My Man: So, what did you think of Watchmen?Me: Meh. Long and slow. The editor should have been burning the midnight oil.
My Man: Yeah.
Me: I think they were a little too faithful to the graphic novel. I mean, it's not exactly a smart move to kill off your most interesting, and deeply flawed, character in the first 5 minutes of the movie.
My Man: Agreed. And your Comic Book Guy brother-in-law is right. Blue penis is distracting. The world doesn't need that much blue penis. In fact, I could have done without Dr. Manhattan entirely. All-powerful, all-seeing characters are really boring! If he's so all-powerful, why not just dismantle all the nuclear warheads with a snap of his fingers?
Me: Yeah, and they tried to give him a flaw - but it was a pretty boring one. His detachment from humanity. Oooooooh, deep stuff / end sarcasm. It bears repeating, it's a bad idea to kill off your most interesting character in the first 5 minutes. Although I liked the fact that Nite Owl/Dan was a total dork. A guy who doesn't stand out, who blends into the woodwork, and turns out to be a bad ass superhero. I also liked that it was a bunch of relative No Names in the movie. No big marquee-grabbing movie stars.
My Man: I did like that it was dark. And unapologetic. This might have been the most unapologetic movie I've seen since Se7en.
Me: Yeah, I loved the story idea. I loved that it was dark. The world needs more dark comic book stories, in my opinion. But that might be the crime noir pulp girl in me screaming for satisfaction. In the end, I didn't love it....and I didn't hate it.
My Man: Yeah pretty much me too. I'll probably watch it again when it hits cable, but I'm in no rush. If I had to do it all over again, I probably wouldn't have bothered seeing it in the theater.
Me: Well, at least we didn't pay for it. We'll have to thank Lil' Sis again for the gift card she got you for Christmas.
Final Grade = C
10 comments:
I saw this last weekend and give it a D. The first 45 minutes were interesting but after that it went down hill fast. Too much radio active blue penis, "We must kill millions to save billions!" and lots of blood and hatchets in the heads flying around makes The Watchmen a fail in my eyes.
Ok, I'll leave a counter point of view. I really enjoyed the movie.
And I'm slightly miffed at all the commentary online about the blue penis. Is it because it was blue? Or because OMG there is MALE nudity on the movie screen? I have to put up with female nudity all the time, hell, even in Watchmen. This was not sexualized.
From the way everyone was talking, I expected a giant close up of the thing. However, I found I had to actively look for it.
I guess this makes me part of the problem - because I had no issue with the violence in the movie. Maybe because I expected it? Superheroes, crime fighters, dark movie = violence, in my mind. However, I did find the blue penis distracting (I couldn't HELP but look at it) and the sex scene? Really gratuitous, and rather pointless.
But that might be because I felt sorry for Nite Owl/Dan. I couldn't help but feel that the minute Blue Penis Guy decides to join Earth again, little hot chickie girl will dump Dan like a hot potato.
Gah, I hate love triangles.
We'll probably rent this one when it comes out on DVD, but it sounds like it's not worth a special trip into civilization : )
Slightly OT: There's a video on Funny or Die where the roommate of the actress who plays Silk Spectre (Malin Ackerman?)gives a trio of geeks a "Watchmen Tour" while said actress is asleep, etc. Funny bit.
Cathy: Yeah, me personally, I think you can wait for DVD. The visuals are good in this movie, but not as spectacular (IMHO) as say, 300 or Sin City.
One thing I didn't mention though....I loved the music in this movie. They did a very nice job with the soundtrack - very eclectic. Everyone from Leonard Cohen, to Bob Dylan to...KC and the Sunshine Band. LOL
I thought about it just to see Jeffrey Dean Morgan, but the jury's still out. Probably will give this one a miss. Hell, I still haven't seen The Dark Knight although I've had the DVD since it was first released!
Give me dark. No problem. Violence I can even live with... for instance it didn't bug me in SIN CITY. This just seemed pointless.
EB, seriously? You had to look for the blue penis?
Okay, Going into comic geek mode.Alright, I'm there. This movie was a loveletter to the die hard fans of the book. In the comic community this book has been analyzed more than the dead sea scrolls. Every scene had a meaning tied directly to the deconstruction of the superhero myth. The sex was tied directly to the idea that many of the "heroes" had a costume fetish, of course it was gratuitous, the whole idea is. The reaction to the blue penis emphasizes the gulf between humanity and Dr. Manhatten, he is beyond caring and we can't get over it. I could go on and on but my initial statement is all you need; this was a loveletter and I am smitten.
I'm of one and then 1/2 a mind to see this one. It sounds different but I've heard there is a lot of graphic violence and I don't do well in the graphic department. I haven't been able to watch a full episode of ER in years 'cause I'm always having to turn my head when gory parts come on.
Kristie: Probably not for you then. It's pretty bloody in parts.
Big BIL: It was one of those movies I was rewriting in my head as it went along - and it turns out a lot of the stuff I wasn't wild about in the movie was taken directly from the graphic novel. Oh, like the most interesting character dying in the first 5 minutes, for example. So probably better to keep graphic novel fans happy than little ol' me LOL.
I did like the way the story deconstructed the superhero myth. That the heroes weren't always terribly "heroic." I especially found that fascinating taken in the context that the graphic novel was published in 1986 (right?). I bet it blew every comic book geeks' mind back when it was first released. Seriously.
Another thing? I so loved The Dark Knight...almost beyond reason...that I think for me any comic book/graphic novel movie adaptation is going to be compared to it (in my mind at least) for some time to come. Kind of like how all gangster movies were measured up against The Godfather (then Goodfellas) for a while.
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