Arts and Entertainment – Guide Source

Watchmen is a twelve-issue comic book limited series created by writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons, and colorist John Higgins. The series was published by DC Comics during 1986 and 1987, and has been subsequently reprinted into a collected graphic novel.

The Watchmen movie Plot: In a gritty and alternate 1985 the glory days of costumed vigilantes have been brought to a close by a government crackdown, but after one of the masked veterans is brutally murdered an investigation into the killer is initiated. The reunited heroes set out to prevent their own destruction, but in process so discover a deeper and far more diabolical plot.

Characters in the movie: Edward Morgan Blake/The Comedian: One of two government-sanctioned heroes (along with Doctor Manhattan) who remains active after the Keene Act is passed in 1977 to ban superheroes.

Dr. Jon Osterman/Doctor Manhattan: A super powered being who is contracted by the United States government.

Daniel Dreiberg/The Nite Owl II: A retired superhero who utilizes owl-themed gadgets.

Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias: Drawing inspiration from Alexander the Great, Veidt was once the superhero Ozymandias, but has since retired to devote his attention to the running of his own enterprises. Veidt is believed to be the smartest man on the planet

Walter Joseph Kovacs/Rorschach: A vigilante who wears a white mask that contains a symmetrical but constantly shifting ink blot pattern, he continues to fight crime in spite of his outlaw status.

Laurie Juspeczyk/ The Silk Spectre II: She is the daughter of Sally Jupiter and the Comedian.

Filming: The film finished with a budget of approximately $120 million. The production took place in Vancouver, where a New York City back lot was built. Sound stages were used for apartments and offices, while sequences on Mars and Antarctica were shot against green screens. Sony Pictures Image works and Intelligent Creatures came on board to work on the visual effects for the film. Comic book artists Adam Hughes and John Cassaday were hired to work on character and costume designs for the film. Snyder wanted Nite Owl to look scarier and Ozymandias to possess authentic Egyptian attire and artifacts. Ultimately, Oyzmandias, Nite Owl and Silk Spectre changed most from the comic.

Music: The soundtrack features three songs written by Bob Dylan: Desolation Row, The Times They Are a-Changin and All Along The Watchtower. My Chemical Romance, whose members are fans of the comic, covered Dylan’s “Desolation Row” for the first half of the closing credits. The music video for My Chemical Romance’s version was directed by Zack Snyder. Two albums were released on February 24 2009 by Warner Sunset and Reprise Records Watchmen: Music from the Motion Picture and Watchmen: Original Motion Picture Score.

Know more about the Watchmen movie plot & characters, Visit the Big Home Video website to find out more about Watchmen – The Movie.

A group of heroes, forced into retirement a decade before are called together once again to investigate the murder of one of their own. What they discover an age-old conspiracy to change the balance of power in a world not different from our own. It has the screen adaptation of all the characters that the comic book had and which enthralled the readers all over the world.

Gritty and visually striking, Watchmen is a faithful adaptation of Alan Moore’s graphic novel, but its complex narrative structure may make it difficult for it to appeal to viewers not already familiar with the source material. A comic book adaptation which thrilled the masses with it’s imaginative ability and graphic characters but unfortunately a large chunk of the public outside the US hardly know anything about it.

Watchmen is a 2009 American superhero film directed by Zack Snyder and starring Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Patrick Wilson. It is an adaptation of the comic book of the same name by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

The film is set in an alternate-history 1985 at the height of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, as a group of mostly retired vigilantes investigates an apparent conspiracy against them and uncovers something even more grandiose and sinister.

Watchmen is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the Doomsday Clock – which charts the USA’s tension with the Soviet Union – is permanently set at five minutes to midnight. When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed up but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes.

As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion – a ragtag group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers – Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future. Their mission is to watch over humanity… but who is watching the Watchmen?

Malin Akerman plays one of the lead characters in the film. Akerman described her character as the psychology and the emotion of the film due to being the only woman among the men. The actress worked out and trained to fight for her portrayal of the crime fighter. The actress stands apart in her grittily fitted costume looking absolutely stunning in her new Avatar.

The movie opened to mixed reviews from critics all over the world. David Edelstein of New York said that the makers made the most reverent adaptation of a graphic novel ever. But this kind of reverence kills what it seeks to preserve. A reviewer in The Wall Street Journal wrote, Watching Watchmen is the spiritual equivalent of being hit on the skull for 163 minutes. Donald Clarke of The Irish Times was similarly dismissive saying that the director has squinted hard at the source material and turned it into a colossal animated storyboard, augmented by indifferent performances and moronically obvious music cues.

But in the end Watchmen is a story set in an alternative 1985, where the world is ticking closer to the brink of nuclear war, and a plot to eliminate a band of ex-crime fighters is instigated, but why? And by whom? It is up to two of those ex-crime fighters to investigate the plot that seems to go beyond the unthinkable.

Know more about the Watchmen movie plot & characters, Visit the Big Home Video website to find out more about Watchmen – The Movie.