We Watched the Watchmen: A Roundtable
Huge lot of comics fans that we are, the Playtime Staff sat down for a roundtable on Zach Snyder’s Watchmen (2009). Matt Kessen, our resident Watchmen expert was tapped to conduct the discussion, especially in regards to how the film differed from Moore’s graphic novel. The following takes place over the the week before and after the film’s release. If you are interested in continuing the discussion, feel free to jump into the fray on the forum.
- Page One: Quis custodiet ipsos custodis? The Pre-Game
- Page Two: Why I Am Not Seeing Zack Snyder’s Watchmen, by Matthew Kessen
- Page Two: Early Responders: We Done Watched the Watchmen
- Page Three: The Heart of the Beast: Snyder’s Vision of Watchmen
- Page Four: Watchmen as Film & Adaptation
- Page Five: Ultraviolence, it’s what’s for breakfast
- Page Six: Action Figures, Costumes & Pop-Culture
- Page Seven: Yesterday’s Always Shinier: Nostalgia in Watchmen
- Page Eight: Giant Blue Junk: Male Nudity in Watchmen
- Page Nine: Nothing Ever Ends Adrian: Snyder-Style
- Page Ten: A New Day in the Light: Watchmen Then and Now
Quis custodiet ipsos custodis? The Pre-Game
Tracy McCusker: I don’t have a snazzy introduction prepared, but from Matt’s suggestion, we should probably put our heads together on Watchmen. The film’s not out yet, so I expect this will mostly be drunken shenanigans until the 6th.
Zach Grizell: I’m going to try and hate it. I want to see how it feels like to view a movie thru Alex’s eyes.
Alex M.: Watch it buster. What are you implying about me?
Zach: That you are going to hate it.
Matt Schneider: [I've said this before], but Watchmen opens the day before my birthday. Even though I don’t expect it to be good, I’m hoping. I’m being the optimist here. I need for a not-sucky movie to come out my birthday weekend. The last time I was super-pumped for a movie the week of my birthday was when they re-released the Star Wars special edition of Return of the Jedi with the damn CGI montage at the end and music replacing the Ewok song. That was a long time ago. I need a good movie. Not even a good one. Just one that I can look forward to seeing. One where I can walk up and plop my money on the counter with a grin and say, “One for Watchmen, please.” I don’t care if it lives up to the comic. I just want it to not suck as a movie. Snyder is 1-1 with me. This is a tiebreaker.
Tracy: You know what, it doesn’t even matter at this point. My ass is going to be in the seat opening night no matter how terrible initial reviews are.
Alex: It’s high up there, along with Star Trek, on my “just too damn curious not to watch” list for 2009. With Snyder at the helm it’s gonna be a blast seeing what a total rip-roaring fuck up he’s made of it and reading Empire’s attempts to convince us it’s some kind of intellectual modern masterpiece.
David Nguyen-Tri: That’s just because you won’t take advantage of the ultra slo-mo fight scenes to sit back and enjoy a moment of introspection to reflect upon the meaning of it all, which is surely what Zack Snyder wished we would all do. Clearly, Empire has considered ponderous issues such as “if a film reviewer cums in his pants and no one’s there to see it, does it make a stain?”
Eh Steve: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The ONLY good adaptation of an Alan Moore piece is the Justice League Unlimited episode “For the Man Who Has Everything” (originally Published in Superman Annual #11).
David Jordan: I’ll probably see it this weekend just for the hell of it, since we’re obviously going to be covering it here. I won’t be writing about it, myself, and I’m going in skeptical, but still I’m sure I’ll have some fun. Oh, wait — no I won’t. I’m going to be watching it with Eh Steve. BO-RIINNNNGGG.
Alex: Ultimate comics fanboy vs the supreme hater. At least we usually agree on these comic book movie travesties.
Matthew Kessen: For your consideration:
Tracy: I’ve waited ages to say this Kessen, but you are like the Hitler of Playtime.
Kessen: Tell me about it. I actually inadvertently convinced a friend of mine here not to see Watchmen. Matt Kessen: 1; Zack Snyder: Several million I think.
Zach: There is slow-mo cheesy sex in Watchman….
David Nguyen-Tri: Sooo… is it too early to speculate that this could be a Zack Snyder trademark?
Alex: I’m sensing that this movie is, for most people, going to be a lukewarm failure. Probably not laughably bad but not gaining the fanboy support it really wants to either. There’ll be a few that stubbornly love it, a few that stubbornly hate it and the rest will just shrug and move onto getting excited about the next Batman movie.
Matt: I’m already excited about the next Batman movie. If only they’d actually make plans to film one!
Brian Jewell: Does this movie even merit a roundtable?
Tracy: It’s a bit disappointing that the biggest fans of the graphic novel (KESSEN I’M LOOKING AT YOU) are planning to sit the film out.
Kessen: It won’t work. People look at me all the time. It’s because I don’t ever wear any pants.
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