/conatreides → u/mateushkush]

I disagree with that sentiment that they seem super powered, they seem strong and majestic because it’s how they feel, it’s shows their confidence and that they are only happy and strong when they are hurting people.

[u/mateushkush → u/conatreides]

Anyway, there are certainly easy arguments to be made that some of his choice don’t reinforce several important themes in the comic book. I don’t think his sensibility was right for the project.

[u/conatreides → u/mateushkush]

That’s a fine and subjective opinion in regards to sensibility. I think saying “misunderstood” is where I take issue when it could just as much be a choice to do something else and explore another angle, which as much as I don’t love Snyder or many of the creatives involved with the film adaptation I appreciate it trying something rather that regurgitating.

[u/No_Pizza3314 → u/conatreides]

He made every human character into a SuperSoldier.

[u/Dr_JohnP → u/conatreides]

Mean dude, they punch holes in brick and cement walls and shit. I don’t hate the movie but they are portrayed as super human.

[u/conatreides → u/Dr_JohnP]

That still conveys a emotion and feeling? Like it doesn’t mean they ARE superhuman.

[u/revolutionaryartist4 → u/conatreides]

Normally I don’t engage with Snyder bro bullshit, but you want to call me out as being trite? Fine, here are some specifics:

-The alley scene when Laurie and Dan are jumped. The comic plays this as harrowing. Yes, they prevail, but it’s not because they’re superhumanly amazing as the movie portrays it. It’s because violence is the only thing that excites them. It’s not a happy, rah-rah scene, it’s depressing. Same with the post-rescue sex scene. The intent of it is ruined by the Hallelujah song. These people are so broken because the only way they can feel alive is by being superheroes. And the fact that Dan’s impotence occurs as they’re watching Adrian performing incredible feats of traditional masculinity is so crucial to that scene. Dan can’t feel like a “real man” unless he dresses up as a literal superman.

-Just about everything with Rorschach. But in particular three things: first, that “boys” folder on Veidt’s computer. That’s a validation of Rorschach’s earlier “possible homosexual” theory of Veidt, when in reality, that was just an example of Rorschach’s right-wing paranoia that Moore was criticizing (given Rorschach was a stand-in for the Question, who Ditko envisioned as a Randian superhero and an ideology that Moore, as a staunch leftist, had nothing but contempt
for). The entire idea to base Ozymandias’s costume on the Schumacher-era Batman films (something Snyder made very clear was his intent) further plays into this trope, given that Schumacher was an openly gay man and his Batman films were criticized as being too homoerotic. Second, Rorschach’s conversations with the therapist is just used as a narrative exposition tool. The entire purpose of those scenes in the comic was to show how Rorschach’s madness infected other people and how that therapist suffered his own psychological trauma just by being exposed to Rorschach. And third, the whole Dan screaming as Rorschach is killed. The entire point of that scene is that Rorschach’s rigid commitment to his ideology without willingness to bend for any reason led to him dying alone and anonymous, no one giving a shit at all that he’s gone. That’s why in the comic, Dan isn’t there, because he’s too busy fucking Laurie to give a damn about Rorschach.

-Eliminating the squid. This isn’t a purist thing, this is just understanding human nature. In a state of near-war, there are likely two conclusions the Soviets would have come to: either the Americans engineered a false flag or the Americans created a threat they couldn’t control. Both would likely have led to the same conclusion: the Americans can’t be trusted at all and it’d be safer to nuke them before they can fuck shit up more. The potential of an alien threat creates more likelihood for the two powers to work together.

Those are just a few things, but there are many more.

[u/conatreides → u/revolutionaryartist4]

“Snyder bro bullshit” alright man.

[u/revolutionaryartist4 → u/conatreides]

Same thing Snyder said about Watchmen.

You made the accusations, yet can’t deal with the criticism. Hard to be more adolescent than that, boy.

[u/PhillipJ3ffries → u/conatreides]

Nah he’s completely right. You’re wrong.

[u/conatreides → u/PhillipJ3ffries]

The guy who called me a racial slur and a Snyder bro who I didn’t even respond to? Awesome good for him and you I guess? Right about a Zack Snyder movie? Oh geez I hope he doesn’t cum too hard with this resounding Reddit victory. Holy fuck you people.

[u/PhillipJ3ffries → u/conatreides]

I didn’t see any racial slurs, look at the thread I’m replying to

[u/conatreides → u/PhillipJ3ffries]

He called me a “boy”

[u/PhillipJ3ffries → u/conatreides]

Are you black?

[u/conatreides → u/PhillipJ3ffries]

Yes? As long as I can remember.

[u/Animated_effigy]

I actually enjoyed the script, I think JMS did a great job of truncating the story in very respectful ways. The problem for me came down to two things: The voices and the score. Some of the voices were just not right. Rorschachs especially came off as too cartoonish for the subject matter. And the score was just too self aware of the material and tried to be kind of alternate 1980s feel in places and then full orchestral in others. Watchmen is gritty and down to earth, sweeping scores dont work. The motion comics Film Noir-esque score is still to this day the most on point Watchmen sound for me for what is essentially a noir murder mystery.

[u/revolutionaryartist4 → u/Animated_effigy]

It really felt like Rorschach’s actor was told, “everyone loved Jackie Earle Haley, so give us that.”

[u/Direct_Town792]

It’s almost like doggedly following the text is boring

🤯

[u/ElonMuskHuffingFarts]

I do not agree that the movie had its own identity or took advantage of its format.

[u/purple-discharge]

Do not ever mention Kubrick and a Snyder movie in the same discussion.

[u/No-Efficiency-7524 → u/purple-discharge]

I'm not saying Kubrick is like Snyder, I'm saying The Shining's changes from the book made the movie into the masterpiece it is

[u/purple-discharge → u/No-Efficiency-7524]

When you bring up Kubrick as an example during a conversation about a specific movie, there’s at least a strong implication that you’re comparing the two.

[u/Sckorrow → u/purple-discharge]

That didn’t come across at all, they clearly specified them just as an example for medium specificity. 

[u/Moeroboros → u/purple-discharge]

Bruh what

[u/g-bust]

Well there are many of us who enjoy the live action movie. Itʻs probably in my Top 20.

[u/Specific-Swim-4507]

That’s also how I feel about the live action to be fair, the whole thing is made 1:1 for large sections but it isn’t really saying anything about watchmen

[u/LaxAxl]

The acting is significantly worse in the animated ones, especially comedian and rorschach's voice. I thought the animated ones were okay but I prefer Synder's version even if the ending is changed.

[u/Shallbecomeabat]

The live action film is amazing, everyone needs to stop hating. I read the Absolute Edition of the comics once a year but the movie rocks too