Friday, March 6, 2009

Thoughts on Watchmen. (NO spoilers.)

Last night, I met up with friends to see Watchmen. I will freely admit, I never read Watchmen, but upon seeing the first trailer I knew I had to see it. Plans were made, excitement was built, and I was optimistic about it. I heard from my fellow Geek-kind that the movie was sure to be a horrible flaming disaster. We've been burned so many times by films claiming to be the next big thing, but were not worthy of the dollar we gave the homeless man on the way in.

We arrived a full two hours before the film was scheduled to start. We met with Meg, my partner in crime, for coffee at Starbucks. We were comprised of Chris (@dorkland), John Hummel (@johnhummel), John Hummel's hat, and myself. We spoke at length about my failures in the relationship sector, Meg's desire to take over my love life, my bizarre and mockable taste in music, and finally the upcoming film. At approximately 11:20pm we decided to say goodbye to the always lovely Meg and head for the theater.

We entered the theater, surrendered our tickets, and headed for theater 13. Upon arriving at the door of the theater, a young employee of the theater gave us a hard time and asked to see our tickets while repeatedly asking what movie we wanted to see. I was at least a head taller than him and I considered punching him in the face. I ended up giving him a "look" and stomping past him. I WILL NOT BE MOCKED!

The theater was approximately 3/4 full when we arrived. We found our seats about half way up and to the right. The theater was filled with predominately young, testosterone filled, morons. When the previews started there was clapping and screaming and I briefly considered going around and slapping people, but I did not.

The new Star Trek trailer had me bouncing on the edge of my seat. I was practically vibrating out of the chair. The Wolverine trailer looked pretty cool too. It was hard to see Hugh Jackman that way after his hosting gig a few weeks ago, but he totally embodies Wolverine, so I got over it.

Watchmen begins and again the crowd screams and claps. It's been a long wait and we are eagerly anticipating the next 2 hours and 43 minutes. The film has a strong opening. If you aren't familiar with the story it takes a few minutes to figure out what is happening, but everything is revealed in a pace that is pleasant and right. There are no premature plot twists. Everything was in good time. The characters are given time to develop and create a bond with the audience.

I thought that in a nearly three hour long movie there would be some serious lag. I expected it. I waited for it. The moment I began to feel like the story was taking too long, the pace immediately picked up. It felt like you took a moment to take a deep breath and in retrospect, I would need it later.

This film had everything. A strong opening, many characters with adequate character development, a storyline that was not overly predictable, flesh, and a good amount of blood and guts (but not so much that it made it campy, dumb, or the focus of the film.) Even the ending was satisfying and made sense in the scheme of things.

I would definitely recommend that you see this film. I would not recommend that you take a child to see this film. There are adult themes and scenes. A friend of mine took his son to see the Dark Knight, which I completely disagreed with. This is a lot less appropriate for children.

10 comments:

  1. Very good review, and good restraint in not slapping people :)

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  2. You know, restraint is the only thing that seperates me from them. Everyone feels the need to act like an idiot sometimes, smart people just choose not to.

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  3. You know what sucks? Having to tell kids you're not taking them to see it - even after they've read the original comic - because of the sheer level of sex and gore in the film. :P

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  4. I know. My son is 7 and thinks Batman is SO AWESOME. He doesn't understand why I won't let him see the film. His argument is that they make toys for children for the film and he's allowed to have those, so the film must be intended or acceptable for children.

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  5. Watchmen isn't a comic for kids anyway. The level of sex and violence in the comic is just as high as it is in the movie. I'm glad to see that they kept that in Watchmen, after all the point of it coming out in the first place was to show that comics weren't just for kids anyway. There are a lot of comics that just aren't intended for kids, ones that aren't even as "mature" as Watchmen even.

    Hell, I would go so far as to say that the last few major event crossovers by both Marvel and DC were not meant to be read by children. There are comics out there for kids, but more and more the industry as a whole is moving away from them as an audience and the secondary media (like movies) really has no choice but to reflect that.

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  6. I think you will love it. I'd kind of like to go see it again, which is very rare, even for a geek like me. If I wasn't so insanely busy right now with work and the Relay for Life, I might trot my buns down to Muvico.

    How is it that my actual life is getting in the way of the life I want to be living?

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  7. I need your help, I want to start a blog for the new tanning salon....

    and you totally want to help me... because you love me...

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  8. You know I will. It's so easy to set up that you won't even believe it.

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  9. we are starving for more blogs....feed us!!!

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