Watchmen

Please note that this blog contains movie spoilers. You Have been warned.

So after a looong wait, I finally got to see Watchmen and I must say, it did NOT disappoint. The story basically follows the comic book to a T, except I slightly think I prefer the movies version to the comics. It takes place in a time where the doomsday clock is 5 minutes to midnight on a clock that predicts the chance of a nuclear holocaust and where America and the Soviet Union are inches from going to war. The only thing stopping the war so far is Dr. Manhattan, a science accident gone wrong. This walking H-bomb was once teamed up with a group of costumed adventurers; Ozymandias, The Comedian, The Silk Spectre II, Rorshach, and Nite Owl II. But the Keene Act has since outlawed masked heroes and they’ve gone their separate ways. The murder of The Comedian leads Rorshach to think that someone is out to kill their old group, The Watchmen, one by one to keep them from stopping something. This suspicion is backed up when Dr. Manhattan is accused of giving everyone he was close to cancer and is harassed by the public, along with an attempt on Ozymandias’ life. Manhattan leaves Earth for Mars, thus somewhat provoking the Soviet Union to increase their nuclear threat in Afghanistan. The Watchmen (at least, Rorshach, Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II) regroup and hunt down who could possibly be out to kill them. They are led to Ozymandias, whom replicated Dr. Manhattan’s powers and set him up to make him upset and leave Earth. Ozymandias then causes an intense explosion in the most populated cities in the world and blames it on Manhattan. This causes all major world powers to come together in peace against Dr. Manhattan. The Watchmen know that if they tell anyone that it wasn’t Dr. Manhattan, then war will begin again, so they have to keep quiet. Except…Rorshach did have that journal..

This movie was intense. Breathtaking. Sexy. Powerful. The first thing that caught me was the atmosphere of the movie. It fits the novel and the movie perfectly. The music and the sound effects worked together to make an extraordinary union. Then the violence and action and gore was awesome. It made me cringe. It made me drool. It made me want to take martial arts lessons and save the world. The character development was very well done. It made me feel personally connected to the characters in a way. And the actors were amazing and perfect in their roles. The overall flow and pacing of the movie was very well done and was easy to follow without taking baby steps to get to the plot rolling and without leaping in head first like a flaming cannonball. The relationship between Nite Owl II and Silk Specter II was brilliant. It made me wish I was in love too. The actors had an irresistible chemistry on screen.

So Watchmen is definately in the running for Best Movie of 2009 so far. I give it a 4.5 out of 5. Catch it in theater all this month.

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Bale’s Breakbown Backup

So it’s been a few weeks since Christian Bale went all BLAUUUGH on set. But seriously guys, I think he has the right to. I mean check it out. Like Bale is the star of Batman, right? But is he nominated for anything? No. Does he win anything? No. Does anyone rave over his performance? No. Did anyone buy the DVD to see him? No. Now granted, he does kind of suck at acting, but really guys, give him a break. We have basically thrown his role in his face and told him that we care more about a dead guy that plays an evil psycho than we do about about a hero. I’m not saying we need to start nominating him for things, let’s just save that for when he learns to act. But we should still recognize him at least. Give him a pat on the back. Nice job, Bale. Keep working at it and I know you’ll get there. You’ve got the potential, man. So lets not make him out to be the bad guy here. We are the bad guys. So lets give Bale a chance and stop making remixes of his breakdown.

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Hollywoods charity case for 2008

Another night, another otherwise deserved award granted to a movie chosen by Hollywood’s slaves. This years award theft? Slumdog Millionaire. A pathetically boring movie that caters to the bullshit trends formed by Hollywood to see what kind of shit they can come out with this time. We all know Ledger didn’t win those awards because he was genuinely GOOD, but because he DIED. None of the other nominees where good either. They just catered to the crap Hollywood wished for everyone to conform to. Look at the nominees. Its the SAME MOVIE. So why did Slumdog win? Same plot. Same filming style. BUT OH DANG. It has POOR INDIANS OVERCOMING POVERTY. The rest of the people in their hometown are dying from starvation and such, and we give them a trophy. Great going, Academy. Pity awards make me gag. I pray that this year has better movie choices. Oh who am I kidding. Best movies so far have been Gran Torino and Coraline. Still can’t wait for Watchmen.

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Oscars; Watchmen

So I just found out that Jackmon is hosting the Oscars this year. Yeah, I’m totally slow on these award ceremony deals. I’ve been really aggravated with the nominees lately. Its the same damn movie over and over. And then the same damn winner too. I don’t see the point of Slumdog Millionaire. Whatever. Bah. I’ll watch it for Hugh. And maybe for a few awards. Like best costume and what not.

As for Watchmen, I found a new book on it at the book store the other day. It was the movie companion book. Every shot and quote in there, I could trace to the original graphic novel. It made me happy. Maybe Alan Moore will be happy with a movie based off of his work for once! Here’s hoping. Haha. Anyways, it looks FANTASTIC. I’m slightly sad that everyone is all over that Rorschach and no one remembers Night Owl II. I mean Ozymandias and Silk Spectre II are my favourites but I still have a soft spot for old Dan there. Oh well. Everything I see from this movie looks fantastic. I’m really excited to see it.

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Two Movie Reviews

Well, I finally got to see two movies I was really excited to see recently: Repo! The Genetic Opera and Wanted.

Repo! is a stunning musical rock and roll opera essentially about organ failure. It goes like this. When people started dying at a rapid pace due to organ failures, mostly caused by their own over indulgence in harmful behavior, GeneCo. was there to save the world. For a price. They supplied the healthy organs now, and you could pay later. But if you missed a payment, they had the legal right to repossess your organs. The movie follows a young girl named Shilo whom is kept in her room day and night due to an illness by her father. When she begins sneaking out, she slowly learns what a mess the world has gotten itself into. And when GeneCo’s founder finds he is dying of something incurable, he must find someone to leave his company to. His children are corrupt freaks. His tale intertwines with Shilo’s as it is revealed that Shilo’s father is a Repo Man, working for GeneCo and that he married the woman GeneCo’s founder was in love with. He pits Shilo against her father and she must decide for herself what is right and what is wrong. It is a clever story about being yourself regardless of what others think of you. The music is catchy and well done. The effects and scene transitions were original in themselves. I thought I’d hate it but it was pretty good. I give it 4 1/2 livers out of 5.

Now, Wanted was raved about by everyone and I really wanted to see what all of the hype was about. It’s a semi original story. it reminds me of Pulp Fiction and Fight Club and those types of movies thrown together. I thought it was predictable and at times, boring. The flow was choppy at times. The effects were enjoyable. The acting was good. The plot line was lacking. It was clever and fun to watch for all of the killing and action, but the who plot line was weak in itself. 3 bullets out of 5 on this one.

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Watchmen lawsuit

So, the Watchmen lawsuit is continuing. This annoys me to no avail. I thought they solved this over a month ago when WB released the official movie release date. But apparently not. FOX still is complaining because they supposedly have the rights to Watchmen. So, here’s my take on it. Why is FOX waiting until NOW to start attacking Warner Brothers? Shouldn’t they have taken this up a year ago when the script was being written? It isn’t like Warner Brothers has been trying to keep this movie a secret. And now FOX is all “Yo, we got the rights to dat, foo’. So fork it over!” Dude, what? Here’s what I think is going on. FOX didn’t know how to pull off this movie, and now that they see how good Warner Brothers did, they’re pissed. Seeing as the movie is finished, all FOX has to do is win a lawsuit and release it and take all the money for themselves, right? Well, Warner Brothers doesn’t really seem to care. Fans really have waited too long for this movie and now, they have something that can make a lot of people happy. And that’s the point of movies. Not to make a ton of money. I’m proud of Warner Brother’s choice to keep the Watchmen release date the same and not give in to FOX.  Fox needs to just cool it and try again with another movie if money is all that they are after.

Watchmen is set to be realsed in March of 2009. And hopefully, it will be released in March 2009. I’ll try to keep everyone updated with this.

In the mean time, be sure and hit the theaters this winter for some of these cool movies. We have Bride Wars opening in January and Coraline and He’s Just Not That Into You opening in February.  And make sure to avoid money wasters such as My Bloody Valentine and The Unborn.

Have a Happy New Years!

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Merry Christmas!!

Hey guys! Merry Christmas! Hope you’re all fine and well. I got some movies for Christmas! Cloverfield and Indy 4, along with some books on the making of Indiana Jones. <33  Anyways, I forgot to write a review about Yes Man. But it was pretty good. It is well worth the money. I’d describe it as a combination of Dumb and Dumber and pornography. But well worth it. Haha. I’m going to try to hit the theaters tomorrow after all my after Christmas shopping to see The Spirit. I’m soooo pumped for it. Auuuh. Also hitting theaters is the new Tom Cruise garbage and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which looks pretty nice. Idk. Not my cup of tea honestly. Well, Merry Christmas!!

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Seven Pounds (and how to lose them) SPOILER

So, being the movie addict I am, I have been watching the critics closely with Seven Pounds. It looked like another lame Will Smith movie. And guess what? It is just another lame Will Smith movie. The trailer made me want to throw my Men in Black DVDs in the trash because of how low Will Smith has dropped. So here’s my take on Seven Pounds.

It sucks. Don’t waste your money. Allow me to waste several minutes of your life so you won’t waste several hours and dollars of yours.

Will Smith is a pathetic, emo black man that pretends to be his brother to track down 7 random people that need some sort of transplant. He feels the need to do this because he cause a traffic accident that killed his fiance and 6 other random people. He feels all emo about it and after listening to several Fall Out Boy CDs, he climbs into a bath tub filled with ice and puts a jelly fish into it and kills himself and donates his organs to those 7 random people. And then the woman that got his heart falls in love with the man that got his eyes.

This is just a pathetic ridiculous story about a man that is too pathetic to try to get over tragedy and live his life and be happy for having a second chance. If he wanted to help people, he could have built a homeless shelter of something. But no, he takes the easy way out and offs himself. It’s just telling people that being emo and killing yourself can be justified if you donate your organs. Oh. Please. I’ve seen less drama on MySpace or on the SOAP network. You’ll only leave the theater crying because you could have spent the time you spent in the theater out shopping for Christmas gifts or picking up women or finding a cure for cancer.

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Batman 3 news

Well, as I said it would be, Batman 3 has been confirmed, along with the hunting of 2 new villains (because 1 at a time just doesn’t cut it, apparently..). Basically, The Riddler has been confirmed, and rumours are flying around surrounding Cat Woman. Now, while rumours do tend to have some truth hanging out in there, I’m not sure the film scene is ready to revive Cat Woman from that awful Halle Berry movie. Poison Ivy should be considered. But that might overload the movie with green. There are also a few Penguin rumours, but the Penguin has never been that dynamic a character, imho, and I’m pretty sure they want something dynamic to attempt to top Ledger’s performance as The Joker.

I think Angelina Jolie is totally the wrong way to go for Cat Woman. And Depp would be a terrible, terrible Riddler. He’s not funny. He’s a ‘serious’ Gothic type actor. The Riddler is a crazy nutter. I think Jim Carrey is their best bet for that. And that maybe Uma Thurman could be a good Cat Woman. I can’t really think of any other woman to be her. Maybe Helena Bonham Carter.

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Australia!

Well, I finally got to see Australia yesterday, and let me tell you, I was not disappointed. This was one of the most heart capturing movies I have come across in a while. It’s a typical Baz film. Full of comedy and love in all of the right places, and several tear jerking moments. I don’t know how I left the theater without crying. I almost started like 4 times. Here’s my short pro con run through before I get to the in depth part.

Pro:

• Excellent Acting. Nicole Kidman beautifully protrays a stuck up, prudish English woman that softens to find love. Hugh Jackmon is amazing as usual as the rough rider cowboy mommy always warned you about. The child actor did very well too, and the supporting actors did nothing but support.
• Excellent plot. It is very original and gripping and beautifully written.
• Great shots. It does a ton of justice to beautiful Australia.
• Touching. Like I said, I almost started to cry several times. But then again, Lord of the Rings leaves me in tears.

Con:

• Running length. It is very long and I was really sore ans sick afterward. I thought it was going to end several times. Very Jacksonesque.
• The opening sequence was very confusing. It makes sense later, but it could have bee executed better.

Alright, well the movie opens with an aboriginal child talking. He tells about the situation: that his mother is an aboriginal woman and that he is half white, meaning his father is one of the white men. His grandfather is an aboriginal witchdoctor named King George. He is teaching the boy, Nullah, to sing to the fish in the river to command them. While doing this, they see the white men herding some cattle across the river into the lands owned by the CCC beef company. Then a man is murdered in front of Nullah’s eyes. This part was very confusing. I wasn’t really sure what to make of it..but it was explained later. The story progresses from there with the arrival of Sarah Ashley, wife of the dead man, and Drover. The two are enemies on sight but have a common goal: they want to beat the CCC for stealing their good cattle to sell. Together, they round up a gang of wily characters to drive the cattle to the city of Darwin to be shipped off before the CCC can sell their load and get away with theft. Along the way, they exploit racial segregation and show that love has no skin colour. The story becomes heart breaking when Sarah and Drover fall in love and he decides to leave to drive cattle for the army. Nullah is captured by a missionary group that take the children of black and white couples to make them act “white”. Basically to civilize them and get rid of the aboriginal  in them. Then the Japanese attack and all hope seems lost. It was unbearably sad when Drover returns to get Sarah because he loved her only to find that the place she worked at was bombed and that the island Nalluh was on was bombed. It is truly amazing. I absolutely love it. I woudl recommend this for most anyone. There’s plenty of action for the men, love for the women, and comedy and drama in between to appease everyone. It compiles a love story with stunning visuals and the pain of the human heart to create one of the best movies I have seen all year.

I award it 5 joey kangaroos out of 5.

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