torgotom

I read Francis Rizzo III's DVD review of Watchmen: The Complete Motion Comic at http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=36421 and...
Just wanted to point out, the motion comic left out A LOT of dialogue and in doing so real;ly messed with some scenes. All the narration describing Dr Manhattan's early attempts to reassembe are gone. The entire sequence of him getting locked in the chamber and his girl running away was done almost wordlessly, removing Moore's superb dialogue AND leaving it unclear why she ran away; unless you knwo that she said "I cant handle this" and ran out, you can assume any number of reasons..
There's more, but just wanted to say, I hated the trimming of excellent script.

FrancisRizzo3

I've added a note to my review. As I said, I had thought about sitting and following along with the graphic novel, but didn't. I didn't notice the changes in watching, and surprisingly I don't see much mention of changes online, which is odd considering the passion for this project.

I'm going to have to go back over this.

THanks.

calhoun07

This just looks bloody awful to me. With the changes mentioned already and also the same voice "actor" reading the lines for EVERY character this just has SKIP IT written all over it to me.

This is an example of why Alan Moore hates the media's treatment of his work and I doubt this crap fest will help bring him around.

tylergfoster

The changes are one thing, but one actor reading the whole thing -- as it says in the review, this is basically like an audiobook with visuals. It is the norm on audiobooks for one person to read all of it.

Navinabob

Call me crazy but I liked the motion comic, and treated it as an audio book. Audio books usually do not read word-for-word because you'd just get bogged down with everything. Try reading a single page of the next paperback you read out loud and see how long it takes, then multiply by how many pages there are in that book, then divide by sixty seconds.

As much as fans scream for word-by-word translations, it is honestly a bad idea in most cases as what works in one medium may not in another. I'd rather they use 90% of the comic and produce something that I can show to my girlfriend then something that is too loyal and would bore her to tears.

Boba Fett

Yes, if it's an unabridged book.
For instance Jim Dale did the audiobooks of all the Harry Potter novels. I know some people didn't like the motion comic because there wasn't a female doing the female voices, but from what I've seen and heard the guy does a fine job.

tonyc3742

I always pronounced it Roar-shock, but he pronounced it Roar-shack. Not sure which is right.
I don't necessarily mind one voice actor, I've listened to plenty of audiobooks where that has been done and it's ranged from OK to great depending on who was doing it...I just don't know if having it read to me is worth 20 bucks.

John Sinnott

It's Roar-shack, he was named after the psychological test.

OldBoy

don't forget, you also get the $7.50 movie cash.

tonyc3742

I knew it was after the Rorschach test, I just didn't know how that name was pronounced. I went with the Xbox live deal for two free tix to the movie.

The Running Man

Hmmm... what other things did it leave out?

Is it just dialog or also scenes?

How much would you say, percentage-wise, is missing?

Kurt D

When in doubt, listen to the Beastie Boys singin' about Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego ...

Matto1020

I am planning on buying the Blu Ray release for the simple reason that I've never read comics and I think that's why I had a hard time trying to read this graphic novel.

I picked it up at Borders the other day, and for the life of me, I couldn't get a steady flow of reading and seeing at the same time. I felt I needed to examine the picture, read the bubbles, then go back and look at the picture again before moving onto the next window. It was driving me nuts! Give me a regular book and let my imagination do that imaging.

With the motion comic though, I'll be able to listen and then watch what's happening. Again, I think this is simply because I've NEVER read comics in my life, so this is quite different than reading a regular book.

calhoun07

And I've never really been a fan of audio books, so that seals the "pass" for me.

jhpadilla

Just a quick question about this blu ray:

You already said that it contains some omissions... How about the journals and Tales of the Black Freighter comic-within-a-comic?? Are they included? If so, are they abridged or what?

Thanks for your time!

Ash Ketchum

Question: Are you guys "watching" the "motion comic" because you haven't read the comic? If so, why don't you just read the comic? If you've read the comic, then what is the appeal of the "motion comic?" Just curious.

Pointyskull

I've read the book numerous times, for what it's worth.

The book is the thing, and anything (motion comic, movie, flip-book, what-have-you) is just a variation on the original masterwork. A variation that may be good, but that can seemingly never be "better" than the source material in this case. Nothing, in my eyes, can match the sheer joy the book gave and will continue to give me whenever I re-read it.

I picked up the BD of the "motion comic" because what I've seen/read of it made it look like a different and entertaining way to take in the material.

I'm not going to worry about the omission of some dialogue or elements if the overall experience is pleasing. But if I expect it to surpass the thrill of the book, I'm sure I will be sadly mistaken.

Gil V

I have watched 8 of the 12 episodes. I've also read the comic series more than once, since I've owned it for more than 20 years.

The DVD does a much better job of relaying the story than the original comics do. There are some panels that are added in a few scenes. There is some dialog missing, but nothing that subtracts from the story. In my opinion, the original comics were a bit too "wordy".

I think anyone who is even a casual fan of the comics would enjoy this DVD set, and I think the review is spot-on.

Just my $19.99 worth (that's what I paid for the discs at Best-Buy). I will use the coupon to go see the film this weekend.

tylergfoster

Well, preference is one thing, but I guess in your first post you made it sound like it was someone's laziness or incompetence/contempt for Moore's work that led to one actor doing all the voices.

calhoun07

I meant that if Alan Moore is pissed off about omissions from his work when translated to movies then the omissions in this version isn't going to help matters.

The one dude reading it to us is beside the point of that.