To the surprise of absolutely nobody, Watchmen took this weekend’s box office with $55.7M, the biggest opening of 2009 so far.
The head of the studio pointed out that the numbers probably would have been even bigger if the film hadn’t been two hours and 45 minutes long. “This is a movie that runs two hours and 45 minutes,” he said. “That really only leaves the exhibitor with one showing a night. If you have an 8 o’clock show, the next show is at midnight. So with essentially one show a night, I think this is outstanding.”
I went to see this flick on Friday afternoon, mostly because the company I work for was paying. (This is what passes for a bonus in this economy.) I think I lasted about an hour or so. I got up to go to the bathroom and decided I really didn’t have any interest in going back inside. After an hour of watching, I still wasn’t really that clear on what the plot was, and I’d already seen three giant blue neon penises, and that was pretty much all I needed for a Friday afternoon.
Yeah, this is one where it helps to have read the graphic novel. Me, I’m waiting for the even longer (not the blue dong) director’s cut rumored to be a theater release this summer.
I had no idea there was a rumor of this. I’m excited!
I saw it this evening & loved it!!
yeah, i wasn’t a really huge fan either. but unfortunately i had to sit though the whole thing. lame.
I actually didn’t read the novel, wasn’t expecting it to be good…and ended up loving it.
…maybe the 3 screwdrivers I had before hand helped? ha!
I managed to sit through the whole thing, it was hard, i dont sit still long as it is, but wow, i wanted to run out of the theater. it was like watching scrambled eggs, nothing connected, it was so weird…
Wow, I can’t believe you can sit through Beverly Hills Chihuahua and not Watchmen.
LMAO my thoughts exactly.
I agree…..
haha I third that.
I loved it!!! The music was soo gooood. I loved the way it was shot. My husband on the other hand, wasn’t a big fan.
i cannot sit still for almost 3 hours. maybe I will watch it on dvd if my boyfriend forces me too. at least I can lay down and stuff
I thought the soundtrack was below par.
but the fight scenes were awesome.
I thought they did a good job for a graphic novel that was deemed unfilmable.
All the little extras touches which are true to the novel are in there if you pay attention.
You were aware of the “little extra touches” but complain about the soundtrack? You do realize those songs were actually written INTO the novel, right?
if you’re a fan of the graphic novel, it’s great. i’m excited for the longer director’s cut to come out.
Just like any movie based on a book, it’s probably best to have read it first.
Sorry you didn’t enjoy it, Beet. The graphic novel IS awesome though. Can’t wait for the movie to come out here in Sweden (later in the week).
Good to know that I should definitely hit the WC first though. That’s one heckuva long movie! Thanks for the heads-up there!
I think you really have to be a fan of the graphic novel and Alan Moore in general to see this and enjoy it.
I for one cannot wait to see it.
Also I totally agree on the Beverly Hills Chihuahua comment, you could not pay me enough to watch crap like that.
Never read the comic book but loved the movie. The one part of the movie that I didn’t like was the romance between the two heroes. It’s a comic book movie and nearly everyone of them has their melodramatic romance but those two just annoyed me whenever they were on the screen.
Kinda wish I could have seen Rorschach kick Batman, err, Night Owls ass.
i was not a big fan….i also thought the plot was really unclear and the storyline veered a lot. the blue penises were a plus though
I’m afraid I don’t understand how you could miss the plot, nor how you could see the storyline veering. It was fairly linear, with the exception of some background info filled in here and there.
And I didn’t even read the story ahead of time.
I’m terrified for our future if movies based on comics are so miscomprehended by the general public.
Sharon is my favourite poster today. Although to be honest, I agree with the soundtrack comments. I don’t really care that they were written in, the songs seemed misplaced at points and didn’t always fit well. I think it helps to have songs that people aren’t already very familiar with too. In my opinion they should have just stuck with the score and left it at that. That’s just one of my pet peeves though. I prefer films that have music specifically written for the film and that’s it.
The ending was good! In a way I almost prefer it to the graphic novel ending, but not so much so for a particular reason I won’t mention for fear of spoiling it.
I think given what they had to live up to and the fact that they had to condense so much of it, Snyder and co did really well. The casting was absolutely perfect.
the endings were the same
I saw the movie and really enjoyed it! But I think it would have been really difficult to understand if I had not read the graphic novel beforehand…the plot of the movie took the novel pretty literally, except for the ending. It ended up being way better than I expected, considering the scope of the novel. I didn’t think it would translate so well to film, but I was wrong!
“I’d already seen three giant blue neon penises, and that was pretty much all I needed for a Friday afternoon. ”
ahahahahahahahaahahhahaa that’s mint, Beet, mint.
Ugh I saw this on Friday, hadn’t read the novel, wasn’t super excited about it anyways, but went in neutral.
It. Was. Awful.
The acting was horrendous, and, I agree, the plot was hidden behind the special effects and didn’t become clear until 3/4 of the way through. Even then, it was far from compelling and at that point I was already bored out of my skull. I don’t buy this, ‘you have to read the book first.’ A movie is a movie… it should at least make sense of its own accord without the necessity of reading hundreds of pages.
The plot couldn’t have been clearer: The threat of nuclear war. It was covered in the first 15 minutes of the movie.
I’m not trying to change the mind of people who didn’t like the film, nor am I trying to convince the undecided on whether they should go or not go. I just can’t fathom how people with the reading and writing comprehension to post so clearly on this blog and other blogs, have such difficulty with things so blatant. Perhaps you folks would be more content going to see movies where the title spells out the plot, such as “Ernest Goes to Jail?”
I want to get your opinion on “In Bruges”.
thanks. im getting pissed of reading all these posts, these people are retarted if they dont get the plot
Uh, ‘the threat of nuclear war’ is not a plot. It is a plot point. The movie had plenty of plot POINTS, but the actual cohesive PLOT didn’t make itself clear until the end.
Re: Emily – Retarted? Way to spell.
The movie was crap.
Alan Moore’s works should not be made into movies, they need to stop.
I thought it was the worse movie I have ever seen…sat through the whole thing still not sure what the plot was. I think at least half of the theatre left.
God, this movie was awful. Not to mention unbelievably long. I slept through the last hour of it. Granted, I haven’t read the book, but couldn’t the screenplay writers have changed the dialogue a bit? It was so DULL. I’m fully aware that they probably wanted to stick to the original manuscript as much as they could, but for fucks sake couldn’t they have made the dialogue more interesting? Shit, they should have played around with the plot a little as well, because I’ll be damned if that was any good. I don’t see why this is the #1 movie in America. I’m completely baffled.
This movie is extremely underrated. It was incredible. And, my oh my, Malin Akerman… is she hot or is she hot?