# The Watchmen (Spoiler Warning)



## rabbitislove (Oct 1, 2008)

I feel like such a nerd for posting this, but I haven't posted in a while so what the hell. 

I recently read Alan Moore's highly acclaimed (and highly awesome!) graphic novel, The Watchmen. If you've read it, you know about Laurie's decision to leave Jon (typical superhero build) for the chubbier Dan. Although Dan's character is far from what most on this board would consider BHM, I'd still consider him meaty, and of course I loved all the sex/post sex scenes between him and Laurie. Best of all, Dan's body is never discussed in the comic, and Moore makes no excuses for this; the emphasis rather is that Laurie has an intimate and interpersonal connection with Dan, that she doesn't have for Jon, who became more distant from humanity in the course of their relationship. 

I know the movie version comes out in 2009, and I wonder if it will stay true to the comic book, since there are few if any sex scenes with even moderatly chubby guys. I have little faith; they've already made Laurie's costume wayy sexier than it was in the book (ironic, since she criticized her mother's pride in being a pin-up icon and building a career on her sexuality). Somehow based on the trailer, and my cynicism for Hollywood, I have a feeling they'll brush over Dan and Laurie's relationship completely and she and Jon will be together the entire movie. 

On a positive note; Patrick Wilson, the actor who will play him in the film, seems to feel positively about the character:

"I love Dan. I miss Dan. You always pull for Dan. You want him to pull through. He's flabby. He's morose. He's down on his luck. He's lost. He's all these really negative words, when you look at the first few panels, especially.When Rorschach and I go down to the Owl Chamber (in the graphic novel), there's a shot of him saying, "You don't think that' s a little paranoid?" And there's a little smile on his face. That's a whole different level when you get to see the artwork [than just reading a script]. It's not like I try do the same poses, but that helped me so such to see that the guy who's so down... still has a light. You see this sense of smile, these shots in the graphic novel that he's smiling and you see him fighting for it. That's something that keyed me into Dan."

Patrick Wilson has a cute face, so at least he'll be cute chubby guy. I guess we'll have to see when the movie comes out in 2009. I could just be wayy disallusioned by the mainstream media.

In the meantime, DISCUSS!!!!!

Taken from: http://io9.com/5029319/weve-seen-awesome-new-watchmen-footage


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## Ninja Glutton (Oct 1, 2008)

I feel like they're going to glaze over his chubbiness much more than they should. From all the promotional photos, he doesn't look the least bit chubby. I love those scenes with him and Laurie, though. He's just such an emotionally fragile, sensitive guy who longs for her. I can really relate to that.


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## JiminOR (Oct 1, 2008)

I wouldn't be surprised if the promotional photos are all supposed to be a younger version of the character, who had more of a superhero build. I'm betting that they're not going to reveal older paunchy Dan ahead of time, letting the public see it for the first time themselves when they actually watch the film. 

So yeah, I'm thinking he's probably going to be chubby for most of the movie. Watchmen fans wouldn't want it any other way.


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## WhiteHotRazor (Oct 1, 2008)

I don't know what they're gonna do about Dan being a BHM but I just really wanna see the scene where him (Nite Owl) and Silk Spectre break Rorshach out of prison... and Dr.Manhattan on mars probably will be pretty cool too


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## Smite (Oct 3, 2008)

And from the streets they will shout "Save us" and I will look down and whisper "No."


So.fucking.awesome


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## Ned Sonntag (Oct 3, 2008)

rabbitislove said:


> I feel like such a nerd for posting this, but I haven't posted in a while so what the hell.
> 
> I recently read Alan Moore's highly acclaimed (and highly awesome!) graphic novel, The Watchmen. If you've read it, you know about Laurie's decision to leave Jon (typical superhero build) for the chubbier Dan. Although Dan's character is far from what most on this board would consider BHM, I'd still consider him meaty, and of course I loved all the sex/post sex scenes between him and Laurie. Best of all, Dan's body is never discussed in the comic, and Moore makes no excuses for this; the emphasis rather is that Laurie has an intimate and interpersonal connection with Dan, that she doesn't have for Jon, who became more distant from humanity in the course of their relationship.
> 
> ...


 The artist of THE WATCHMEN Dave Gibbons worked in the style of EC artist Joe Orlando- as his style appeared in the days when Orlando worked closely with Wally Wood. Orlando worked on EC's PIRACY series, OK? The BLACK FREIGHTER subplot, get it? A decade later Orlando and Wood worked in succession on Marvel's DAREDEVIL. Orlando created a villain based on his own physical appearance named, guess what, 'The Owl'; chubby yet able to occasionally glide thru the air via a cape. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmen briefly credits Orlando's influence but doesn't 'get' why the Second Nite Owl is chubby... among many other things, Moore is referencing Orlando's 'Golden Age' EC work, plus his 'Silver Age' Daredevil work for Marvel, plus his post-Silver Age work as a DC editor... a thread that ties the 3 great companies and the 3 cucial eras together. I worked with Joe briefly on LOONEY TUNES ADVENTURES at the very end of his career...


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## pdgujer148 (Oct 3, 2008)

Ned Sonntag said:


> The artist of THE WATCHMEN Dave Gibbons worked in the style of EC artist Joe Orlando- as his style appeared in the days when Orlando worked closely with Wally Wood. Orlando worked on EC's PIRACY series, OK? The BLACK FREIGHTER subplot, get it? A decade later Orlando and Wood worked in succession on Marvel's DAREDEVIL. Orlando created a villain based on his own physical appearance named, guess what, 'The Owl'; chubby yet able to occasionally glide thru the air via a cape. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmen briefly credits Orlando's influence but doesn't 'get' why the Second Nite Owl is chubby... among many other things, Moore is referencing Orlando's 'Golden Age' EC work, plus his 'Silver Age' Daredevil work for Marvel, plus his post-Silver Age work as a DC editor... a thread that ties the 3 great companies and the 3 cucial eras together. I worked with Joe briefly on LOONEY TUNES ADVENTURES at the very end of his career...



Thanks for the insight Ned!


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## Ned Sonntag (Oct 3, 2008)

Hmmm technically I suppose the ECs came between the Golden Age and the Silver Age... so Orlando and Wood were not Golden Agers, as opposed to the only-slightly-older Jack Kirby...:doh:


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## Melian (Mar 13, 2009)

I want this thread to resurface, now that the movie is out.

My fiance and I saw it last night - it was ok. I mean, you can't possibly do justice to such a story in a 2-3h movie, but for the most part it did a decent job.

RE: Dan, he was waaaaaaaaaay too thin. And they were all too young! Even my fiance had to comment that Dan *kind of* had a belly at the beginning of the movie, but it magically disappeared later! I was waiting to see him naked (LOL...yeah, this is why I go to the movies...) for quite a while, and then when the clothes finally came off, he wasn't even moderately chubby. Very disappointing, in that sense.

Has anyone else seen it yet?

ETA (because I KNOW you want to know ) - the lack of belly in the sex scenes pissed me off, so I had to go home and have A LOT of sex with someone who is actually nice and squishy.


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## WhiteHotRazor (Mar 13, 2009)

I saw it, I liked it quite a bit. I'm not gonna complain about things that are different from the book because at a 120 million dollar budget and studio exec influence I'm surprised it turned out as good as it did.


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## rabbitislove (Mar 13, 2009)

Melian said:


> RE: Dan, he was waaaaaaaaaay too thin. And they were all too young! Even my fiance had to comment that Dan *kind of* had a belly at the beginning of the movie, but it magically disappeared later! I was waiting to see him naked (LOL...yeah, this is why I go to the movies...) for quite a while, and then when the clothes finally came off, he wasn't even moderately chubby. Very disappointing, in that sense.
> 
> Has anyone else seen it yet?



I saw it Wednesday. And yeah, I totally went due to the sex scene and was dissapointed. (But I laughed because of the sheer rediculousness of Lenard Cohen playing in the background, so there was some amusement). They slimmed Dan down and vamped Laurie up. I dont remember her having to wax her binkini line to wear her damn costume.


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## Melian (Mar 13, 2009)

WhiteHotRazor said:


> I saw it, I liked it quite a bit. I'm not gonna complain about things that are different from the book because at a 120 million dollar budget and studio exec influence I'm surprised it turned out as good as it did.



Yeah, I'm not really going to complain about it (minus the Dan-thinness, for obvious reasons...). Versus other adaptations of comics/books/games, this was one of the best I've seen. I was totally unimpressed with movies like Silent Hill, X-Men trilogy, Alone in the Dark, the bulk of the LOTR films...but this one wasn't highly offensive.



rabbitislove said:


> I saw it Wednesday. And yeah, I totally went due to the sex scene and was dissapointed. (But I laughed because of the sheer rediculousness of Lenard Cohen playing in the background, so there was some amusement). They slimmed Dan down and vamped Laurie up. I dont remember her having to wax her binkini line to wear her damn costume.



LOL! All the music selections in this film were ridiculous, in an awesome sort of way.


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## BLUEeyedBanshee (Mar 13, 2009)

Yeah I noticed Dan had a little bit of a belly till he put the costume back on and it magically disappeared.

I have yet to read the GN, so that is one of my assignments during this summer. I liked it though...Even with Dr. Giant Blue Penis...eerrr I mean Manhattan.


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## mrfantasy90 (Mar 13, 2009)

I loved the movie! I read the novel at leats ten times and enough of it was awesome that Im going to see it again!

But then again, Im a big giant nerd boy...


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## Hawkeyed (Mar 13, 2009)

Although they did miss Dan's flab, it was a pretty great interpretation of the character I think. I loved the movie in general, they got some characters (Rorschach, Veidt) eerily perfect.


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## escapist (Mar 13, 2009)

Well we LOVED the movie, had a great time seeing it.....not sure I would have split off making lots of me's but rather I would have just grown lots of arms


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## Smite (Mar 13, 2009)

Favorite part was the use of Pruit Igoe. I think this film actually used it better than Koyaanisqatsi, and I realize that's sacriligious.


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## ~da rev~ (Mar 14, 2009)

Meh, the movie was alright. It was pretty entertaining with a good soundtrack. I agree, the Lenard Cohen version of that song would not be my first choice for that sex scene. I would've went with the Jeff Buckley version, but that's just me.

Also, the god damn version of Desolation Row by Bob Dylan they used. The one not at all by Bob Dylan, but the cover version by that dreadful My Chemical Romance, nearly ruined the whole movie for me. And it was at the end credits. I ran out of the movie theater. I was all "Fuck this"


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## Smite (Mar 14, 2009)

I also heavily liked the way they made Roarshark and Dan more close in the ending. I thought it made it feel more powerfull when that thing happened.


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## Canonista (Mar 14, 2009)

Patrick Wilson was also in Hard Candy. He's got some real dimension to him in that one.

I just got back from seeing The Watchmen. The sex scene was a big disappointment, and Dr. Blueschlong's character got tiresome quick. Rorschach in prison MADE the movie. I wish they'd done a film just on him.

Overall I'd give it a 6 out of 10.


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## Hawkeyed (Mar 14, 2009)

Hard Candy was a really creepy movie. Although he was supposedly the "villain" in the movie, you pull for him throughout the film because Ellen Page is so freaking crazy. He's a great actor, and he did a great job as Dan.


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## chicken legs (Mar 14, 2009)

I just wondered who was gay and who was still a virgin.


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## chicken legs (Mar 16, 2009)

Opps ...double post


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## chicken legs (Mar 16, 2009)

Other than wondering who was gay in the Watchman Movie..i would have choose the Dr. over the Owl because the Doc could change Size and Shape of EVERYTHING.

It makes me think of "I Dream Of Genie"..except i would be Major Nelson..muhahaha and he would be the "Blue the Man Group".


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## Canonista (Mar 17, 2009)

chicken legs said:


> Other than wondering who was gay in the Watchman Movie..i would have choose the Dr. over the Owl because the Doc could change Size and Shape of EVERYTHING.
> 
> It makes me think of "I Dream Of Genie"..except i would be Major Nelson..muhahaha and he would be the "Blue the Man Group".



Yeah, but he was like puttin' your tongue on a battery.

His climax could kill you like the electric chair....


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## chicken legs (Mar 17, 2009)

Canonista said:


> Yeah, but he was like puttin' your tongue on a battery.
> 
> His climax could kill you like the electric chair....



ok...

but who says he has to climax around me,on me, or in me...lol

I'll just watch from a distancelol


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## Tad (Mar 17, 2009)

chicken legs said:


> Other than wondering who was gay in the Watchman Movie..i would have choose the Dr. over the Owl because the Doc could change Size and Shape of EVERYTHING.



As a kid I always wondered what was so amazing about being completely stretchable and bendable, that the leader of the Fantastic Four got dubbed "Mr. Fantastic." As an adult I realized "oh yah, his wife is also in the group, and with that ability......"


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## William (Mar 28, 2009)

Does 'Watchmen' Hold Hidden Physics Lessons?

Listen Now [21 min 33 sec] add to playlist

Talk of the Nation, March 27, 2009 · Can superhero movies teach audiences about science? Dave Gibbons, author and artist of the Watchmen comic series, discusses the science behind the superheroes in his story. Physics professor James Kakalios talks about teaching science to the Watchmen actors and stuntmen.



http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102428962&ft=2&f=510221


I really enjoyed this radio show

William


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## olwen (Mar 28, 2009)

Melian said:


> I want this thread to resurface, now that the movie is out.
> 
> My fiance and I saw it last night - it was ok. I mean, you can't possibly do justice to such a story in a 2-3h movie, but for the most part it did a decent job.
> 
> ...



I finally saw it and I was thinking the same thing. He wasn't anywhere near fat. What a travesty of justice. 

Overall, I thought the characters were kinda flat compared to the comic. The Dr. Manhattan animation was worse than I thought it was gonna be. I know the face is hard to animate but geez, they coulda done better. It's funny too, I was so distracted by the stilted facial movements that I didn't notice his free willy till my friend pointed it out to me. The sex scenes were lame too. I think I'm just stuck on the comic that I liked a lot better. This movie just didn't do it for me.


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## aaronoshea (Mar 30, 2009)

Probably the 'chubbiest' shot in the film, though there was another shot of Patrick naked with his back to the camera, and love handles were in evidence.

I thought the love scene was pretty cool. I wouldn't mind making love while hovering above New York City!


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## chicken legs (Mar 30, 2009)

aaronoshea said:


> Probably the 'chubbiest' shot in the film, though there was another shot of Patrick naked with his back to the camera, and love handles were in evidence.
> 
> I thought the love scene was pretty cool. I wouldn't mind making love while hovering above New York City!



Dude i could not enjoy that scene because i kept thinking where the bathroom would be located on his ship.lol:doh:


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## Melian (Apr 1, 2009)

chicken legs said:


> Dude i could not enjoy that scene because i kept thinking where the bathroom would be located on his ship.lol:doh:



What a twisted mind you have. Not that I don't love it...but still!


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## olwen (Apr 4, 2009)

aaronoshea said:


> Probably the 'chubbiest' shot in the film, though there was another shot of Patrick naked with his back to the camera, and love handles were in evidence.
> 
> I thought the love scene was pretty cool. I wouldn't mind making love while hovering above New York City!



That does sound like a cool idea, but I felt like the execution in the movie made it scmaltzy somehow. It makes sense in the book, but in the movie it was somehow off to me.


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