AVS Forum banner

The one and only Watchmen/IMAX everything thread!

20K views 199 replies 61 participants last post by  sb1 
#1 ·
I thought with Watchmen being the next big theatrical release, and less than 2mos away (3/6), I'd start it's own topic. A lot of info has been spread out in multiple threads, so lets try and keep most info about the movie in this thread.


Anyone plan on seeing it at their local IMAX theater? This is the next film to get the IMAX DNR treatment. I'm really looking forward to it and hope they get it right.
 
#2 ·
I might as well add to this thread by directing it to a post I just placed in the Blu-Ray software forum:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1114594


Two new DVD/Blu-Ray releases from Warner surrounding the movie:


1. A picture book/reading movie of the Graphic Novel

2. A movie about just the Black Freighter and Under the Hood sections of the book.


The former looks kind of crappy. The later could have potentential.
 
#3 ·
Having just read the GN of Watchmen for the first time, I'm excited (and apprehensive) about the upcoming movie. Hope it doesn't suck!
 
#4 ·
Yeap. It could suck mightily. As you can tell by reading it, there's so much subtext to it that it's going to be hard to translate to the big-screen. What surprises me is that it's actually going to be rated R. That's a good sign they're not going to dumb it down for the big screen- this is not a book for kids. There's rape, graphic violence, murder, etc, etc.
 
#5 ·
 http://www.rollingstone.com/news/cov...604682/page/30

Quote:
In the first five minutes of next March's movie adaptation of the 1980s graphic novel Watchmen, a Matrix-style fight sequence breaks out, complete with two superdudes punching through walls with their bare hands.



Hopefully there'll be some totally bitchin'!!!!!!!!! Linkin Park songs to go with the fight scenes. They already got My Chemical Romance to do the end credits, so why not?
 
#6 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan Average /forum/post/15690745

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/cov...604682/page/30






Hopefully there'll be some totally bitchin'!!!!!!!!! Linkin Park songs to go with the fight scenes. They already got My Chemical Romance to do the end credits, so why not?

FYI: That was taken from a test screening done at the end of Nov, and please, if you're going to post stuff like that, use spoilers.


From what I've gathered so far the movie is going to be very close to the book.
 
#7 ·

Quote:
From what I've gathered so far the movie is going to be very close to the book.

Narratively? Sure. I'll even grant that they can change the ending and still produce something that hews pretty closely to the originally plot. Aesthetically? The most formally unique aspect of the book is its understatedness (no motion lines, no onomatopoeic expressions, the dominant 3x3 grid layout) and that word barely exists in Snyder's vocabulary. He seems to be actively engaged in a lifelong pursuit of making a movie entirely in slow motion.
 
#8 ·
Like LOTR, things that were implied or talked about in the source material will be shown to us. This will be a movie and a movie is not the same as a graphic novel.


The test screenings went very well and industry people who have seen the film praise it, so I am not going in thinking it will suck.
 
#9 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan Average /forum/post/15691460


The most formally unique aspect of the book is its understatedness (no motion lines, no onomatopoeic expressions, the dominant 3x3 grid layout) ...

No motion lines, but plenty of motion. Right off the bat, a character is shoved out a window and plunges many stories, for example. And Snyder's take on "Watchmen" will be a "motion picture," after all...
 
#10 ·
I've made the decision to hold off on the GN and just let this movie be my first introduction to the Watchmen. I put movies higher on my personal pantheon than graphic novels anyway, and wouldn't want to know the plot beforehand to "spoil" my movie-going experience. Plus, I figure if the movie really disappoints, I can fall back on the GN to see how it's supposed to be done.
 
#11 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by IAM4UK /forum/post/15692544


No motion lines, but plenty of motion. Right off the bat, a character is shoved out a window and plunges many stories, for example. And Snyder's take on "Watchmen" will be a "motion picture," after all...

The comic shows that near the end of the first book, not "right off the bat." It begins with the cops investigating the scene.


That quibble aside, aestheticized violence and swooping camera movements everywhere is awfully removed from what Moore and Gibbons did in the source material -- and yes, comics are comics and movies are movies, but the entire point of an adaptation is to find the cinematic equivalent of what was done in the original, and the 300 approach is a pretty dubious way of going about it in this case. I'm not sure how it would've come out under Paul Greengrass, but he at least has some sense of proportion. Snyder is a decent director of bombastic action and, uh, hmm.
 
#12 ·
Good point about how the 300 approach would be poor for "Watchmen," Dan. But as for your quibble, I refer you to the final panel of page three of the first chapter of the GN...
 
#14 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan Average /forum/post/15690745


Hopefully there'll be some totally bitchin'!!!!!!!!! Linkin Park songs to go with the fight scenes. They already got My Chemical Romance to do the end credits, so why not?

No offense, but imo adding some stupid pseudo metal songs just for the sake of pleasing teenage boys would be foolish.
And THAT would make the movie suck! I hope the've been more subtle with a real interesting score... Besides, good fight sequences don't necessarily need music, which make them even more effective.
 
#15 ·
#16 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Morpheo /forum/post/15693921


No offense, but imo adding some stupid pseudo metal songs just for the sake of pleasing teenage boys would be foolish.
And THAT would make the movie suck! I hope the've been more subtle with a real interesting score... Besides, good fight sequences don't necessarily need music, which make them even more effective.

That was me being cynical. I don't actually want them to put nu-metal (or whatever the hell it is) on the soundtrack, and if there's any sanity left in the universe, they won't.
 
#18 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan Average /forum/post/15694000


That was me being cynical. I don't actually want them to put nu-metal (or whatever the hell it is) on the soundtrack, and if there's any sanity left in the universe, they won't.

oops, sorry, I didn't catch it.
 
#19 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by JBLsound4645 /forum/post/15693978


Not to sound to negative but I don't care for IMAX anymore ...

I understand your appreciation for the theatre you love; however, most of us have no comparable option. IMAX is the best thing going for many here in the colonies, and in fact, most of us don't even have one of those nearby.
 
#20 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by IAM4UK /forum/post/15694536


I understand your appreciation for the theatre you love; however, most of us have no comparable option. IMAX is the best thing going for many here in the colonies, and in fact, most of us don't even have one of those nearby.

Nor did Bournemouth once LOL I think the nearest and still is, is the London IMAX near to the South Bank I think? I haven’t even been to that one yet and most of the IMAX70mm films that they screened was just too lazy at getting to Bournemouth and it started to get to the general public. Mostly the old community that didn't see this as popular or even commercial hit.


Some of the folks that I overheard as the IMAX film finished was, a hit and miss. Is that it? Wow the screen is fantastic?


I doubt hardly those people ever bothered to come back.


You’d never have a problem queering up to see the next IMAX film. The cinema was never full I mean never so that shows it wasn’t a good idea to place that monstrosity of an ugly building blocking off the sea view front.


There used to be swimming pool that I attended each weekend and then it was knocked down sometime early 1980’s or was mid 1980’s mid yes.


Then it then became a car-park with this huge face on one end and lower end to where the front of the IMAX building stands today.


Also some of the management at the other cinemas in Westover road Odeon didn’t think it would be sticking around for long, hmmm, (possible industrial sabotage) that is what I’m, smelling and yes I think a wet-fish is involved??


The council was all over the IMAX the local paper was giving it a hard time because it was so far beyond and behind scheduled by 2 years I think? Or was it three years?


Anyway the last BS word was we’re closing down for refit while IMAX slyly sneaked out all the IMAX gear, probably at night to avoid detection.
 
#21 ·
Here in the States IMAX is thriving. Here in the Boston area alone there are already 5 IMAX theaters and growing. In this poor economic downturn people are still willing to go out to the movies, and why spend $10.50 for a regular movie ticket when you can see it in IMAX for $2 or $3 more?


I'm really looking forward to this movie. What remains to be seen is how strong the box office will be considering its 'R' rating. I think a lot of people unfamiliar with the book will go in thinking it's a plain action movie ala Batman, unaware of the graphic violence, rape, etc. It's really an unknown quantity as this is sort of an experiment.
 
#22 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveFi /forum/post/15697348


Here in the States IMAX is thriving. Here in the Boston area alone there are already 5 IMAX theaters and growing. In this poor economic downturn people are still willing to go out to the movies, and why spend $10.50 for a regular movie ticket when you can see it in IMAX for $2 or $3 more?


I still have the IMAX tickets

Most prices I paid at the Sheridan IMAX Bournemouth was


£4.50

Cyber World 3-D Fri, Mar 22 2002


£5.50

Haunted Castle 3-D Fri, Mar 22 2002

Grand Canyon, Sat, Apr 6 2002

Cyber World 3-D, Fri, Apr 5 2002


£5.80

Whales, Sat, Sep 21 2002

Everest, Thu, Nov 28 2002


£6.00

Egypt, Fri, May 17 2002

Grand Canyon, Fri, Jul 26 2002

The Ghost of the Abyss 3-D, Fri, Jul 18 2003

Extreme, Fri Jul 26 2002

Ultimate G, Fri May 31 2002

Ultimate X, Fri Jul 12 2002

Haunted Castle 3-D, Fri, Jun 21 2002

Haunted Castle 3-D, Jun 29 2002


£6.20

T-Rex 3-D, Sat, Mar 8 2003


£6.50

The Lion King, Fri Dec 20 2002


£6.70

Cyber World 3-D, Fri Aug 23 2002

Santa 3-D, Wed, Nov 20 2002


Most if not all-times I took the SPL db metre along and wow most peaks 120dbc.
 
#23 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by JBLsound4645 /forum/post/15697517


I still have the IMAX tickets

Most prices I paid at the Sheridan IMAX Bournemouth was


£4.50

Cyber World 3-D Fri, Mar 22 2002


£5.50

Haunted Castle 3-D Fri, Mar 22 2002

Grand Canyon, Sat, Apr 6 2002

Cyber World 3-D, Fri, Apr 5 2002


£5.80

Whales, Sat, Sep 21 2002

Everest, Thu, Nov 28 2002


£6.00

Egypt, Fri, May 17 2002

Grand Canyon, Fri, Jul 26 2002

The Ghost of the Abyss 3-D, Fri, Jul 18 2003

Extreme, Fri Jul 26 2002

Ultimate G, Fri May 31 2002

Ultimate X, Fri Jul 12 2002

Haunted Castle 3-D, Fri, Jun 21 2002

Haunted Castle 3-D, Jun 29 2002


£6.20

T-Rex 3-D, Sat, Mar 8 2003


£6.50

The Lion King, Fri Dec 20 2002


£6.70

Cyber World 3-D, Fri Aug 23 2002

Santa 3-D, Wed, Nov 20 2002


Most if not all-times I took the SPL db metre along and wow most peaks 120dbc.

IMAX prices seem to vary from theater to theater. Here in the States even with the exchange rate they seem to be much more expensive than the price of an IMAX ticket in those UK theaters. I don't really go to many documentaries because they are so expensive. Most of my IMAX viewing consists of major motion pictures.
 
#24 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by DaveFi /forum/post/15698221


IMAX prices seem to vary from theater to theater. Here in the States even with the exchange rate they seem to be much more expensive than the price of an IMAX ticket in those UK theaters. I don't really go to many documentaries because they are so expensive.

Most of my IMAX viewing consists of major motion pictures.

Well that’s only been getting the word since Apollo 13 and if the Bournemouth IMAX pulled there soaks-up with screening Apollo 13 they’d most likely still be in business and not kicked out of Bournemouth by the council for wasting the communities time, now then.



If the Sheridan IMAX Bournemouth wanted to capture the communities imagination with new realises, rather than showing the same boring IMAX film over and over just to prove its durable and robust is, no imagination at all! It was ran by donkeys and they let ship sink right underneath them.


Well I think the damage was done when they fell behind schedule and by which time no one in the area cared! Expect bulldoze it to the ground!
 
#25 ·
JBL: You realize that here in the States there are two kind of IMAX theaters? There are those which are connected to museums and publicly funded and therefore are limited only to educational productions, and then there are the privately funded theaters (which in the past few years have been growing exponentially) which can play anything?

http://www.jordansimax.com/

Luckily I have a relatively new, privately built theater (in a furniture store of all places) right down the street from me.
 
#26 ·
I read this when it came out 23 years ago and in the back pages they were already talking about making a movie about it. After all this time I hope it doesn't suck.

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) Spoiler  
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show) I don't know if this should be a spoiler but when I saw the Incredibles I thought it took the same exact same plot; changed the characters and made it family friendly. Even though it was a complete rip off I hope it doesn't turn out to be the better movie.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top