Greetings and salutations!

It's been some months since my last post - on this blog anyway. It seems I've been quite busy. For this entry, I'm going to, for the most part, avoid any discussion of politics, the ME, or my usual topics of exploration, and focus primarily on entertainment, another area that I enjoy a great deal.

Watching the Watchmen

Having read the graphic novel (collection of comic books) a couple years back, I was tremendously excited to hear it was being made into a film. I won't get into all the debate about translating the medium, etc. or even explaining the plot - plenty of places to get that information elsewhere.

In any case, this was the first film I attended on opening night since LOTR and, like my experience at the time, a few short minutes into the film I was confident that this was as close as a film was ever going to get to its source material. Overall, I really enjoyed the movie - though it was not perfect and did drag in parts, ironically, due mainly to the precision of its translation. In any case, I just want to touch on a few points:

1. Dr. Manhattan: Some critics must have been asleep at the wheel when they complained about actor Billy Crudup's performance as "emotionally attached." As a creature beyond metaphysical comprehension, this was exactly the point and motivation, or lack thereof, of Dr. Manhattan. On a less involved topic, a lot has been made of the nudity of this character. All I have to say in this regard is that anyone who had read the comic should have expected it and, if you found it terribly uncomfortable, you might want to be asking yourself some more important questions.

2. Rorschach: As far as the characters in the film, much like the comic, Rorschach is the heart and soul of it and the performance of Jackie Earle Haley was nothing short of amazing. While the origin of his "face" was a point lacking from the film, that would be my only complaint.

3. Other things that have been publicly criticized - the music - yes much of the music in the film was somewhat unconventional, and perhaps seemed an odd fit, but I really felt that this worked to the movie's advantage, as it spoke to the separation these "super heros" clearly felt from the rest of society. I felt the music brought on ongoing edge to the movie and I had no problem with that. Now, on the slow-motion issue. Certainly this is the signature of a Zack Snyder and it was one of my biggest complaints about 300, but apart from a flurry of quick uses in the very beginning, I thought it was used sparingly and effectively in the rest of the film. More importantly, I think Mr. Snyder has proved how much of a serious comic book fan he truly his and I shudder to think of that others, Brian Singer, for example, might have done with the property.

4. A more valid debate has grown around the graphic violence and sexuality that permeates the Watchmen.Yes, it has some graphic scenes (in typical American fashion, the violence is much more graphic than the sex) but they are, again, taken right out of the comic and certainly not gratuitous. The movie is rated R for a reason so be sure to keep this in mind. Personally, I'm a bit of a cynic so, like the Comedian, I find a somewhat sick humor in the whole affair.

5. The ending: Yes, there is no Squid - but I agree that, for the most part, the modified ending accomplishes the same thing. What does bother me is the bit of Hollywood happily-ever-after that was tacked on to the story. I also thought they didn't really do a good enough job of building up sympathy for the main "villian." But to have done so would have stretched the film beyond its already considerable 2 hours and 45 minutes. That said, the emotive end to one of the characters remains and was, for me, the defining moment of the film's close.

Ultimately, I enjoyed the movie a great deal though I think that those unfamiliar with the source material will have difficulty appreciating it as much as I did.

With Hope,
Joseph