(movie poster from movie)The Rock Star and I went out with some of the old crowd last night to watch some friends of ours play a promotional show at Hot Topic for their new CD; (yes, it's cheesy as hell, they know it too, but its good money and they've gotten a 700-stores-wide distribution deal and need to promote; plus it shows off their natural ability rather than a lot of bands that really only sound good in shitty bars with a lot of electronics [HT shows are acoustic]).
And then we moved on to dinner at the mall food court--surprisingly DELICIOUS thanks to a brand new Greek restaurant that just opened (I met the owner: a Greek man who's been in America less than a year) and SO received a free piece of baklava as he "lost" with a slice of stale pizza; the owner felt pity on him for choosing the bad food. WAY better eating than I expected at a mall.
And then it was on to watch our movie. We had bought our tickets two days prior, we even planned eating at the mall so we would not have to rush eating and then get bad seats because we would end up behind the crowd--it was all totally useless. The theatre was near empty, it was opening weekend and there were MAYBE twenty people in the whole theatre--I need to check the stats tomorrow to see if the movie bombed or if its just my po-dunk little area of the world.
But the movie. God. I loved it. I thought it was two hours and forty minutes of comic-book-movie magic. When I heard they were making the movie, I had some major doubts. The book is so graphic; there's a lot of cussing and a lot of nudity and a whole lot of some very graphic violence (see a dog with it's head split open; see a woman being raped in the alleyway; see someone's skin melting because hot oil has been poured over it). And dense; the book is extremely dense. But I thought they pulled it off well.
It doesn't seem to really fit into the comic-movie genre however. Yes, there are costumes and superheros and such, but its so very dark and serious (things I associate with the reading of actual graphic novels, not so much their movie counterparts). The actors/actresses in it are relatively unknowns (especially for such a huge production) and they did very well. Whoever was in charge of casting did a WONDERFUL job. Everyone looked nearly exactly as I pictured them. Although I thought the major curve on Jacobi's ears was extremely distracting. Jon looked great, I was terribly afraid he'd come across as false. And I was glad to see that they mostly kept to his nakedness, it didn't pose as a distraction for me, but some of my friends complained about the abundance of blue penis in the movie, of course, they were both heterosexual males that have a gay phobia. The reason Jon (Dr. Manhattan) isn't wearing any clothes helps to show his separation from humanity, from humanity's bindings. The only major difference between the book and the movie is the way we got to the ending. The change they put at the end makes sense for the movie, without any of the revolving secondary characters that are in the book (the newspaper stand owner, the lesbian, the young man reading the comic, the pirate comic storyline--which they've turned the pirate comic into a small cartoon that's being released as promotion for the movie!!) you miss most of the storyline that encompasses the ending; and although the end result is still the same, I don't like laying the blame upon Jon.
Also the director, Zack Snyder of 300 fame, did the same sort of stop-slow-motion action sequences that made 300 so mind-blowing, but I didn't think they fit in very well here; also, made me wonder if that's the only way he knows how to shoot a fight scene.
Really, I'm sorry they had to make the edits they did, but they are totally understandable and you really aren't missing a lot of the main storyline--the only edit they should have worked out was with Bubastis, Adrien Veidt's genetically engineered cat. In the movie, one sees him killed after only having about three seconds contact with the large cat; and so missed out on the cruelness of Adrien because of it. My friends (none of which had read the book) were completely thrown off by the cat, and thought it was ridiculous; and without book-knowlege who could blame them? Bubastis should have been cut out entirely (or alternately added another 20+ minutes to the movie just so he can be explained).
But overall, I'm very pleased with the way the film turned out; I'm curious to see what others think, especially those that aren't familar with the graphic novel.
And then we moved on to dinner at the mall food court--surprisingly DELICIOUS thanks to a brand new Greek restaurant that just opened (I met the owner: a Greek man who's been in America less than a year) and SO received a free piece of baklava as he "lost" with a slice of stale pizza; the owner felt pity on him for choosing the bad food. WAY better eating than I expected at a mall.
And then it was on to watch our movie. We had bought our tickets two days prior, we even planned eating at the mall so we would not have to rush eating and then get bad seats because we would end up behind the crowd--it was all totally useless. The theatre was near empty, it was opening weekend and there were MAYBE twenty people in the whole theatre--I need to check the stats tomorrow to see if the movie bombed or if its just my po-dunk little area of the world.
But the movie. God. I loved it. I thought it was two hours and forty minutes of comic-book-movie magic. When I heard they were making the movie, I had some major doubts. The book is so graphic; there's a lot of cussing and a lot of nudity and a whole lot of some very graphic violence (see a dog with it's head split open; see a woman being raped in the alleyway; see someone's skin melting because hot oil has been poured over it). And dense; the book is extremely dense. But I thought they pulled it off well.
It doesn't seem to really fit into the comic-movie genre however. Yes, there are costumes and superheros and such, but its so very dark and serious (things I associate with the reading of actual graphic novels, not so much their movie counterparts). The actors/actresses in it are relatively unknowns (especially for such a huge production) and they did very well. Whoever was in charge of casting did a WONDERFUL job. Everyone looked nearly exactly as I pictured them. Although I thought the major curve on Jacobi's ears was extremely distracting. Jon looked great, I was terribly afraid he'd come across as false. And I was glad to see that they mostly kept to his nakedness, it didn't pose as a distraction for me, but some of my friends complained about the abundance of blue penis in the movie, of course, they were both heterosexual males that have a gay phobia. The reason Jon (Dr. Manhattan) isn't wearing any clothes helps to show his separation from humanity, from humanity's bindings. The only major difference between the book and the movie is the way we got to the ending. The change they put at the end makes sense for the movie, without any of the revolving secondary characters that are in the book (the newspaper stand owner, the lesbian, the young man reading the comic, the pirate comic storyline--which they've turned the pirate comic into a small cartoon that's being released as promotion for the movie!!) you miss most of the storyline that encompasses the ending; and although the end result is still the same, I don't like laying the blame upon Jon.
Also the director, Zack Snyder of 300 fame, did the same sort of stop-slow-motion action sequences that made 300 so mind-blowing, but I didn't think they fit in very well here; also, made me wonder if that's the only way he knows how to shoot a fight scene.
Really, I'm sorry they had to make the edits they did, but they are totally understandable and you really aren't missing a lot of the main storyline--the only edit they should have worked out was with Bubastis, Adrien Veidt's genetically engineered cat. In the movie, one sees him killed after only having about three seconds contact with the large cat; and so missed out on the cruelness of Adrien because of it. My friends (none of which had read the book) were completely thrown off by the cat, and thought it was ridiculous; and without book-knowlege who could blame them? Bubastis should have been cut out entirely (or alternately added another 20+ minutes to the movie just so he can be explained).
But overall, I'm very pleased with the way the film turned out; I'm curious to see what others think, especially those that aren't familar with the graphic novel.
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