Will Watchmen Kill the Comic-Book Movie?

[Anita18]

there was absolutely no influence of heat or anything like that on the dark knight. none.

Not obviously so, but the pacing and the staging of the shots during the bank robbery were reminiscent.

It feels closer to Heat than to SM2 in terms of tone.

 

[Jack Torrance]

i was being sarcastic

 

[Jack Torrance]

and not gonna lie, the beginning totally reminded me of point break

 

[Jack O Lantern]

What exactly are these conventions that either of these films are supposed to have broken?

I am really struggling, people are in here saying TDK had crime thriller sensibilities, so did Daredevil, so nothing new there. People are also talking a superman like character who doesn't want to save the world, wow, really new right there, because Superman has never given up his powers and there was certainly never a superman film all about how we can't depend on a Superman to save us from a potential necular war.

 

[Anita18]

I am really struggling, people are in here saying TDK had crime thriller sensibilities, so did Daredevil, so nothing new there. People are also talking a superman like character who doesn't want to save the world, wow, really new right there, because Superman has never given up his powers and there was certainly never a superman film all about how we can't depend on a Superman to save us from a potential necular war.

I can only speak for myself, but comic book superhero movies (CBMS now, haha) feel pretty claustrophobic, for lack of a better term, especially in character motivations. The villain only cares about killing the good guy and world domination (or something akin to that), the good guy only cares about catching the bad guy and getting the girl, who only happens to be in the story because the good guy likes her.

In TDK, I felt that each character had his/her own motivations and they didn't just involve the subjects I just listed (killing good guy/getting bad guy/achieving or preventing world domination). I mean, the mob conceded that they should kill Batman, but that wasn't their primary motivation. All they really wanted was to get their money back. Batman could beat up murderers and rapists for all they cared, but the problem was he was going after them and their revenue stream. Joker wasn't exactly going after world domination, he just wanted to prove that people are hopelessly savage at their core. Each of the good guys (Batman, Dent, Gordon) also had their own motivations and made different decisions from each other. That wasn't always the case in other CBMs.

There's also the matter of cinematography, but I really have a hard time describing it because I don't know the exact terms. Take a screenshot of TDK and you wouldn't necessarily know it was from a CBM unless Batman or Joker was directly on screen. Take a screenshot of Daredevil and you will. There's something about the color palette or art direction or staging or lens choice that differentiates the two.

For Watchmen, Dr. Manhattan is step further from Superman because he doesn't even care that he's losing touch with humanity. He's just a passive being who does things....just because. Superman has always strived to actively maintain his humanity despite his powers - that's why he continually pursues a relationship with Lois, that's why he works as a journalist.

 

[Numez]

I like the idiotic "It felt like a crime drama with superheroes in it" mantra.

Sure it did.

How many "Worst Post Ever" is The Guard going to have by the end of the month?

 

[Nivek]

The only thing I think could kill the comic book film industry is studios not funding more films when something underperforms. But with studios like Fox out there putting out butchered product and still having fans line up for it, I don't see it happening for a while.

 

[Jack O Lantern]

I can only speak for myself, but comic book superhero movies (CBMS now, haha) feel pretty claustrophobic, for lack of a better term, especially in character motivations. The villain only cares about killing the good guy and world domination (or something akin to that), the good guy only cares about catching the bad guy and getting the girl, who only happens to be in the story because the good guy likes her.

In TDK, I felt that each character had his/her own motivations and they didn't just involve the subjects I just listed (killing good guy/getting bad guy/achieving or preventing world domination). I mean, the mob conceded that they should kill Batman, but that wasn't their primary motivation. All they really wanted was to get their money back. Batman could beat up murderers and rapists for all they cared, but the problem was he was going after them and their revenue stream. Joker wasn't exactly going after world domination, he just wanted to prove that people are hopelessly savage at their core. Each of the good guys (Batman, Dent, Gordon) also had their own motivations and made different decisions from each other. That wasn't always the case in other CBMs.

Doc Ock didn't care about killing Spider-Man, or world domination. He didn't even want to hurt anybody. The Green Goblin didn't care about killing Spider-Man until after Spidey rejects his offer to join him. The Sandman only wants to help his daughter and Harry may want to kill Spidey, but it his motivation is to make his father pround of him.

In Daredevil, the Kingpin's only motivation is to stop Daredevil from costing him money. Bullseye is just a hired assassin who doesn't even care about the wider picture, he just wants money.

Magneto's motivations are not about world domination, but about race supremacy.

In Daredevil Electra has a reason to be there that has nothing to do with Matt and Lois has a reason that has nothing to do with Superman.

There's also the matter of cinematography, but I really have a hard time describing it because I don't know the exact terms. Take a screenshot of TDK and you wouldn't necessarily know it was from a CBM unless Batman or Joker was directly on screen. Take a screenshot of Daredevil and you will. There's something about the color palette or art direction or staging or lens choice that differentiates the two.

And you would with Spider-Man? The three Spider-Man films don't even have the same colour palte. Superman Returns looks like a 1950 period piece.

]
For Watchmen, Dr. Manhattan is step further from Superman because he doesn't even care that he's losing touch with humanity. He's just a passive being who does things....just because. Superman has always strived to actively maintain his humanity despite his powers - that's why he continually pursues a relationship with Lois, that's why he works as a journalist.

But he does care, that's why he get's upset when his ex hooks up with Nite Owl and why he takes the photo of his previous relationship as well.
Wolverine is a character who doesn't care that he's losing grip with humanity.

 

[inflames]

uh...yea TDK had some influence from heat

 

[November Rain]

yeah let's stop with this dark knight uniqueness stuff. you dissect enough of these movies and you can see they all share similarities to it and some serious tones in them.

the one thing i would say is that it wasn't necessarily marketed towards children and that's probably the best thing it could do. But blade was doing this way before even though blade marketed itself as an action film.

saying that neither was ang lee's hulk supposed to be but the advertising folks screwed that up. the Cgi characters didnt help much either (should have been talking entities).

even all the things that were done in tdk were first showcased in begins (although begins suffered from becoming cartoony in its last chapter).