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Watchmen
#1
Sold Out.

That's what they told me when I arrived a whole 3 minutes early for the Saturday night, 7:00 PM IMAX showing in Emeryville.

Sure it is. They didn't realize they were talking to a veteran of the Meridian Quad Theaters! I bought a ticket for a later showing (non-IMAX) and, when the ticket-taker was looking the other way, I headed to the IMAX door. Dee Dee was visiting her sister in Reno so I was alone and could run serpentine through the hallway without arousing suspicion. I approached the door guards like I meant business.

"I was told I could look for a single seat", I said.

The usher was suspicious. "Who told you that?" she asked.

I was about to say "The pope" when she finished for me. "Guest services?"

"Yes!" (A much better answer than 'the pope')

"Well okay then."

Now the annoying part. Not only was the theater not sold out, but the front 2 rows were empty! Who doesn't want to sit in the front row of an IMAX screening? Apparently everyone. I plopped down front and center and awaited the fulfillment of a long-overdue promise.

It was pretty good, although the guy who played Ozzy was a bit wooden.
[Image: magpie13.gif]
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#2
It was fine. No big revelations. The best parts were with Rorhshach, much like the comic. I also liked the photo montages at the beginning. These were really the only original thing in the movie.

My problem, I never thought the story was all that good. The Dark Knight was so much better. So, the painstaking visual movie recreation of the comic book didn't really do it for me. Although it does allow me to have the full on geek-boy comparison of Dark Knight and Watchman. My geek cred still stands.

I do have the DVD of the comic within a comic coming from Netflix.
So much for the flickr badge idea. Dammit
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#3
Despite my title, I came into this knowing nothing - totally unfamiliar with any of the characters prior to seeing the film. Only thing I knew before the film was that I would see a big blue penis, because of the Billy Cruddup interview on The Daily Show.

It was okay. I liked Rorschach the most, but I was sorry to hear that Jackie Earl Haley caught Christian Bale's throat affliction. The prison scenes were the best. The story was so-so and toward the end, frankly, just way too eye-rolling soap-opera-ish.

Blue penis -- eh. Just not that big a deal.
Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.
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#4
I went in totally unfamiliar with the story. I through the grassy knoll sequence in the opening was surprising. I had a hard time with Ozzy and Nite Owl's costumes. Throughout the movie I kept thinking of The Tick and Mystery Men. It was a pretty slow build. It did put the "graphic" in graphic novel...

Speaking of flawed super heroes, did anyone ever watch Commander USA and his pal Lefty? Makes me think of the Comedian...

[Image: commander-usa.jpg]

--tg
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#5
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--tg
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#6
Saturday Morning Watchmen
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#7
When do I get to see the full episode?
So much for the flickr badge idea. Dammit
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#8
As mentioned earlier, ED turned me on to the Watchmen (along with Dark Knight and probably every other significant graphic novel of the day). I loved the comic. It was so dense in composition and thematic layers. Since the film was almost scene for scene from the comic, it was enjoyable on that geek literality level. But film moves faster that comics. I remember really sitting with that comic, going back and forth to see how previous panels mapped on to present panels graphically. That probably exists in the DVD, but I wasn't about to skip about it in the same way. I found the film very enjoyable, but despite its loyalty to the source material, it lacked the impact of the comic. It was a media issue. That story worked incredibly well as a comic because of the architecture of the media itself. Comics lend themselves to the kind of symbolic themes that were expressed in Watchmen. You can sit with each page at your own pace and turn back and forth with ease. A film moves along at its own rhythm, so all of those themes become a blur. That being said, I enjoyed the film the same way I enjoy Harry Potter films. There's no comparison to the original because the source media works best, but it's amusing nonetheless.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
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#9
And then there is the TV Show

The first two episodes felt like torture or maybe a school report that I didn't really want to do. I was falling asleep during the first episode and the Queen, I think, felt like she saw the second episode under duress. She informed me that was the last episode she wanted to watch.

Watching the first two episodes was the prologue, the setup. They wanted to establish the world twenty years on from the original Watchmen. They needed to introduce this whole new cast of characters with subtle hints that the original cast was still there.

EP 3 changed that with the introduction of Jean Smart. The show switched into a different gear. Now that the characters were all introduced, the brakes were off and we were going to be flying ahead. I can't wait to watch the episodes on the DVR. 

Smart works for the FBI in the anti-vigilante task force taking down the super heroes around us. She has to go to Tulsa to figure out who killed the sheriff and what else is going on in town. She does this at the urging of the Ted Cruz clone Senator from Oklahoma. Smart is the bull in the china shop and doesn't have time for the games the Tulsa cops are playing as dressed up heroes.

I don't want to spoil anything. There are a lot of surprises. It's good.

Except for where I hate it.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm

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#10
Sadly, EPs 4 & 5 returned to their plodding way. Jean Smart is still there as a badass but she's not the focus.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm

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#11
Episode 6 The Frank Trump episode.

Well, that's the rumor. There's a guy in the episode named Frank, last initial 'T' who runs the local chapter of the clan in Brooklyn, NY. This is a really well done episode. It goes back to Brooklyn of 1938 when Sister Knight takes the drug Nostalgia and flashes back to her grandfather's memories, who was Hooded Justice. It's a very surreal episode as the Sister Knight and Hooded Justice change places. It's Black and White with flashes of color. Lots of politics. Still needs more action.
As a matter of fact, my anger does keep me warm

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#12
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
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#13
(07-20-2024, 07:08 PM)Drunk Monk Wrote:

I'll watch it, but I think they did a pretty good job with the live action movie. I'm not sure I see the value in re-doing it. I think the TV series did a great job of continuing the story. I was sad when that one was cancelled. That was the first time I'd ever heard of the Tulsa Race Massacre - IN MY 50's! I was shocked and mad at our school system for failing to teach us about it. CRT is real...

--tg
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