If your Latin is rusty, that phrase means, “Who watches the Watchmen?” (From Least I Could Do.)
I just saw it today, and before I went into the theater, I sent out a Tweet that said, “On a man-date with Will N to see glowing blue penis.” And now I think one of my old friends thinks I’m gay.
Anyway, I don’t want to get into too many specifics, but I feel like the movie was enjoyable, but it was a cleaned up version of the comic.
The fights pushed the limits of human ability. (Remember, everyone is just a normal person in a mask until Dr. Manhattan came along.) Rorschach was definitely glossed up to make more sympathetic; a lot of his ultra-conservative/vulgar material was cut. A lot of the little touches that built specific characters weren’t really there. The climactic attack was changed, and I’m not sure why. It changes the dynamic between the Watchmen, though, and I didn’t hear one of the most important exchanges in the story. (It is mentioned by another character afterwards, though.) So as not to spoil it for people who haven’t seen or read it yet, I’ll put the quotes without the speakers.
“The ends justify the means.“
“Nothing ever ends.”
I feel this quote is so true, too.
Also, I read the book so I knew the story already, but if you saw the movie without reading it, did you know who the villain was ahead of time? I felt like it was so obvious.
So yeah, if you haven’t seen or read it, I would recommend both, but if you had to do only one, definitely read it. There is so much more depth, it’s amazing.
As someone who didn’t read the book before I saw the movie, I really felt like I was missing something when I saw the movie. I had always heard how great Watchmen was and ‘how could i not have read it?’ so I guess I was expecting something more twisty/turny? More revolutionary. Like you said Dinh, when you first see the villain, you know it’s him. I’m going to read the book because I want to see what was originally intended and i’ll make an opinion up from there.
I left the movie with the feeling that i’d heard this story before and told better i guess. I almost feel like it’s a movie out of time because we’ve all seen the movies that are derivatives of stories like this.
I def enjoyed the movie tho, I just wanna watch it again after i’ve finished the book =)
Yeah, the grit of the characters really adds a lot. Nobody is perfect in the comic, and it’s more… philosophical, I guess.
Also, David S points out that it makes a big difference if you read the story before 9/11, because there have been a ton of derivative works since then.
Let me know how you feel about the story after reading it.