Today = amazing
,I kept waking up. 7 AM. 8:30. 9:30---couldn't stand it any more! Got up, got dressed, scooted out the door for the 11 AM showing of The Watchmen. Seated myself front row, center. Sat through interminable commercials. Previews for Star Trek, Terminator: Salvation and a couple forgettable comedies. Then the screen went yellow....
OH. MY. GOD.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan fans will either be aghast or intrigued. SPN fans who thought John Winchester wasn't a nice guy...? Will realize John was really a sweet and charming teddy bear next to Edward Blake. No lie, the man is a badass with a capital BAD. (I'm either having a hot flash, or it was the flame-thrower. Homina.) And he's still a force to be reckoned with pushing 70.
The rest of the movie? For a movie that's 2 hours, 45 minutes, it didn't seem that long---although I wouldn't recommend a jumbo Big Gulp, either.
I haven't read the graphic novel it's based on, mea culpa, so I can't compare it to that. The film it's most like, IMO, is Blade Runner. They both have a retro-noir sensibility, complete with voice-overs. There's a fully inhabited alternate cityscape that contrasts with off-screen reality---in BR, it's the future, while Watchmen occupies the past.
Yes, there is a world-weary detective---although in the case of Rorschach vs Decker, Decker is apathetic while Rorschach (Jackie Earle Hailey) is sociopathic. At one point, he's imprisoned among a swarm of convicts he helped put away. "I'm not locked in here with them," he points out after kicking some butt, "They're locked in here with ME." I'm of an age to have thought JEH was cute back in his Bad News Bears days---here's he's just freakin' scary. He gives the film its voiceovers, courtesy of his journal entries, which may be considered quite the joke grenade. I'm just sayin'....
There's a love story of sorts---I hesitate to call it a triangle, since Dr. Manhattan, the big blue guy with the CGI dick really isn't vested in their relationship---but in contrast with BR, I had the feeling that the dame (Silk Spectre II) was the experienced partner. Nite Owl II made me think of Brad from Rocky Horror. I think it was the big 70s glasses and no chin. Too bad the sekrit identity Geek Boy has already been spoken for. Thankfully, no one plays the piano.
In Blade Runner, there was an underlying question of what defines humanity---does an artificially created sentience have a soul? And humanity was struggling to get away from Earth. In that sense, BR is practically cheerful in its Stellar Manifest Destiny. In the world of The Watchmen, the premise is that humanity is flawed, even---or perhaps especially the so-called superheroes. Mankind is racing towards its own extinction, and the threat of nuclear war is imminent. Not so perky, although the f/x are 30 years more incredible than anything Ridley Scott had to work with.
Where The Watchmen differs from what's gone before is its truly extraordinary scope. With flashbacks, it spans 40+ years in the lives of its characters, layering in the relationships of the Watchmen and their predecessors, the Minutemen, with history, and offering interaction with historical figures from Kennedy and Nixon to Iacocca and Warhol.
If it was ONLY a detective story with sci-fi elements, it could've been a yawner, but no. There's action. There are some great fight scenes that open a can of whoop-ass without duking it out ad infinitum. There are nifty gadgets and did I mention incredible f/x? Dr. CGI Dick creates his own Fortress of Solitude---apparently for his own amusement---and it's like Escher and Dali's bastard love child. Total eye candy in the coolest way possible!
I could go on at length, but you should really see The Watchmen for yourself. It's magnificent.
It was only about 2:00 when I got out, and since it was a nice day and the Friday afternoon rush hadn't started yet, I headed to the other end of the island to spend my Valentine's loot at Target. I wanted a coat rack, but I wasn't thrilled by any of the ones they had. I ended up getting two individual hooks to mount on either side of the mirror I have by the door. Also hit their clearance racks and found a pair of pants. Two pairs, actually, but I already have multiple pairs of black pants, and so I went with the purple ones. Why do I have the feeling they were passed over by the Red Hat Society?!
That took care of my gift card nicely. I then went across the street to the MI Goodwill. Yield: a leopard print skirt (my old one is DOA) and a non-stick round pizza pan by Wilton.
Stopped at Winn-Dixie for bread and butter, and got a $5 rotisserie chicken marked down to $3 because it had been there since 11AM. It wasn't dried out, and it had reached that perfect stage of fall-off-the-bone tenderness. Yum.
Okay, so I've put up the hooks. Now I can hang up jackets, etc, go, me. (Although I don't think I'm going to need jackets for very much longer.) I need to go clear off a bookcase, since CapeGypsy has expressed an interest in any surplus bookcases I may have. And after church on Sunday, I need to get those cylinders listed on eBay. I figure a 7-day listing. *fingers crossed that they will save the day*
Hope your weekend rocks!
OH. MY. GOD.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan fans will either be aghast or intrigued. SPN fans who thought John Winchester wasn't a nice guy...? Will realize John was really a sweet and charming teddy bear next to Edward Blake. No lie, the man is a badass with a capital BAD. (I'm either having a hot flash, or it was the flame-thrower. Homina.) And he's still a force to be reckoned with pushing 70.
The rest of the movie? For a movie that's 2 hours, 45 minutes, it didn't seem that long---although I wouldn't recommend a jumbo Big Gulp, either.
I haven't read the graphic novel it's based on, mea culpa, so I can't compare it to that. The film it's most like, IMO, is Blade Runner. They both have a retro-noir sensibility, complete with voice-overs. There's a fully inhabited alternate cityscape that contrasts with off-screen reality---in BR, it's the future, while Watchmen occupies the past.
Yes, there is a world-weary detective---although in the case of Rorschach vs Decker, Decker is apathetic while Rorschach (Jackie Earle Hailey) is sociopathic. At one point, he's imprisoned among a swarm of convicts he helped put away. "I'm not locked in here with them," he points out after kicking some butt, "They're locked in here with ME." I'm of an age to have thought JEH was cute back in his Bad News Bears days---here's he's just freakin' scary. He gives the film its voiceovers, courtesy of his journal entries, which may be considered quite the joke grenade. I'm just sayin'....
There's a love story of sorts---I hesitate to call it a triangle, since Dr. Manhattan, the big blue guy with the CGI dick really isn't vested in their relationship---but in contrast with BR, I had the feeling that the dame (Silk Spectre II) was the experienced partner. Nite Owl II made me think of Brad from Rocky Horror. I think it was the big 70s glasses and no chin. Too bad the sekrit identity Geek Boy has already been spoken for. Thankfully, no one plays the piano.
In Blade Runner, there was an underlying question of what defines humanity---does an artificially created sentience have a soul? And humanity was struggling to get away from Earth. In that sense, BR is practically cheerful in its Stellar Manifest Destiny. In the world of The Watchmen, the premise is that humanity is flawed, even---or perhaps especially the so-called superheroes. Mankind is racing towards its own extinction, and the threat of nuclear war is imminent. Not so perky, although the f/x are 30 years more incredible than anything Ridley Scott had to work with.
Where The Watchmen differs from what's gone before is its truly extraordinary scope. With flashbacks, it spans 40+ years in the lives of its characters, layering in the relationships of the Watchmen and their predecessors, the Minutemen, with history, and offering interaction with historical figures from Kennedy and Nixon to Iacocca and Warhol.
If it was ONLY a detective story with sci-fi elements, it could've been a yawner, but no. There's action. There are some great fight scenes that open a can of whoop-ass without duking it out ad infinitum. There are nifty gadgets and did I mention incredible f/x? Dr. CGI Dick creates his own Fortress of Solitude---apparently for his own amusement---and it's like Escher and Dali's bastard love child. Total eye candy in the coolest way possible!
I could go on at length, but you should really see The Watchmen for yourself. It's magnificent.
It was only about 2:00 when I got out, and since it was a nice day and the Friday afternoon rush hadn't started yet, I headed to the other end of the island to spend my Valentine's loot at Target. I wanted a coat rack, but I wasn't thrilled by any of the ones they had. I ended up getting two individual hooks to mount on either side of the mirror I have by the door. Also hit their clearance racks and found a pair of pants. Two pairs, actually, but I already have multiple pairs of black pants, and so I went with the purple ones. Why do I have the feeling they were passed over by the Red Hat Society?!
That took care of my gift card nicely. I then went across the street to the MI Goodwill. Yield: a leopard print skirt (my old one is DOA) and a non-stick round pizza pan by Wilton.
Stopped at Winn-Dixie for bread and butter, and got a $5 rotisserie chicken marked down to $3 because it had been there since 11AM. It wasn't dried out, and it had reached that perfect stage of fall-off-the-bone tenderness. Yum.
Okay, so I've put up the hooks. Now I can hang up jackets, etc, go, me. (Although I don't think I'm going to need jackets for very much longer.) I need to go clear off a bookcase, since CapeGypsy has expressed an interest in any surplus bookcases I may have. And after church on Sunday, I need to get those cylinders listed on eBay. I figure a 7-day listing. *fingers crossed that they will save the day*
Hope your weekend rocks!