Watching the Watchmen

Watched the Watchmen last night, so that answers that question (inside joke).  I hustled up after all the school open houses and choir concerts. (brief aside, my kids rock) Met some friends for the 9PM show, and the parking lot was *empty* for the whole theater.  Been hitting the Thursday night 9ish time slot for a while and its never been sooooo empty.  *shakes fist at economy*

Going into the movie I was excited, because I’m a fan of the graphic novel, the story is convoluted so I wasn’t sure how it would be recieved by the non-fanboy public.  About an hour in a few people of the sparsely populated theater got up and left.  Which I kinda expected, if you come into Watchmen thinking, oh this is like Xmen or Spidey, you’re not gonna like what you get.  Its a darker theme, and really it laid the groundwork for some more popular movies (The Incredibles pops into mind).

The good stuff without being too spoilerish.  Rorschach! awesomely portrayed, and his mask is just awesome.  The Comedian is well done by Jackie Earle Haley, and Billy Crudup’s Dr. Manhattan well done (could have used a little less blue penis though).  As stated in other reviews, the awkward love scene was awkward (as the comic portray it too I believe) and the song choice, a bit redundant.  Several people giggled through it, including myself.

Overall Zach Snyder did a great job translating comic to film.  Visually stunning.  For the uninitiated, pay attention to the opening credits.  On first look, several things are probably going back and rewatching, since the plot is all intertwined, some early things would be better understood after the first go round.

Overall: 3 stars.

Heroes – Hiros

Save the Cheerleader – Save the Future.

C’mon, say it with me!

This show is getting better with each episode, I hope that NBC’s showing the first three post-pilot episodes back-to-back on Sunday night, brings more audience to this awesome show. The standard cliff-hanger re-applies without the gore, infact this was the least gory Heroes I’ve seen. The powers are coming out, as the cast starts migrating in the right directions. Click to read the spoilerish? spoilery? recap.

Other links:

  • Michael has his recap up, and thinks this is a treadwater episode.  He’s right of course, but there are some good reveals.  Peter’s power takes shape, as does Nathan’s and Matt’s.  Hiro does no time stopping, and Claire finds a new wardrobe.  Ya gotta look for the bright spots!

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Heroes – One Giant Leap

Michael has a post complaining about some inconsistencies in the plot, and I have to say that he’s got a point. But if we start getting into inconsistencies in comicbook plots, then we’d have to start getting all slayer like on LOST, and dammit, I’m not going there. The writers should take note to tighten up some hole, but to give them some slack, we have to move the story along pretty quick.

The rest might spoil, so click on to read more.

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Lost, Jericho and Heroes.

Two seasons ago we were introduced on ABC to the Lost television phenomenon in a wild new two-hour premeire that changed some of the perceptions we have while we watch a television drama. Lost combined tragedy and a well developed mythology into a show that was more about an island, than the people that crashed in the spectacular tail-falling-off crash that became its tell tale signature moment.

This season the other networks are playing catch-up, two new series try their hand at a serial television drama that after their premeire’s have many questions that have left unanswered.

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Comicbook movie update:

Wizbang Pop has an article that says Robert Downey Jr. will play Ironman in the upcoming film. Apt casting, since one of the first comics I remember reading as a boy had Tony Stark living in a bottle because his business was going south. As recounted by this article at the Marvel Database:

In recent years Tony Stark’s greatest nemesis has been alcoholism. As a wealthy socialite, alcohol had been a constant part of his life. When his company, which had changed its name from Stark Industries to Stark international, was threatened with the takeover at the same time he was experiencing oppressive personal problems, Stark began to abuse alcohol. Although he managed to recover quickly from his first serious bout, the compulsion to drink remained a constant temptation. The second time he succumbed to alcoholism, due to even more devastating personal problems than the first time, Tony Stark went on a several month binge during which he was cheated out of Stark international, had all Iron Man suits destroyed (except one), lost the leases on his various apartments, and had his personal assets frozen so that he could not touch his fortune. All of this was the result of the machinations of the mysterious European entrepreneur Obadiah Stane, who took over Stark’s company, renaming it Stane International.

On that note, Marvel comics has done an ok job of getting their mainstream books onto the screen. We’ve had Spiderman (spidey-riffic all of ’em), X-men (great), Fantastic Four (eh), Hulk (lol!), Daredevil (eh+), and Elektra (didn’t see.. but c’mon Jennifer Gardner was THE reason you saw Daredevil…. don’t lie!!) . Coming are Ghost Rider and Ironman. Meanwhile DC Comics just relies on Supes and the Dark Knight (would love to see Dark Knight Returns made into a movie) though Joss Whedon is supposed to bring Wonder Woman to the screen sometimes… In the end the Marvel Universe has a bigger bag to pick from, so they can go deeper into the genre. Will there be a Flash major motion picture, that I’d see.

Update: Jack M. @ Ace of Spades has a pic of the issue that popped into my brain as well. (geeks unite!)