ROTTEN TOMATOES: Watching the Watchmen Trailer: A Detailed Analysis

Watching the Watchmen Trailer: A Detailed Analysis

Weekly Ketchup's (and Watchmen fan) Greg Dean Schmitz walks us through the teaser trailer.

by Greg Dean Schmitz | July 24, 2008

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Last week saw the release of the first Watchmen trailer, whetting the appetites of fans of the highly-acclaimed graphic novel. A film version of Watchmen has been in and out of development for almost 10 years, but the long wait will finally be over next March.

However, there are plenty of people out there who may not be very familiar with what Watchmen is all about. So Weekly Ketchup columnist (and huge Watchmen fan) Greg Dean Schmitz has put together a detailed analysis of what's happening in the teaser trailer, based on his extensive knowledge of the original graphic novel. If you want to watch the trailer first, click here, then check Greg's notes on watching the Watchmen.

The Legendary Pictures logo follows the Warner Bros and Paramount logos. Throughout its long history, the Watchmen movie adaptation started at Warner Bros (corporate cousin to DC Comics) and then spent some time at Paramount until budget concerns caused them to put it in turnaround. Legendary Pictures is on a hot streak, with their past projects including 300, Superman Returns and the two Christopher Nolan Batman movies, and their future slate includes the World of Warcraft movie and the remake of Clash of the Titans.

There is irony in the DC Comics logo here. First, Watchmen is the only movie scheduled for 2009 based upon a comic book published by the company, even though it is not in fact set in their proprietary "DC Universe", home to characters like Batman and Superman, and there is a rocky history between Watchmen creator Alan Moore and the company.

The man on our side of that door is Dr. Jonathan Osterman. Very soon, he'll be getting a very big surprise. And a name change.

The woman whose face we can see in the left reflection is most likely Janey Slater, Dr. Osterman's coworker and budding girlfriend. Her watch recently broke, and Jon offered to fix it. However, as an experiment is about to begin, he dashed back in here to get the watch... and then the door closed. Oops. That makes Dr. Osterman a real "Watch Man" of sorts.

Watchmen will be released in 2009, but the setting is actually an alternate reality version of 1985, with several flashbacks to previous decades, starting with the 1940s, when Dr. Osterman's current predicament is set.

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(1-20 of 108 posts) | Reply

jokerboy1991 writes:
on Jul 24 2008 08:16 PM

Watchmen is the greatest book ever, and even if the movie is really good but not great it will be dissapointing. It does need to be 3 hours though...
Pros
-Billy Crudup looks perfect as Dr. Manhattan, and his look is great.
-Jeffery Dean Morgan looks just like The Comedian
-I like Patric Wilson as Night Owl, iffy on the costume though
-looks like the book
-Jackie Earl Haile is Rorscach, he is creepy looking
-Im glad there keeping the minuteman story and the vietnam stories in this
-Great visuals
-Great costumes

Cons
-Matthew Goode looks a little to young to play Adrian Veidt, but he could prove me wrong
-The girl playing Silk Spectre is the girl from The Heartbreak Kid
-Also it looks like its going to be filled with tons of slo-mo

I am still optimistic though, about everyday I get more excited then nervous. I think Snyder wants to stay close to the book so thats good. I think overall it will definately be really good and has a small chance of being great.

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The_Duckling writes:
on Jul 24 2008 08:35 PM

omfg this looks amamamamamamamamazing! lol i can't remember a movie I was so obsessed with! even Cloverfield, which wasn't as bad as everyone says it is imho. I agree with jokerboy1991 about Goode, and I seem to be in the minority of people ok with the slo-mo. Sure, it's a little gimmicky but this is Zach Snyder, the one man who could actually pull it off and make it look good. I'm glad he's making it his movie. I'm setting expectations low so I won't be crushed if this doesnt turn out, and I hope someone puts the ComicCon footage from tomorrow up in decent quality, cuz I can't go! lastly, Zach has already made this movie into a success marketing-wise: I got the book last year when I heard about the film, and since the trailer went up, a bunch of my friends are buying it.

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TheEndIsNigh writes:
on Jul 24 2008 09:22 PM

I have been waiting for this movie for so long, and because the Watchmen is one of the best comics ever written I have high expectations. I was nervous about how it would turn out, but the trailer was just amazing. It included some really striking scenes from the comic, and it seems that Zach is going to stick to the story lines. I can't wait to see the final product, no matter how it turns out. Rorsasch is my favorite character and honestly how he is portrayed will make the movie for me. The two things that bothered me in the trailer were Nightowl's costume and Ozymandias. Nightowl has already been mistaken by two of my friends as Batman....don't ask me how thats just the impression they got. And Ozymandias looks too frail to be similar to the comic character, and his costume lacks that ancient look that was such a hugde part of the character. I guess it all depends on the actor. Despite those two small things the movie looks amazing, and it looks as if Zack Snyder will do his best to please both the die hard fans and the new audience.

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greg_dean_schmitz writes:
on Jul 24 2008 10:15 PM

About Ozymandias' age, the only thing I can figure is maybe they have worked that into the character... since his big thing is control over his body, maybe they'll just write it in that he also figured out how to stop aging ? That actually makes some sense, if you consider the connection to Egyptian mythology, and their whole obsession (I think?) with immortality, and all that.

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D0C70RWH0 writes:
on Jul 24 2008 10:38 PM

One additional thing I saw at the end of the trailer, during the IMAX presentation of "The Dark Knight" was, underneath the title, "Experience it in IMAX." I wonder if it'll just be a straight blowup of the 35mm image, or if there will be anything special for the IMAX version.

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penguin_party_of_1 writes:
on Jul 24 2008 10:52 PM

I'm pretty new to the whole Watchmen world (only ever heard of it when I was checking out the Wanted wiki page) but of what I have found out about it, it seems to be the "Harry Potter" of the comic book world. I loved the trailer, the music was perfect, and I'm reassured that everyone says it's very close (so far) to the comic. I definately gotta read the graphic novel.

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Legit writes:
on Jul 24 2008 11:15 PM

In reply to this comment (#1920785)
Pretty sure this is NOT the Harry Potter version of the comic book world.

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Aqueryan Reloaded writes:
on Jul 24 2008 11:54 PM

He didn't say it was the Harry Potter version of the comic book world, he inferred, based on it's rabid following among fans that it was, METAPHORICALLY SPEAKING, the "Harry Potter" of the comic book world.

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Jen Yamato writes:
on Jul 25 2008 12:51 AM

Greg, an excellent feature here. I'll watch another trailer without wondering if any of them have as much thought and backstory behind them. Makes me wonder what all those spoilers are...

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greg_dean_schmitz writes:
on Jul 25 2008 01:36 AM

"Makes me wonder what all those spoilers are... "

Jen, oh you have NO idea. 'Watchmen' is a complex character piece... there is a lot going on, from minute one, and there are many surprises.

The biggest challenge on that front, I think, is that some of the "twists", which were groundbreaking in 1986, have in recent years been "borrowed" by popular movies and/or TV shows. So, the hope is that they will be appreciated as being as clever in 2009 as they were 23 years earlier when they were FIRST. Of course, to say what I'm talking about would probably reveal the spoilers.

About being the "Harry Potter" for comic book fans... I think the better analogy would be "Lord of the Rings." The X-Men are the Harry Potter of comic book fans, I think. LOTR vs Watchmen = more of a literary, groundbreaking thing; Harry Potter vs X-Men = more of a young, rabid audience thing.

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balanceman writes:
on Jul 25 2008 02:30 AM

I read the watchmen again recently. I really hope the kids today can connect and appreciate this movie but i really don't think so. I think critics will like it and all the fans of graphic novel, but after seeing how a movie like Hellboy performed with the mainstream movie goers I think Watchmen will play out the same way. Also, younger viewers will have a hard time understanding/relating to some of the adult themes. I hope that they leave most of those in there. I think it will struggle to even make $100 million.

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HyperionChild writes:
on Jul 25 2008 04:25 AM

Thanks so much to RT and Mr. Schmitz for this excellent article. I am a Watchmen "newbie" and now I really appreciate the trailer (which I have looked at a gigillion times already just because it was so pretty) even more. I have to get the graphic novel collection now!
Apparently I am not alone; right now Watchmen is Number Two on Amazon.

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smartmoviekid writes:
on Jul 25 2008 04:46 AM

i hope to pick up the graphic novel immidiately...even though i think it'll probably be sold out for the massive hype behind this amazing trailer. can snyder go 3-3 with "Dawn of the Dead", "300", and make "Watchmen" his grand slam? i sure hope so!

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Weston B writes:
on Jul 25 2008 05:48 AM

I tried two different stores yesterday and they were all sold out of the graphic novel. I ended up ordering it on Amazon. Looking forward to reading it and watching the movie.

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Roger_O_Thornhill writes:
on Jul 25 2008 06:05 AM

If anything, Watchmen is the Ulysses of the comic book world.

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CodeClearanceBlue writes:
on Jul 25 2008 06:29 AM

The trailer does indeed look amazing. I for one hated the Dawn of the Dead remake and 300, mostly for the rapid-fire camera work and ridiculous slo-mo action scenes respectively. Hopefully the slo-mo in the trailer is just that. The Watchmen needs atmosphere above all else; the Matrix-gimmicks should be (and hopefully will be) used sparingly.

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SpikesInMySkull writes:
on Jul 25 2008 07:12 AM

Honestly, I have a real problem with Zack Snyder directing this movie. He has consistantly showed that he is great at nailing visuals and creating an overall asthetic but is a complete dolt when it comes subtext. Hence his remake of "Dawn of Dead" while fast moving, action pack, and fun to watch, completely omitted the scathing critique of society that was the entire point of the original.

300 is prehaps even a better example of why Snyder is wrong choice for Watchmen. 300 worked because Snyder was able to nail the aesthetic of the graphic novel, but in that case, the graphic novel was pretty much all aethetic. Even Zack Snyder himself felt that the graphic novel didn't have enough plot which is why he felt compelled to add in the whole subplot with the queen. First of all: if this needed to be done, Miller would have done it in the graphic novel. Second: Snyder's Queen's story line was ****ing retarded and completely inconsistant with the the characters and plot of the Miller's graphic novel, and any part of the movie that Snyder didn't have to make up himself. Miller's Spartans (and their wives) had one solution to any given problem, and it was not sell out and sleep around. The movie even made the point of discussing how proud and strong Spartan Mother's where, and the trivialised all of that and the sacrifice of Leonidas and his men by having the queen grovel around and screw a wuss to earn some votes. If Miller had written a plot for the Queen into the source material, it would not have been that, not because it isn't realistic, but because that isn't the kind of story he was telling.

I'll put it to you this way... Leonidas's wife probably did sleep around for political favors... Leonidas probably (and by probably I mean deffinately) had sex with adolecent boys... And greek hoplites DID NOT go into battle bare-chested (they wore Lamellar armor). But Miller wasn't telling a history, he was telling a legend... there's a big diffrance. And the legend of the 300 is not about how Leonidas's queen would sleep around for a favor... it would have fit in better if she just killed the guy (you know like she eventually did anyway, thus making the whole thing even stupider).

Anyway... so what 300 proves is that the only thing Snyder doesn't screw up is translating comic books to movies when he has frame by frame guidance to work off of, this worked for 300 (accept for the Queen parts) but it WILL NOT get him through Watchmen. Watchmen is as reknowned as it is because of it's complexity and depth, not because of it's aesthetic. All the trailer proves is that Snyder is once again successful at capturing the aesthetic, it does nothing to demonstrate that Snyder actually "get's it" this time. Unfortunately no trailer ever really can, all a trailer really can do is demonstrate that he nailed the aesthetic and ask that I take it on faith that he "get's" the rest... Sorry but after "Dawn of The Dead" and "300" Zack Snyder is just not entitled to that kind of faith...

I mean seriously... if the guy didn't get the point of "Dawn of The Dead" or "300" do you REALLY trust him with "Watchmen"?

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dahluzz writes:
on Jul 25 2008 07:34 AM

In reply to this comment (#1921383)
how is going 3-3 a grand slam? a grand slam is when you score 4 runs, not 3. besides the fact that 'dawn of the dead' was serviceable and nothing more, your numbers don't make sense anyways. i wouldn't normally care, but for someone calling themselves 'smartmoviekid' this is pretty disappointing. at least your name's not 'smartbaseballkid' or 'PotentAnalogyGuy' cause that would just be sad.

but moving on, i really appreciate this feature, Schmitz. It more than makes up for some of the shmaltzy language i've called you out on in previous articles. I'm getting the novel this weekend, cause at this point i just have to know what's going on. solid break-down though. it makes the world of 'watchmen' that much more accessible for those of us who haven't experienced it yet. now to rewatch that hd trailer a few more times...

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greg_dean_schmitz writes:
on Jul 25 2008 09:11 AM

An update for the "God help us all" line... a poster IM'ed me via the forums to point out that The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) does indeed say that line in the novel, as part of a longer exchange (which I think is why I didn't remember it). Who he says it to, and what he's talking about, I'll not say here, but it's on page 15 of issue/chapter 2, if you want to check it out.

Dahluzz: that's cool of you to say that !

HyperionChild: you too !

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jokerboy1991 writes:
on Jul 25 2008 10:59 AM

In reply to this comment (#1921229)
HEY! I am kinda young (19), and I frikking love the book!

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