I Watched the Watchmen

I liked it. As a fan-boy I don't think it could ever match the original, but as a stand alone movie I enjoyed it. Overall it captures the graphic novel very well and I look forward to the extras and deleted scenes of the DVD.

There was a big line to get in and another big line for the next show when we got out at 10:00. Hopefully it will pull in some big opening night numbers. Of course I happened to pick the same theater and showing that all the Petroglyph guys went to which was kinda cool.

I didn't see anybody else wearing their original watchmen pin from 1986.

Some off the top of my head, non-spoiler, some-what critical comments:

I think the discussion between Jon and Laurie on Mars could have been done better. Her big realization was done much better in the book with the layered flashbacks.

Also Jon's thing with the thermodynamic miracles wasn't set up and explained that well. In the book he talks about the thermodynamic miracles when he is first showing her around and that's when he says he wanted to see one, which him realizing that we have been witnessing them everyday have more impact.

Missed the odd time things with Jon. Him telling Laurie that she is about to revel something to him and then being surprised when she does in her reply. Also his distorted state when the tachyons are messing with him, "excuse me Rorschach, I'm explaining this to Laurie 2 minutes ago."

I think they should have had more narration, like in the book. It would have helped people who hadn't read the graphic novel as well as given them more to work with.

Not enough smiley face references. Or maybe I missed them?

No, embracing Hiroshima lovers silhouette graffiti either even though the one shot from the dinner where you see it getting painted through the window, across the street was spot on in the movie.

Blue penis was 4 times the size it was in the comic. Seriously, it has always been referenced as the little blue dinkle, not the swinging blue pipe!!! Dave Gibbons had said they were worried that DC wouldn't let them show full frontal nudity in the comic so he was very careful to casually conceal it most of the time in the framing and draw it understated like in Roman statues so it was something you would only notice in passing.

Several added things were really good like the beginning credit sequence that lays some foundation and drives home that this is not our 1985. The fight scenes had a lot of impact as well, getting hit hurts.

I've already planned to go see it again at the matinee showing tomorrow.

My Point, and I Really Do Have One...

Now, my friend Nick just wrote me an email. Granted it was in response to one I had written him earlier in the day. But he ended it with a comment in regard to the previous blog post.

"Oh, and I meant to comment on your blog about this, but since I’m writing an email I may as well mention it now. Although mentioning the squid monster isn’t a spoiler for the movie, it *is* a spoiler for the graphic novel!"

Now, in answer to that postulation about the supposed spoiler in regards to the graphic novel, I must refer him to point 1a which would apply to the unfortunate soul who has yet to read the graphic novel.

1a. You don't know what the hell I am talking about with "giant, physic, squid" anyway

Saying something about the "giant, physic squid" no more ruins the graphic novel than if I were to talk about the remake of Star Wars, Episode IV, A New Hope by saying, "They added a ring to the explosion." It doesn't really tell you anything and to be truthful throwing out "giant, physic, squid" makes absolutely no sense until you actually get to the end of the graphic novel. It's not like anybody who hadn't read the graphic novel would read "giant, physic, squid" and even have a clue where I was going with that under any circumstance.

Now granted, there are clues leading up to the ending, but honestly, they don't really make sense until your second read.

However, I had told my friend Paul that I was going to see "The Crying Game" years ago and he mentioned there is a twist at the end and I should be careful not to let anybody spoil it for me. I said I had heard there was a twist ending because one of the actors was on The Tonight Show the night before. He suddenly got concerned asking which actor. I didn't know which actor because I can't ever remember names if my life depended on it. I started to describe either Forest Whitaker or Stephen Rea, I forget which as it was a long time ago. Paul was relieved upon hearing it was a guy. From that, I guessed the secret of the crying game as soon as she was introduced on-screen. So maybe he is right and I should leave open the possibility that it is a spoiler.

All of that is besides the point though. The point is that he didn't comment. He instead mentioned what he was going to say in email. Do you know how often that happens? Do you know how many people email me with responses to my blog posts instead of using the provided comment section? Don't bother guessing, I'll just spoil it for you and say, "A lot!"

The problem with this is that it would appear to all other readers that there is, in fact, nobody reading my blog except Bug Hunter and Cap'n John, two individuals who I have never meet but; however, on top of appearing to be quite nice and friendly, at least post comments. For this I thank them, post comments occasionally on their blogs, and now that I am back in the U.S. hope to one day meet them over, say, pancakes.

We shouldn't be too hard on Nick though. I was just using him because he is the latest example of this problem that I am having. Nick did write me a wonderful letter of recommendation for my time at Interzone which you can read if you go dig for it under the resume link on the right-hand menu.

Watchmen Ending

Just another quick note, the book, "Watchmen the Film Companion" with a half and half Rorschach, half drawn, half real-life from the movie, on the cover kinda reveals the new ending. We already knew there wasn't going to be any giant physic squid, and that isn't a spoiler because:

1. If you haven't read the book
- a. Shame on you and you are really missing out
- b. You don't know what the hell I am talking about with "giant physic squid" anyway
2. I'm telling you it ISN'T something, how can it be a spoiler if I am saying it isn't this or that!?
3. I'm not saying anything about what the new ending plot point is actually.

The book by Peter Aperlo is a film companion and doesn't really have much, besides some new pictures, that isn't already available on the internet. It only mentions the new ending plot point twice, and in passing as if you have already seen the movie.

The USA weekend pull-out in the Las Vegas Review-Journal had a piece on the Watchmen movie complete with centerfold poster of the movie versions of the characters as drawn by original Watchmen artist Dave Gibbons. Though to be honest, the only things that are different are the slight changes to the Night Owl's costume and Veidt. Everybody else looks like they stepped right out of the graphic novel, or individual issues if, like me, you happened to have been there way back then. Yeah I'm bragging.

The lovely Kristina (I'm contractually obligated to call her that) has already bought tickets for our little group for Friday on the Imax screen of the Red Rock Casino.

Oh, I wore the original Watchmen pin that they gave out as a promotion back in 1986, Smiley face with the drop of blood, (yeah, I'm bragging again) when Eric#1 and I went out on Friday night. We only went to two places, but despite a lot of people showing interest in it, only the bouncer at one club actually knew what was and expressed his hope about the movie being any good.

Who Watches the Nachos?

Look what Tim drew for me!

The story behind the nachos is that when Tim was first switching over to being a Content Designer, Ellen had asked if he should be invited to the design meeting.

I said, "Sure, but he has to bring the nachos."

Tim failed to bring any nachos.

The next design meeting, I had this sambrao that I bought for one of Interzone's theme days, this one being "Mexican day" which may have also been Cinco de Mayo but probably not. I filled the rim of the hat with corn chips and brought along some salsa to show Tim that a proper design meeting has to nachos.

Update!

I haven’t posted in awhile for a number of reasons, the foremost being the computer I usually sit and type things up on died over Christmas. Well, it turns out that it was just the video card that died and I’ve managed to get it up and running again.

I’ve had some people ask me recently about the Watchmen Movie legal case as it was supposed to go to court again back on the 20th. Good news is that Fox and Warner Brothers settled, and the movie is still on track to come out on 03/06/09. Here is a link to a Variety article, pardon the giant ad that pops over the screen.

There is a semi-interesting bit at the end of the article about moving release dates of movies opening on the same date as movies from the other studios so they wouldn’t compete and using actors contracted to the other studio. I really love the statement "Warner Bros. and Fox, like all "Watchmen" fans, look forward with great anticipation to this film's March 6 release in theaters." Which translates to, "We are sorry to have upset you with this fight Mr. Fanboy, please see our movies."

My friend Brad also pointed out if you keep with the whole counting down to midnight on the clock theme, that release date is pretty cool.

I’ve been watching the Watchmen Motion comics on iTunes and although I like it, I really wish they hadn’t edited it down. They didn’t cut it down very much, you would hardly notice, but they cut out a few of my favorite lines. There was also some critisim on the iTunes feedback about one guy reading all the voices, and as major fan of Audio books I agree. With a production like this they should have dramatized it with several actors. It isn't a straight audio production of somebody reading a story where is okay to have one narrator.

I have also been listening to Comic Geek Speak's Watchmen Footnotes episodes. Just eating up anything "Watchmen" until the movie comes out.

Another thing I’ve been doing is messing around with an Interactive Fiction editor. At first I started to use Adrift, which I had experimented with back in 2004. Although there have been a few bug fix releases, there really hasn’t been a new version since 2003. I quickly found myself having the same problems I had before all over again. So I switched over to Inform7 which appears to be much more powerful.

I also tried wearing my beard differently; I shaved my jaw line so I essentially had a goatee with full sideburns, pointed in. Nobody really commented on the change though so I took that as a bad sign and reverted back to my normal shaving routine. Speaking of which… I went to buy new razor blades and found that a pack of Gillette Mach3 blades cost something like (actual numbers may be a bit off as this was a month ago) $24 AUD. But at the same time they were selling the new Schick Quattro Titanium Freestyle razor on sale for $14 AUD. The blades for it were also on sale for that price. So I was able to buy this new razor with 3-blades, a 4th edging blade, and a battery operated hair trimmer and another box of blades for 4 dollars more than a box of Mach3 blades. Too back the Schick razor SUCKS! It isn’t giving me anywhere near as close a shave as the Mach3 did. Now I have to wait till I go through all these blades and buy a whole new Mach3 as I threw the old one out. BTW neither Gillette or Schick are getting links to their websites because both of them pissing me off with their auto-redirecting to Australian versions of their sites and requiring special version of flash players.

Finally, for my "in the news section" South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson, who has been blocking an 18+ rating in Australia has given an interview where he explains his rational. It basically boils down to the same old untrue crap about how games are more interactive and you are "rehearsing harmful behavior," "desensitizing children towards violence," and that video games are "addictive." He states that only a few very video games are denied classification (read as banned in Australia) each year. What I don’t think they is realizing is that a large number of games that maybe should be classified as 18+ are instead being classified as 15+.

Oh, one last thing. Every few months or so I would look up Fez which I blogged about last February. They have finally put out a press release announcing their publisher on their new website. They put up a new picture the other day comparing the old graphics to the new. I don't know what to think about the new graphics, they look like old school console graphics which leads me to wonder about what platform they are going to release on.

Will We Watch the Watchmen?

I posted a in-depth write-up that linked to basically everything you wanted to know about the Watchman legal dispute between Warner Brothers and Fox back in August.

Now Variety is reporting that on Wednesday Judge Gary Allen Feese issued a ruling that says, "Fox owns a copyright interest consisting of, at the very least, the right to distribute the ‘Watchmen’ motion picture." The judge said he would issue a more detailed ruling soon.

An earlier Variety report said that Fox wasn’t looking for monetary compensation either, they may seek to prevent Warner from EVER releasing Watchmen.

The quote from "a source close to the litigation" said, "When you have copyright infringement, there are some damages you never recover."

So far Warner Brothers has not backed off a release date of March 6, but Warner spokesman Scott Rowe declined to comment on the ruling.

Fox is going to Terminate Sarah Conner

Just a quick mid-work day post. I read last week that the declining rating for Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles may lead Fox to cancel the show. I watch all of last season and so far only the premier episode this season, and I realize that the storylines have been a bit slow, the conclusions to plot lines that have been built up have been a bit anti-climatic, and the show needs an serious induction of dramatic excitement. But I still like it and its first on my list when I buy my next batch of season passes on iTunes.

Then at lunch today when I was doing a quick bounce around the internets, I see that is shown on Monday nights opposite Heroes and Monday Night Football. Gee I think I figured this one out!

Dear Fox,

Move "Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles" to a different day/time slot. Don't pull another Firefly on us.

Love
-Joseph-

P.S. iTune subscriptions don't show up in Neilson Ratings do they? Seriously, its way past time to toss that system and find out what people are really watching. I was part of the Neilson system in the 80's and the way it worked sucked then, technology passed it by in the 90's, and you are all still using it because you are scared of the shake up. Its been 3 years since you realized that data gathered from digital recorders were having a significant impact on your numbers and you still haven't figured out anything to do with that data. Be a leader, fix that crap.

P.P.S. Then again this could be all the sci-fi fan boys boycotting you for that Watchmen bullshit you are pulling. Ya never know.

There. I am sure that will straighten everything out. I've got to get back to work now.

Watchmen Update

I’ve been bouncing all over the internet reading up on the latest news and buzz about the upcoming Watchmen movie.

There is a lot of fan angst over the running time of the film and the film's legal trouble with Fox studios. So much angst that it has spawned two of the internet's most dreaded entities, the online petition and the cry for a boycott! Shudder! I just got a shiver up my back!

Here is an easy one-page piece from Newsarama that describes exactly what the trouble the films producer, Warner Bros., is facing from Fox. But if that isn't enough for you, here is a post over at uncivilsociety.org containing links to all the relevant legal documents, complaints, judges orders, alleged misstatements, purchase agreements and even a comparison to a similar situation in 2005, when the same judge granted a preliminary injunction that would have kept The Dukes of Hazzard movie from being released.

Supporters of the petition, which you can find HERE, are threatening to boycott upcoming Fox studios films such as "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and even "X-Men Origins: Wolverine." Those sound like empty threats to me though, but then again so does Fox's threat to prevent the movie from ever being released because, they say, "there are some damages you never recover." We all know that to Fox it is only about the money and nothing but the money.

As proof that it is about nothing but the money, people have highlighted Fox's timing on this whole thing. Fox stood by and waited until February to file their complaint. They waited until after Warner Bros had finished developing the movie, when they would have the most leverage.

A Fox spokesmen responded to the question about if Fox is concerned about the fans being upset by saying,

"Of course we are concerned about the fans; however, any disappointment from the core fans should not be directed toward Fox. What we are doing is seeking to enforce our distribution rights to Watchmen. Legal copyright ownership should not just be swept under the rug and ignored."

Translated that means, "No we just care about the money." But really, why should they care about the fans? We are still watching their crap even though there is no more Firefly.

Now on top of that all there is the issue of the movie's running time. Fans are crying out, demanding that the movie be allowed to come in at 3+ hours. Here is another Newsarama article about the running time including how that might be relevant to the legal problems and how other long running blockbusters have faired box office money-wise.

But is the movie worth all this? Kevin Smith, who was invited to see a rough cut of the film just after the San Diego Comic-con and posted this on his MySpace page:

I saw "Watchmen." It's fucking astounding. The Non-Disclosure Agreement I signed prevents me from saying much, but I can spout the following with complete joygasmic enthusiasm: Snyder and Co. have pulled it off.

Remember that feeling of watching "Sin City" on the big screen and being blown away by what a faithful translation of the source material it was, in terms of both content and visuals? Triple that, and you'll come close to watching "Watchmen." Even Alan Moore might be surprised at how close the movie is to the book. March can't come soon enough.

Though for the sake of full disclosure I should say that I didn't think the Sin City movie was all that great. Not that I didn't think it wasn't really faithful to the graphic novels, I just thought the movie version showed just how campy the graphic novel actually is.

Anyway, if you still juiced for more Watchmen reading here is an interview with DC comics president, Paul Levitz, about the trailer and such. Even more interesting is this piece by Isabelle Burtan, a new writer at ShotgunReviews.com, about her virgin take on The Watchmen trailer. It is her scene by scene take on the trailer not knowing anything at all about the graphic novel.

My personal take on the trailer is that was the trailer for us fans. There will be other trailers for the unwashed masses closer to the film's release.

Who Watches the Watchmen... Trailer

A trailer for next year's Watchmen movie just went up. It's good. It's REAL GOOD!

http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/watchmen/

I've been spreading the graphic novel around the office, addicting more and more people. When Brad, who just finished reading it for the first time, saw the trailer his comment was, "I don’t know if I have ever had such a high pixels to smile ratio."

I am worried that we are getting our expectations up too high, but personally, I just can't help it.

The old Watchmen movie site now has a fancy, animated 'real site' front end. The old site with the ongoing video journals is listed as the "Production Diary" under the menu. The fourth one, talking to Dave Gibbons, just went up last week.

UPDATE:
'Watchmen': An Exclusive First Look - Entertainment Weekly article that has some good stuff on the upcoming movie including some tidbits about what removed and added from the original story.

EXCLUSIVE: Zack Snyder Reveals Secrets In ‘Watchmen’ Trailer - MTV Movies Blog interview with Zach Snyder about Watchmen.

ANOTHER UPDATE:
Watchmen Motion Comic! - Warner Premiere’s Motion Comics were just announced. There will be 12 Watchmen episodes, one for each comic issue. Not really sure about the pricing thing, the text in the article implies they are available on Entertainment Weekly's website for free now and then you can buy them from iTunes in August. But I downloaded the first episode for free from iTunes yesterday.