Watch Watchmen

Watchmen was fucking awesome. Plain and simple, go see it (don't worry, no spoilers in this post). Do you have to be a fan of the comic (or know the comic) to enjoy it? I don't think so, but its hard for me to say since I am. Just know going in that there is a lot of graphic violence and sex and that the movie is very dark. Very dark. And very graphic, especially with the violence. The sex is actually pretty tame when compared to the violence. That is, unless you count all the time you see a blue-CGI'ed penis, which is quite a few (seriously). But I can't stress the violence enough; if you can't stand violence, Watchmen might not be for you. Based on the audible gasps and the fact that a few people walked out part of the way through the movie, I'm guessing some people in the theater didn't quite know what they were getting into. Oh well. I thought it was incredible, and my complaints (few as they are) have to do with visual style and casting and nothing to do with the story or how it was told.

Complaint #1- all the damn slow motion. We get it, Zack Snyder, it looks cool when you slow down time and then speed it up real quick to catch up; we all saw 300. Watchmen is a long movie (2:43, I believe), and I swear it could have been a half hour shorter if all the slo-mo had been dropped. Okay, so there's not that much slo-mo, but there's a lot. Its used in pretty much every action sequence. I get that its just a director's visual style, but its been done to death (see: Bay, Michael).

Complaint #2- Matthew Goode as Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias. A lot of reviews I read pegged Malin Akerman as the weak casting link, but I think it was Goode. And its not that he's a weak actor, I just think he was miscast. You don't believe for a second that he's the "smartest man in the world", and if you do believe that, you certainly don't believe that he physically capabable to do what he does in the movie. And then there's this odd accent that comes and goes with him. The first time we see Adrian Veidt, he's got this strange, indecernable accent, but later in the movie, he's got nothing at all. It was a little distracting. Aside for Ozymandias, I thought the rest of the movie was cast well, especially Jackie Earle Haley and Patrick Wilson.

There's a lot of talk about the movie altering the climactic ending from that in the comic; don't worry about it. I don't think the original ending would have worked on screen. They cut elements from the story that tie into the original ending (and they were right in doing that), so without those story points, the original ending wouldn't have made any sense. What they changed it to works better in the context of the story and achieves the exact same intended outcome. In fact, I dare say that the movie's ending achieves that outcome in a more complete and all-encompassing way than the comic.

So all-in-all, I loved Watchmen. Its totally worth seeing again in the theater, and I might do just that before the weekend's over.

This Is Just Weird

I'm in full-on Watchmen mode right now. I would love to see this guy take on scenes from the graphic novel in the same Saturday-morning cartoon style.

The End Is Nigh.

You now have just over a week to go and read Watchmen before the movie is release on March 6th. I've been excited for this since the trailer first ran before The Dark Knight back in July. I've checked, and I couldn't be more stoked now. Here some clips from the movie that have been released so far (the last one combining 10 shorter clips together):









Yeah, couldn't be more stoked. I've checked the scenes against the novel (because, let's face it, I'm a geek), and I am impressed. But I'm not one of people that think any deviation from the source material is automatically a bad thing; I understand that things change when a property is adapted from one medium to another, so I can accept changes as long as they make sense. Example- clip 6 (of the 10 shown in movie four) shows Deisberg talking to Veidt about the Comedian's death. In the novel, its Rorschach that talks to Veidt. Why the change? Don't know, but as long as the same information is conveyed in the scene, it doesn't really matter. Also, I don't mind that they've decided to actually use the name "Watchmen" in the movie; nothing changes in the story by doing so, you eliminate any potential confusion among the non-graphic novel crowd about why the movie's called Watchmen and "Watchmen" is never mentioned, and it sounds better than "Crime Busters" anyway.

I've read that there are 3 cuts of the film- the theatrical cut (155 minutes), a director's cut (around three hours), and a special extended cut (pushing three and a half, which, I would guess, includes the Tales of the Black Freighter story cut into the film). I can't wait until the 6th. Let's hope that the greatest comic book ever made into a movie can also be the greatest comic book movie ever.

(Man, that last line was terrible. Sorry).

I Believe In Christopher Nolan (And Zack Snyder).

Okay, time to geek out.

The Dark Knight was fucking awesome. I'm not going to spoil anything from the movie (not that there is a whole lot to spoil; that is, unless, you are one of the people that doesn't already know that Harvey Dent is fated to become Two-Face- there, you've been spoiled), but it lived up to all of the hype. Christopher Nolan has done an amazing job rebooting the Batman franchise. Heath Ledger as the Joker? Incredible. There's talk of a posthumous Oscar nomination, and given his performance, I don't think that would be out of place. The movie addressed my favorite part of the Batman character- the fact that Batman is kinda crazy and is really only a half-step away from the "freaks" he puts away in Arkham. I love that he's essentially insane but he's able to control it and use his psychosis for good.

Zoe: He's a psycho, you know. Niska.
Mal: He's not the first psycho to hire us, nor the last. You think that's a commentary on us?

And speaking of psychotic superheroes, how about the teaser trailer for Watchmen that ran before The Dark Knight?




Stunning. I cannot wait for this movie to come out. Yeah, its supposed to be "unfilmable," but so was The Lord of the Rings, and look how that turned out. What you need is someone who is determined to remain true to the source material, and Zack Snyder appears to be that someone. Entertainment Weekly has Watchmen on the cover right now with a preview of the movie, and it looks like Snyder is saying all the right things and working hard to preserve as much of the original story as possible. But in the end, you never know. Changes are inevitable, I just hope the changes make sense and are justifiable within the context of the story. I guess Snyder's first real test is at Comic-Con this week, where he's showing some footage. If he gets of there alive, maybe he's on the right track.