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| Madness & Make-Believe
| | Watchmen & assorted recommendations |
It's so fucking lovely here today. Seriously, if it were ten degrees warmer I'd think I went to sleep in March and woke up in June. And - for the first time since I graduated high school - I'm actually looking forward to warmer weather.
I have a job interview this week. I'm pretty good at those, you get a lot of audition training in a theatre major, which takes the pressure off to some extent. It's for a cashier spot at a local nursery/garden store (so glad I went to college), but it's full time, which means I will not be broke and I can look more seriously at apartments in the city. And I don't mind cashiering. You never really have to make a connection with anyone for more than 30 seconds.
Anyway...I went and saw Watchmen on Saturday night. (Spoiler alert, by the way.) I generally tend to go into comic movies with low expectations - and the fact that they handed this, one of my favorite graphic novels, to a man whose directorial resume consists of 300, a Dawn of the Dead remake, and a handful of car commercials, made Saturday no different. (Seriously though, Zack Snyder? Give me a fucking break. The man hasn't earned the right to stand within 500 feet of a Watchmen script, let alone direct it.)
That said...at this point, I'm pretty ambivalent about the movie (which is in itself something of a condemnation, as there's no way Watchmen should produce ambivalence in any form). Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach) and Jeffrey Morgan (the Comedian) were both absolutely perfect for their roles, no complaints there. I actually liked Matthew Goode as Veidt/Ozy more than I thought I would - he's nowhere near as bulky as Ozy is in the novel, obviously, but he brought a certain subtlety to the character that I enjoyed. Akerman as Laurie was entirely mediocre.
What I liked about the story - the change in the ending, I thought, was handled well for the most part - in a way that wouldn't leave those who haven't read the book thinking "what the hell?" My only two gripes are: first, what was the deal with Laurie kissing the Doc as he disappears into the ether? Completely unnecessary, sappy bullshit for the mainstream audience. And second, giving Laurie the Doc's "nothing ever ends" line was also bullshit. Disappointing. The rest of the story was decent, though - I liked that Snyder didn't take too many liberties with Rorschach's diary/inner monologue. Ditto for staying true to a lot of the imagery from the comic. The gore was a little excessive, though, and I normally have no problems with that kind of thing (I adored every minute of Sin City, for example). The actual visuals of bones popping through flesh or a convict getting his arms sawed off were not needed. Same goes for that oddly extended sex scene between Laurie and Dan. Again, no problems with graphic material on my part, but most of that was unnecessary as well.
Bottom line, I'd give it a B- or possibly a strong C+. I'll probably go see it again just to absorb everything properly and I may have more comments after that, but for the moment, color me underwhelmed. It's worth seeing on the big screen, but my recommendation would be - don't go see it as Watchmen: the adaptation. See it as Watchmen: the movie that happens to be strangely similar to a graphic novel you once read/heard about. (Yes, I realize this is impossible for fans of the novel.)
Recs for the week:
I already pushed Great Northern, but their new album is so good, so I'm mentioning them again: April 28th (I put the wrong date in my previous entry), Remind Me Where The Light Is.
Oh No Not Stereo's latest, 003, is also worth checking out - solid, bouncy pop-rock (not the most original, but still worth a listen at least).
(Will be reviewing both of the above for the Owl when I stop procrastinating, by the way.)
Dizzy Balloon is touring with the Jakes again and both bands put on an absolutely killer live show, so if you're in CA/AZ or planning on attending SXSW, check them out and say hi to Robbie for me.
And last but not least, Metric leaked. Not that I'm advocating piracy or anything, but if you download one album illegally this week, snag that one.
Until the future,
Lauren. | | Tags: personal, watchmen, recs |
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