Watchmen Review Battle Royale
And so it begins…
Oh the excitement!
A geek loves Watchmen and decides that even though he is employed by Time Magazine, owned by the parent company of Warner Bros, he isn’t a journalist, so he can say whatever he wants. Meanwhile, others are forced to wait to offer any opinion.
Sigh…
The funny thing to me is, I have had this same reaction to “early” reviews. But unlike this guy – who is smart enough to exec produce The Simpsons, but who is not smart enough to understand the concept of an embargo…. or the studio isn’t smart enough to explain it to him – I have always been told by the studio when I can go early and am completely transparent about that being the case. That is likely the case here… even more likely that he is a friend of the director’s. But the kind of flip, “I’m not really a journalist” crap… well, we all know where we have heard that before.
Personally, I will be shocked if they can get to Friday without reviews running, in various disguises, all over the place. And I don’t much care… since I really have no stake in the reviews of this movie.
What I heard from one person with an ear to the tracking is that he thinks the movie is heading to a $75 million opening… which would be the second best non-summer, non-Thanksgiving/Christmas opening ever, after The Passion of The Christ. 300 was just under $71m. I don’t see that kind of passion out there, but who knows? There are many reasons why 300 was more accessible than Watchmen, but stranger things have happened.
And as for the embargo break… as usual… positive breaks don’t get punished. I don’t expect to see any either… at least not before the week of release.
A 75 million opening would be impressive, this is an R rated movie after all. I was 14 when I first read the graphic novel, it is amazing Snyder was able to keep the R rating.
It’s also time to have an honest discussion about box office. The know nothings come out and want to compare Watchmen to the Dark Knight, they are not even in the same league. DK was a phenomenon, the 2nd highest grossing film of all time, let’s not even try to say Watchmen needs to get close. I think 200 million has to be considered a huge success. Can it get there? Is 150 domestic good enough? Is 250 possible, would that qualify Watchmen as a run away success?
I don’t know if 300 is any more accessible than Watchmen…in the marketing, at least. Action, visuals, cool costumes. But this time they get to work in the superhero angle which helps and they get to say it’s by the director of 300. I see a big opening for this one.
I’m guessing this will do $65 million opening weekend because a) the fanboy demographic on this is very, very niche (and not all convinced) b) the marketing hasn’t really done a good job of explaining to the non-fanboys who the Watchmen are or why they should care c) no major stars and d) 2.5 hours.
The second weekend dropoff on this is gonna be huge. This film is a really, really hard sell if you’re not familiar with the comic (for the record, I’m not familiar with the comic and while the marketing is cool looking (I guess) you couldn’t get me to name all of the Watchmen if you tried).
I think people are forgetting how easy 300 was as a sell. Linear storyline with an underdog storyline, buff bods and a compelling trailer. Watchmen is a very broody piece with no stars, a blue CGI bod and a so-so trailer that has really only gotten the already established base buzzing. I think everyone else is in “what the hell is this?” mode.
Also, unlike TDK which had a brilliant, year long lead in. Watchmen has had a so-so, what, six month lead in with most of press surrounding it being boring stuff (to the non-fan) about copyright issues. Yawner.
I think it’ll top off at 175 million domestic at most. Which I’m sure the studio will consider a failure (there is no way after legal and marketing, this didn’t cost at least $150 million). And of course, a chunk of cash is going right into Fox’s pockets.
Waahhhh. I just want to see Jackie Earl Haley.
And even if early reviews pop up, it doesn’t mean anybody’s going to read them until they see the film for themselves. That’s how I roll.
I’ll be very interested to see if conservative sites like Big Hollywood embrace Watchmen as a somehow conservative film, and if so, which character they’ll embrace as a standard-bearer.
The mega-capitalist? The Ayn Randian vigilante? The superhero who wins Vietnam? The amoral rapist with American flag shoulder-pads? (probably not that last one)
Just read the “review.” If this counts as a review, then really, so does Kevin Smith saying he really liked it several months ago. It tells me almost nothing, no more than if a more legit blogger were to say, for example “I’m embargoed from review right now, but wow. Just wow.”
Or something like that.
Montrealkid: I would agree with you. If it were not for the fact that it was sold in front of the second highest grossing film of all-time. If it were not for the ads that are selling it as being something people have never seen before. If it were not for the fact it turned a hardly selling graphic novel into a best-selling novel overnight.
You can believe like Poland does, but people are excited for this film. I know it seems shocking, but they are excited. It will do 80 even it does not do 80. 80 is where it will go.
Even if it’s not technically a “review,” it’s still an opinion offered by someone who saw the movie and that opinion is being presented on a website for other people to read. Meanwhile hundreds of other people have kept their opinions about the movie quiet so they can effectively follow a studios wishes.
Embargoes are a joke anyway. Someone almost always opens their yap about a film on their site (and Dave…you’ve been accused of doing pretty much exactly what this Time guy has done) and there’s no repercussions. Just a bunch of bitter bloggers with their panties in a wad because they had the integrity to follow the rules.
I think that Watchmen has most of the right ingredients to have the potential to explode – the timing, the visuals, the scale and the respect for the source material. Plus, by virtue of having the same director in many unassociated people’s minds this movie will be associtated with 300 (be it for better or for worse).
I wouldn’t be suprised if the movie tops 300 or becomes as big as Hancock.
I can only imagine Matt Selman IS the 40 year old virgin.
agreed with LYT. It says nothing.
Does it really have to say (figuratively) anything? Most reviews say a lot, and they rarely even move people any more. This movie was going to make what it makes without this review, but embargoes are stupid. Poland should be able to review as should everyone else. The fact that only this is out there is silly.
Thirded. There might be a fuss about the movie, but it’s not coming from this “review.”
LYT, that post pretty much summed it up.
they wanted to get a positive review out there without blowing snyders altered ending too early.
inside job all the way
In other news,
drudge has the link to inglorious bastards teaser over at dailymail
I don’t know…I liked the idea of pitt when he was casted, but that speech sounded way better in my head when I was reading it.
IOIOIO: Do you remember what was trailered in front of Titanic? Or Iron Man? Yeah, neither do I. Audiences have ridiculously short term memories. Watchmen may very well have a good opening weekend, but my point is that for non-fans the film is hard sell and WB has made the mistake of trying so hard to please the fanboys that they’ve completely forgotten that most of the movie marketplace hasn’t heard of the Watchmen or know who they are.
However, if (and it’s a big IF) this film gets the kind of reviews critical consensus that TDK got, this could be a whole different story (but I highly doubt that it will).
There are no standards. I thought this was established. I guess you could continue to vent every time some ass isn’t bright enough to understand the ‘rules’.
But seriously, the longer you cling to this no longer relevant schematic, the more insane you’ll be driven.
I spent years raging against the deteriorating machine, and what i learned is, you can’t go back. The game has changed, it has found a comfortable medium. The studios are comfortable with websites, they have control over the output now, there are no more rogues out there fighting for scoops. The marketing departments are in control of the output. Every once in awhile, a dunce is going to fuck up.
But seriously man, guys like Wells, Finke, Faraci, etc etc etc have eroded away the bottom of the barrel, and it’s an anything goes kind of world we live in.
The Oscars are generally irrelevant, box office is openly discussed by housewives and has been made part of the discussion on quality. Film rumors and behind the scenes conflicts are distributed in real time. The volume has been turned up so high, the coverage becoming so overly analytical, that the joy has been sucked out of it all.
Even when you come to a serious film blog to discuss movies, you get asshats screaming OWNED and begging for a Sag card.
So it’s 1-2-3 What are we fighting for? Don
LYT – Big Hollywood already had a piece that lays out the concept as anti-Regan/Cold War. I see the point you’re making, though. Such a blatant grab wouldn’t be convincing. But with the change in medium removing the comics meta, the ending retool and current cultural atmosphere, it could have an unintended comment. I guess it depends on how 80’s it feels.
IMO if WOM on Friday is solid, then you’ll hit IO’s 80. If it gets a Twittery WTF, Poland will have the down trajectory charted by Sunday.
It was hardly a ‘review’ – more an over-excited boy boasting of having seen a movie everyone wishes they had ….
Watchmen has the fans of the comic. Plus the women for Geoffrey Dean Morgan (they all seem to have crushes on him these days). Plus the fans of 300.
Dark Knight had the marketing angle of a dead actor, but did well because it was a good movie. Watchmen has even better ingredients. A better director (300). And producers with a better track record (Lara Croft).
Oh, and I’m going to see it because I’m fed up with all the Oscar season pretentious trite nonsense in theaters at the moment. Bring back entertainment!
Marcus: I’m looking forward to “Watchmen,” too, but are you serious in suggesting Zack Snyder is a better director than Christopher Nolan, or am I misreading what you’ve written?
…or that the Tomb Raider movies were somehow quality pieces of work?
Or were a good track record? The first did fine but the second Tomb Raider was a bomb.
Nick … maybe it’s tie, and they are both young-ish so really it’s too soon to tell.
With Nolan the ideas are better than the execution – for example Memento was a good idea, but tiresome. Insomnia felt like an ego trip disaster. The Prestige = Yawnsville.
Dark Knight was amazing, and I loved it, but it’s one movie. I guess 300 is also one movie, but a pretty great one … though hopefully Watchmen (based on everything I’ve heard) will make it two amazing movies.
The Tomb Raider movies were great. They might not have been Kurosawa … but frankly I’d rather watch them, because I use my brain all day for work, so I would rather be entertained than go to see a pretentious movie for affirmation. Who knows what will happen with Tomb Raider III. Tomb Raider II may not have been the masterpiece of fun popcorn entertainment that the first one was, but would rather see it than The Reader any day.
Ugh, you’d have to pay me to watch Tomb Raider again, and I never bothered with the sequel.
I understant the concept of wanting mindless entertainment…. but I prefer good mindless entertainment.
And Nolan vs. Snyder is a no brainer to me. Nolan all the way.
Yeah, the Tomb Raider movies were not just not Kurosawa, they weren’t even at a decent pop level of mindless fun. The Tomb Raider movies were the tiresome pictures, with constant action happening to charactes you didn’t care about, and the action scenes weren’t even that great.
Also, Kurosawa didn’t make pretentious movies. If you think The Seven Samurai or Yojimbo are pretentious, then I don’t know what to say.
Do you remember what was trailered in front of Titanic? Or Iron Man?
I still remember “The Flinstones” being tied to Jurassic Park.
I stand by the Tomb Raider was great comment, and don’t feel that they were in any way mindless – just fun. The new Indiana Jones was mindless, but not the Raiders.
My issue with Kurosawa is subtitles – I use several languages each day, so don’t like movies with subtitles … guess I should clarify. It’s just a personal ‘thing’.
Why do we have to chose between Snyder and Nolan – they are both making good movies, and my local multiplex does not make me chose between them.
With Titanic I just remember thinking “get on with it and sink the %*$&
I specifically recall the second Dark Knight trailer being shown with Iron Man. Other than that, you’re right, it’s a blank. I don’t remember any Titanic trailers, but I do remember seeing the trailer to Dark City with Scream 2 and thinking it was going to be a huge hit (it’s still a great trailer for a movie that has aged amazingly well). For the record, the first Titanic trailer debuted with Breakdown in May 1997.
I do fondly remember the ‘mini-trailer variety pack’ that studios used for Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. With Fox, they had mini-trailers for such age-appropriate films as Fight Club and The Beach. Disney had a really short Tarzan trailer, and New Line had a TV-spot length Austin Powers 2 trailer.
Speaking of Star Wars, the 1997 release was a major platform for studios debuting their summer slate. Warner Bros. debuted the infamously campy Batman & Robin trailer with The Empire Strikes Back, and then Fox debuted Speed 2: Cruise Control with Return Of The Jedi.
I do have many memories of certain trailers with premiering with certain movies, but I couldn’t pinpoint a random one upon request.
Did someone actually imply that Kurosawa made pretentious films? Wow. Bold statement.
“Watchmen” will open big because it’s the only national release on 3/6.
“The volume has been turned up so high, the coverage becoming so overly analytical, that the joy has been sucked out of it all.”
Right on.
Both Tomb Raiders fucking ruled.
Big Hollywood is a wretched site. Not because of its politics, because it’s always amusing to read apple-pie-stuffed neocons cluelessly ranting about pop culture. But the layout is a fucking HEADACHE. I can’t even muster the energy to log in and needle and bait that bitch-ass tool “Dirty Harry” (and his Palin-worshipping fans) since he switched over to there from his old blog.
Marcus, I hate to say this but you just come off like the sterotype of the mouth breathing kind of filmgoer that the studios pander to. Now you’re saying both Nolan AND Snyder are making good movies, although it seems like the only Nolan you liked is the one with the superhero in the rubber suit beating up bad guys. Nokan’s other movies you found boring and I guess pretentious as well, although all of those had chase scenes and ending with shootouts, so I don’t think that term applies to those either.
How are the Tomb Raider movies not mindless? I canget with you liking them, but how are either one of them smarter than the new Indiana Jones?
The Big Perm – yup, I like Hollywood movies. I like entertainment and a big tub of popcorn when I go to the theater. I also like French movies. British ones seem to be about poverty and class angst. I would be delighted if Hollywood continued to pander to me.
Indie I and III were amazing. Indie II a bit off / banal. Indie IV. The aliens?!?!? I went with friends the night it opened, and there was a huge amount of goodwill from the crowd. Half walked out, Indie IV was so bad.
I suspect Lara Croft III will be dire, but the others were fun. They were not intellectually stimulating, but that does not mean that they were in consequence automatically mindless. I was far better than II, but would rather see Lara II than Indie IV any day.
Nolan vs Snyder. Prefer Snyder, but since I like to see more than one movie a year have no problem seeing new-style Nolan. His early movies were more promise than delivery, but then that’s so often the case with men … For Dark Knight I can forgive him his earlier efforts as having been intellectually interesting. And yes, as a girl,* I have no objection to handsome men in rubber suits in movies. So did not like Nolan (past tense); now like Nolan (present tense); hope to continue to like Nolan in the future, should he continue to make good movies.
Kurosawa might have been ground-breaking in his day but now he’s dated and seems pretentious – that may be because he has been so imitated, but …
* = Marcus T = Marcus Tullius Cicero.
Marcus: Movie for movie, I go with Nolan. I loved “Dawn of the Dead,” but found “300” to be a wasted opportunity that was far more boring than I’d have thought possible. “Insomnia,” not so great, but I think “Memento” is a masterpiece, along with the two Batman films. “The Prestige” was hit-and-miss for me. But I just cannot get behind an endorsement of either “Tomb Raider” movie, even as mindless entertainment. Talk about unwatchable garbage.
Nobody ever mentions Nolan’s FOLLOWING but it owns.
“Kurosawa might have been ground-breaking in his day but now he’s dated and seems pretentious”
Epic FAIL. With much love.
The Prestige was dire. How can you rate that more highly than Tomb Raider!
“300” is a terrible comic, very badly researched – 298 died, not 300; the Spartans were far more pro homosexuality than the Athenians; the Ephors were elected officials who guided the kings, not all-powerful old hags, etc – but Snyder made it not only watchable but a masterpiece.
Marcus T FUCKING OWNS.
I was just going to comment, before LEX got it in, is that Marcus, being a girl with a guys name, is like the ultimate Lex-bait, like an inverse Eddie Murphy stop on Santa Monica Blvd… thought he was loving a guy… but she’s a girl with girl parts and all!!!
The first Hot Blog wedding!
Anyway… I don’t believe that opening weekend trajectory has anything to do with word of mouth, Luke. What may well happen, however, even if the film is great, is that it has a massive Friday number that drops on Saturday and Sunday because the must-sees all go on friday and thursday night.
Expect 10p shows on Thursday, if not 8p shows, for that reason.
WB will try to play it up as an event, above and beyond reviews or word of mouth. If they can get the number up over $60 million, the media will make a huge show of it on Sunday and Monday, which will help the second weekend, spreading it to non-fans who want to be where the action is. Weekend 3 will tell the word of mouth story.
I am still hoping to love the film.
No idea when I am seeing it. Not asking anyone at WB at this point. I may see it in a theater opening day… no idea.
Related: The strangest Watchmen merchandising you’re going to see (today):
http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/02/you-too-can-look-like-doctor-manhattan-down-there/
I also like more than one movie a year. I like both Snyder and Nolan. I also couldn’t care less about how accurate the funny book 300 was. I liked the movie but I wouldn’t consider it to be a masterpiece…I think you have to care somewhat about what’s happening for that to be the case.
I’m still waiting for why Lara Croft is smarter than Indy 4. You brought up aliens, as if that’s why Indy 4 was dumb…so can I bring up the tree monsters or the killer statues?
Also, do you know what pretentious means? Explain how Kurosawa is pretentious. That’s just a buzzword that people use for movies they don’t like, that can’t easily be called hackwork or lame.
I can imagine how a person who watches Kurosawa might be pretentious – the filmmaker himself, in general, not so much. When you actually live up to lofty goals, there’s no pretense in that equation.
Snyder has one good movie under his belt and one pretty-looking garbage movie, so hopefully Watchmen can at least split the difference.
Montreal: I would buy what you are stating, but this is a different age. It’s a different place and time, and countless people were sold Watchmen in front of the biggest movie of this decade. Underselling that, is a mistake. It will make ridiculous level cash, and it will not have 8 or 10 o’clock shows. This is an R film. You drop the R film at midnight. It’s better that way :D.
Oh yeah… a lady named Marcus that finds 300 to be a Masterpiece, and believes Kurosawa is out of date? Wh-wh-wh-whhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttt?
Marcus – Kurosawa is not pretentious. Sentimental, yeah, but that’s part-n-parcel for J cinema. The pretension comes from critics and film auteurs. He was quite aware of this early in his career and didn’t rely on it until post-Tora Tora Tora.
As for 300, the whole point of 300 was not to tell it as history lesson, ala Gladiator. Miller took “facts” and it into a superheroic, mythological story akin to The Iliad. Snyder’s movie wouldn’t have worked, let alone existed, without Miller’s reinvention. If anything, Snyder watered it down.
maybe marcus finds rain pretentious
Swordfights are pretentious.
What was Kurosawa thinking by adding subtitles? Dumb move.
“What was Kurosawa thinking by adding subtitles? Dumb move.”
Not as dumb as putting all the dialogue in JAPANESE. Sooooo pretentious…
And what’s with all that black & white crap he did? What the hell!? Way to ruin the blood, you girly-named sissy!
The very height of pretentious was in Yojimbo, where a badass samurai throws a knife into a guy’s arm before he can fire a shot, and then single handedly kills about 20 dudes with a sword.
Other pretentious movies: For a Few Dollars More, The Magnificent Seven, Drunken Master 2, Dragonslayer.
Big Perm, by that logic, The Lord of the Rings trilogy is the most pretentious films of all time. Didn’t 7 dudes wipe out the entire orc army? And not one of them died.
One of them fell. Besides that; it has a lot of pretentiousness going on.
Just so we are all on the same page. We are mocking Marcus now? Just checking. So I can tell Mr. Valanche what direction to take.
Marcus Antonius found Marcus Tullius Cicero pretentious. So much so that he had his head cut off. Then his wife pulled out Cicero’s tongue and stabbed it repeatedly with her hairpin, so that it should never speak pretentiously again.
“Miller took ‘facts’ and it into a superheroic, mythological story akin to The Iliad.”
There is nothing “akin” to 300 in The Iliad.
Cloudy showing us his epic level history knowledge. He’s a professor people. Please tip your teachers and professors.
Oh. Please.
Those two Marcus bitches don;t know shit about pretentiousness.
Mucius Scaevola burnt his f*cking hand off for Roma and if I have to hear about it one more time, I will kill myself.
And unlike LexG, I MEAN it.
“Watchmen has even better ingredients. A better director (300). And producers with a better track record (Lara Croft).”
I think that would be information to conceal for real fans (like me) of the comic.
Too late.
first reactions (certainly not a review) re: watchmen…..read the book years ago, never obsessed over it…saw the movie tonight and can honestly say that i would pay full, premium ticket price just to see the opening scenes and title sequence again….i knew going in that there was a chance it could rise above my (low) expectations but certainly not as much as it actually did…..that said, at 2:41 it’s too long…the adages ‘too much of a good thing’ and ‘leave ’em wanting more’ exist for a reason….
great, great soundtrack (even if a couple of the musical cues were a tad heavy-handed)….lots and lots of full-frontal billy cruddup (not sure straight fanboys will sit comfortably for that much dick…)…..
could nolan have done it better?…maybe….did snyder do a really terrific job?…yes!
Haha, Lota, I think you’re the one who should be getting IO’s tips. Seriously, though, I think much of the fun of Roman history is that it’s full of bizarre shit like that, tongues being stabbed, hands burned off, and what not. The Greeks have their share, but there’s something about the Romans that lends itself more to the picaresque and colorful. There was something in the water there. And I’m not even talking about the lead.
Most comic fans have had years of dealing with Doctor Manhattan’s doink. It’s just a part of doing business with Alan Moore’s head. It will bring giggles from the people, but the doink is only there for so long. There’s plenty of Mal Alkerman to distract us :D!
‘…that much dick…’
wow, there’s dick??!! well hellloooooo, watchmen
Cloudy: the Romans were fucking whacked out of their schools. They were a special kind of crazy in all the realm of history. While the other folks created the seven wonders of the world. Those crazy motherfuckers were involved with a level of debauchery seldom seen outside of the state of Kentucky. Those fine folks are rowdy.
Actually the Romans were likely excellent liars.
They would have made good screenwriters–take a Greek factoid (Athenian Codrus entering an enemy camp and getting hurt)…and turn it into a Roman act of heroism by an upper class man.
Gaius Mucius, did not try to assassinate king Porsenna and prevented Rome’s capture. No Way.
Posenna, acc. to Tacitus likely captured/sacked Rome.
Gaius Mucius, supposedly kills one of Porsenna’s secretaries. That dog don’t hunt. Secretaries and Kings do not look anything alike and it would be hand-to-hand combat, not like shooting a .357 across a dimly lit, smoky bar.
When he is brought before Porsenna, he shows his contempt for torture and Etruscans by voluntarily placing his right hand in a fire. Not buying it. No Roman nobility would ever put their RIGHT hand in fire–that was reserved for traitors and breakers of the most scared oathes amongst upper class men.
Livy and Valerius Maximus report the story but there were many add-ons. Dionysius never mentions Muc buring his hand at all.
After much reflection, I think Muc just spit in Lars Porsenna’s face and called him a Goth or Vandal.
IO give ME a tip? Yeah in Monopoly money or Star trek trading cards most likely.
Damn, somebody cool joins and you pricks have to chase her off.
Way to be an asshole, folks.
It is good to hear Scot that Watchmen is watchable–it does seem excessively long.
Leah…don;t get too excited. It isn;t that there is a Piece, it is what is done with it that matters. But I do Like Billy C, right enough.
not Scot, Scoot.
“Way to be an asshole, folks.”
Mmmm-hmmmmm, that’s good irony!
leah— re: dr. manhattan (and his little chrysler bldg.)…..i’ve always been aware of the term ‘blue balls’ but i give major aesthetic props to watchmen for completing the set (and blue is such a comforting color)…..
AWESOME!!! (‘little chrysler bldg’, lol, scoot, you clever minx)
HEY is it possible to read the graphic novel before the movie DROPS?
I guess I have TWO WEEKS and I bought the GRAPHIC NOVEL but this shit looks like it’s 8000 pages or something. Is it faster to read a graphic novel than a REAL novel? Like I tried to read TWILIGHT but that was taking six months so I was like, fuck it, I’ll just see the movie when it’s K-STEW and not some boring words on a page.
Sort of like your homies would pour some of their 40 ounce on the sidewalk when you get blasted, I think Lex just rubbed one out for Marcus.
don’t worry Lex. I am just having a little fun with Latin and Greek translation, which I did all 4 years in high school and I am damaged for life.Veni Vidi Vici. Vicodin. Blackcloud brought it up and Romans called Marcus usually need a smackdown anyway.
You, on the other hand, have likely scared off denizens of cyberspace yet you seem blissfully unrepentent of your repulsive powers when you bring movie threads to a screeching halt at your “drunk” phase.
You can Call yourself an asshole now.
But it would better to enter a screenplay contest or get your SAG credits. Plenty of people on here have SAG credits and they can tell you how (not me, I’m not an actor).
“Is it faster to read a graphic novel than a REAL novel? Like I tried to read TWILIGHT but that was taking six months so I was like, fuck it, I’ll just see the movie when it’s K-STEW and not some boring words on a page.”
I hope you are kidding.
Graphic novels give you a lot of time for daydreaming since you have to imagine what is not written and interpret drawing. Savor the experience. Grpahic novels…well good ones…are magic.
I say it takes longer but is worth it.
Please read a book Lex–write us a book report and leave words “own” “boner” and “boring” out of it!
lota — i’m pretty sure (based on past posts) that lex reads and he’s goofin’ here….
that said– i actually have friends (with pretty good jobs)who pride themselves on the fact that they ‘don’t read’….. before i’m tagged insensitive, these are people who aren’t limited…they just love saying, ‘oh, i don’t read’…….amazing but true….
LEXG = DEGREE IN ENGLISH LIT with a “concentration” in RUSSIAN LITERATURE.
IQ OF 234.
234? On behalf of the citizens of Earth. I would like to ask that you get off your FRIGGIN ASS, and DO SOMETHING! You want a SAG card with a 234 IQ? ARE YE BLOODY DAFT?
“I’M AN OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOIL MAN.”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
PLAINVIEW = GOD. BEST. FUCKING. MOVIE. EEEEEVER.
Scooter – good to hear. I’ve wondered about the running time, considering 300 was under two hours. Would you say it drags at any point?
Blackcloud – 300 and The Iliad are both told by narrators for embellishment of historical fact. That was the job of classical orators. Miller took this approach so 300 would feel “akin” to Homer.
Expect 10p shows on Thursday, if not 8p shows …
Not for Imax. Most of the Imax theaters with “Watchmen” are playing the Jonas Brothers concert movie from 2/27-3/5. Disney will not allow the Imax venues to drop a late show on 3/5 just to please the mouth-breathing “Watchmen” fanboys.
“Blackcloud – 300 and The Iliad are both told by narrators for embellishment of historical fact. That was the job of classical orators. Miller took this approach so 300 would feel “akin” to Homer.”
Sorry, Martin, except for involving ancient Greeks the two are nothing alike.
“Damn, somebody cool joins and you pricks have to chase her off.”
Oh, shut up, Lex. She was obviously a dolt from her very first post. I have my doubts that “she” is even really female. I suspect Bicycle Bob, myself. “I speak six languages and work with my brain all day but I hate to read subtitles and find samurai movies pretentious, though I’ve never actually seen one…” right. And she’s an African-American Puerto Rican Mexican DD-cup lesbian.
Lex and Bob, sittin’ in a tree. That’d be pretty hilarious if it’s true.
Smart is sexy, and I’d rather party with Leah and Lota, with a couple of fifths of Wild Turkey, a bottle of Vicodin and a crate of Criterions and early Carpenter flicks. In New Zealand, of course, at Leah’s house on the lake with the big wood deck and a view of the misty mountains looming over us. Oh, and wild stallions running through the yard. (All Kiwis live in places like this. I’ve seen the travel brochures.)
well, that’s mighty kind of you, mr. booth š (i’ll have to try not to say stupid stuff and argue lame points from now on…fat chance) but you forgot our cute little kiwi birds as pets and the flock of fluffy white sheep out in the yard to do the lawn-mowing! (well, to be fair i actually did once have a lamb that turned into a sheep that lived out back and kept the grass short. here’s a boring fact: we kiwis are primarily coastal dwellers, the bulk of us have to live in proximity to the ocean that surrounds us at every turn or we have panic attacks and heart palpitations. people who are land-locked scare the bejeezus out of us!)
oh, and that sounds like a hell of a party, count me in
“Smart is sexy.”
Bullshit. DUMB is sexy. It’s also sexy when a chick is foreign (preferrably Eastern Euro) and doesn’t really understand a whole lot so she just nods and agrees all the time.
FUCK YEAH.
On topic, I read like 30 pages of that Watchmen thing today and it’s pretty good, but every time I’m getting into it, they interject these annoying PRINTED WORD PAGES that are like asides or some shit. Do I have to read that, or can I skip it? I’m actually liking the parts with the pictures because you can BLAZE through like a page in less than a minute, but I don’t want to “read” these three-to-five page asides.
They should make a superhero movie with K-STEW in a LITTLE COSTUME.
That would be SO HOT.
“Bullshit. DUMB is sexy.”
Then why aren’t you getting laid?
Because fat and ugly isn’t.
Blackcloud – that’s not an answer.
The sheep! How could I forget the sheep? And those short little guys with the hairy feet. I’ve heard they’re mostly on the skids these days, hanging out in the urban areas, panhandling and drinking and picking the pockets of tourists.
I get that landlocked, claustrophobic feeling if I venture across the Bay for too long. Yech.
Martin, have you read the Iliad? Perhaps you have, but your simplistic conflation of it with 300 indicates you haven’t.
‘And those short little guys with the hairy feet. I’ve heard they’re mostly on the skids these days, hanging out in the urban areas, panhandling and drinking and picking the pockets of tourists’
yes, frank, it’s quite sad, really; they’ve been forced out of their quaint hole-in-the-hill homes and off their ancestral lands by ruthless tourism-dollar-chasing farmers, thereby migrating into the cities and towns only to endure the hardship of homelessness by virtue of the extreme lack of grassy knolls in which to dig their homes, and the outright scorn of waxed-to-hairless-perfection metrosexuals
One-quarter of the way through the GRAPHIC NOVEL and I have totally changed my heretofore indifferent tune:
THIS MOVIE IS GOING TO FUCKING RUUUUUUUUUUUUULE.
Blackcloud – I actually wrote a paper on it in college. I’m pretty familiar with it. If your answer is that the actual stories have nothing in common, then I don’t think you understand the meaning of the word “akin”.
1. Of the same kin; related by blood.
2. Having a similar quality or character; analogous.
3. Linguistics. Sharing a common origin or an ancestral form.
A Young Hero (Leonidas/Achilles) groomed from birth to be a warrior and the legendary battle of his life, retold by an orator, (Dillos/Homer). That’s the core of both stories, except the Battle of Thermopylae had never been framed that way before, until Miller.
Okay, I’ve done this myself before, so I know of what I speak, and I think that when somebody brings up a dictionary deinition in a movie blog, they can be offially labelled as a tiresome pedant.
The relationship between the Iliad and 300 is the same as that between a delicious steak dinner and what results a day later after it’s gone through your colon.
So what changed your mind, Lex? The Maserati flipping over and landing in the swimming pool?
Man I can’t wait to watch the movie, the preview is awesome and the chicks darn hot.
Nice language, Jeff. You kiss your mom’s boyfriend with that mouth?
Anyway…I find it funny that Knowles whined about not getting to see Watchmen, now gets a two-screen preview – provided by MySpace, a Newscorp appendage.
At this point I’d normally paste the definition of hypocrite, but I don’t want to offend Jeff and have him use up his posting quota.
Martin, the language you’re objecting to is…’colon’? Whuh?
Poland – Come on, where’s the review? I refuse to believe you’re the only one who hasn’t seen it.