Man in the High Castle

Has anyone here watched it since Amazon put out the full series 2 weeks ago? I just finished the series and really enjoyed it a lot. One of the things I think they accomplished best was world building. It's tough to tell a story in an alternate timeline as it often feels like you've grafted set dressing on top of our own world, but Man in the High Castle did an excellent job of making it feel like it's own place. I certainly bought in to the reality of the story's world. I'd never read the novel, so I'm not sure what changes were made beyond the change from the novel within a novel to film within the film.

Did anyone else watch this? Enjoy it? I'm looking forward to the (hopeful) second season.

I haven't seen it yet, but I plan to watch it as soon as possible. I'm a big Dick fan (oops--that comes out a bit wrong here--that's "a big Philip K. Dick fan"), but I haven't read The Man in the High Castle.

Immensely enjoyable series. I am still marveling that, in this overly-PC world we live in today, that there isn't more of an uproar over all the slurs used though... I guess us Asians are just too sweet and submissive to say anything :). Really great show. No spoilers but book = VERY different in characters / plots. Basics are true to form but pretty changed overall.

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Originally Posted by Ecstatic

I'm a big Dick fan (oops--that comes out a bit wrong here--that's "a big Philip K. Dick fan"),

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LOL -- Is it really a bad thing?

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Originally Posted by krissy4u

No spoilers but book = VERY different in characters / plots. Basics are true to form but pretty changed overall.

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I sort of wonder if that isn't for the best. Look at Watchmen for an example why film shouldn't religiously follow printed material. So long as the changes are true to the heart of the work and not simply for set pieces,I think it strengthens the transition between media.

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Originally Posted by Wendy Summers

I sort of wonder if that isn't for the best. Look at Watchmen for an example why film shouldn't religiously follow printed material. So long as the changes are true to the heart of the work and not simply for set pieces,I think it strengthens the transition between media.

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When you sound smart it frightens me.

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Originally Posted by krissy4u

When you sound smart it frightens me.

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You'll like my upcoming horror film then:

"The Intellectual Porn Star"

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Originally Posted by Wendy Summers

You'll like my upcoming horror film then:

"The Intellectual Porn Star"

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fairy tale.

So what else is good on Prime? I'm relatively new to it and totally lazy when it comes to searching through to find something decent to watch. I pretty much just got Prime to watch Falling Skies, and besides that have only watched a few documentaries, Mozart In The Jungle (awesome), and a little bit of Transparent (not sure if I like or hate it).

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Originally Posted by krissy4u

fairy tale.

So what else is good on Prime? I'm relatively new to it and totally lazy when it comes to searching through to find something decent to watch. I pretty much just got Prime to watch Falling Skies, and besides that have only watched a few documentaries, Mozart In The Jungle (awesome), and a little bit of Transparent (not sure if I like or hate it).

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I've had very mixed feelings with Transparent. They seemed to focus more on the lesbian relationship than the trans issues in the story. I keep comparing to Lword rather than it being it's own thing.

I've not really dug any of their other original series yet.

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Originally Posted by krissy4u

When you sound smart it frightens me.

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The creators of Watchmen the movie misapplied Alan Moore's work. Many thought it was a superhero movie, but the original work was looking at the effects of the Cold War. At time where peace seemed impossible and it was only a matter of time nations would destroy themselves in posturing for control. I think it was concepts like that and many others the writers fail to apply. Hollywood was just looking for a cool action movie.

Will check out man in the High Castle. Philip K. Dick is amazing conceptual writer. Before I go to sleep tonight to dream of electric sheep, I will remember your thoughts wholesale.

Watchmen was a fantastic movie and I thought relayed the message of Moore's work perfectly.

I read the Man in the High Castle but haven't seen a second of the show. I only saw that ridiculously stupid marketing idea to plaster Nazi symbols on NYC buses for 2 days before they all got removed.

I really thought they missed Moore's work. It was less focus on the super hero fighting villains found in typical works, but the world they were in ( the cold-war). The original work while involving super heroes didn't actually have a lot of action, however, the action sequences in the original carried a lot weight. For example when Rorschach was escaping from the building and jumped from second story window and was pulling himself up, showed his focus, strength and a part of his character straight will and determination. The scene in the movie made him looked like a typical superhero movie where he do amazing feats people could not do. So the significance was thrown the wind. I could go through a ton of things. Still if you had a good time and enjoyed it, that's all that matters.

Phillip K Dick = one of my all time favorite authors of all time. Read the book many many moons ago. Just got the streaming Netflix hooked up on my new laptop...Looks like I'd better get over to Amazon and log in there as well.

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Originally Posted by lifeisfiction

Will check out man in the High Castle. Philip K. Dick is amazing conceptual writer. Before I go to sleep tonight to dream of electric sheep, I will remember your thoughts wholesale.

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....hhmmm..at the risk of sounding like the man who japed, the penultimate truth of it is....safe when taken as directed

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Originally Posted by christianxxx

Watchmen was a fantastic movie and I thought relayed the message of Moore's work perfectly.

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Dead to Me... :p

In all seriousness...

Watchmen is what I'd call a flawed masterpiece. Snyder replicated the graphic novel shot for shot... and therein lies why it ultimately fails as a movie. It doesn't ever really make a film out of it... it's more like vignettes for the camera. I wanted to love the film, but it just fell short.

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Originally Posted by Wendy Summers

LOL -- Is it really a bad thing?

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Absolutely not!

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Originally Posted by Wendy Summers

Dead to Me... :p

In all seriousness...

Watchmen is what I'd call a flawed masterpiece. Snyder replicated the graphic novel shot for shot... and therein lies why it ultimately fails as a movie. It doesn't ever really make a film out of it... it's more like vignettes for the camera. I wanted to love the film, but it just fell short.

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jesus I can't believe that none of you liked the Watchmen movie. I was captivated from start to finish. The slow motion shots were awesome, the details in the blood and killing.

I liked the beginning of the movie where it went over the original Watchmen and how they all died (which is the entire point of the watchmen...superheroes that weren't invincible).

Rohrschach's voice and cadence.

The part with Rohrschach in prison and the cooking oil "you think I'm in here with you, you're in here with MEEEEEEEEE"?

The music during the story of the beginnings of Dr. Manhattan and his haunting melodious voice

Really anything with Dr. Manhattan was amazing. "I'm tired of Earth. These people. I am tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives."

Miss Jupiter and her unbelievable body and boobs.

Night Owl was a cool costume and Patrick Wilson is a fantastic actor (he is amazing in Fargo Season 2 right now)

The cinematography was riveting and flawless.

The cool tiger animal and the tachyon chamber was cool.

Ozymandias making fun of how super villains usually give away their master plans stupidly was awesome.

The ending wasn't how endings ever go...the anti-hero Rohrschach dies in a gross way haha

Jesus you comic book nerds gotta step outside of yourselves for about 2 minutes and realize fantastic cinema when you are hit in the face with it. Holy smokes.

While the movie and the graphic novel both ended differently, I though each ending worked well within the medium and time period presented (comic vs movie, 1980s vs 2000s).

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Originally Posted by christianxxx

jesus I can't believe that none of you liked the Watchmen movie. I was captivated from start to finish. The slow motion shots were awesome, the details in the blood and killing.

I liked the beginning of the movie where it went over the original Watchmen and how they all died (which is the entire point of the watchmen...superheroes that weren't invincible).

Rohrschach's voice and cadence.

The part with Rohrschach in prison and the cooking oil "you think I'm in here with you, you're in here with MEEEEEEEEE"?

The music during the story of the beginnings of Dr. Manhattan and his haunting melodious voice

Really anything with Dr. Manhattan was amazing. "I'm tired of Earth. These people. I am tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives."

Miss Jupiter and her unbelievable body and boobs.

Night Owl was a cool costume and Patrick Wilson is a fantastic actor (he is amazing in Fargo Season 2 right now)

The cinematography was riveting and flawless.

The cool tiger animal and the tachyon chamber was cool.

Ozymandias making fun of how super villains usually give away their master plans stupidly was awesome.

The ending wasn't how endings ever go...the anti-hero Rohrschach dies in a gross way haha

Jesus you comic book nerds gotta step outside of yourselves for about 2 minutes and realize fantastic cinema when you are hit in the face with it. Holy smokes.

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I loved the Watchmen movie.

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Originally Posted by christianxxx

jesus I can't believe that none of you liked the Watchmen movie. I was captivated from start to finish.

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Hey, don't lump me in with that other intellectual pornstar... I liked Watchmen and thought it was a beautiful story. To be fair, I had not read the comic before, except in passing. I read the main body of work afterwards.

Quite honestly, you can't expect the movie companies to put together a film targeting the teen / young adult crowd (yes, I know it was rated R) and seriously explore dynamics of the "Cold War" when in all probability, most of the target audience wouldn't even be able to accurately define the term. It was a bubble-gum, summer-blockbuster type movie at a time when movies based on comics were still a bit risky. In the context of things, I think the production companies did a pretty good job of making money - their main goal.

Seriously, I think a lot of people secretly and actually LIKED Watchmen,but are just loyalists to Alan Moore, and thus, tow-the-line so to speak. I've personally enjoyed most every adaptation - V, League, From Hell, etc... all entertaining my book. If Watchmen comics had not existed and this movie was released as an original work, it would be beloved by many of those same critics... just my opinion.

Sieg Heil

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Watchmen was a very good movie. Alan Moore writes great graphic novels....the stories are very good ...excellent in fact...but he's not this genius that the pulp crowd makes him out to be. He's a bit of an annoying kook who happens to write good stories. I bought the book when it first came out. The writing was excellent and the art work was...okay. When the movie first came out I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but the reality was that if the movie didn't follow the graphic novel the way it did, it would not have worked at all. Simple.
Now it's a cult classic.
Upon reflection it was an excellent movie version of the graphic novel.

BTW...the twist to the ending was Rorschach's diary about to get picked out of the mail bag to write the story that Rorschach was killed for so that he couldn't reveal it. That's what made the whole fucking story.
Really.

Rorschach only cared about the truth...the facts....the how and the why. He didn't care about politics and the importance of the 'finesse' of the story and how it was perceived and how the truth needed to be massaged for the masses. He believed in the basics - good versus evil...and the truth.
...and he was right.
and he won out at the end

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i really liked the man in the high castle. i also really enjoyed mozart in the jungle, which is classical music in manhattan centered and alpha house, john goodman as a unc basketball coach turned republican senator.

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Originally Posted by krissy4u

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Seriously, I think a lot of people secretly and actually LIKED Watchmen,but are just loyalists to Alan Moore, and thus, tow-the-line so to speak. I've personally enjoyed most every adaptation - V, League, From Hell, etc... all entertaining my book. If Watchmen comics had not existed and this movie was released as an original work, it would be beloved by many of those same critics... just my opinion.

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Agreed. I would go further to say: the film is separate work and must be judged on its own merits, rather than be compared against the graphic novel.

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Originally Posted by crystalsopen

Agreed. I would go further to say: the film is separate work and must be judged on its own merits, rather than be compared against the graphic novel.

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And that's the thrust of my whole argument: Snyder didn't let the work breathe as a film -- he simply aped exactly what Gibbons drew in the novel. It had little artistic merit because he let something which was intended to deconstruct comic books stand unchanged. Worse by removing the Pirate comic from the story he even neutered the whole deconstruction.

Snyder is fascinated by the cynical aspects of Moore's views on Superheroes without actually understanding the commentary it is making. It bleeds over into his DC Cinematic work -- Man of Steel, for instance, where he makes Superman a mass killer. At the end of the day, his message to the audiences is that the heroes are simply bad people who are marginally better than the villains they fight.

So is his work fun to watch? Sure. Is it good cinema? I feel it fails in that regard.