Wil "Wesley" Wheaton Reviews Watchmen

Wil "Wesley" Wheaton Reviews Watchmen

Uber-geek Wil Wheaton gives his take on the Watchmen movie advanced screening he saw. It's good stuff. The guy can write!

By ComicBookMovie - Feb 20, 2009 10:02 AM EST
Filed Under: Watchmen
Source: Wil's Blog

I'm not going to discuss specifics, because that would suck for a lot of people, but: PAY ATTENTION, MY FELLOW GEEKS: YOU HAVE NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT.

(Did I just all-cap and bold that? I guess I did. What is this, MacWrite in 1986? Whatever. I'm leaving it, because it's that important to me that my fellow geeks read it.)

Now, listen, I know that we live in a world where we've endured Ang Lee's The Hulk, Spiderman 3, both Fantastic Four movies, and Indiana Jones Gets Raped Repeatedly While We Are Forced To Watch In Horror, so I think it would be really strange if we weren't worried and apprehensive about something that already means so much to us, but I hope this will calm your nerves until the movie is released: Watchmen is faithful to the book. It respects the book. I swear by the beard of Zeus, it feels like the book. Yes, there are some cuts, but they serve the release and don't disrupt or betray the narrative at all. Yes, they made a change to something that's a pretty big deal in the book, but it doesn't matter; what they did instead accomplishes exactly the same thing, and it does it perfectly. There is some of the Zack Snyder signature slow motion, and though it's a little heavy in the very first scene (which worried me) it isn't overdone throughout the movie at all, and I found it to be pretty cool and entertaining.

Ultra-purists who are just determined to pick it apart will be able to find some things to be upset about, but I don't know why they're even bothering to see it, to be honest. Speaking only for myself, as someone who has read the book over and over again, there were maybe ... three ... things that made me go "eh," but I had to work really hard to get even that perturbed, because ultimately none of them mattered. In fact, when the movie was over, and I thought about the stuff they cut or moved around, I just couldn't get upset about it, because nothing happened that [frick]ed with the story or the characters, at all. Zack Snyder's Watchmen is as close to a perfect film adaptation of Alan Moore's Watchmen as we were ever going to see, and when his super-ultimate-here's-everything cut comes out in the fall, I think it will be perfect. But what I saw yesterday is truly remarkable: a big studio movie adaptation of one of the most — if not the most — important graphic novels of my lifetime that not only didn't [frick] it up, but brought it to life brilliantly.

I can't think of a better, more faithful, graphic novel adaptation, ever. Nothing else even comes close.


There is a lot more fun stuff to Wil's review, so click the source link below to get some spoilers and cool insider stuff.

WATCHMEN CHAPTER I Clip Recreates Two Big Scenes From Alan Moore And Dave Gibbons' Iconic Graphic Novel
Related:

WATCHMEN CHAPTER I Clip Recreates Two Big Scenes From Alan Moore And Dave Gibbons' Iconic Graphic Novel

WATCHMEN CHAPTER I Red-Band Trailer Released Along With Full Cast List And Blu-ray Cover Art
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WATCHMEN CHAPTER I Red-Band Trailer Released Along With Full Cast List And Blu-ray Cover Art

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CrookedJaw
CrookedJaw - 2/20/2009, 10:32 AM
Niiiccceee!!!! I knew it man...I can't wait for this movie! I'll say it again, Can't wait! It looked good from the beginning, and It's gunna be good all the way to the end
Catastic
Catastic - 2/20/2009, 11:07 AM
yes!
WisconsinCharm
WisconsinCharm - 2/20/2009, 11:09 AM
I wish that other franchise directors took as much bride and sencerity into their work as this director has seemed to do. If only the x-men franchise would have taken the 100,000 routes it was suppose to have taken. I may be finally nice to see a franchise live up to its past. Good luck Watchmen!
KsAoC
KsAoC - 2/20/2009, 12:02 PM
man this review and the previous one that was posted is buidling up my anticipation even more. kinda like when TDK started getting all those amazing reviews before it came out. can't wait!

also what was wrong with the x-franchise except for x3. x1 and x2 i thought were amazing.
Betty
Betty - 2/20/2009, 12:41 PM
word
vonstallin
vonstallin - 2/20/2009, 12:43 PM
I like watching X-3, but i would not be mad if they treated X-3 like T-3....

It just never happend....
Oh , we are talking about watchmen...
can't wait.
Supermike
Supermike - 2/20/2009, 1:49 PM
a other boring movie at least DBE movie got the skin color right
skidz
skidz - 2/20/2009, 1:49 PM
Well, said. I'm betting Moore'll see it anyway (even if he says he won't), really like how it turned out and STILL find something to bitch about. After all, he can't openly admit that he liked someone else's work, it could ruin his reputation. The guy's got complaining down to an artform all it's own. Godspeed, Wil Wheaton!
WisconsinCharm
WisconsinCharm - 2/20/2009, 2:08 PM
I was just trying to say how i wish the x-men franchise would have had a director like watchmen had is all.
FattSmelliott
FattSmelliott - 2/20/2009, 3:19 PM
Hey everyone... I must say that I am really looking forward to this movie even though being a purist (and a sad one at that) I would basically just like the see the graphic novel in live action, and while I know that is never going to happen to see certain parts of the film to look like the panels really excites me. One thing I will say though is that I would have loved the squid, but in some ways I am glad it is not there.
I love comic book movies, but the thing is I would like cult characters to remain in comics and not be brought into the mainsteam (deadpool, watchmen etc) as when everybody knows about them they always lose so of their nostalgic edge, so make as many batmans and spider-mans as you want, i'll go watch them but leave the cult ones alone. :) Which is why I like it that the Squid isn't there as its something that only the comic has and seperates them.
Also I am glad that in this artice Superman Returns is not mentioned as being one of the bad comic book movies, as while it does not have the action we wanted it to, I don't see it as a movie really I see it as Bryan Singer's way of homaging his childhood hero. I mean in X-men he even told Hugh Jackman (when he is holding Rogue) to make it look like the Superman scene. I feel that its more a labour of love, but now I just want a kick ass Superman reboot where the graphics of today can catch up and make the movie we always wanted.
Sorry for the long message lol, I just got an account i'll try to keep it down in the future!!!
adamant877
adamant877 - 2/20/2009, 5:14 PM
I gotta say, this guy is the real deal!
I went back and read a few months worth of his blog posting, and he is definitely on the pulse of geek-fare! I am even more at ease about the movie, and am in excited anticipation!

BTW, has anyone else seen the recent episode of Simpsons where Millhouse asks Alan Moore for an ill-informed autograph on one of the "Watchmen Babies" dolls?! LMAO!!
wolverine81
wolverine81 - 2/20/2009, 6:07 PM
Cool...300 was awesome graphically and cinematically. When I saw Snyder's name attached to Watchmen I was sure he would give nothing but the full entertainment value we all loved from the novel itself. The movie will be a work of art as well.
IonParallax
IonParallax - 2/20/2009, 8:20 PM
Wil Wheaton is cool and I totally respect his opinion, also, he is a HUGE uber-geek in the realm of pretty much everything you can be geeky about, but he's still cool in my book (I'm sure it doesn't help that I'm a HUGE TNG fan, does it)

I know this movie is going to rock, but like ANY movie adapted from ANY OTHER medium, it's going to have it's things that do make you go "eh" because that's just the way the cookie crumbles.
Triptheorist
Triptheorist - 2/20/2009, 9:27 PM
Yes. Will Wheaton is a card carrying nerd, and his opinion is greatly respected by the community. Good review.
JLAvenger23
JLAvenger23 - 2/21/2009, 1:28 AM
Great about this review, can't wait. Just finished reading the novel, can't wait 4 the film. And even though after seeing some clips and comparing them to the source material, there are some details that as a kinda purist leave me like EH, but the essence is what matters. Great GREAT novel, and expect to see this film as THE adaptation, totally happy and anxious.
Greetings to all!!!!!
xaosjerk
xaosjerk - 2/21/2009, 3:04 AM
RE: Quagmire14

What is your issue? Watchmen was very carefully crafted VISUALLY to give a SEEING experience. For it's time it was very slick and stylized.

"I am not an "ultra-purit"" PUH-LEESE.

its called a GRAPHIC novel, or COMIC (as in PICTURES with words) book.

If you want to promote these mediocre reviews put a link up so we can at least judge them for ourselves.

From all the things we've seen clearly the thinking man's portion has gotten high emphasis.
FalconX2
FalconX2 - 2/21/2009, 5:22 AM
"I can't think of a better, more faithful, graphic novel adaptation, ever. Nothing else even comes close."

To beat a dead horse, but Sin City much?

I'm not saying that Sin City is necessarily a better movie, but it's hard to say no other movie even comes close to a faithful adaptation when compared to Sin City.

This makes me wary of his review.

As for the Watchmen "experience". From what I understand of Alan Moore, it wasn't even supposed to be a "thinking" experience... He literally just wanted to see if he could do things in the comic medium that would be impossible in the literary or video mediums. Hence the essence of Watchmen being considered as unfilmable.

They way I figure it, Alan Moore is just such a grand intellectual that the "thinking" experience we get from Watchmen, is actually just a side-effect. The man honestly created the philosophical intensity in Watchmen without hardly thinking about it.

But keep in mind from Dave Gibbons' point of view, Watchmen is a very visual experience. His part in Watchmen was to give us a piece of dark and gritty eye candy from a different world. And since Gibbons did have a lot to do with the movie, then not only can we expect a very pleasing, but also a very accurate visual experience. Considering the visual is the "first impression" of ANY movie, then even in Watchmen, the visual experience is very important.
imandrew
imandrew - 2/21/2009, 10:18 AM
This movie looks awesome and the more reviews that come out from fan boys, the better the movie sounds. I'm seeing in IMAX at midnight on March 6th, can't wait
Juicerules
Juicerules - 2/21/2009, 1:58 PM
March 6th can't come soon enough
Baldbix76
Baldbix76 - 2/21/2009, 2:11 PM
LOL...I just find it funny that from the moment this movie was announced all the way to until about a month ago, these post were CRAZY full of negative comments, a bunch of "this is gonna suck", and progressive bashing at Zack Snyder. Now, all of a sudden, there's hardly a peep to be heard after Mr. Weaton, self-proclaimed "geek-boy" (not be taken out of context, I have all the respect for him), gives a positive, if not, grand review of the movie. Except from a choice few open-minded individuals who must have learned from the "Micheal Keaton as BATMAN?!?!?" scenario, most were (and may still be) immediately quick to judge a movie BEFORE its even viewed. Keep in mind, Quagmire14, that most (comic) movie reviews are made by those who are COMPLETELY ignorant of the source material. I do have to agree with the fact that if someone who is predetermined to bash this film, will no doubt do so regardless of the end result.

Also, FalconX2, I have to say that the thought you obviously put into your posting is quite impressive...kudos to you.
MarkCassidy
MarkCassidy - 2/21/2009, 2:42 PM
i really dont think i have ever been as exited for a movie before. Watchmen has been my favorite graphic novel since i was a teenager
blacksword7
blacksword7 - 2/21/2009, 3:48 PM
You are so right Baldbix76 . it's like i've said before, if alan moore all of a sudden said "i love and support this film" all of those "ultra purists" would change their minds, just because alan does it. that's why so many of these guys hate hollywood stuff, because the classic comic writers do.
xaosjerk
xaosjerk - 2/21/2009, 4:46 PM
RE: blacksword7

The hatred of most hollywood comic book stuff isn't a bad place to be since it's mostly all garbage, being hell bent against this movie however is stupid because it's clearly not garbage and has some of the most passionate reviews I've heard, which means it's probably amazing, I suppose we'll have to wait and see. The negative reviews I've heard sound like they're from people who don't get watchmen, comic movies or good movies in general so I'm not worried about them, they always think good movies are bad, because they think story is boring.
xaosjerk
xaosjerk - 2/21/2009, 6:55 PM
Also most of the negative reviews I've come across seem to be related to sour grapes related to the review embargo being imposed by WB. Invariably the negative reviewer will mention someone who's written a positive review who has broken the embargo under some auspicious justification (eg "this isn't a review but I'm going to tell you all this stuff about the movie and how I like this and that.") and also mention how the movie is a carbon copy of the graphic novel and therefore displays no directing talent (Which is a stupid assumption and incorrect thinking and also This is a bad thing?) some people have called it campy boring 2nd rate comic book movie ect all comments that reveal the reviewer as not really getting or knowing the source material.

On the note about Sin city and the 300 being more accurate to the source, this may be true, however those were also clearly easier to translate into a single movie, and not nearly as good stories. 300 is a simple war story thats fun to watch, but basically a cartoon of ancient war, and Sin City is complex yet also so high on the surreal abstraction scale that it's also in it's own genre that I'm not nearly as interested in as a story like Watchmen that takes the sci-fi perspective of 'Hey how could this really work in a real universe? What would real people with real personalities react to such a world only slightly different than our own?' I really dislike a couple of the actors performances in Sin City anyhow (the guy that helps the prostitutes and the main prostitute), maybe that's how the characters were supposed to come off, but if so not that well executed a story in it's original or film form, decent but not amazing. So in the end if this movie comes off how I think it will it will be the best GN movie of all time bar none in my mind.
Supermike
Supermike - 2/21/2009, 8:16 PM
I love how when a movie that the fans hate its Hollywood flaunt but when a movie does good its the fans that get the good job

Kinda of like God and how when something goes wrong we blame him but when its a good thing it all us
IonParallax
IonParallax - 2/21/2009, 8:49 PM
Agreed with Baldbix. There has been so much negativity surrounding the release of this movie, but it has died down TREMENDOUSLY! I've anticipated this movie since I heard about it being made and still, the excitement has not died down.

I'm on par with my buddy ROR, I don't think I've been as excited about a movie adaptation as this. It's going to be phenomenal. Even if people don't like it (which there will be thousands) because they're nitpickers and just won't appreciate it no matter how good it really is, I think it's going to be great. I'm all for being impartial about things, and you shouldn't think either way, good or bad until after you see the movie, or read the comic, or book or article or whatever, but I personally think this is going to be wonderful. I am anticipating it's release, but it's only 2 weeks away and ya know, I probably won't see it until my Birthday because I never go see a movie the first couple of weeks it's open, my birthday is exatly 2 weeks after the release, so that will be my present to myself.

Supermike: You're losing your touch man, you're not even remotely as controversial as you were when you started trollinh. Step up your game a bit and go with a new angle, you're faltering and it's kind of sad. Step it up buddy, step it up.
BOOK552
BOOK552 - 2/21/2009, 9:01 PM
I've said it once and I'll say it again, Quagmire 14 stop being a troll

you say its not suppose to be entertaining, what are you talking about, I found the book to be very entertaining, it makes you think yes, but that dosen't mean its not also meant to be entertaining
blacksword7
blacksword7 - 2/21/2009, 9:07 PM
xaosjerk, what you said about sin city and 300, you might also want to make the point that neither one is a superhero film. both of those film, while accurate to their counterparts, are just surreal interpretations of different eras of time. Watchmen takes on the challenge of putting it's characters into actual history and intertwining their lives with the events of the past. to take on the challenge of making superheroes a real part of American history outside of comics, is a tough one and naturally, the story must be cut because our history is a long one. i think it's safe to say the Watchmen will be the most accurate Superhero film ever when compared to it's comic book counterpart.
IonParallax
IonParallax - 2/21/2009, 9:45 PM
BOOK552; Quag has been like that as long as I can remember, he's a resident "negative nancy" with permanent sand in his vagina. However, occasionally, he does make good points, so at least that's commendable.

Watchmen is one of the MOST surreal entities in comic history. Yea, there's no mutants or real aliens or metahumans or whatever (save for Dr Manhattan, who is neither a mutant or metahuman, but close), but there's so many surrealistic situations and people, it borders on just as fanciful as the Eath-1 DCU or Marvel's Earth-616. Yea, they try to make it "realistic" but they still delve into fantasy as much as anyone else...
FalconX2
FalconX2 - 2/21/2009, 9:59 PM
@Baldbix76 - Thanks :) I try to make it worth reading and not just post blindly.


Also...
I didn't really take into consideration that 300 and Sin City would be much easier to film than Watchmen... That is a good point. Regardless, that would still mean that they are very faithful adaptations.

Essentially, with no disrespect to Wil Wheaton or his fans, I remain suspicious of anyone who might be caught up in the "collective fan mind". It happens to everyone at some point, especially right after a movie or remake. (Words can't describe how long I tried to justify Juggernaut in X3, and hell I'm still trying to justify the Star Wars prequels.).

Watchmen, however, is something that I never viewed like I did other comics. I never read it with a lighthearted fantasy/sci-fi adventure view like your "generic" comic. Watchmen is something more... It's something that just makes you say, "Wow!" Even after reading it over and over for 10 years, that "Wow" is still there. I worry that Wil's review may just be that initial "Wow" that comes from seeing a passion put on the big screen, and not that authentic "Wow" that the graphic novel gives.

Though I do hope otherwise. However, it never hurts to remain safely cautious.

I usually expect the worst, but hope for the best.

And for the people that would decide that Watchmen is a good movie just because Alan Moore would say so, would have to be the type of person that Moore is just disgusted with... You think someone as eccentric and intellectual as him just waits for the next opinion to come down the grapevine to jump on board?

Don't get me wrong, Alan Moore is freaking AMAZING! I love a lot of his work, but damn, let's face it, he can seem down right nuts some times... Still, he is always his own person.

But, good for him I say... After all, he probably thinks I'm just another lemming "working for tha man!" :)
rawshark
rawshark - 2/22/2009, 5:42 AM
WORD ! I've been saying all along. I HAVE FAITH IN SNYDER. Go Back and Check if you have to. I've got good feelings about this movie.
2 weeks away now, and it seems to be a lifetime. Come On 3-6-09 !

FalconX2
FalconX2 - 2/24/2009, 4:13 AM
Here is another fairly positive review, one that seems to take the same considerations that I would:

http://geek-tastic.com/?p=2858

I do have a concern that he says the squid seemed a bit outlandish to him, as I always thought it was the outlandishness that sold it.

I mean, imagine if you were where you were when 9/11 happened, but instead of a plane hitting the Twin Towers, someone said the aliens are invading. THAT is huge...
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