Watchmen: Do you side with Alan Moore or the movie?

Well, I'll plunk five bucks since I'll go to a matinee.

If Alan had been ripped off and somehow tricked into completely signing away all of his ancillary and secondary rights to Watchmen as was done to many other creators (me among them) then not only would I NOT go see it, I'd be outside theater shouldering a placard in the best Rorschach manner.

But Alan, DC, and Warner Brothers have been doing some variation of this dance for last 23 years. Every time Alan has objected to some Watchmen tie-in, DC writes him a giant check.

Bottom line--Alan has made a fortune from objecting to Watchmen tie-ins. If he chooses to, he can live off Watchmen royalties for the rest of his life...and live quite well.

I'd love to be so abused.

Umm, Alan Moore hates ALL the movies made from his books. He also goes swimming Scrooge McDuck style in a giant swimming pool full of gold coins from all the money he made from those hated movies. He isn't out of touch with reality, he's a weird old brilliant writer who hates to watch movie adaptations but loves to profit from them. Sounds pretty smart to me.

He's right that the movie won't be as good as the book, just like all the other movies weren't as good as the books. How could it possibly be? That doesn't mean that hordes of fanboys and fangirls will stay away, though!

I’m going to see the movie for sure. I thought I heard somewhere that Alan Moore didn’t take any money from this movie, but I could be wrong. I’m sure Alan Moore isn’t that crazy.

I'm probably a bit more biased since I already saw the film, but I'm with the studio on this one. In no way do I think Alan Moore is out of touch with reality, though. He made the personal choice to leave his name off of everything that has to do with the film, which is fine by me, and the studio honored that decision. They're not selling him out, and I don't think they sold out on the integrity of the film, so it all works out in my book.

Kitty Pryde said:

Umm, Alan Moore hates ALL the movies made from his books. He also goes swimming Scrooge McDuck style in a giant swimming pool full of gold coins from all the money he made from those hated movies. He isn't out of touch with reality, he's a weird old brilliant writer who hates to watch movie adaptations but loves to profit from them. Sounds pretty smart to me.

He's right that the movie won't be as good as the book, just like all the other movies weren't as good as the books. How could it possibly be? That doesn't mean that hordes of fanboys and fangirls will stay away, though!

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He actually doesn't accept the movie from the films and gives all of them to others who worked with him.

maxmordon said:

He actually doesn't accept the movie from the films and gives all of them to others who worked with him.

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Right. I don't know about the other films but Dave Gibbons got his share this time around.

Going this Saturday, and am definitely looking forward to it! Translating it to another medium won't tarnish the original book. What's the harm in seeing what adding the element of time does to the narrative?

He's probably right that Watchmen in particular is a story that is clearly intended to be a comic-- it may be the "ultimate" and most ideal form for the story, but it doesn't need to be the "final" one.

I just read the graphic novel for the first time, and I have to say... the film adaptation is *amazingly* faithful to the graphic novel.

They omitted the black ship comic book substory, which is completely understandable... without the ancillary story materials it would have made no sense to a common watcher of the film.

And they gave the space monster task at the end to Dr. Manhattan, which freed up any time necessary for the island subplot.

Both of these were wise film-making decisions and did absolutely nothing to hurt or change the theme or tone of the original work.


In some ways, I think the film version is superior. For all his work on comic books, Moore draws some pretty crappy costumes. OwlMan and Jupiter Jr. look like they're wearing terry cloth outfits half the time. And the chick who plays Silk Specter in the film is *fine.* ^_^


I found the film borrowed heavily from the novel for its cuts and sequences, even to the point of specific sequences in both the opening fight between Oz and the Comedian and the final battle between Oz and Horschak and Owlguy.




For me, though, sometimes the nuances of a character are lost on the page, no matter how well they're written. For me, Boromir was such a character. He meant nothing to me, despite my love of Tolkien until I saw Sean Bean's portrayal of the man.

In the same way, Meshak is an enigma on the page. His words have no more weight or depth to them than anyone else's, because they're all written with the same hand, the same lettering. In the film, the actor truly made this entire film work with his haunting, utterly believable acting as a zealot on the edge of apocalypse, unwilling even in the face of global annihilation to relent.


Three thumbs up for the film version. The book is fantastic, but Moore was being obstinate or a fool to admit that this movie does nothing but honor and glorify appropriately his original work.

the final form is the graphic novel. the movie is an adaptation of the graphic novel.

although I would say the final form of the godfather is the movie, not the book.

weird.

Respect for Snyder; he got closer than I would have thought possible. Alan Moore, whatever he feels about his process, lives and dies by theme and structure. That is what makes his work special. Snyder seems to get this, and for that alone he should be commended. Most blockbusters, heck, most movies in general, are so thematically barren that they are instantly forgettable. Whatever people think of speed-ramping, soundtrack choices, and a lack of telekinetic squids, at least what was onscreen was recognizably watchmen. I may not have been too keen on the Manhattan-centric ending (for reasons too convoluted for this post) but it was better than what they did to V for Vendetta's ending, which altered much of the meaning of the story.

dclary said:

IFor all his work on comic books, Moore draws some pretty crappy costumes.

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Since Alan Moore didn't draw Watchmen, then he can't be held responsible for crappy costumes.

dclary said:

I found the film borrowed heavily from the novel for its cuts and sequences, even to the point of specific sequences in both the opening fight between Oz and the Comedian and the final battle between Oz and Horschak and Owlguy.

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And then when Vinnie Barbarino jumped into the fray, things really got bloody.

Horshack?

I think you've Watchmen confused with Welcome Back, Kotter.

dclary said:

In the same way, Meshak is an enigma on the page.

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Meshak an enigma here, too...I don't know who that character is.

Axler said:

Since Alan Moore didn't draw Watchmen, then he can't be held responsible for crappy costumes.



And then when Vinnie Barbarino jumped into the fray, things really got bloody.

Horshack?

I think you've Watchmen confused with Welcome Back, Kotter.



Meshak an enigma here, too...I don't know who that character is.

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You never heard of Shadrak, Meshak, and Abednego? They were the Watchmen of Babylon. Dr. Manhattan came and sat with them in an oven.

Yeah, I've heard of them. Which one 'em had the signature line of: "Up yer nose with a rubber hose an' twice as far with Hershey Bar"?

Oh, wait.

That was Horshack.

I absolutely loved, loved, loved the opening credits - showing off the history, the rest of the movie is...so-so for me.

I saw the film before I read the graphic novel. The film is one of my favourite ever, I've seen it about seven times this year alone. Even though I love the movie the graphic novel as you'd expect is so much deeper and the movie leaves a lot out.

But I side with the movie over Alan Moore, (I find it interesting that on a forum of writers the majority side with the studio over the creator) the movie doesn't negate the existence of his work and it doesn't detract from it.

Alan signed away the movie rights to Joel Silver years ago. He sold his right to bitch. I love Alan's work, and Watchmen is among my very favorite novels (let alone graphic novels). The film is an amazing adaptation. Oh, and Dave, the have an Ultimate Watchmen which is the Director's Cut (the only way to go) with the Black Freighter (cartoon) added in. There's some bumper shots at the newsstand added too.

Diana is absolutely right. Alan Moore signed off on the movie rights over 20 years ago--for as I understand it, a sizable amount of money.

As I posted in another thread about this topic, Alan and Dave Gibbons have made fortunes from the Watchmen, long before the movie was ever released.

Throughout the 90s, it became something of a joke in the comics industry...that whenever Alan needed money, he'd complain about something in regards to DC's handling of the Watchmen property (like wristwatches or T-Shirts) and they'd quickly write him a big check and he'd go quiet for a year or two.

Personally, I'd love to be so abused by a publisher.

I've always been a fan of the book, but I really liked the look and feel of the movie. Maybe if the subplots that got cut with the side characters was added and the film got brought to a whole 4 hours or so, it would make a good mini series.

DannScheid said:

I've always been a fan of the book, but I really liked the look and feel of the movie. Maybe if the subplots that got cut with the side characters was added and the film got brought to a whole 4 hours or so, it would make a good mini series.

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You're right, it would've made a good mini-series.

On an ancillary note, regardless of the final verdict of the movie, I loved how for a couple months, wherever I went in Chicago, there were Watchmen posters on bus shelters and train station walls and storefront windows. Too cool.

Now, is there really gonna be an American Flagg movie?

I side with Rorschach.

I like both. Alan Moore is my favorite comic writer of all time, and I think a few of his properties have been turned into total cinematic travesties - but I really enjoyed Watchmen.

I don't understand a lot of the mouth-foaming hate Snyder seems to get, I really don't. "Wah, zombies aren't supposed to be fast! You've spit upon an entire monster legacy!" (Um, Russo/O'Bannon zombies were fast.) "Wah, Watchmen should never have been made into a movie at all, it's sacrilege!" (...) "Wah, Sucker Punch has undone over a hundred years of cinematic progress simply by existing and everyone involved with it should kill themselves!" (Not even going to start...I enjoyed it.)