Friday, March 6, 2009

2nd Row IMAX Watchmen Midnight Release

Omg.

Omg. Omg. Omg. Omg. Omg. Omg. Omg. Omg. Omg. Omg.
Omg. Omg. Omg. Omg. Omg. Omg. Omg. Omg. Omg. Omg.
Omg. Omg. Omg. Omg. Omg. Omg. Omg. Omg. Omg. Omg.

OMG.

Can only think in bullets, Rorschach-style.
(Spoilers. Will keep the formatting harder to read for those of you just trying to skip to posts below.)

- Every one of the Watchmen = enormous and muscular and actually LOOKED like they could kick the ass of every person whose ass they kicked (this includes the women, which makes me deliriously happy. Could have ended the movie with total satisfaction on Laurie's monster thighs)
- Montage at beginning beautifully, tragically, perfectly encapsulates most of "Under the Hood" without seeming dry or remotely like exposition
- Dr. Manhattan's package much, much more impressive
-Rorschach's voice EXACTLY the way I (and probably you) pictured
- IMAX sex scene a little uncomfortable. A LOT uncomfortable, but adorable in its way.
- Nite Owl is huge, hulking, lumbering nerd with enormous glasses and a mean roundhouse kick. So attractive.
- Ozymandias colder than I expected, but followed/believed the choice easily enough
- Soundtrack = all the rich 60s protest songs and silly 80s pop their world missed out on because America won the Vietnam war and Tricky Dick stuck around
- Hints to parts left out - beautifully, seamlessly done; the readers will laugh and cry at every subtle reference of the news seller and the boy, and Hollis. Okay mainly cry.
- Hollis isn't killed onscreen, nor is his death referenced. Personally liked it better that way...
- Movie = 99% graphic novel, .5% switcheroo of the "alien" at the end, .5% human error because I was so engrossed I must have missed something
- Visuals; visual tableaus = STUNNING, and directly from the pages of the book
- Costumes, hair, skin... so beautiful and perfect and unnaturally smooth like paint
- Overall look like the ink hadn't quite dried yet
- Switcheroo of the "alien" is WRONG WRONG WRONG and unfortunately left a bad taste in mouth at the end... like finishing a seven course juice-filled, heavenly, luxury meal with an uncooked rutabaga.
- When entered theater, was prepared for the worst but hoped for the best. Got most of the latter with just enough a dash of the former to let me know humans made it.

Recommendation for people who have read the book - go right now as soon as you read this.
Recommendation for people who haven't - not sure. See it definitely but maybe don't pay for it.

But maybe do.




*Author's Note* It took me about three weeks to reconcile myself with the ending of the graphic novel and will probably take me as long again, now that I'm reminded of the bleak(?) message. Thoughts?

9 comments:

Stephen said...

*Spoiler Alert*
Just saw Watchmen tonight too! I feel the same way about the ending switch. I liked the choice of adding more Nixon. The dialogue seemed too short, but at 2 hours and 40 minutes, I don't know what they could have added. Maybe this should have been a two film series? I think David Hayter watered this script down too much in certain places.

And what was the deal with that axe to the head of the child killer instead of the fire? Weak sauce.

Overall though I thought it was very entertaining. Fun fun fun.

I would recommend reading the book before seeing the movie.

Unknown said...

Yeah, definitely read the book beforehand, if you can.

Also, thanks for posting so quickly Steve it makes me feel good/validated to have comments ;)

ali d said...

I was surprisingly not geeking out about the movie (I actually forgot it came out today/last night), but now I'm freaking out and can't wait to see it. Alien switcheroo? What does that mean?!

Thanks for the reviews, britt and steve.

ali d said...

Also, second row? Was that because you were some of the last to get in, or did you choose that? Cause ouch, neck.

Unknown said...

haha yeah second row because we only got there 20 mins early, and also lots of people in the upper seating left seats between them and the person next to them. I pronounced very loudly that if I had to throw up because we were sitting so close, I was going to aim it at them.

David Pratt said...

Honestly my only major gripe is that they cut they final conversation between Dr. Manhattan and Ozymandias. I think Veidt's character really suffered without that moment of uncertainty and self-doubt being exposed.

But yeah, no squid was a letdown.

THE DOCTOR said...

Seriously? I thought this was the most imbicilic piece of shit I've ever seen.

Jacob M.

ali d said...

Jacob, can you expand on your thought a little? I'm a lot more prone to listen to Brittany, Steve, and David, as they've provided reasons for their opinions.

THE DOCTOR said...

ali d,

Not to self hype too much, but I wrote about my feelings toward the film on my own blog, which is droidlocks.livejournal.com, if you are really interested.

JM