39 Responses for "Slambastic new Watchmen trailer"

1. Chamboosy November 13th, 2008 at 10:36 pm 1

   Day 1 I’m there. I’m no die-hard Watchmen fan, but this has got to be great whether or not it’s faithful to the text.

2. thisisjohnnygalt November 13th, 2008 at 10:52 pm 2

   So, is it just me, or does Jackie Earle Haley look and sound like the biggest bad-ass in the world in this?

   Maybe it’s because the only other time I’ve seen him is in Little Children…

3. wrongguy November 13th, 2008 at 11:40 pm 3

   Muse actually not Queen

4. Ryan Adams November 13th, 2008 at 11:46 pm 4

   ah thanks, wrongguy. I knew my aim was off, but couldn’t think of any band closer.

5. sonnymoscoso November 13th, 2008 at 11:52 pm 5

   yeah… i was wondering about that Queen statement… is Take a bow by Muse actually

6. Ryan Adams November 14th, 2008 at 12:15 am 6

   Surest way to churn up comments is to show off my ignorance

7. Dan November 14th, 2008 at 12:29 am 7

   Yunno, using what is possibly Philip Glass’ most famous piece of music in this context really bugs me for some reason, especially since it’s not in the film itself.

8. Rob Y November 14th, 2008 at 1:38 am 8

   Every time i hear Philip Glass music I think of South Park’s ripping his music to shreds.

9. backto1960 November 14th, 2008 at 1:57 am 9

   It looks like 300

   300: a couple of centuries later…with lena headley now one of the warriors, adorned in a yellow catsuit!

   Now that’s a better title.

   Generic Hollywood, when shall thou be delivered from your creative barrenness? when oh when?

   It looks like a good pop corn movie though….and that should rightfully be its legacy.

10. Rob Y November 14th, 2008 at 2:11 am 10

    OOOOOOOOOOOO KAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY

    Generic Hollywood? Creative Barrenness? The fact that someone is taking risks by filming the “Moby Dick of Graphic Novels” shows some creativity.

    I wonder how they will pull it off. The story is very multilayered and the characters are quite complex.

    One thing that struck me about the graphic novel is how few action sequences there are. We seem to be shown most of them in these trailers.

    Hurm!

11. backto1960 November 14th, 2008 at 2:17 am 11

    ….Moby Dick of graphic novels? hmmm

    It looks like 300, that’s all I’m saying and the crediting of 300 in the trailer doesn’t help either. They should have taken a different direction…just saying. But then again, what do I know?

12. William November 14th, 2008 at 3:22 am 12

    i looks nothing like 300

    nothing remotely frank miller

    not entirely green screen

13. Marshall November 14th, 2008 at 4:11 am 13

    I really don’t think the Muse track works at all, and it mixes awkwardly with the dialogue. It’s almost like a fan-made mash-up on YouTube.

14. Jonathan Spuij November 14th, 2008 at 4:13 am 14

    While the previous trailer looked a lot more 300-ish than this one, I think the film is getting an entirely unique visual look. The story seems to be getting through no as well with this trailer. Looks great, but Í’m still not entirely sold yet.

15. The Jack November 14th, 2008 at 6:28 am 15

    In one of my sad, delusional “If I got to direct the Watchmen…” moments since I first read the novel, I always imagined hiring Matt Belamy from Muse to compose the soundtrack. I don’t think the song fits very well in this trailer, but it’s nice to know that I was apparently on the right lines as far as Hollywood is concerned

16. Edward Douglas November 14th, 2008 at 6:59 am 16

    I thought the same thing…. Philip Glass meets Queen in terms of the music. I have not been that impressed with the visuals the more I see them and I’m wondering of Snyder has bitten off more than he can chew.

17. Elena November 14th, 2008 at 8:20 am 17

    Somebody please explain to me why The Watchmen is so great? I like graphic novels, have read many, but I got a little over halfway through Watchmen and never finished it. Oooh, someone’s killing washed-up masked crusaders. Who cares? It was drawn well, but who could care about the story or the characters? Not me. It was just a bunch of unsympathetic characters who liked to dress up in costume and behave unsympathetically, and by halfway through the book there needs to be someone you relate to, feel invested in, and some compelling central conflict identified. Maybe the format was groundbreaking, but the story was all scattershot. The book is way overrated, in my opinion. A total disappointment, and thus, these trailers aren’t selling me. It tells you over and over how cool it is, how its coolness is going to blow your mind, change your world, then uses countless images from every other superhero movie. Bleh. I’ll go watch Dark Knight again, thank you very much.

18. backto1960 November 14th, 2008 at 8:27 am 18

    @ elena

    You know what? I was about to say that if people are such dire need of a great superhero movie, why don’t you just watch Dark Knight again….but I restrained. Glad you said it though.

19. The Third Man November 14th, 2008 at 8:35 am 19

    I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again. You can’t call someone a visionary director for one incredibly overrated movie.

    Elena: Watchmen is not an easy book to get into. I can understand your frustrations. But I would urge you to finish it before making such judgments. It’s not really fair to judge a work without seeing/reading the whole thing.

20. Ryan November 14th, 2008 at 11:21 am 20

    Elena, I beg to disagree. I felt immediately involved with Rorsarch and his lonely journey to discover the truth that threatened each of them. There were layers of emotional subtext among many of the characters, the details of which were not revealed when you stopped reading. The story of Manhattan, Night Owl.. lot’s of characters to relate to. If you didn’t care for that, then that’s fine. Sometimes people just don’t like great things – When I hear people say something widely acclaimed as great “sucks,” I just feel bad they are missing out.

    Between all the trailers and such, Watchmen is looking great. And please – it’s quite unique. Look at what’s out now – High school musical, animated movies about dogs, a fifth Saw movie.. We need a movie like this.

21. Rob Y November 14th, 2008 at 11:46 am 21

    Minor spoilers:

    Elana,

    Watchmen is the only graphic novel I have read. What drew me to it was that these superheros had flaws, major flaws. The moral center is a paranoid vigilante sociopath. The one with superpowers is apathetic towards humanity. One masked hero wants to cash in on his fame.

    The characters are quite rich. The story is multilayered with the McGuffin being the Comedian’s murder.

    Backto1960, the comment about the Moby Dick of graphic novels has been around since the original graphic novel’s release in the 80’s. I think the similarity to 300 is the slow motion overuse (at least for me).

    Rob Y

22. Danny November 14th, 2008 at 12:18 pm 22

    Consider me unimpressed. I don’t think the world of Zach Snyder like many others. He has yet to deliver a movie with any substance whatsoever. The trailer makes the movie look like it’s full of action, which is odd, considering there are about 3 action scenes in the entire book.

23. Ryan Adams November 14th, 2008 at 12:44 pm 23

    “I think the similarity to 300 is the slow motion overuse”

    I’ll go further than that. I think anyone who thinks this looks like 300 is influenced by knowing Zack Snyder as “the visionary director of 300″ and being reminded of that in big yellow letters in the trailer.

    Watchmen looks nothing like 300. This movie looks like the graphic novel, recreated in as much meticulous detail as I’ve ever seen accomplished in a “comic book” adaptation.

    For me, the slow motion shots feel entirely appropriate and particularly evocative of the graphic novel experience — because our eyes can linger on the elements of composition in much the same way that we can study the frames of a graphic novel to mine details. A great graphic novel is more than an illustrated series of speech balloons. The artwork holds as much meaning and visual impact as any other graphic expression. The slow motion shots help replicate that sensation of concentrated visual examination on film.

    Otherwise it seems a rather transparent and facile dismissal, and evidence that maybe that person has no other tangible frame of reference for his snarking. Anyone who’s seen a single page of Watchmen in print would recognize its visual equivalent in any frame of this trailer.

    The only other reason I can imagine anybody thinks this looks like 300 is if that person is fixated on naked torsos, whether they be bronze or blue.

24. Daren November 14th, 2008 at 12:53 pm 24

    That was visually boring, and it seemed just very over done on the slow-mo. I haven’t read the novel yet, but I just got it so I will soon, and maybe that will make this movie seem more interesting but as of now it looks like a standard action movie.

25. Bill M. November 14th, 2008 at 12:56 pm 25

    Super excited. When do advanced tickets go on sale?

26. Rob Y November 14th, 2008 at 1:44 pm 26

    Excellent point Ryan about the use of the slow motion. After watching the trailer again, this jumps out at me, especially seeing the Comedian get thrown out the window.

27. backto1960 November 14th, 2008 at 1:56 pm 27

    @ ryan adams and Rob Y

    am I missing something? did we watch the same 300? cause I’m 100 percent positive that the 300 I watched had those same slow motion shots…the movie and the trailer.

    The trailer to looked like a combination of deleted scenes from Dark Knight jumbled up with parts from Fantastic Four. Borderline cliche will be an understatement. I mean, the slow motion shots are a flashback to the slow motion shots of the final battle scene in 300, the cliche of kissing with an explosion in the background, the blue thing that looks like that fire guy from Fantastic Four etc etc I mean, it doesn’t look like anything groundbreaking. I would watch it but I won’t expect to the movie to be, in your own words, “the moby dick” of comic books.

    To each his word.

    ….and don’t get me started the “Do it for me” line aka the ultimate cliche….

28. Ryan Adams November 14th, 2008 at 1:59 pm 28

    Sam Peckinpah films feature extensive slow motion shots too. That’s not enough to make me think 300 looks like The Wild Bunch.

29. backto1960 November 14th, 2008 at 2:43 pm 29

    I thik it looks like 300, I’m sorry but that’s how I feel. IT LOOKS LIKE 300!!

30. Gentle Benj November 14th, 2008 at 2:50 pm 30

    The one bit that does remind me of 300 is the shot of Ozy clocking that guy into the fountain in the lobby… that slow-mo-to-fast-forward effect.

    Other than that, nope, not really. Compared to 300, this looks much more like a movie, and less like a video game. Thank the Lord.

31. Andre November 14th, 2008 at 2:50 pm 31

    well, yeah, not EVERYTHING that has slo-mo looks like 300, but this definetly does… I said this here once already, I think all we’re gonna end up with here is a very nice looking, flashy film (Zack Snyder using the words “cool” and “awesome” like a 15 year old every time he talks about the film doesn’t exactly help). The graphic novel is one of my favorite books of all time and I fell kinda sad to see it go from Darren Aronofsky to Paul Greengrass to a guy like Zack Snyder.

32. Rob Y November 14th, 2008 at 2:57 pm 32

    That maybe how your feel, but slow motion has been used all over the place. Clockwork Orange, Right Stuff, and Gladiator all used slow motion effectively. If you make the connection, then you make the connection.

    On a second point, the kiss in front of the nuclear detonation is directly from the Graphic Novel in ‘86. If you are referring to the recent film of the Fantastic Four, then most likely they made a reference to this panel in the Graphic Novel.

    On the third point, I don’t know if the film will be as heavy as Moby Dick, but I hope so. The graphic novel was very multilayered, which is why so many thought that it was unfilmable.

33. elessar November 14th, 2008 at 4:49 pm 33

    While there is a little too much slo-mo, I really like what I see. I have a feeling 2009 will be a very big year for Jackie Earle Haley and Billy Crudup. Not only do they both have Watchmen coming up in March, both have high-profile films due out later in the year: Public Enemies (Crudup) and Shutter Island (Haley).

34. Harry November 14th, 2008 at 6:50 pm 34

    backto1960,

    You come across as unfamiliar with the source material. Cliche is kind of the point. The story is a deconstruction of the superhero genre. So if it looks a lot like other superhero movies, it’s because Moore based the characters off previously established, albeit, more obscure superheroes.

    If they pull this off right, basically you’re looking at Chinatown crossed with XMen.

    As a side note, I find it rather interesting the complaining about the slo motion as this trailer has far less slo motion than the last trailer and far, far less slo motion than any trailer for 300. How they’re going to pull off the Mars scene still worries me a bit, but everything else is starting to look more in character with the novel and not quite as cinematized as I had previously thought.

35. Free November 14th, 2008 at 7:09 pm 35

    I’m planning on reading the graphic novel my brother has, but this trailer made me, someone unaware of why this thing is so hyped up, get hyped up to see it.

36. Daniel November 15th, 2008 at 3:37 am 36

    Looks breathtaking to me. I haven’t read the novel, though, but I plan on doing so soon.

37. Paul Outlaw November 15th, 2008 at 3:28 pm 37

    Hey Ryan: How about the Wolverine trailer while we’re at it?

38. rp November 17th, 2008 at 4:45 am 38

    The trailer looks fine but my biggest worry will be the ending, especially with the omission of the “squid.”

39. M November 17th, 2008 at 10:21 pm 39

    “I don’t think the world of Zach Snyder like many others.”

    I’m still looking forward to this movie despite 300, but do these rabid Zack Snyder fans really exist?