Watchmen by dir. by

5 March 2009


Genre: ,
Script: ,
Cast: , , , , ,
Setting:
Rated :

Watchmen poster
Based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore & illus. Dave Gibbons
Don’t you just love it when you turn up to watch a crappy film[1] and then get to see an excellent one by total fluke? That’s what to be me last night. Heading out to watch Marley and Me which I’d won tickets to, but when we went to collect them we spotted that they were also having a special screening of Watchmen. Himself, being the geek that he is, asked[2] about any spare tickets. On the off chance. The movies.ie people looked at each other, then told us to come back at 7. If they had any left over we’d get them. And they did. So in we went to watch Watchment. After having our phones checked to make sure they were switched off, outside the screen, which is a bit silly, I mean we easily could’ve switched them on again, if we were morons. I also spotted the camera yoke they use to scan the audience during the film to make sure no one is recording the film. I guess security was tight.

Anyways you most likely want to know what I thought of the film. Well, keeping in mind that I haven’t read the book yet so can’t do the whole comparison thing, I think it was really good. Solid, solid entertainment. Not quite what I was expecting, I thought there’d be more action, but still v good.

It looks fantastic. And the actors all do a great job. Especially Nite Owl II, Wilson was very good at playing the one really likeable character in the film. The only one I wasn’t all that happy with was Akerman playing Laurie, she seemed more interested in tossing her hair and looking purty[3] than actually acting.

For those that aren’t into comics or fantasy & sci-fi, well, give it a miss, you’ll spend the your time at the cinema going “but but but….” however for those of us who do appreciate a “silly costume” this is a really good film. I don’t think it’ll rank as one of my all time favourites. Maybe after I’ve read the book, or seen it again. But its a damn fine film all the same. Damn fine[4]

IMDb ; Delicious Links

Linknotes:

  1. err apologies to Marley and Me maybe you arent crappy. I havent seen you so I cant really say
  2. begged. pleaded. made various offers that cant be repeated
  3. it was part of the role though. So maybe…
  4. – yes I am channelling agent Dale Cooper and yes I have been watching Twin Peaks

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11 Responses

  1. anne says:

    i finished the book yesterday! the movie is being released this Friday! i can't believe you got to see it already! instead of the piece of crap that is sure to be Marley & Me!

    Enough with the oh em gee (poem!) already.

    Funny you mention Nite Owl as the "one likeable character", to me he felt a bit like a wimp (all things considered, obvs.) in the novel.

    Big fan of Rorschach and Dr. Manhattan though. Don't know what it says about me, and not sure i want to know.

    But i'm glad you liked the movie, it means i'll probably like it too.

    (oh and don't hit me, but so far, Dollhouse, meh.)

  2. Fence says:

    Well I wouldn't say he isn't a wimp in the film. He's simply the one you might actually want to hang around with :)

    Rorschach & Manhattan are interesting and fascinating and cool, but would you really want to sit around and have a beer with either of them?

    Also mwaaahaahahaha

    Been watching Dollhouse online, it has promise but yeah, so far so meh. Lack of sparkly Whedonesque dialogue is silly, although there was a little bit of it in episode 3. And I'm not totally convinced by Dushku & her acting.

  3. anne says:

    Only one beer, i would. They didn't feel cool to me, though, just so into their own thing that you (i) couldn't help but want both of them to succeed. (and yes, here too, the line of reasoning is a bit shaky and i would expand it, but then it would take hours and pages, and really, to all intents and purposes, i don't have a blog.)

    Dollhouse, yes. Everybody's got the same gripes with it. I'm sorry for Dushku, 'cause she seems like someone i could maybe have a beer with too, but indeed, Katharine Hepburn she ain't. They promised it would get better, though, so there's hope.

  4. Fence says:

    Only Rorschach'd probably end up spending half the beer giving out about the evils of alcoholism and whatnot. And that glowing blue penis'd just make bad jokes too easy with Manhattan

    Blog here. Its all well and good. I'm very quiet lately, could do with someone talking. I'll even give you sign in details if you don't want to leave a big long comment.

    Dushku would be up for the beers I'm thinking. I liked the end of episode 3 and the way it is hinting at an arc, but I'm not holding my breath for brilliance or nuffink

  5. anne says:

    Aww. You know who i could have a beer (or 7) with? You.

    The thing about Watchmen is, i think i didn't pick up on the much maligned fascism of the superheroes.

    (Now people are going to think i'm already infected. oops. Then again, "24" never seemed – to me – like an apology of the Bush administration. I guess i just understand what i choose to understand. Which is very handy at times but, politically, is a catastrophe waiting to happen. And i'm French. Politics is what we do. Even if clearly, currently, we're doing it way badly. And just so we're clear, i'm not in any way responsible for the fascist-leaning catastrophe that is Sarkozy.)

    I was very relieved today, in the comments to this (can't remember how to link! this is bound to end in tears.) review that i had the same take on Dr. Manhattan as at least one person, i.e. that he is more autistic than evil. That seemed so obvious to me that i was completely taken aback that everyone else was talking fascism.

    And the autism explains my rooting for him, btw, because i love a good underdog, even one with superpowers.

    As far as Rorschach is concerned, i'm more inclined to think that once he'd found his purpose, he intended to milk it for all it was worth considering not much else was making sense in his life (apparently the movie is extremely faithful to the book, so i guess you get a glimpse of his past?). The fact that he's doing it so blindly is where the fascism accusations are coming from, i guess, but considering i chose not to see this at all, i was kind of admiring the guy for sticking to his principles – not agreeing with him, but it felt "nice" to see a politically uncompromising figure, which doesn't happen all that often, esp. not in fascist circles. The guy clearly doesn't care that no one likes him, whereas demagogy is the one and only pillar of the far right.

    Wow. Rambling, much? Not sure i'm making sense here, but in conclusion: Please. I'm a good person. Don't stone me on a misunderstanding.

  6. Fence says:

    Next time I'm in the states I'll hold you to that ;)

    And look, your link worked!

    I'm not sure I saw Dr. Manhattan as fascist. Definitely disconnected and uncaring about the world at large, so yeah, autistic fits. Rorschach is a fascist though. And the Comedian. I read somewhere that Rorschach is what Batman would become if he were real. How exactly that comparison works, I'm not sure, but I think its right.

    You do admire him a certain amount for not compromising, but in real life? Compromise is what lets us all get along. His morals are so strict that to try and force the world to follow them would be totally impossible.

  7. anne says:

    Deal!

    I know what you mean, as regards real life, but although i do a fair amount of suspending disbelief when i'm reading or watching a movie, that stops at the whole transposition thing. I'm not at all ready to imagine superheroes, fully powered or not, actually cleaning up the streets at night.

    But i will definitely re-read this book later, because I do find it not a little worrying that it mostly seems to have flown way over my head.

  8. Carl V. says:

    How cool for you! I saw Watchmen last weekend and really enjoyed it. Do really need to get a review up at some point. It was certainly more violent than I expected, even having read the graphic novel, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the film at the time.

    I too was impressed with the cast, most notably the role of Rorschach. Very well played and he looked so much like the rendering in the graphic novel that it was eerie.

  9. Fence says:

    Suspending disbelief is what gets me through my job Anne ;) so I'm well practised at that.

    Carl it was very violent. But it didn't glamourise it, so I think it worked. And yes, Rorschach looked great, and was brilliantly played too.

  10. weenie says:

    I loved the screen Rorschach – he was my favourite character in the book so I was worried that he wouldn't live up to expectations but he did.

    Great effects, great look and feel, nice violence but…not sure I can put my finger on it but there was a 'but' about the movie….

    I can't help but feel that although it was good, it would have been better as a big budge tv miniseries.

  11. Fence says:

    I really enjoyed the film. But yeah, there was just something about it, that I can't quite id that means it won't make my list of Favourite favourite films :)

    A miniseries would've meant that they could have gone a lot more in depth. But they're alsy releasing an "Under the Hood" mokumentary & something to do with the side storylines that didn't make the film