Comments on: Watchmen vs The Dark Knight

By: Andrew

Andrew — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:40:54 +0000

I hate to throw in with your detractors given the quality of their posts so far, but I must say I wholly disagree.

TDK was enjoyable for me purely on the level of an action thriller. It was a bit of an odd movie, in that while each scene was very well done on its own, they didn’t seem to fit together well - it felt like watching six episodes of a TV series back-to-back, not a cohesive whole. Intellectually there wasn’t much going on, but there didn’t need to be. Heath Ledger’s take on the Joker was the best thing about the film, being genuinely unsettling at times. Not a great film, but a good one as summer blockbusters go.

Watchmen, on the other hand, was deeply disappointing. As a fan of the novel, I somehow put aside my doubts about Snyder’s ability to handle such complex source material and was quite looking forward to the film. But it was just all wrong. The script was painfully heavy-handed where it wasn’t copied directly from the book. Most of the acting was wooden, Dan and Laurie in particular having a truly remarkable lack of chemistry, and the fixation on gore and violence gave the lie to any appearance of being less fascistic than 300. Instead of simply fighting off the muggers, Dan and Laurie now slaughter them. It takes twenty policemen to bring down Rorschach after his escape fails. I could go on and on.

Still, I suppose “wholly disagree” is a bit too strong. For its unusual self-awareness and sense of humour, I still consider Spiderman 2 to be the best comic book film that Hollywood has yet produced. So at least we more or less agree on something.

By: Bob15

Bob15 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:37:01 +0000

The bolsheviks for instance were just a tiny fringe party the one time there was an election, but they still had total power within a few years. ,

By: Chicas Desnudas Guapas

Chicas Desnudas Guapas — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 06:11:24 +0000

nice! i’m gonna make my own journal

By: Vi

Vi — Sun, 31 May 2009 07:23:35 +0000

Good to know I’m not the only one who enjoyed Watchmen much more than The Dark Knight!

By: sam

sam — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 04:16:37 +0000

holy shit you might be the stupidest person ever!

By: kyle

kyle — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:18:54 +0000

Loyal to the novel? by changing the ending as they did the writers effectively raped everything about any polarizing ideas at all. I know everyone wants to believe it was a minor incident but for ducks sake people, in the comic the whole idea is about Ozymandias polarizing the world to realize we are all the capable of uniting against an alien catastrophe. But instead in the pile of crap that was the movie we get Doc Manhattan, a man, as the ultimate evil for man to unite against in their hearts. . . which in time just perpetuates the whole idea of mankind tearing itself apart in the end. Maybe I’m a crackpot but that is my opinion, feel free to enjoy your own.

By: will

will — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 03:51:35 +0000

Well said. And here I thought I was all alone in my love of the Watchmen movie and my dislike of the Dark Knight. TDK seemed as if it was comprised of action scenes from other movies. Yet another car chase, yawn. Batman was paper thin and the Joker’s plans seemed beyond believeable, which is suprising since everyone seemed to think that it was such a realiistic take on the superhero. That was my major problem with TDK, Batman looks ridiculous when brought into our world. Watchmen on the other hand knows this and takes the time to craft a world in which superheroes could be real. Real and very, very flawed, as one would imagine a “real” Batman would be.

I also find it dishearting that so many people could be alarmed by the sight of a penis. A fake penis at that. Wow, grow up.

By: Luger

Luger — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 16:14:58 +0000

I agree. Your review is excellent and Watchmen is the best superheroe movie ever. Although I still think 300 and Dawn of The Dead are really cool movies. Batman movies are great too, but Watchmen is so precise, so smart and so entertaining, I can’t believe someone could this kind of masterpiece. Alan Moore is god, and Snyder is a great craftsman.

By: pisco

pisco — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 21:47:31 +0000

ZOMG, help. Fail.

By: Kalvin

Kalvin — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 19:38:23 +0000

I think that people are overreacting here,
Watchmen is a brilliant film because it will forever be polarizing, I have argued with many friends that it was loyal to the novel and therefore Snyder’s only input was in the fight scenes. TDK was also a brilliant film, Ledger was impressive but I think that biggest issue and why this is becoming an argument.TDK attempted to take a comic book film beyond and try to make it realistic as possible, and to try and relate it to our modern society, please don’t tell me that we don’t have fools like the joker running around in this world and I’m not referring to Al Qaeda only. Watchmen though was always that, I felt from the novel a concept that I could grasp and was familiar with and that is my only problem with the film. Snyder did not hype the threat of the cold war significantly enough to for us to understand the madness and fear and tension of the film. Just read the source material