I finally found the book, turned out my best bet was to go to this Comic Store I'd never been to. Real cool place, they had a whole turntable of nothing but the Watchmen Novel.

Hopefully soon I'll make some time to dig into it!

I heard rumors on a Watchmen adaptation a while back. I read it recently and i loved it. I can see why it was the only comic to win an award meant for books :p. Thanks to this movie its Number 3 on the best sellers list on amazon.

I really hope this movie will be received well by critics and does well in the box office. Snyder is taking a very big risk choosing this project. I have faith in him since he is making sure that this movie will follow the source as close as possible and clearly shows with the new trailer. The scenes look almost exactly like the comic.

For those who dont know there will be a DVD released containing stuff that couldnt be in the movie like Hollis' autobiography and Tales of the Black Freighter which was a comic book in watchmen

So I finished the book. It was solid, very very solid. I dunno if I really cared so much for the ending... I'm sure it'll some how be adapted better in the movie, however hopefully not to much.

Rorschach is by far my favorite character, I loved his attitude and outlook on everything. The actor playing him (Jackie Earle Haley) is pretty friggin creepy. I've seen him in "Little Children" and even though he had a very odd role in that movie, I felt he was solid. Seems like they've done a great job finding actors & actresses that look very close to their roles; Haley doesnt resemble Walter Kovacs at all IMO.

Full of twists and turns I didnt see coming, this movie is now #1 on my watch list.

Word.

Although I do have to tell you this... and this is a SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER for the movie so anybody who doesn't want it spoiled... the ending is apparently gonna be the same as the book. I like that ending. It sums up things really well... the moral dilemmas presented throughout the whole thing.

It's funny you like Rorschach the most, and you love his outlook and attitude. He's basically a white nationalist bordering on fascist. Funny isn't it? I'm not dissing you. He's my favourite character as well but hate what he stands for for the most part. This is what Watchmen does to you.

I didnt see him as that at all. I saw him as a person who has seen the horrid side, maybe even the truth of the world. That everyone would rather fend for themselves until they actually have to pay for their actions.... then they beg for their undeserved forgiveness.

I love how he is one track minded; the good live to see another day, the bad pay for what they've done. There's no gray matter, all results. Thats what I love about his character, the absolute no bull**** aspect to crime fighting.

I completely disagree that he is a white nationalist. To lump Rorschach into that category is about as ignorant as those who belong to the category itself. I do not feel he gave any special treatment to anyone, therefore he does not qualify as a white nationalist in my opinion.

Did you just call me ignorant?

He literally reads a really ultra right-wing nationalist newspaper. This isn't my interpretation, this is actually fact. The creator himself describes him as extremely right-wing. Alan Moore detests/detested objectivism and Rorschach believes in that. He is anti-liberal, anti-communist, reactionary and nationalist. He also admires the Comedian.

Another site says:
Rorscach can be easily dismissed as a fascist whose belief in moral absolutes – there are no shades of grey; only black, white, good and evil – drives him to take the law into his own hands.

And I'm not saying he's not a complex character, because he is. He does things that you can cheer for, he's iconic. But that's the point! Hardly anybody in Watchmen is a completely good or bad character. Manhattan is prone to painful indifference, The Comedian is a nihilist who sees the world as a joke (he has a point). Nite Owl 2 and Silk Spectre 2 are (possibly) the only two people who could be seen as clear goodies, but even that can probably be debated. I'd need to read it again to refresh my memory. Does it not tell you something that Rorscach tends to be the favourites of a lot of people? He embodies the super cool superhero who kicks **** and looks dark... but he's also a nationalist. :)

Let me ask you a question, do you think SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS Veidt (Ozymandias) is the villain?

Rorschach was not a "white nationalist" (i.e. racist), but he was most likely a nationalist. I am in the camp of folks who disagree with his outlook, but think he was nevertheless an awesome character.

It's funny you mention racism. I wasn't trying to say he was racist -- I only meant the guy was white, whites are seen as privileged (sp?), etc -- but I'm pretty sure Moore was trying to paint him as racist, though indeed, that may not be shown explicitly in the text. The thought was put in, but you'd have to go a little deeper to find it, so ahoy, some well sourced wikipedia karate action:

Alan Moore created Rorschach as a logical extension of Steve Ditko's characters like Mister A and The Question, both of which follow Ayn Rand's personal philosophy, Objectivism.[2]

Moore once said about Ayn Rand's Objectivism: "I have to say I found Ayn Rand's philosophy laughable. It was a 'white supremacist dreams of the master race,' burnt in an early-20th century form. Her ideas didn't really appeal to me, but they seemed to be the kind of ideas that people would espouse, people who might secretly believe themselves to be part of the elite, and not part of the excluded majority."[1]

So he might be racist. I don't know. It wasn't my original point so I don't care enough to post more than this.


So anyone else got some more stuff to discuss about Watchmen? A good discussion has started up here. :)

Visually Yes
SHOW SPOILER!

I feel that Veidt does indeed fit into the role as the villain. His actions lead to the deaths of tons and tons of innocent souls not willing or aware of their own sacrifice to play into his peace/utopia scheme. He's self absorbed, believing he can solve WWIII by creating a conspiracy. He's the perfect mad scientist because he actually believes his actions will lead to a utopia, when in my opinion it would only cure the itch...it doesnt solve the problems

Morally No
SHOW SPOILER!

If in fact he were to bring the world to a Utopia (which I highly doubt he could have) then the real Villian of the Story would have been the War. Veidt would have only been a controversial character trying to solve the problems to save the world.... much like a hero in any other story. We even see Dr. Manhattan agree with him in the end and convince Nite Owl and Juspecyzk to keep the truth hidden thus backing Veidts actions.

In this case... would you consider Rorschach the Villain for wanting to disclose the absolute truth the world?

Rorschach was not privileged, if he was I sure as hell didnt see it.

And I didnt see him as racist either, Not once did I see him singling any group out in his writings or in his psycho analysis or in his actions. To me its just to much of a stretch of trying to label him as a racist. I dont like that and I feel it degrades a supurb character.

meh...

fell on def ears.

Moore did not mean that objectivists are literally racists, just that both groups have anti-egalitarian worldviews. If he would have made Rorschach an unlikeable character, he would have played to the central assumptions of objectivism, as opposed to critiquing them. The main point that he attempts to make with the novel, I think, is that the world is far from the cut-and-dry place that heroic fiction makes it out to be. Watchmen serves as a critique of hero-worship more than anything.

That makes it somewhat ironic that the director of the 300 is making the Watchmen film, since 300 was pretty much an ode to hero-worship, but I really don't think Snyder has a strong idealogical position either way. He just wants to put cool stuff on the big screen, and thankfully recognizes that Watchmen is cool largely because of its ideas, if everything he has said so far is to be believed. If the Watchmen film is screwed up, it will probably be the doing of the studio, since they seem to have problems with everything from the amount of sex and violence in Snyder's cut of the film, to the length of it, and

SHOW SPOILER!

the fact that Veidt is not shown to be an outright villain and subsequently offed by the "heroes".

Luckily, Snyder still has enough cred from 300 to get his way on most things, with the possible exception of the length of the film.