Watchmen was a no win scenario and all the Moore fan boys had the knives out already after previous butchering of his work.
I think because it is so faithful for the most people some people would have wanted that (but then were disappointed at any change) or thought it wasnt too reverential. I really enjoyed it tbh and don’t reckon it could have been done better really.
But aye if you really want it as close to the graphic novel as possible check out the Ultimate Cut (over a few night )
I’m not bothered by the change at the end tbh, it makes good sense story wise. Seeing the big squid attack in the TV show was very cool though, it looker very good.
Saving my Snyder quota for the Justice League movie
Yeah, the ending change for the film was big mistake
because it was the one thing people were quiet ‘hmmm’ about in the original. And they were right, it’s hard to take and I think that’s because the comic is otherwise very ‘real’ in style which means that the squid really pulls back into a world of comics somehow.
In the film though, it would have worked well. It could seem ‘normal’ in the film’s context of other special effects. It highlights the thing Moore says about how comics and films are different media that need different things but in this case the squid was a ‘film’ thing that didn’t work as well in the comic.
I think the recent TV show also showed that you absolutely could do a great adaptation of the original comic but you’d probably want a TV series to give you the depth and thought, and you’d want some really good filmmakers rather than Zack Snyder.
Hard disagree on the squid not working, it’s completely fitting to the premise and concept of the whole thing which is campy early - mid 20th century comics concepts brought horrifyingly into a cynical grotesque 1980s world. The film’s choice to use Dr Manhattan in its place may be more “believable” to some, but if you want believable you’re in the wrong place anyway.
TBC I don’t think the change to Manhattan is good at all. The original comic ending was fine but it would have been far better on film. But I totally understood why when I read it the most common criticism I read was regarding that bit and I think that was definitely a driver to Snyder making his decision to change it (likely influenced by budget too, of course)
4 hours? You’ll be lucky to fit it into an afternoon!
I thought they were first releasing it in 4 parts before finally unveiling the film. Maybe that’s only in the States but that seems a bit weird to release it fully edited together elsewhere.
He’s just opening out the entire frame because he filmed it 1.85:1 safe in a 4:3 ratio because he wanted to be able to do a full IMAX screen ratio projection at the time of the original.
(I don’t know how much you know about filming but if a film is 1.85:1 it usually/always means it is filmed on a 4:3 negative and they masked off the top and bottom to make a wide version. Kubrick did every film later in his career like this after seeing 2001 butchered on TV to fit 4:3.)
EDIT: I guess this isn’t a ‘reason’. I think the reason is that he thinks he’s an auteur and as such he leans into doing something ‘different’ as his thing even though it’s actually just that he’s drowning in a profession he’s not that good at.
What I read is that it only got made because of Covid, which left WB with a lot of SFX people who they wished to retain (I guess financially it made more sense than having to get them back when films started up or something) alongside a huge number of film projects that nothing could get done on. So this was a kind of easy win to help give their new HBO MAX system a special feature. $70m is loads but I guess it’s peanuts in the industry.
So basically he did next to nothing to get this made if that’s true.
I’m not sure about the first bit (I have a friend in the industry who has worked on WB films as an SFX/CGI person and they were all hired/fired on a film-by-film basis, even on the big franchises), but the second bit makes sense: with production being halted due to Covid, any film that is in post-production and which could be completed remotely or via WFH, is more likely to be bumped up the priority list.
It’s still a staggering amount of money for a film that now won’t get a cinema release and which has a fairly niche (if committed) target audience.
Originally I guess a loss leader to get people subscribing to HBO MAX which obviously makes it a big loss but we’ve seen it’s on Foxtel/Sky in UK Aus so I guess there’s potential to sell it. And they hoped to keep those subs.
Now they’re using it for the entire year’s movies I guess they might be regretting the outlay.
Either way I think it’s not really much about Snyder getting it greenlit.
Im annoyed that this is coming out on the first day of the period of equal to or greater than two weeks in which I will have no internet. The meme potential is through the roof here.
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