Review: Watchmen

I went out to see Watchmen on Thursday night with my brother and a few friends. It was a midnight showing which was probably a bad idea seeing as I had work the next day, but I did it anyway. The movie was good. They did a great job of adapting the novel. The scenes, background, and characters were all very faithfully reproduced. The problems with the movie were few but deadly.
First was the choice to show Dr. Manhattan like he is in the comics. Part of his personality is a certain disconnection from regular human society. One way this manifests is his disregard for clothes. He appears naked in many panels of the comic and so appears naked in many scenes in the movie. The film makers did a good job of limiting the amount of time he is shown naked from the front but they also don't force awkward cover-ups in order to censor the image. I wouldn't have done it any other way, but this limits the possible appeal of the film to more conservative moviegoers.
Another problem that is actually a flaw and not a regrettable reality is the music. The soundtrack includes quite a few good songs central to the times and places where the events unfold. The problem is that it happens too many times. There are far too many music breaks and musical montages where you are almost beaten about the head and shoulders by an iconic song perfectly representative of the era and mood.
Lastly there is a love scene in the movie that is a bit too long. I find that in love scenes the goal is to describe to the viewer the emotions between the participants and then get out of there before it becomes pornographic. So to achieve this purpose you generally don't show more than two positions. This scene had more like four positions and had me thinking 'what kind of movie am I watching here?' I am aware that this is not a rule written in stone as the sex scene in "the Thomas Crown Affair" was sensual and expressive but this one seemed uncomfortable and a bit unreal for the characters.
To wrap up The Watchmen was an excellent movie and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys comic book films or hero films or action films. Just think twice and maybe three times before you bring young children.

Review: Coraline

Sarah and I saw "Coraline" this weekend. It is an animated film about a little girl who finds a door to a parallel realm and deals with adventures there. I couldn't help but be reminded of "Pan's Labyrinth" even though Coraline was much less brutal. It was a good film if a bit predictable. The young heroine moves to a new place and has trouble with her parents, then she finds an alternate world with alternate parents that are too good to be true. (This is not a spoiler because you know that much from the trailer so don't whine) It doesn't get any more original plot-wise but the stunning visuals and entertaining characters keep you interested. One note though. This is not a movie for small children. The events get kind of freakish but I won't spoil it for anyone by spelling it out. I recommend.

review: Push and Fanboys

My brother and I went out and saw Push on Saturday. It was a cool movie. The plot based around people with special abilities. Movers (telekinetic) Watchers (can see the future) pushers (mind control and memory alteration) and others, and how some of them were fleeing a government organization that aimed to control and weaponize them. Overall it was cool. Except for an unrealistic learning curve and too good master plan, the movie was a neat ride. The special effects were excellent and the powers were impressive. I liked it and found myself wanting them to make more. In all honesty it was a flimsy fantastic and unrealistic story where every character with more than one line seems to have some huge power, but it was fun and I go to the movies to have fun. I recommend.

Sarah and I went out and saw the movie "Fanboys" today. For those of you who don't know. it is a film about a group of Star Wars fanatics who take a trip across the USA to break into skywalker ranch (George Lucas's home) and get a first look at Star Wars Episode one(it takes place 6 months before the release of SWE1). This was another fun movie but not as much as I expected. The trailer has most of the funniest jokes in it and there were way to many shots of trekkies with bad hygiene. In the last few scenes it gets a little sentimental in a way you aren't prepared for, and the characters are tired stereotypes. Overall its a good movie if you are familiar with the movies (as well as with Jay and Silent Bob) and have a good sense of humour about your love of them and if you don't love them are prepared to mock those who do. One thing I didn't expect is that Kristen Bell is actually in more than half of the movie and is kind of funny in that surprisingly hot nerd-girl way. Now if you are still on the fence as to whether to see this move allow me to tip you over. In one of the last scenes Kristin Bell is wearing the slave Leia outfit. The tragic part is there is only one good shot of her and only for about 1.5 seconds. Well its not exactly like more of that would have made it a fine film.

Punisher

I watched the new punisher movie today. Now I know you are already saying "Why would you do such a thing!" Well, I was with friends and it was a social thing so that's my excuse.

When you go to a comic book move you expect a certain level of unreality, and when you see a punisher movie you have to know what the franchise has in store for you. So with that in mind I was still disappointed.

There was a constant juicy violent gore. Bullets flew and heads exploded. That is to be expected and even acceptable here, The Punisher was a hardcore and driven to revenge to the exclusion of all other things. The big problem is the other characters. While the punisher is a two dimensional gun charged revenge factory, the supporting characters are all caricatures of tired stereotypes. The main villain who somehow manages to survive being blended with broken glass is a wacky and plucky stitched up criminal mastermind. And his brother James LBJ AKA Looney Bin Jim who is a kind of Hannibal Lecter if he were also prone to bouts of childish glee and jumping around on stuff.

I would go over the weakness in the plot but lets not beat this dead horse