How Zack Snyder (Just Barely) Got ‘Watchmen’ to the Screen

[The Battousai]

The guy is obsessed with Cormac McCarthy.

How does using a comparison consistently qualify as obsessive?

 

[TNC9852002]

GOOD HURM

-TNC

 

[BestGirl]

Snyder is not a hack, like Tim Story, of course.

He's got, from what we've seen so far, many spot-on moments (including casting, direction, how to cut some things in the translation, etc).

But I would simply, in his place, keep all he's done right, replace the original ending (with its backstory running inside the movie) and make it three and a half hours.

Bingo.

IMO, these are his two serious mistakes. The other stuff can be dealt with, and it seems to me he made the right choices.

But these two, these two are REAL problems.

Will it destroy the experience? I don't think so.

But it won't be the masterpiece it could be, too.

I don't think your bosses at the studio would let you get away with that.

 

[Mercurius]

I don't think your bosses at the studio would let you get away with that.

Maybe they wouldn't, but that speaks more about the studio than about the filmmaker.

 

[BestGirl]

i dont get all the hate for the psychics? Since when was it such a big deal? It's a movie where you accept a giant blue guy with super powers, amongst many other extraordinary things and psychics you can't accept? Some people have no sense of imagination.

For me, it's just that Moore went to great lengths to place these superheroes in the real world, and gave every bizarre element a (quasi-)scientific basis. Psychics belong more to the realm of the paranormal. The Comedian's ghost might as well have come back to haunt Veidt. As I've said, Id've been okay with the psychic angle if psychics had been introduced earlier in the story and treated seriously. The cops could've consulted a psychic to solve a case, for example.

 

[[A]]

nice inverview--thanks for the quote t:

 

[Brick]

How does using a comparison consistently qualify as obsessive?

Using him as a reference twice in a short interview seemed a bit excessive.

 

[The Battousai]

Using him as a reference twice in a short interview seemed a bit excessive.

How is that?

 

[Katsuro]

But I would simply, in his place, keep all he's done right, replace the original ending (with its backstory running inside the movie) and make it three and a half hours.

But see, if you make the movie three and a half hours, why bother keeping the ending the same? Not many people are gonna stay in the theater long enough to see it.

 

[Brick]

How is that?

I just found it strange that he repeataly made reference to a author that has absolutely nothing to do with Watchmen.

 

[The Battousai]

I just found it strange that he repeataly made reference to a author that has absolutely nothing to do with Watchmen.

:facepalm

 

[Gilpesh]

Maybe they wouldn't, but that speaks more about the studio than about the filmmaker.

"Sorry Kurosawa... you're gonna need to cut out two hours of Seven Samurai. So lose all that talking stuff they do..."

Man are we lucky he didn't.

 

[luke1234]

Personally speaking, I don't view Watchman and The Dark Knight as competition for each other. I view them as being very much on the same side, Warner Bros' 1-2 punch in regaining the comic book movie throne.

Thats a very good thought, Dark Knight gives em a good left hook and Watchmen comes in for the uppercut

 

[Katsuro]

Thats a very good thought, Dark Knight gives em a good left hook and Watchmen comes in for the uppercut

It's kinda like how The Dark Knight Returns came out in 1986, changed comics forever, then Watchmen was released several months later and furthered what DKR had started. The timing synchs up quite well.

 

[copywrite]

Snyder is not a hack, like Tim Story, of course.

He's got, from what we've seen so far, many spot-on moments (including casting, direction, how to cut some things in the translation, etc).

But I would simply, in his place, keep all he's done right, replace the original ending (with its backstory running inside the movie) and make it three and a half hours.

Bingo.

IMO, these are his two serious mistakes. The other stuff can be dealt with, and it seems to me he made the right choices.

But these two, these two are REAL problems.

Will it destroy the experience? I don't think so.

But it won't be the masterpiece it could be, too.

You don't need a 3.5 hour movie for it to be a masterpiece, even if it is Watchmen. Most classic films are about 2 hours long and get their story, character development and whatnot in just fine. And don't give me the argument that Watchmen is more complex so it needs to be long. It's not the end all be all of story telling.

 

[Doctor Jones]

^ You do have a point. It is what it is really. Can't we accept two different interpretations? It was always gonna be like that, liberties were gonna be made.

 

[Doctor Jones]

And besides, does this film have to be a masterpiece? Very good yes, but I think people will go in with that attitude Lindelof perfectly described as setting these expectations, and not accepting what Snyder ultimately did in the end. LOTR Scourging of the Shire was taken out and that was a very good thing, this could be too.

We still have the GN.

 

[Mercurius]

But see, if you make the movie three and a half hours, why bother keeping the ending the same? Not many people are gonna stay in the theater long enough to see it.

Well, if Moore couldn't care less for pinheads who wouldn't read his masterpiece, why would a filmmaker really interested in getting also a masterpiece as a result?

More: your divinatory powers are really questionable. LOTR had THREE movies with that runtime, and people wanted more.

As you see, not everybody can be this nitwit.

 

[Mercurius]

You don't need a 3.5 hour movie for it to be a masterpiece, even if it is Watchmen. Most classic films are about 2 hours long and get their story, character development and whatnot in just fine. And don't give me the argument that Watchmen is more complex so it needs to be long. It's not the end all be all of story telling.

Watchmen is a very specific adaptation, and you can't just pack it with another "classic films".

The specific demands of such a detailed work, with a structure of many inner correlations affecting the whole can't just be dealt with within the tiny frame of less than 3 hours.

Snyder says it can. I don't think so. We'll wait and see.

But I bet he did it under 3 hours because of studio stupid pressure, and that the DVD cut will be the real deal.

 

[luke1234]

It's kinda like how The Dark Knight Returns came out in 1986, changed comics forever, then Watchmen was released several months later and furthered what DKR had started. The timing synchs up quite well.

Indeed it does.

 

[JAK®]

Why does the comic have to be translated word-for-word for the film to be good? People forget the original comic was episodic. It came out each month, it wasn't meant to be read all at once. You can't do that in a film, so Snyder has to change the story structure a little bit.

 

[Mercurius]

Why does the comic have to be translated word-for-word for the film to be good? People forget the original comic was episodic. It came out each month, it wasn't meant to be read all at once. You can't do that in a film, so Snyder has to change the story structure a little bit.

That's not the point.

Snyder created a very exact depiction of the comicbook in most of it. He wasn't thinking of giving his interpretation of the book, as he could.

Many changes are in this vein of adaptation, are fair and intelligent.

Some others are debatable.

Not because it's not 100% like the book, but because Snyder's decision may be less interesting or complex than the original, and with no good reason to come in substitution of it.

 

[Nivek]

Damned if he did a faithful in-detail adaption, damned if he did his own thing.

 

[Mercurius]

Damned if he did a faithful in-detail adaption, damned if he did his own thing.

"Damned" is a terrible word, that I use only in connection with Tim Story.

Moreover: even if you know what you said above is bs, I'll indulge and detail.

I, for one, would like to know what is the reason for changing Veidt's plot, or why having only less than three hours. The REAL reason.

The point is not that he'll be "damned" doing whatever, but that some points can be considered and discussed.

Otherwise these threads could be summed with a mindless "awsome". Would you be happy with that solution, Nivek?

 

[Nivek]

Well, I'm tired of playing this game, but I will repeat that the Squid is a bit too much to swallow, that is most likely why it was changed. I shed no tears for the squid or the Artist Island. To me at least, it is a C- level subplot that is easily forgotten.