Were you one of the many people upset by the changed ending in the movie version of Watchmen? Personally, I thought that the new one worked rather well and tied Dr. Manhattan into it to boot. But I did miss the squid, and I forgot just how graphic the original ending was in comparison. It turns out there was a reason it was changed besides studio executives thinking that a giant squid might be a little out there. When David Hayter was asked about writing the script, he explained that the studio was very sensitive to 9/11-esque imagery that may offend viewers in such a big budget film. It makes sense, and the Hiroshima shadows were a good way to underscore how many people died without showing their bloody corpses. Read more…
Posted by Ben Huber on Dec 10, 2011 in Comic Books
I’m sure at one point or another all of us have wanted to be Rorschach from the Watchmen. Well, maybe not him personally, but at least have his cool outfit. His mask is pretty iconic, and now you can come one step closer to having the perfect Halloween costume with GraphixFan’s custom-made Rorschach masks. He states that through a process of trial-and-error, as well as carefully selecting the ink used he created the best yet Rorschach mask. How does it actually move, you ask? Read more…
Who watches the Empire? Aside from making for an incredible t-shirt, this design by artist Jonah Block draws a rather apt comparison between the Watchmen and the Galactic Empire. At first I didn’t really see how you could compare the Empire who, though acting at the behest of an evil sith lord, ruled through fear and the gritty and morally-questionable superheroes of Alan Moore’s world. However, the more I think about it, the more I get it. People who trust or fear the empire do so at the expense of personal responsibility and freedom, ignoring or living with their plight out of a false sense of security — much like the every day citizens of Moore’s reality. It’s a neat statement, and one I’m not really sure the artist may have intended, but it works for me. If you’re a fan of Star Wars or Watchmen and love the design too, you’ll be happy to know that TeeFury currently has a t-shirt available for the next 24 hours, so hurry up and order one while you still have the chance.
You know, a lot of our favorite movies and TV shows deal with some sort of fictional company, from the independent business (Paper Street Soap Co.) to the megacorp (Massive Dynamic). We always see the men and women who run the show, but we rarely see the men on the ground, the salt-of-the-earth types who keep keep these fictional businesses going by performing mundane tasks in low-paying positions. Does Jack Tesler, part of Umbrella Corporation’s maintenance personnel, even know that he’s technically a henchman? Probably not, but at least he’s been provided with a cool business card, courtesy of Fro Design Co. Fro’s latest collection, titled “Day Jobs,” features mockups of business cards belonging to normal people who just happen to work at twenty-one made-up companies covering the entire geek spectrum, from Cyberdyne Systems all the way down to Duff Beer. Read more…
Mezco showed off an ultra cute line of toys called Mez-itzs which are mini eformed action figures. Shown above is a full line of Family Guy figures — below are Hellboy, Beetle Juice and Rorschach: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 14, 2009 in Comic Books
I think it’s safe to assume that by now most fanboys are going to their second showings of Watchmen or waiting on the DVD at this point. The one thing I’m noticing is that as time goes on I start to notice more and more plot holes and mistakes in the film. So without further ado here’s my laundry list (warning: this list will contain some plot spoilers, so if you still haven’t seen the film please don’t read ahead): Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 8, 2009 in Comic Books
From the moment I read Watchmen all of those years ago I always wanted to see it as a film — and I guess the lesson here is is that you should be careful what you wish for because you may just get it. After seeing the film I was left with a vey flat empty feeling, yes on a superficial level the director got almost every frame right but there was something lacking: the soul of the comic book. Read more…
Editor’s Note: In this column animation critic Joe Strike gives us our first review of the Watchmen film.
They got it right – they didn’t fuck it up too bad.
That only begins to describe my reaction to Zack Snyder’s Watchmen. On the ‘faithful-to-the-source-material-in-terms-of-capturing-its spirit’ scale I give the film 4.95 stars out of five. I credit the film to Snyder because it’s definitely his version of A____ M____ and Dave Gibbons’ ‘unfilmable’ graphic novel. It’s also a paraphrase of what Snyder said back in 2007 when he was starting work on the project: “I hope some rainy afternoon in England A___ M____ will watch the movie and say ‘they didn’t fuck it up too bad.'”
Since you’re reading this on a site called fanboy.com, you know A___ M____ removed his name from the film (and turned down the zillions of $ of booty it will generate, handing it over to Gibbons) because of his distaste for what Hollywood’s done to his books; you also know the book inside-out, the way its themes echo through its huge cast and various subplots, or the counterpoint between the main story and the pirate comic ‘within the comic.’ (I don’t intend to review the movie here, plenty of people are already covering that end of it, but even so, plenty of spoilers ahead – you’ve been warned…) Read more…
Editor’s Note: In this column animation critic Joe Strike gives us an overview into his adventures running around the New York Comic Con this past weekend.
This damn thing keeps getting bigger and bigger, not that that should be a surprise to anyone. The only surprise is why did it take so long for NYC to get a world-class con of its own. When the New York Comic Con opened for business in ’06, four years ago, its exhibit area was a tiny (for the massive Javits Center) basement space that was overcrowded from almost the instant the con opened its doors. This year the exhibitors took over most of the high-ceilinged main floor, an enormous space that the equally pop-culturey Licensing Show used to fill before moving to Las Vegas. Read more…
Editor’s Note: This essay is the result of my walking about the New York Comic Book Convention this year and asking myself the question “What brings you here?”
While escaping the New York Comic Book Convention I came across a series of Watchmen posters in the street, saturated by the orgy of the show I naturally assumed that the posters were aimed at folks entering and exiting the mega gathering of geekdom. However several blocks I realized that I was only kidding myself as I came across the same set of posters again — what was once the realm of fanboys twenty years ago was the mainstream of Hollywood today. In this way Watchmen is no different than Oprah or any frat boy focused reality TV show on MTV that’s a hit. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 25, 2008 in Comic Books
It’s a Christmas gift to us fanboys from Fox! It seems that their copyright case against Warner Brothers has done the trick and this may cause the film not to open come March:
“A Los Angeles federal judge has ruled that 20th Century Fox owns the distribution rights to “Watchmen,” representing a setback for Warner Bros.’ plans to release the pic in March.
“Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the ‘Watchmen’ motion picture,” the ruling said. Judge Gary Allen Feess issued the surprise ruling Wednesday — a week after setting a Jan. 20 trial date for Fox’s suit — and indicated he would issue a more detailed ruling soon.”
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 10, 2008 in Comic Books
At long last the official version of the Watchmen trailer that was shown at ComicCon 2008 is now hitting the web! I have no idea how good this film is going to be, but i love the amount of detail that I’m seeing in each frame (which is a fanboy plus in my book).
Watchmen fanboys can sleep soundly at night knowing that there will be tons of collectable knickknacks to coincide with the release of the feature film. My favorite of the goodies is a nifty 1:24 scale replica of the Owl Ship (shown above) and of course there are plenty of action figures too: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 13, 2008 in Comic Books
I admit I had my doubts, but this trailer looks like the real deal. Of course this doesn’t guarantee anything, I’ve seen plenty of trailers where the film was a letdown — but Watchmen now looks promising to say the least. Yes if there’s an alternative universe where Terry Gilliam directed the film I’d want to see that instead, but living in this universe I’ll say that this don’t look too shabby (he says as he wipes fanboy drool from the corner of his mouth).
Side Note: I even like the voice over effect! It’s hard to carry that off without being corny (example: Blade Runner), but here it works, and works well at that. I hope not to be let down, but this looks like they may have a shot at making a breakthrough superhero film noir movie the likes that haven’t been seen since since the 1989 Batman film directed by Tim Burton.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 12, 2008 in Comic Books
I’ve been reading that the ending of the Watchmen film will be different than the graphic novel, however these six character posters give me quite a bit of hope. I had my doubts about the casting but this is starting to look right! Above is the poster for Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley), and below are the posters for Ozymandias (Matthew Goode), Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman), The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson) and Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup). Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 10, 2008 in Comic Books
DC Comics has just published a nice coffee table book entitled Watching the Watchmen: The Definitive Companion to the Ultimate Graphic Novel by artist Dave Gibbons and designer Chip Kidd. This slick book includes character design sketches and even unreleased pages aimed at Watchmen fanboys like myself. Currently there’s also a related interview with Gibbons in Time magazine that’s worth checking out:
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 23, 2008 in Comic Books
Recently someone spoiled this film for me by telling me that the ending was different than the comic book, and in a huff I promised myself that I’d boycott watching it in public. However upon seeing this new poster for Watchmen I know full well that ‘ll be waiting for hours on line with every other fanboy…
