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Kavik Brock

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Wildefire Walcott

Wow! We're big Terry Gilliam fans and knew he had tried to do a Watchmen movie in the 90s. It's nice to know it's being done finally, even though Terry's not involved.

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Sean Gorham

Wow. I have mixed feelings, but I hope it turns out good! I loved the comic.

Dancien Graves

*bounces up and down*

YAY

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Mukatsuku

Hmmm, could go either way.

Is Watchmen really the most celebrated graphic novel of all time? What about Dark Knight Returns? I liked the book, but was overall unimpressed with it due to all the hype.

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ladypandora

Oh the trailer looks sweet! I'm almost done reading the book and it seems like the trailer does it justice. Definitely keeping the fingers crossed.

Mukatsuku

I am still impressed with how well Sin City was translated to film. If Watchmen is as accurate, it could be rather impressive.

Lucifer Baphomet

I have no words for the total awesomeness of this.

I an stunned beyond the capacity for rational thought, and incapable of espressing myself.

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Charlemagne Allen

That looks incredible-- perfect translation of some of the frames.

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Arilynn

I liked Watchman but wasn't crazy about it either. I love Dark Night Returns and Frank Miller, especially the Daredevil stuff with David Mazzucchelli. The Watchman trailer does look cool and a lot like the novel. I hope it is great.

Michael Bigwig

OK...

I think the trailer looks cool. I used to be (and still a bit am) a bit of a comic book geek--I have around 500 or so boxed up in my garage.

However, I've never heard of Watchmen. Do they repair watches? I scrolled through the geek-chatter below the trailer, and no one would answer a few questions about what the Watchmen was about. Several people asked, but they all answered with, 'I can't sum it up, it's the best comic book ever, go buy it.' After the 10th response like that, I stopped reading these fanboys' retorts.

So, can someone here tell me, before I Wiki it what it's about? I saw a character that looked a lot like Batman...is it a DC crossover of some kind? I also saw Robert Downey...I imagine he wasn't playing Stark or anything of the sort (being Marvel).

Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

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Ayu Sura

I've heard Heroes being compared to Watchmen - but I've never read the books. I'd be interested in checking them out, though.

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Arilynn

It has been a long time since I read it, so Wikipedia probably would be better. It is about a US that is near nuclear war with the USSR and has outlawed costumed superheroes (most don't have superpowers - I don't know what they are called). There appears to be a conspiracy to kill the remaining retired superheroes. The US is under something like martial law. There is a true superhero in the US, other conspiracies, a bunch of monsters, and a smiley face dripping with blood. It's complicated.

Wikipedia will do a better job.

Iris Seale

Ok, I can hold my comicgeekness in no longer.

I read this after I found it in a random box of Boytoy's books. I think I've read it 10 times since then.

I still don't think I'm smart enough to really understand all of it and not old enough to fully grasp it's implications. And I've spent early mornings in a dark room with the book lit by the light of my monitor going page-by-page along with the Annotated Watchmen for every panel.

It's a superhero book written about the Cold War and the evils and danger of common complacency, which just as easily can be applied to our War on Terror culture and overreaching overindulgence.

It also uses 'watch' in every sense of the word. 'Who watches the watchmen?' is the key phrase of the book, but it also includes a watchmaker's son and a clock ticking towards midnight is the cover theme of each issue.

Yeah, whatever, summery-time: Watchmen Movie News, Watchmen Comic News, Trailers, Videos, Plot Summary and More - WatchmenComicMovie.com this site is my favorite, with links to summaries and essays.

All I can really say is to check it out. It's a political statement that raises existential questions, as well as a murder mystery and parable.

/end fangirl rant.

Lucifer Baphomet

Like Alan Moores other Magnum Opus.. V for Vendetta, yes.. its highly political, and becomes more relevant as it ages.

Iris Seale

I totally agree, but I think Transmetropolitan did a better job of hackles-raising than V.

Crap, do I need to start a Warren Ellis thread now?

Charlemagne Allen

Anyone here read Moore's Top Ten books?


It's the antithesis to Watchmen, very clever (but not like his old work).

Charlemagne Allen

Now, I feel like I need to start a Grant Morrison thread-- love Animal Man, Doom Patrol, and the Invisibles to death, and am rather pleased by his newer stuff for DC.

Doc1966

I'll give it a shot - not sure some of the other answers are doing it justice (it *is* complicated, which is one thing that made it so groundbreaking at the time it came out). I'll apologize now - it is long, and may reveal more than some want to know before reading it/seeing the movie:

It is an alternate universe in which costumed heroes (vigilantes) arose in the USA in the late 1930s. Without superpowers, these were normal men and women who dressed up and fought crime. One big theme of the story is exploring why they did this - ranging from a desire to seek justice to the erotic thrill of it.

After a decade or so, the original costumed adventurers hang up the tights, but a new breed comes along. Like their predecessors they wear costumes, but the world is far more complicated. In addition, a freak nuclear testing accident leads to the creation of the one and only truly super-powered being in the story - Dr. Manhattan, who works for the US government and can basically do anything he can think of - teleportation, rearranging of atoms, create and synthesize new fuels.

Dr. Manahattan is the real difference between the world we know and this alternate world - he creates a power imbalance such that the USA has no fear of enemies - Dr. Manahattan has trumped everyone else's military might. In addition, he creates new cars that run on electricity and other marvels that change the world. In essence, costumed heroes are no longer needed - yet they continue to fight crime.

In the mid-1970s, the public has grown wary of these costumed vigilantes. The police forces across the country go on strike in protest of the way these heroes are given free reign with no oversight, and this leads the public to riot, demanding the end of costumed heroes. An act of Congress in response forces the retirement of all costumed heroes except two (Dr. Manahattan and the government sponsored war hero The Comedian who was one of the original group from the late 30s).

It is about ten years after the act that the story begins. The Comedian has met his demise in an odd way, and this has set some of the retired heroes into action again to find out more. However, having been away for ten years, we learn that various heroes have taken to retirement differently. I will not say much more other than that the psychological dimension of the story gives it incredible depth for the characters.

The Batman-like character, for example, is the Nite Owl - he retired but kept the old toys around and waxed nostalgic about adventuring. He never revealed his alter-ego, and what being a hero did for him was make him feel powerful - in control - potent. Without the mask - without his role of hero - he feels impotent, and this manifests as you may think it would.

Another character, Rorschach (the one with the black and white blotchy mask) has gone off the deep end - crossing the line and now dispensing justice rather than merely bringing criminals in to face the law. Rorschach is wanted for killing criminals, and has in fact never retired but has never been caught.

To give too much more detail would ruin the story - suffice it to say that the basic plot is that the Comedian's death is no accident, but part of a larger plot involving the end of the world as we know it, and the stopping of a nuclear war between the US and Russia. However, it is not merely a "let's get the gang together and go stop the bad guy" story - it is far more complex and layered, and in the end it is not clear who was or was not a good guy or a bad guy - or neither - or both.

That's what I got - the simpler answer - read it yourself, that's not a copout answer - it's hard to summarize in a way that makes sense.

Enjoy!

Fmeh

The direct url to the flv of the trailer:
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/video/watchmen_io9.flv

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Maggie Mcardle

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Edav Nomad

There is now a problem with releasing the movie:

Fox seeks to stop WB's "Watchmen" after court win

Twentieth Century Fox said on Monday it will seek an injunction to block release of the Warner Bros movie "Watchmen" after a Los Angeles court ruled a copyright lawsuit against Warner can go forward.
The movie about raffish, flawed superheroes -- which has already been shot -- is slated for release on March 6, said Warner Bros spokesman Scott Roe.

The highly anticipated film, with a budget believed to be about $120 million, is based on a 1980s DC Comics graphic novel written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons.

In his decision released last week, Judge Gary Feess of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California wrote that Fox could hold some of the rights to the material, even if it did not hold all rights. Fox argues it acquired motion picture rights to the "Watchmen" graphic novel in the last 1980s, and that even though it relinquished certain rights to the material in 1991 it held onto the right to distribute the first movie.

Yahoo! Movies: Movie News -

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