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The only reservation I have about this film is that it might get to sidetracked focusing on the settings.
Some movies focus too much on the setting, as in THIS IS THE SEVENTIES, making sure that every moment you know that it's in that time instead of spending it on character development and the characters get lost. That's fine for films like Woody Allen's Zelig but this is something different.

This movie isn't about a superhero shaking hands with Kennedy. Or adding Andy Warhol into the scenes. Or Gaping at Richard Nixon posters. It's about the human condition.

Is anyone else afraid that, that will be lost in the glitzy spectacle or recreating an unrealized past? Or is it just a moot point.

It's a valid concern. Still, I get the impression that Snyder wants to set us into this world gently and gradually. That's why the electric cars are not all obvious and that's why he didn't cast multiple actors to play the same roles at different ages.

Remember his appearance at Comic-Con? He talked about that flashback cliche of zooming in on a character's eyes and using that as a transition into a flashback. He pretty much stated point-blank that he wouldn't be doing that.

No, I think Snyder has bigger priorities than flaunting the period set of the movie.

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Semi-related to this thread, and semi-not:

As if by fate, I plopped in my Highlander DVD earlier today since I've been uber lazy/sick since getting back from Vegas. Anyhoo, Highlander benefits from having very good flashback transitions. Director Mulcahy was pretty clever in coming up with ways to venture across different time-spans without it seeming too forced or jarring to the viewer's senses.

Here's a few:

Connor watches pro wrestlers going at it in the ring and the images are intercut with images of a Scottish clan battle with men thrashing each other in a similar vein.

In the parking garage, the camera smoothly pans up into the ceiling and over the cars and comes out into what you think would be the next level of cars, but the camera is now actually overlooking a Scottish Village, all at the same speed of movement.

Connor reflects back towards his aquarium, the camera zooms in on the water, and then pans up and clears the top to now be looking from the top of the water at a Scottish moor.

Connor leans back against a rock in 1518 Scotland, and his face fades into the face of the Mona Lisa depicted on the side of building in which Connor walks past.

Connor speaks with Rachel and a falling bomb is heard momentarily before the scene's shot literally explodes into pieces with the bomb blast as the scene cuts to World War II Germany. This is the most jarring flashback transition in the film, but it's effective.

And finally the opposite of the aforementioned cliche. We see an overhead shot of Connor's mortally wounded body with darkness surrounding it. The camera pulls back, back, back, until only Connor's body is a tiny speck in a screen of black. The camera continues to pull back out of Connor's pupil/eye to reveal him driving.

Now there are some instances in Watchmen where flashback and flashforward panels are drawn with similar faces/imagery between time periods to smooth the transition, but it is not a universal device by any means. For a good chunk, Snyder will have to rely on his own devices. He could do a lot worse than the type of style employed in my favorite head-chopping film.

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You can make your superhero a psychopath, you can draw gut-splattering violence, and you can call it a "graphic novel," but comic books are still incredibly stupid.

-Bill Watterson

I wouldn't mind if the flashbacks came out of sudden cuts...nothing like a michael mann's of course, but i guess that the very comic book pretty much made them very well...the way the images interserct is very cinematic already and in doc manhattan's flashbacks case, they're just there, ready. No need to add anything, I guess.

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Excellent post. There's too much content in the Watchmen to lose your concentration to a heavy period feel. Again, it'll be a sign of how well Snyder has grasped the adaptation if he gets the balance right.

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The 50's and the 19th Century are very distinct visibly. The 80's are a bit more subtle looking even when compared to today. Just look at the backlot photos, do they scream 80's? Not really. We need some visual guideposts or dialog early on that ensures everyone understands this is the 80's.

Sure, we shouldn't be beaten over the head, but it should be very clear to new audiences the drama is taking place in the heart of the cold war.

It's possible the opening credits montage may accomplish this.

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The costumes are an easy way to identify...and the hairs, don't u forget.

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