Archive for March, 2009

Who’s watching the watchmen? Well I did in the premier last Thursday night at Rockwell. I was actually looking forward to this one.

I’m one of those that had just finished the graphic novel recently. Before reading it, my borrowed copy from Julie was just sitting in my TBR pile for months. I got intrigued with it since Sir/Papa Winchester/JDM is in the movie. Based on that alone, I thought that the Comedian would be my favorite. But after reading it, the Comedian was only second in my list. Rorschach was at the top. My least would have to be Laurie Jupiter/Silk Spectre II. I found her really whiny and an attention seeker. Blah blah blah.. cry moar. Look at me! Look at me! Ugh. As for the other masked heroes, I never really did care for them. They were okay in my book but nothing that comes close to how much I like Rorschach and the Comedian. Also, I love the insert comic story of The Tales of the Black Freighter. I know not everyone in the fandom love that story and found it distracting. For me, at first it was actually confusing. But as the chapters went on, I was actually looking forward to what happens to the main guy in the story. Having a raft made out of the carcasses of your dead shipmates is pretty gory and traumatizing… I loved it! XD All in all, it was good read. I see why people would think that it’s a classic graphic novel.

So after reading the graphic novel, I was excited to watch the movie. OMG! There’s going to be a live, breathing and talking Rorschach! Who wouldn’t want to see that?! And I wonder what they’re going to do with The Tales of the Black Freighter. And the giant alien squid!! Then a few days before the showing, I came upon a news article that there wouldn’t be The Tales of the Black Freighter due to the length of the movie. Instead it’ll be part of the Director’s Cut DVD that’s going to be released or something like that. And also there wouldn’t be a giant alien squid. No giant squid?! So what are they going to go about the ending of the graphic novel?! That was a let-down but at least there’s still that awesome, live, breathing and talking Rorschach. And JDM’s still in it. XD

After watching the movie, I would say that it was an okay movie… Nothing outstanding and amazing. It was still fun though. I could watch it over and over again mainly for the awesomeness that is Rorschach. Snyder still tried to overuse his slow-mo techniques which personally, I found he did better though a bit on the overused side in 300. Also, why did they have to lessen Laurie’s cry-moar attention-seeking attitude? Why did they have to show that she could kick ass. :\ In the end, she didn’t bother me much as she did in the graphic novel. Also, Patrick Wilson made me like the Nite Owl II. A lot. He wasn’t as chubby as Dan in the novel but he’s way hotter. Of course, JDM was great as the Comedian. But Jackie Earle Haley actually was the most awesome of all. He was Rorschach and Walter Kovaks. And there are no words to describe how awesome he played that role. Now as for that no giant squid element in the ending of the movie… after watching it, that really ticked me a little off. Yeah, you may point out that the giant squid was really out of this world in the first place anyway, so it was okay to just blame it on the blue kid. But for me, personally, the alien squid actually is a major part of the story and changing that actually changed and shuffled some of the elements around. You know why it was a giant alien squid in the novel? So that they could put the blame of New York’s destruction to something not of this planet. And that would be the reason that the world would be united. To help each other against something alien. If you put the blame on Dr. Manhattan, someone that was technically “created” in the US, then technically, it’s still of this planet and it’s possible that the Soviets could still see that as a threat and still bombard the US with nuclear missiles. That’s my main gripe about the movie. If Snyder was faithful to the graphic novel for most part of the movie, why didn’t he just stick to it until the final pages of the novel. But aside from that, it was a good movie. I particularly like the soundtrack they used. Each song brought depth to the different scenes it was used to. Well, maybe not much on Hallelujah just because it was so cheesy. XD If you’re going to watch this, make sure that you come in time for the opening. One of the best scenes in the movie is the opening sequence and the credits. Especially the opening credits. It was just awesome.