NEW WATCHMEN TRAILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Randy Pearson]

Rebuttal

I mainly object to your insistence that simply upon seeing a trailer that you can determine that the film will be just a cliche action movie. Yes, you're right, we are talking about the trailer. But you insist on talking about it as if you have just sat through the entire movie.

The only time we see the Comedian clearly is in one shot. All the others are in total darkness. You have no idea how the character is going to be fleshed out in the final product.

You made a good point about the music. But all things considered, just because the song is in the trailer doesn't mean the score of the film will be filled with Smashing Pumpkins. The score of the movie acts independently as an expression of the film itself. When music is used in a trailer it is meant to convey a specific mood, but this is meant to get people to actually see the movie. Would Smashing Pumpkins have worked in an Amadeus trailer? No, I'm not arguing that. But it works here: the song is ambient, ominous, and foreboding, and you immediately get the sense that this is not just another comic book movie.

Is the trailer cliche? On many levels, yes. But there is a specific standard that people have come to expect from a trailer and producers have come to use to draw crowds. Just because a trailer is cliche doesn't mean the movie itself will be cliche. What it means is that they are using a method to advertise a work of art that has proved to have worked time and time again and will draw as many people as possible.

And the fact that you consider more people seeing Watchmen to be a bad thing is both infantile and elitist. The goal of filmmakers is to get people to see their work. They are not interested in satisfying the euphoria you get when you enjoy something and decry all the 'butt scratchers' who are 'too stupid to get it.' You don't want Watchmen to be a good movie. You want it to be your movie so that you can have it and stroke your ego. And the very idea that someone would try to bring other viewers into your little club makes you angry, because it will no longer be your private little ride and unwarranted self-importance.

I will be very upset if Watchmen turns out to be cliche dribble, but the only assumption I'm going to make based on the trailer is that the producers are offering an intense visual treat. Just because I like the trailer doesn't mean I don't have my doubts, it just means I think the film at the very least looks good. If I am disappointed on both ends, then you and I can shake hands, make-up and saw its bollocks off. But it would not bother me to know that the trailer did draw more average people and did what it was supposed to do. The trailer is not a representation of the film as a whole, it is a marketing tool. And I think they have marketed the film very well. That is why I am excited about the movie.

[Biblo]

Rebuttal2

Most of what you said is redundant. You say I talk like I sat through the movie, no I don't. Everything I've said is about the trailer.
THE TRAILER is typical action bullshit
THE TRAILER is too clean
THE TRAILER has poor choice in music.
the comedian looks like and idiot in THE TRAILER

Now that that's cleared up.

I never once said I didn't want people to see it. But I don't want the film to be compromised in order to rope in some money spending demographic who wouldn't normally be interested.
A film-maker's goal is NOT to get people to see his film. A film-maker's goal is to make the best film he can make. A marketer's role is to get people to see the film-maker's film.
An audience should be drawn to a film. A film should not be drawn to an audience.

The point of a trailer in my view is to say to people "this is the kind of film this is. if this looks like something you'd enjoy, go see it"
If I feel a trailer is going "hey everyone come see this!! COME SEE THIS!!! COME!!!" then I tend to dislike it.

Having said that, bad trailer =/= bad film of course, but so far I'm just reacting to what I've been given to work with.

Of course I'm going to go see it. And of course I have hopes, and of course I don't want a bad film. But if the price for a good film is compromising the attitudes and atmosphere of the comic, then it shouldn't be made.

[Randy Pearson]

Of course I'm going to go see it. And of course I have hopes, and of course I don't want a bad film. But if the price for a good film is compromising the attitudes and atmosphere of the comic, then it shouldn't be made.

I think so, too. And in case it does turn out to be shit, I'll bring the ball-knife.

[RomanClock]

If we are talking only about the trailer, and if you now want to see the movie, than it is a good trailer, the end.

[patriotclock]

Most of what you said is redundant. You say I talk like I sat through the movie, no I don't. Everything I've said is about the trailer.
THE TRAILER is typical action bullshit
THE TRAILER is too clean
THE TRAILER has poor choice in music.
the comedian looks like and idiot in THE TRAILER

Now that that's cleared up.

I never once said I didn't want people to see it. But I don't want the film to be compromised in order to rope in some money spending demographic who wouldn't normally be interested.
A film-maker's goal is NOT to get people to see his film. A film-maker's goal is to make the best film he can make. A marketer's role is to get people to see the film-maker's film.
An audience should be drawn to a film. A film should not be drawn to an audience.

The point of a trailer in my view is to say to people "this is the kind of film this is. if this looks like something you'd enjoy, go see it"
If I feel a trailer is going "hey everyone come see this!! COME SEE THIS!!! COME!!!" then I tend to dislike it.

Having said that, bad trailer =/= bad film of course, but so far I'm just reacting to what I've been given to work with.

Of course I'm going to go see it. And of course I have hopes, and of course I don't want a bad film. But if the price for a good film is compromising the attitudes and atmosphere of the comic, then it shouldn't be made.

The Comedian looks awesome. If anyone looks bad it's Ozymandias

[Biblo]

If we are talking only about the trailer, and if you now want to see the movie, than it is a good trailer, the end.

i want to see the movie because i loved the comic book
 
so no, the trailer has nothing to do with it for me

[Randy Pearson]

I'm going to agree on Ozymandias. But, really, he's probably the hardest character to pull off. Yes, even harder than Rorschach or Dr. Manhattan.

[salt]

Meh.


Doesn't look that great. And all new Smashing Pumpkins material is bad imo, so the music kinda ruined it for me aswell.

[Losperman]

And all new Smashing Pumpkins material is bad imo, so the music kinda ruined it for me aswell.

That song is 11 years old.

[salt]

Woops.

Well the only SP I recognized there was the singing so I didn't even know what song it was and guessed that the modern beat was by them aswell.

[patriotclock]

Meh.


Doesn't look that great. And all new Smashing Pumpkins material is bad imo, so the music kinda ruined it for me aswell.

This was the theme for one of the old batman movies

[RomanClock]

Man I've watched this preview so many times, its just so epic.

[CaulkClock]

Oh yeah a lot of the characters have Bat-Nipples

[AvocadoClock]

If we are talking only about the trailer, and if you now want to see the movie, than it is a good trailer, the end.

Man I've watched this preview so many times, its just so epic.

This.

After I saw the trailer, I soaked up a bunch of Wikipedia pages on the comics and characters. Then I watched the trailer again and went to the official site. I even checked out the production blog.

Good trailer + Smashing Pumpkins = Whoa

It hooked me. I'll see it.

[FluxCapacitorClock]

I'm impressed with just about every scene in the trailer being direct from the comic, but I'm not a big fan of all the slow motion and I hope the actual film has less of it. It does look like they're trying to push everything to be way over the top, when one of the things that appeals to me about the comic is that it seems very real.

[Marlin Clock]

I'm impressed with just about every scene in the trailer being direct from the comic, but I'm not a big fan of all the slow motion and I hope the actual film has less of it. It does look like they're trying to push everything to be way over the top, when one of the things that appeals to me about the comic is that it seems very real.

Shining blue god-man notwithstanding?

[Kombucha]

And what hardcore eighties tune would you have picked for the trailer that was surreal and fit. "Power of Love"?

I don't care whether or not it would fit, that would be great.

[FluxCapacitorClock]

Shining blue god-man notwithstanding?

I'm not kidding, the comic makes him feel possible to me. Maybe I'm insane and the only one who thinks it, but really, he doesn't seem out of place to me in the slightest in the comic. The way he acts in it, he seems perfectly logical to me.

I meant more along the lines that they're pushing everything else way over the top. Veidt smacking that dude across the face is awesome, yes, but the dramatic camera angles and slow motion effects make it seem way overdone to me.

[Biblo]

I'm not kidding, the comic makes him feel possible to me. Maybe I'm insane and the only one who thinks it, but really, he doesn't seem out of place to me in the slightest in the comic. The way he acts in it, he seems perfectly logical to me.

I meant more along the lines that they're pushing everything else way over the top. Veidt smacking that dude across the face is awesome, yes, but the dramatic camera angles and slow motion effects make it seem way overdone to me.

ya i agree

also that's a huge thing there with the comic/movie gap. a shiny blue god man can seem believable and realistic in a comic but in a movie, not so much. it's the differences of the media. in a comic he's just a few lines with some blue ink while a normal guy is a few lines and some pink ink. in a movie normal guy is normal guy and blue guy is big budget cg with hours of careful matriculated work put into every detail of his movement, lighting and texture and weeks of rendering and compositing

[Losperman]

please don't fuck up the ending, please don't fuck up the ending, please don't fuck up the ending...

Watchmen was the cover story in last week's Entertainment Weekly, and I was just reading the article on it. They mention some changes, saying:

The catastrophic climax is changed.

Sooooo... I'm guessing they probably fuck up the ending?