From a recent open letter:
The reviews are out — Some outstanding, others rankly dismissive, which can be frustrating for the people involved, (though I can only speak for myself,) because I firmly believe that WATCHMEN, the novel, must be read through more than once to even have the faintest grip on it. And I believe the film is the same.
I’ve seen it twice now, and despite having run the movie in my head thousands of times, my two viewings still don’t’ allow me to view the film with the proper distance or objectivity. Is it Apocalypse Now? Is it Blade Runner? Is it Kubrick, or Starship Troopers? I don’t know yet.
All I know is that I had a pretty amazing experience the two times I’ve seen it. And both viewings produced remarkably different experiences. The point is, I have listened for years, to complaints from true comic book fans, that “not enough movies take the source material seriously.” “Too many movies puss out,” or “They change great stories, just to be commercial.” Well, I f***ing dare you to say any one of those things about this movie.
This is a movie made by fans, for fans. Hundreds of people put in years of their lives to make this movie happen, and every one of them was insanely committed to retaining the integrity of this amazing, epic tale. This is a rare success story, bordering on the impossible, and every studio in town is watching to see if it will work. Hell, most of them own a piece of the movie.
So look, this is a note to the fanboys and fangirls. The true believers. Dedicated for life.
If the film made you think. Or argue with your friends. If it inspired a debate about the nature of man, or vigilante justice, or the horror of Nixon abolishing term limits. If you laughed at Bowie hanging with Adrian at Studio 54, or the Silhouette kissing that nurse.
Please go see the movie again next weekend.
The bold is, I feel, the problem. The rest of the letter is basically a plea to fans to see the film again and not make the inevitable steep second weekend drop a reality.
Comments
19 responses to “David Hayter begs for more ‘Watchmen’ business”
An open letter from the writer begging you to see the movie doesn’t really send a strong message, at least not a positive one. Although I love Hayter as Snake.
And to compare your movie to Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner, Kubrick’s films, or even Starship Troopers, itself a hell of a movie in certain ways, kind of rubs me the wrong way. Those are all classics, for good or ill—Watchmen is not.
I respect the dedication it took from so many talented people to bring this film to life over so many years, but does that make it a great film?
“By fans, for fans?”
Sorry, that just doesn’t cut it for me at all. Essentially he’s saying the film is irrelevant to the vast majority of the moviegoing population. If it can’t speak to people who haven’t read the graphic novel (and let’s not even get into the fans’ gripes for now), then it’s the film’s failing, not the audience’s.
Silly statement.
Two things:
1. For some reason, Hayter, like many others, have this crazy belief that if a film stays close to its source material that this inevitably causes it to have some of the same qualities of the original work. It is two completely different mediums here. While they certainly discuss the same issues, the aspects required to be successful in both are vastly different. I really have gotten sick of people saying Synder deserves to be commended because he tried to stay as close as possible to the graphic novel – like this guarantees that Watchmen will be good.
2. I would say that he has a point and was about to think so when he was talking those few movies who have become to be seen for what they truly are until I remembered one thing that completely trumps that point. Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner, and any Kubrick movie didn’t have an emo band fuck up one of the greatest songs ever by screaming the words to it in the movie. I think Hayter would do well to remember that in his numerous subsequent viewings.
Good point Guy.
I agree Guy… And in fact the Movie was pretty disappointing! I was excpeting a little bit more… I believe only the one who have read the CB can really love this movie. And if the writter says it is made for fans, how can he ask the other people to go see it? Again…?
I will go and see it again next week. In IMAX then.
If this isn’t a tell-tale sign that Watchmen is poised to nose-dive in its second week, I don’t know what is.
The movie was awesome. The more I think about it the more I realize how brilliant it is.
Watchmen might be the most divisive movie of the decade.
The film was just as good as the graphic novel. the story is complex, the characters intriguing and well-defined, the dialogue sharp. Add to that decent to great acting from all involved (minus Ackerman) and some amazing visuals/effects…it’s a pretty damn good movie. If people can’t follow the story they can go back to their Mall Cops and Takens
Well I’ll be seeing it tonight for the first time. I was supposed to initially see it over the weekend, but got hooked into seeing CORALINE instead and with all the things I’m hearing about WATCHMEN, I do not regret that decision at all since CORALINE was pretty fantastic.
Bit I digress. The thing about the movie though is it IS the talk of the town at least for now. Like I’m now compelled to see it just so I know which side of the fence I’m on. Am I going to love and defend it or am I going to hate and scorn it? I’m excited to find out.
This is pathetic. This movie, as with the british faux-comic from the 1980s, is propatainment trash intended to “stick it to America”. It didn’t sell when it was published and no one’s buying it now. Meaningless, despicable and unreflective of anything in the comic world of America, it doesn’t make you think and isn’t intended for that. It’s intended for hating America and Americans. Hater needs to get a real job, because he just lost his right now. And the marketing really sucked. We wanted a serious treatment of Wonder Woman. We got bogus boatshit and a writer who is lying to us. Don’t do this again. And to think we thought Flash Gordon was bad.
If Solid Snake tells you to do something, you better do it.
Hayter should write a screenplay for “Metal Gear Solid”
This is almost sad. While I don’t share the hatred of this film that many others on this site do, Hayter and the folks who worked on this film need to face the fact that this film just isn’t the masterpiece that the graphic novel is, and it certainly won’t be putting up Dark Knight or even 300 numbers at the box office.
Hayter mentions Stanley Kubrick, but Kubrick made far more divisive films in his career and he NEVER resorted to begging for people to see his movies.
Hayter, just calm down and let the film take its course. If it stands the test of time, then you didn’t need to do any of this grandstanding. If it does not stand the test of time, then you and Patton Oswalt were wrong. Either way, this letter was totally unnecessary and reflects poorly on Watchmen.
I call bullshit on both Hayter and Oswalt.
I’ve owned and loved the book for over ten years, and the movie insulted me both as a fan of the novel and a moviegoer in general…
it was crass, dumb, homophobic (once again) and infantile.
and begging an audience to watch your film??? if it was any good, you wouldn’t have to resort to that, buddy.
“This is a movie made by fans, for fans.”
And this is why this movie sucks balls.
What’s so hard to get about this film? People calling it complex – PLEASE! They explain everything to you in a cliched final fight battle. IT was spoonfed to you. Only a retarded monkey would have a hard time understanding this film. This is a film you cannot watch more than once. There are no hooks. If you look at a comic book film like Batman Dark Knight, there are just so many hooks to draw you back to see it again; Heath Ledger’s awesome performance, the elegent direction of the film, the beautiful realistic cinematography, the unsettling yet cool musical score, the action sequences, – it just keeps you coming back to experience that again. Watchmen explains everything to you at the end, and most action is on green screen CGI, and slow motion – there is nothing there that deserves a second viewing. Tell this writer to please not compare Watchmen to those films he compared it to ….just plain silly. Watchmen sucked – that’s why people won’t see it again, not because they didn’t get it. I got IT, and IT was boring and horribly made. End of story.
Am I the only one who read this with Snake’s voice in mind?
“Am I going to love and defend it or am I going to hate and scorn it? I’m excited to find out.”
In case anyone wants an update, I’m neither. There were definitely flaws, the long runtime for one, but it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting from all the reviews.
Would’ve rather seen Coraline for a second time though.