In honor of my 1000th view on That Indie Reviewer, I am going to review one of my all time favorite films, Watchmen. I don't know why, but everyone seems to pick on this film. But why, it's stylish, visually impressive, brilliantly portrayed and, for the most part, pretty much matches the source material. So what went wrong with the fan-base declaring it an insult to the greatest Graphic Novel of all time. Let's find out. In America, over a third of the population read Comic Books, most of them follow them religiously. If you ask anyone who has reads comics or graphic novels "what have you read?", a majority will say Watchmen. The novel has redefined Comic Books as a graphic novel, including delicate themes of responsibility and choice, elements of philosophy and a deep examination of society. Among its many achievements, is the inclusion on Time's "all-time greatest novels list". All of this aside, it was a testament to comics as writer Alan Moore wanted to prove just how powerful a graphic novel can be. Set in 1985(alternate timeline for the noobs) in America, Vietnam and Mars. It follows the misadventures of a vigilante group of Heroes called The Watchmen. After the government and public have spoken, they are branded illegal and under government property. The film follows the death of one of the watchmen who was killed in one of the best shot fight sequences since the Matrix duel between Mr Smith and Neo. One of the heroes, Rorschach, tries to uncover a conspiracy theory, while the others dissuade him. One of the best parts of this film is the acting and the portrayals, especially Jackie Earle Haley(Rorschach), of each of the heroes. When reading the novel, I tried to think of what their voices sound like and how they would really react. The use of a mostly unknown cast brings a sense of realism to this. The only actor I thought was quite underwhelming was Malin Akerman as Silk Specter/Laurie Juyzpekle. Everyone else was, pretty good, but I just felt she didn't really know what to do with this role. As I said before, Rorschach is just a complete bad-ass(in fact I think I should have put him on my list of top ten Bad-asses).He is the common saving grace for fans, that he was what made the film so great. But there is so much more. Each fight sequence(yes each of them have a little bit of or is complete slow-motion) is shot in such a style it flows and feels like this is how and why these guys did the whole superhero shtick. Another is the locations and bringing the comic to life, seeing the stretch of Mars and the filthy night life of New York(Note: New York is a lovely city with lovely people). In the extended cut, which I assume most haters of the original cut have avoided, includes adaptions of the voyage of the black trader(voiced, in animation, by Gerard Butler) and has extended scenes with the every men of daily life. I also love this soundtrack, especially the opening montage(one of the best forms of film-making in a long time) and during the funeral of the Comedian. There are some things that are wrong though. There is a lack of subtlety in who the villain is(no really guess?). The actor who plays him just didn't give off the trusting, philanthropic businessman that was in the comic, in fact he cares for little to nothing during the entire movie. It's only at the end that he really cares and even that seems forced. I won't say that slow motion is bad, but it is certainly overused in this movie, I wouldn't mind the mix of fast and slow pace or just fast pace. I would certainly like to have seen more of each characters philosophy or political or religious opinion. Each one had a certain standpoint of ideals(eg. Rorschach is a left-wing nihilist, comedian is a right-wing patriot). But these are only some minor points. The film has its own sense of time and patience. It went at its own pace and it brought to life memorable characters, with a memorable story on what it really means to be a superhero. It is elegant, stylish, well portrayed and this sights number one guilty pleasure and one of my 15 favorite movies of all time. In my opinion, see this film, its one of those strange oddities of film that is not usually seen, like fight club or Donnie Darko. In fact it's not even guilty to watch it, you will feel renewed watching it.
Well this was unexpected wasn't it (Note to self: get better jokes). Well in wake of watching this film I have realized that the best way to attract a crowd is to follow a certain set of rules. RULE 1: You don't talk about That Indie Reviewer, Rule 2: YOU DON'T TALK ABOUT THAT INDIE REVIEW! (OKAY Maybe you can, please do) Fight Club is about this man. Just a man you don't know the name of, and his life is SO boring. He has insomnia, he can't concentrate. It's like when you have stayed up every night to watch a midnight movie while your parents don't know for about two weeks (not that I would know anything about that). He is played by Edward Norton, who you will not see in anymore Incredible Hulk movies. He has his whole mid life crisis at thirty, feeling unfulfilled as an average white collar worker in an insurance firm and as a human being who just is stuck. Now here is where I admit freely to feeling stuck in a nowhere lifestyle or at least I am afraid of that. No feeling is worse than emptiness. That is until Tyler Durden pops in to his life. A soap seller played by a ripped Brad Pitt, he is just so psychotic and fun loving that you just go with it. To relieve the stress in their lives they start a club that people can just beat the crap out of each other until they tap out. But this is only the Beginning. The visual flare of this film just pops with interest. I mean the animation is like those films made in the late 90's/early 2000's, like toy story blended with CSI: crime scene investigation. But there is more than that. The shots and cinematography is spectacular. You see the grittiness and filth of this world through Eds eyes and you feel pumped for the reactions these guys have. I feel as though this has a fairly subtle message on the economy and society. When you see it "through the eyes of Sherlock Holmes, you see the battlefield", well through the eyes of Tyler Durgen you see a level of the world you know you must not see. When acknowledging the cast, each member contributes their personalities, like Brad Pitt being an eccentric, thrill seeking badass, Edward Norton playing a average Joe with a personality complex and Helena Boham Carter as a mysterious factory chimney of gruesome nature and quirky mannerisms. We are bombarded by a whole reel of madness breaking through sanity, this wasn't how men dealt with life or the problems they have...or is it sanity breaking through this madness of life. Driving to work, catching up with our daily Starbucks coffee, filing our AR files into the blue section, trying not to imagine hitting our boss, having another late night meal of eating the leftovers of the leftovers and sleeping after sitting for an hour and a half thinking of ways to clear our mind. This is our sanity, it's not healthy to be self contained and insecure. Watching this, take note of the flickers happening every time Ed acknowledges or question of his insanity. The film is plagued by the gruesome fact that life is cruel and unrelenting, moments arise that will put many at awkward levels yet to be reached by anyone who hasn't seen this or any other movie I have reviewed. So for those of you who can't stomach what hass been handed out so far, then you might like this film a little more. I think this is one of the best cult movies that I have seen so far (After Donnie Darko) and for many of you, as well as mainstream audiences, you will very much like this film. But like American Psycho its brutal and enjoys it, so don't watch it with your parents. Beautifully crafted, shot and executed, no wonder it is seen as one of the best films of all time.
There is a pestilence upon this land, that apparently everything good is barely noticed and anything bad is given all the attention just for us to focus our negative reactions just to get a reaction. With that said, let us concentrate on a relatively unknown adaption of a famous Sci-fi series. No, not Star trek, a British sci-fi series. Not Doctor who, but A Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. Never heard of it, not surprising. In the 1970's Douglas Adams performed a medium transfer from radio to novel with the adventures of A Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. Soon after it was adapted for TV and now screen(so its a medium transfer, from a medium transfer, from a medium transfer). Now, I never read the novels or saw the show, well I tried but it was a bit slow and I saw the movie first so the quality was different. So I shall be looking on this movie as just the movie not by it's medium transfer. The story follows Arthur Dent and his travels through space on the spaceship the "Heart of Gold", alongside fellow earth being Trillian, aliens Ford Prefect and his semi-half-cousin Zaphod Beeblebrox and depressed robot Marvin. After earth is destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass, Arthur and Ford hitch a ride with Vogons who are hot on the trail of President of the Galaxy, Zaphod who stole the Heart of Gold. From here they embark on a quest to find the ultimate question to the answer of life the universe and everything. (I dare you to look that up on Google, the answer is at the bottom of this page). Now the main criticism for this film comes to the the fact that most things in this film you may not get all the jokes or the refrences due to it being adapted from a novel and TV show. But to tell the truth, I understood everything, thanks to Stephen Fry playing the Guide. His voice makes him the master of exposition and anything he says, you'll listen to it. Another criticism comes from the cast half being made up by Americans like Zooey Deschanel and Sam Rockwell. To me they had more than enough energy to portray the characters. The British cast is very well cast especially Martin Freeman as Arthur. Of coarse, it's the little people who make this film for me. Warick Davis Portrayed Marvin, while Alan Rickman voiced. You could not get a better voice for Marvin. But of course some of the humor can be a little...stale. They aren't many, but I say 70% are funny, while 10% are really funny. What really holds this movie together is the Effects, puppets, good CGI, and costumes that actually look real. When you first see the Vogons you are blown aay by how real they look. But the scene that does it for me is factory floor of the Planet construction company. It is a sight to see, especially on the big screen. The writing is very good(kind of pointless seeing how I bashed a third of the jokes), but the fans of the mythology constantly forget that Douglas Adams who came up with it all, wrote it, so what does that say and it does bring up points like, why are we here, should we ask why or role with it, is it better to be happy than right? Well I am happy I saw this film, but I don't think its great. It will be good for the sci-fi nerds and fans out there, but casual audiences will be scratching their heads. Premise: 1 Star Direction: 1/2 star Acting: 1 Star Effects: 1 Star Script: 1/2 Star 4 Stars out of Five.
