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Watchmen Reviews: 'Maybe It's Better to Grow Up'

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JacquesPaysan
03/09/09

In reply to Watchmen Reviews: 'Maybe It's Better to Grow Up'
All the bad press makes me want to see it more. I just saw "Slumdog Millionaire" on Friday. What an embarrassing shitshow.
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BlinkyMcChuck
03/07/09

In reply to Watchmen Reviews: 'Maybe It's Better to Grow Up'
I'm a' come out of this basement right now once I turn off my 99 Luftballoons and pop that A.O. Scott on the noggin!
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BlinkyMcChuck
03/07/09

@Koreanish: Which is to say, why is A.O. Scott criticizing the people who didn't make the movie, vs. the people who did?
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Inhaler
03/06/09

In reply to Watchmen Reviews: 'Maybe It's Better to Grow Up'
This movie had me at "giant blue junk."
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SkimLatte
03/06/09

In reply to Watchmen Reviews: 'Maybe It's Better to Grow Up'
So regardless of the reviews, I'm a sucker for fanboy hype so I'll be seeing this film eventually. Should I read the book first, or not? Haven't read a graphic novel/comic in ages...
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BlinkyMcChuck
03/07/09

@stix: They're so different, it won't matter. Also, don't buy into the media meme that it's for kids. It's a very smart book. It's ponderous in places, but never for very long, and I like the ending.

The old ending.
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Juancho
03/06/09

In reply to Watchmen Reviews: 'Maybe It's Better to Grow Up'
It's been a while since I've read it, but for me, this book was always more about the journey rather than the destination. (I don't think I've ever read a story where the denouement made me go, "Uh...huh? Ok, I didn't think you'd go there..." so much.)

I think Watchmen's biggest problem as a comic is Moore can't decide whether he it wants to be a small-scale study of former superheroes as people, or the large-scale comic book adventure that the medium demands it be. Gibbons can handle both, it's one of the tightest art jobs ever done.
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Aaron Altman
03/06/09

In reply to Watchmen Reviews: 'Maybe It's Better to Grow Up'
Fuck it, waiting for Star Trek.

Or Broadcast News II: Aaron's Revenge.
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Poop Cooper
03/06/09

In reply to Watchmen Reviews: 'Maybe It's Better to Grow Up'
I caught the flick last night, and judging the movie solely on its own merits as I haven't read the novel, yeah, it's immature and stupid. The justification at the end is as deep as a kid at your local community college philosophy 101 class could have thought up, and everyone would roll their eyes at "that kid," and discuss for an hour why he's a dumbshit.

I'll be reading the novel to see if maybe it comes off a little more nuanced or mature in its delivery, but Snynder? You're a hack.
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Pill_Hell_Tom
03/07/09

@TruPhan: The book will always have a special place in my heart but it really does have a lot of issues. I'm probably going to get crucified for saying this but really the ending of the comic is just about as deep as the ending of the movie. Snyder is definitely a hack but don't expect all that much more nuance from the book when you do read it.
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DannyOcean
03/08/09

@Pill_Hell_Tom:

I'll go ahead and crucify you: You're an idiot. All that critical acclaim and praise and worship from people inside and outside the comic book world and from intellectuals and everyday comic book people is really because they're all secretly immature half-assed community college philosophers.

Either that or you're a moron and Synder can't tell a story. Do you really think if some rom-com director/screenwriter pair tried to rewrite The Great Gatsby that it wouldn't suck donkey balls? Clearly the problem was the original source.
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Pill_Hell_Tom
03/08/09

@DannyOcean: Yikes.

The comic book is great for so many reasons. It was intricate and challenging and concerned with character and tone in a way that no comic before it ever was. There are a lot of things that Moore definitely did right. Obviously all of the intellectuals and everyday comic book people who love it (myself included) have good reasons.

That doesn't change the fact that the ending is more than a little bit silly.
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leonleonleon
03/06/09

In reply to Watchmen Reviews: 'Maybe It's Better to Grow Up'
It was overwrought and overstylized. Snyder put odd focus on some scenes (like when Silk Spectre did that slow-mo turn out of the burning building, uhh, was that just for the trailer?), and totally missed out on others (instead of having Rorschach drop a hacksaw and light the child murderer's building on fire, he had him ...chop his head?).

All in all, it felt very 300-ish, and not in any sort of good way.

It felt like it was trying to both be a heavy film, as well as a straight up action film - and failed on both accounts.
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Spirit Fingers
03/06/09

In reply to Watchmen Reviews: 'Maybe It's Better to Grow Up'
I'm a Sci-Fi geek. Seriously, you can check my Browncoat card, but this movie looks like it's going to blow monkey turds. Really and truly. Also I don't like the similarity to:

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Spirit Fingers
03/06/09

@Spirit Fingers: Well, they could'a shown me that on the preview page. Assholes.

Ben Stiller's Mystery Men was what I was going for there.
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theMoJo
03/06/09

@Spirit Fingers: the similarity to a "no hotlinking" image? Fail.
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Spirit Fingers
03/06/09

@theMoJo: Yeah, well, who knew posters of Ben Stiller's future forecast of Watchman movie idiocy called Mystery Men would be all the rage. You must have a copy on VHS I take it.
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Pope John Peeps II
03/06/09

In reply to Watchmen Reviews: 'Maybe It's Better to Grow Up'
So A.O. Scott says the movie is "dated", and then immediately praises it for maintaining the spirit of the 1980s in which it was written?

Also, why would you lambast a comic-book themed movie for "regressing into this belligerent, adolescent state of mind", when that's exactly the point? Even the most complex and adult graphic novel is fundamentally a jazzed-up version of a children's book. Adults read comics precisely so that they can regress slightly from the world of adult decisions into a more morally dichotomous and fantastic world.

It seems to me that Scott's basically whining about the whole genre of this movie, rather than evaluating what he's seeing on the screen. Which is fine, if that's what you're claiming to do. This review seems dishonest.
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leonleonleon
03/06/09

@Pope John Peeps II: I think you're overgeneralizing. A graphic novel is not necessarily a comic - it can simply just be another medium for which to write.

It's like saying any animated film, regardless of theme, complexity, or emotion, is just a "jazzed-up version" of Bugs Bunny. Or any art made with a spray can is a "jazzed-up version" of graffiti.
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Pope John Peeps II
03/06/09

@leonleonleon: That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm just saying that even complex things within a certain medium have to bow to the limitations of that medium despite what people might claim. So graphic novels will always be bound by the limitations of their medium, just like all other arts are.

You can't write Finnegan's Wake as a children's book, and you can't write Harry Potter as a complex novel about intergenerational dreams and family links. So Watchmen's medium is based on certain things, and arguing that those things are silly is tantamount to just saying "I don't like this whole medium". Which is not what a reviewer's job is.
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ADismalScience
03/06/09

In reply to Watchmen Reviews: 'Maybe It's Better to Grow Up'
Isn't using "zeitgeist" detached from the zeitgeist? Does he call crappy hip-hop movies "whack?" Glass houses, man. I'd argue that the apocalyptic, fatal tone of the movie suits the Jungian mood quite nicely.
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Pope John Peeps II
03/06/09

@ADismalScience: haha. The "Jungian mood"? really? I'm not exactly sure what that means.
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ADismalScience
03/06/09

@Pope John Peeps II:

Kind of a collective subconscious, the idea of mutual shared experience. I like to make up terms like Friedman.
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DaeSu
03/06/09

In reply to Watchmen Reviews: 'Maybe It's Better to Grow Up'
I've seen it. It's shite -- two hours and 40 minutes of bloody shite. What had gravity and meaning in the book, just comes across as tedious and silly on screen. Poor Billy Crudup! Poor Patrick Wilson! The stardom you both deserved years ago won't blossom from these weeds. It's noisy, it's violent, and it doesn't mean a damn thing. Snyder's a hack -- I wonder what Paul Greengrass or Darren Aronofsky would have done with this material -- and this was doomed as soon as he smothered it with his dull "vision." It's a failure of imagination as soon as the opening credits are done.
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Pope John Peeps II
03/06/09

@DaeSu: Riiiiight. Good thing you're not a fanboy or anything. Gravity and meaning? That's hilarious.

Also is your name seriously DESU? Because internet credibility is fragile and that name basically smashes it all to pieces.
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DaeSu
03/06/09

@Pope John Peeps II: Nope, not a fanboy at all -- in fact, the fanboys probably love it. And the name's DaeSu, PJ.
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Pope John Peeps II
03/06/09

@DaeSu: You're a fanboy of the book. Gravity and meaning? That's hilarious. It was a complicated and pretty silly story about a crazy mad scientist who built a squid bomb to end world war. Gravity and meaning?

And when you read DaeSu, guess what sound it makes?
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peperony and chease
03/06/09

@Pope John Peeps II: DaeSu's handle comes from (I believe) the Korean film Oldboy, which is superb.
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Pope John Peeps II
03/06/09

@peperony and chease: oh yah, I remember that movie. All right, I guess he's forgiven. I thought it was just being too clever by half.
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Grazerhead
03/06/09

@Pope John Peeps II:Pope John Peeps II can suck my big blue wang! Stop wasting time attacking other commenters and go kiss your mommy good night like a good boy.
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Pope John Peeps II
03/06/09

@Grazerhead: ???

It's cute that you're trying to get yourself banned. You don't see that kind of gumption in this generation's idiot youth.
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BullfightsOnAcid
03/06/09

In reply to Watchmen Reviews: 'Maybe It's Better to Grow Up'
I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up, No sir, Not I, Not me, So there!
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DSDC
03/06/09

In reply to Watchmen Reviews: 'Maybe It's Better to Grow Up'
"So not so good from some of the bigger critics in the land."

Except Ebert, who gave it 4 out 4.

And Gleiberman's critique seems a bit obtuse.
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hortense
03/06/09

@DSDC: I'm no fan of Gleiberman, but in fairness, Ebert also gave "Sky Captain And The World Of Tomorrow" a four star rating, so, you know.
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fugit
03/06/09

@hortense: Are you saying that Sky Captain was bad?
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hortense
03/06/09

@fugit: I don't think it's a 4-star film is all.
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katekate is squared
03/07/09

@hortense: Me neither, jesus. I thought it was awful.
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Sproing
03/06/09

In reply to Watchmen Reviews: 'Maybe It's Better to Grow Up'
"Dead film critic in alley this morning, tire tread across burst stomach."
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Aaron Altman
03/06/09

@Sproing: Heh!
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katekate is squared
03/07/09

@Sproing: Hurm.
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