Tuesday, March 24, 2009Who Views the Viewmen? I finally found time to see Watchmen at a matinee this evening. That's the major minus of having a normal work schedule: I can't have my way around town while everyone is at work, 'cause I'm at work. Instead of going home for my sleep 1 (I'll have to explain my weird yet consistent sleep schedule sometime), I saw the 4:30 showing. There were around five other people in the theater and we were all well-behaved. The sound did drop out during a scene but since I've read the book so many times, *shrug*.
In short, it's a good movie. A lot of comic book-to-film adaptations strike an odd nerve in the details. Comics Batman wouldn't have let Ras al Ghul die in a fiery train wreck. Lois Lane does not look or act like Kate Bosworth's portrayal. But, man does Watchmen hit all the right notes. Well, 99.9% of them. Sure there are changes in shot selection, dialog, and a few plot elements, but in the majority of cases they mesh well with the source material. The movie is covered in references to minutiae from the book. Characters in the secondary and tertiary roles in the book are liberally given cameos as reaction shots and scenery. Some characters like Silhouette are embellished with great effect. The movie, with it's hindsight on the 80's, also loads the sets with impersonators of real celebrities. Look for a David Bowie (no, not the actor who played Ozymandias, who could totally star in a Bowie biopic)! The ending is not one of these changes I enjoyed. Like V for Vendetta, the ending seems shoehorned in to a faithful adaptation. I wonder what the reason for the change was: the sheer absurdity of the book ending in the face of the mostly "realistic" portrayal of a modern world with superheroes is what makes it so powerful so I hope it's not because the book ending is so out-there. Maybe it's because the book ending took time to set up that the movie could not spare. I will admit that the threads leading to the movie ending could be woven more seamlessly into the rest of the plot. Still I am very glad a Watchmen movie got made and it doesn't suck. Being a huge fan of the book, seeing some of the scenes play out in motion was really a great experience. The large tub of popcorn I consumed... not so much. Final Note: Upon reflection on the movie I realized that references to smoking were missing. One bit in the book has Laurie looking for a cigarette lighter on the Owlship when she hits the flamethrower button by accident. In the movie, she just hits the button because it's shiny or something. In a flashback, a boy is smoking a cigarette, also missing in the movie. Do the powers that be really think that erasing smoking from media is part of the solution? How does that mesh with alcohol use and movies centered around cocaine? link : 9:50 PM
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Sunday, November 23, 2008 I actually finished a movie today. I've had it from Netflix for over a month and just got to it now. It adds significantly to the genre of elephant conservation films, following such classics as Operation Dumbo Drop. Oh yeah, and martial arts. It's The Protector, starring Tony Jaa.
I'm not sure what I expected going in, except for grade A Muay Thai action. The plot is beyond ridiculous, even considering the premise of a traditional guardian of elephants in Thailand traveling to Australia to rescue two elephants stolen from his community. It's loaded with action movie cliches from the cops thrown off the case to the girl in the gang who has a heart of gold. There are also some curveballs like the x-treeeeme street gang made of skaters and motocross bikers (why don't they sell their gear and buy guns?) and a horrid computer generated sequence. The acting is D-average. And the hero's solution to every situation is pretty much walk int and start kicking. It's basically Streets of Rage, the movie. But the action more than makes up for the silly story. Tony Jaa is really really good, and the cinematography greatly accentuates the action sequences (I hear Quantum of Solace is greatly deficient in this area). One especially cool scene is when he fights through building 3 (or is it 4?), a gangster restaurant: It's one continuous shot! Labels: movies link : 9:26 PM
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Thursday, November 13, 2008Indiana... let it go. My mind is completely blown. How did someone wield a metal knife so accurately on a "highly magnetic object," so magnetic that it affected gunpowder hundreds of yards away? And why was there no payoff with this magnetic object when a gunfight broke out around it? And seriously, a flying butt triggering a timed plot device? No, just no. I stopped watching Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at around the 12 minute mark.
link : 10:47 PM
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Thursday, June 12, 2008The AMA Alliance Sounds Stressed, Maybe They Should Smoke A Cig"Shame on 'The Incredible Hulk' for unnecessarily adding smoking to a sequel that would have been just as exciting and believable without it," said Dianne Fenyk, President of the Alliance. "Universal Studios and the other Hollywood studios should be especially embarrassed for using comic book movies, which they market to children and know youth will want to see, to promote tobacco." The above quote pretty much sums up a press release by the American Medical Association Alliance, which is riding the coattails of a big budget movie into the news. Saying that a character promotes cigar smoking by simply having one is as sensible as saying that the Hulk (the protagonist lead) is promoting running from the law by... running from the law. Maybe the cigar in the movie shows something about the character, like how he is old fashioned and inconsiderate of others' well-being. In a related note, I have a theory about why crazy people are often in leadership positions of otherwise sane organizations. Maybe I'll share it sometime. link : 4:36 PM
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Friday, April 4, 2008Declassified Story from Work and Other Notes
 {Rawr.} link : 10:25 PM
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Saturday, December 8, 2007It Was Gravity Killed the Beast Kristin's schedule takes her out of the house a lot of the time so my Netlfix queue has changed from anime to feature films. In telling you what I think about them, I'm introducing a new movie-reviewing criterion: the moment when I wanted to stop watching (but didn't). So far I've seen:
Apocalypto: I don't see what the anthropological fuss is about. I think it's assumed that a work of fiction is fictive, otherwise it would be a documentary. I was disappointed by how un-epic the film was. It pretty much throws in the audience's face that the movie is about government excess leading to the fall of the empire. Except, we never see that. The movie is actually about this guy who loses his village to the empire and kills the people who were directly responsible. Imagine if Star Wars had Luke lose his family, go to the Death Star, and then... kills the stormtroopers who killed his aunt and uncle. Very underwhelming indeed. Moment I wanted to stop watching: Ten minutes into the film after I realize that it showing every tiny piece of the hero's village life. Seriously, setup is very unnecessary in a film. In contrast, let's look at a masterpiece: The Seven Samurai's premise is that a village is attacked by bandits and desperately hires some samurai for protection. The opening scene? The village decides to hire samurai for protection. I don't need to know how they make breakfast. King Kong (Jack Black edition): One of the top three movies that address the issue of gorillas fighting dinosaurs. It's also a very unnecessary remake. What King Kong does have going for it is that the action scenes are very well done. Unlike virtually ever other action movie I've seen in the last ten years, I can tell exactly what is going on in a fight between five individuals. Moment I wanted to stop watching: Five minutes in when Jack Black shows up. I forgot he was in it, and he is intensely annoying. Live Free or Die Hard: The first Die Hard is unique because it took a pseudo-realistic take on action movies. Glass shards hurt. The enemy's liberated clothes don't fit the hero. The sequels have strayed from that gimmick, and now it's just another Bourne movie. This movie also suffers from too much setup. It should start with John McClane picking up the hacker. Seeing the crazy evil hacker group first takes the realism right out of the film in minute one. And seriously, these hackers have a computer secretly rigged with plastic explosives? Trust me, anyone who likes computers enough to be a hacker knows exactly what is inside their machine, especially brown bricks labeled C4. Moment I wanted to stop watching: Five minutes in when John McClane's daughter is being forcibly felt up by some dude. Why am I watching this? Labels: movies link : 4:06 PM
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