"Executing" flower power people by the US military

[Reeve]

I like the idea of flawed superhero types. My problem with Watchmen was simply that it lacked a good coherent story or conclusion.

[Illuwin]

I like the idea of flawed superhero types. My problem with Watchmen was simply that it lacked a good coherent story or conclusion.

Agreed, It had serious need of a good editor for the script and run-time.

Also (not a comic reader) to those saying none of them had power... Wasn't the blonde dude super fast in both mind and body? To the point of it being 'super human' or am I missing something.. some of them seemed to have 'above human' powers in strength or ability to take punishment but nothing like invincibility or flying around?

[Deleted]

As a European I also visited that youtube clip after watching Watchmen the first time to ask about the event, seeing as I recognized everyt other historical event from the intro.
And I definitely agree with other posters about Watchmen. It is one of the best super hero movies I've ever watched. Probably sharing the 1# spot with the Dark Knight, but that movie was only extrordinary because of the Joker.

[Ynna]

Agreed, It had serious need of a good editor for the script and run-time.

This is always a problem when adapting a story to a different medium. Given the original material they did a pretty good job with the movie. Arguably, they improved the ending in the film.

Also (not a comic reader) to those saying none of them had power... Wasn't the blond dude super fast in both mind and body? To the point of it being 'super human' or am I missing something.. Some of them seemed to have 'above human' powers in strength or ability to take punishment but nothing like invincibility or flying around?

Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias (the blond dude) is, in-universe, the smartest man alive. He's just a really smart bloke, who trains a lot. Something of an inferior Captain America.
They also increased the powerlevel of the characters in the movies (except of Dr. Manhattan.) The heroes of Watchmen (the comic) are just well-trained people with tights and a cloak. They're in no way above "human". They might excel at some things (e.g. Ozymandias: really smart; Nightowl: really good with technology; Rorsarch: extremely persevering...) but all in the realm of possibility. (Except the bullet-catching thing.)

[Deleted]

Agreed, It had serious need of a good editor for the script and run-time.

Also (not a comic reader) to those saying none of them had power... Wasn't the blonde dude super fast in both mind and body? To the point of it being 'super human' or am I missing something.. some of them seemed to have 'above human' powers in strength or ability to take punishment but nothing like invincibility or flying around?

Well he was so fast that he can dodge bullets etc. but he hasn't gotten any superpowers no. You could see them more like Batman, just a "normal" human but basically stronger, smarter etc. The only one with actual powers is Dr. Manhattan, to the point where he's basically God.

The story isn't really about good guys trying to find the bad guy either. Hell, the good guys aren't that good either, just look at Rorschach and The Comedian. To me it's about the individual problems each of the heros represent, which are sort of different groups in every society. And at the top is Dr. Manhattan who, as said before, can basically do anything he wants. The more powerful he gets, the further away he gets from humanity because he sees and experiences everything in a different way.

Don't jsut see it as a "bad shit happens, good guys go find bad guys, end" kind of movie.

[Illuwin]

Thanks for the clarification, it makes sense.. It's pretty analogous to batman I suppose, though I'd argue being fast enough to dodge bullets may bleed into super powers :P

I did enjoy the movie, was just a bit long to fully hold my attention.

[Aeka]

Kent State and Tiananmen Square are so different that comparing them is absurd. The shootings at Kent State is considered a classic example of poorly trained civilian soldiers being used in a role (law enforcement and crowd control) they were unprepared to handle. They either panicked or someone on scene panicked and ordered them to open fire. The act to fire was not local, state, or national policy (They were there due to riots and vandalism that had happened in town several days earlier, and a growing fear of greater violence). The aftermath was nationwide protests, and memorials on the scene of the shootings.

Tiananmen Square was a deliberate government crushing of a pro-democracy movement, in which the names and numbers of the victims remains unknown. The official Chinese announcement admits to 241 dead and 7,000 wounded, but most consider these to be extremely low, with the actual death total estimates ranging into the upper hundreds to possibly 3,000 or more. We don't even know the fate of "Tank man" the man who stood in the way of a tank: He's been reported as having been executed days afterward, to a Chinese government official saying "I think never killed." The aftermath was a complete government nationwide clapdown, and the expulsion of foreign press.

Apples and oranges.

A more similiar shooting (despite enourmous differences, of course), is the "Bloody Sunday" shootings in Northern Ireland.

As to "Watchmen," it is not a comic book about the deconstruction of superhero archtypes: That's the cover it used as a protest against the Reagan-Thatcher nuclear/confrontation policies with the Soviet Union. It was very much a liberal protest against those policies, a protest against how Reagan and Thatcher were handling the Cold War. The point is to show that those policies would fail, and that the current path would head us on an inevitable confrontation which would go...badly. It is very much an affirmation of the Cold War beliefs of the liberal establishment of the West during that era.

The problem is that within a few years, the conservative policy achieved victory, in that the Soviet Union collapsed, Eastern Europe was freed, Germany reunified, etc., rendering "Watchmen's" political messages obsolete, irrelevant and incorrect.

Myself, I consider the comic to be remarkably overrated, as there are incredible gaps of logic in the storytelling. Waiting till Nixon is in office to send Dr. Manhattan to Vietnam? Absurd! Riots in protest to masked vigilantes when we only are presented with a bare handful? Again, absurd. I enjoy superhero comics, even with those without superpowers. But here's reality: Without superpowers, sooner or later, and it'd be sooner, all superheroes would end up in the morgue. Bruce Wayne would've been cut in two by a sawed off shogun. Hawkeye would've been riddled by an AK-47.

A far superior product on dealing with the issues of superheroes can be found in Pixar Films' "The Incredibles."

But, but, it doesn't have perverts or cussing or sex!!!

True, and it still cleans "Watchmen's" clock.