Get out tonight to see it in 3D. Neil Gaiman’s twitter reminded me today that the Jonas Bros in 3D is likely to take over all the 3D capable screens at a theatre near you tomorrow.
You owe it to yourself not to miss this in 3D as it’s one of the few movies where it’s used to make the movie better through and through as opposed to just a gimick.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Alan Moore’s work, I love Watchmen in particular but he’s a hypocritical angry old hash addict. In the lead up to the Watchmen release the media have been writing the usual stories about Alan Moore. We all know that Moore doesn’t like the idea of film adaptations of his work… he liked it fine when he took the money to sell the rights to various things in the first place, but that’s a whole other argument. Regardless he can do whatever he want then come screaming back later about how he disavows it and know that the hard-core fanboys will blindly follow his lead and ignore the fortune he’s making.
There’s no question the film will not be a direct representation of the original, that’s simply impossible. I just hope that it’s a great movie that tries to keep the spirit of the original alive while appealing to a broader audience (not LCD, but broader). Comic book zealots who think only a frame by frame translation will do are completely deluding themselves. It’s impossible both in terms of a watchable time frame for the movie (no matter how much I love the subject matter I’d have trouble sitting through a 4 or 5 hour movie :p) and also in terms of content.
Many fans are up in arms about Director Zack Snyder extending fight scenes and pumping up the action in the movie. I hate to say it folks, while I’m also a bit hesitant about his touch (I was not a huge fan of 300) the movie does need to have more action. People who aren’t familiar with Watchmen will expect a certain level of action and if they don’t get it, the movie will not do well. No matter what, if the movie was only tailored towards hard core comic book fans it would crash and crash hard. If a few more action scenes are the price I have to pay to get a think-piece like Watchmen out there and get more people to read the actual book (and that sort of comic in general) I’m all for it. The movie most of these fans want would cost an absolute fortune and make no money (no, book fans alone can not support that kind of budget) and we’d be stuck with “safe” crap like Spidey and xmen 3 as our only superhero flicks while anything with a brain was left to rot in development as “too risky.”
My biggest level of disgust comes with the total wanks who are complaining about what the marketing machine is doing to Watchmen. They see the book being featured in stores and toys being marketed and they start whining about things being contrary to the spirit blah blah blah… I’m with you on things like coffee tie-ins and fast food (though I don’t think I’ve heard of one, at least not yet) but how the fuck is it a bad thing that I can walk into chapters and see a display of Watchmen. It’s a great book with some great topics and if someone walks in and picks it up because the movie looks cool and really really loves it… how is that a bad thing? Am I missing some fundamental connection where the fact that I can now have a Nite Owl or Doctor Manhattan figure on my desk from Toys-r-us ruins your personal enjoyment of the book? Someone new is being brought into serious graphic novels is a bad thing? Get your head out of your ass and if you don’t want to see the movie, don’t see it.
And Alan, quit bogarting the good stuff.
As the follow up to the brilliant “Generalissimo” from last week, “St. Valentine’s Day” had a lot to live up to. While it didn’t quite hit that high water mark it still managed to make me nearly do a spit take a few times.
Liz and her hot-as-a-cartoon-pilot new flame Dr. Baird (Jon Hamm from Mad Men) end up having their first date on Valentine’s day, and what starts as awkward takes leaps and bounds into disaster area as accidental boob spillage, twosie seeing and family neuroses ensue. Our heroine and her new beau decide to embrace the trainwreck and try to get everything bad out of the way on the first date… thus far it works and we save the inevitable lemon-implosion for another episode.
Meanwhile in TGS-land, Frank’s one line of the episode hands off responsibility for a new blind NBC employee to Kenneth, who instantly falls in love and is speechless (I loved Tracy’s throwaway joke about Dotcom’s first meeting with Grizz’s Fiancée). Tracy plays a Cyrano of sorts, filling in the words he imagines Kenneth would say: “Yes indeedy corncobs!” After not seeing TJ’s crew for a bit Dotcom had some great moments tonight (he speaks french!) Needless to say, Ken does not end up getting the girl. Blind girl asks to feel is face and when she gets to his chin (or lack thereof), she beats a hasty retreat… ouch…
Salma Hayek continues her guest run this week with her nurse Elisa having issues with her catholicism and Jack’s very intense lack thereof. When forced to take confession rather than go eat a $1000 dessert, he manages to send the priest crying for backup. Priceless, as were the McFlurry jokes though I can’t imagine what McDonald’s must have paid for that. I honestly don’t think Elisa’s hardcore religiousness out of nowhere was very believeable, but it did make for some great jokes, including Liz’s “If I had those knockers, I’d thank god too.” I think we all should thank god for Salma Hayek’s breasts personally.
As a rule I’m not a huge fan of the episodes where A B and C stories are more or less completely separate, but the pacing and gags in this one made it work pretty well. Jane only had one bit this episode but it was priceless as, after Tracy introduces her as Michael McDonald, she proceeds to butcher McDonald’s horrid over the top schmaltz. I still find myself hoping we can go back to the writer’s room a bit, I miss Twofer and Ceri and more Frank… We especially need more Pete, is Scott Adsit off doing something else? I thought Morel Orel was done with.
Favorite Line of this episode: “The Patron Saint of Judgemental Statues”
A solid A- episode with some great moments.
Apologies for the interruption, the internet connection in Big Sky was the shit (I was only able to steal wireless from another condo at long range) so updating was so inconvenient that I became lazy. Who wants an update without photos anyway!
Besides which, time was pretty packed while we were there and evening mostly involved hopping in the hot tub then having dinner and flopping down on the couch to watch brutal NBC olympic coverage. I’m pretty sure posts would have been along the lines of “Big Geyser Pretty… water HOT!” anyway.
Old Faithful was fairly faithful, only making me wait a while during which I toured a lot of the lesser but awesome geysers. So many people get out at the parking lot and just see old faithful then leave that they miss a lot of the neater pools. As usual, death by korean or japanese tourbusload was around every corner.
Death was also around every corner on some of the paths, apparently the ground is only a thin crust in places an stepping on some section involves immersing your leg or entire body into water or mud superheated to the point where it can cook the flesh of your bones. To get that lovely mental picture out of your head, here’s a shot of an elk to make you go “awww.”
Also on this point of the trip was my second run at whitewater rafting, which was a blast as always. The river in question is known as the Gallatin, and while it was incredibly shallow at points it still gushed fast enought to be a lot of fun. The cute young lady guiding us was only a bonus.
Not me, but the same spot we rushed through the day before this was taken.
My friend Chris and his girlfriend Jodi came along with us on this ride as they happened to be passing through and we had a blast, I of course was probably the most soaked. This didn’t matter tons at first, but on the ride back to the lodge it became apparent that a recent wearer of my wetsuit had had a serious B.O. issue and the water was bringing back the memories so to speak. Given that this sign was at the top of the run I guess I should be lucky that’s all I smelled.
Got to love the grammar/missing word. I like to believe the missing bit is “is encouraged.”
That more or less wrapped up the trip though, not long after we headed back to Manitoba at full speed, stopping really only to see the Little Bighorn Historic Monument.
This is somewhere I’ve always wanted to go though I was expecting it to be typical American ignore the Native side completely but it was surprisingly fair. Unsurprisingly this is as a result of a fairly recent redevelopment that changed it from the Custer Memorial to the new name. The old views are still seen in some of the markers on the site, but in the tours given (and the audio tour you can buy for a nominal fee [highly recommended] you can hear the modern interpretation.
The classic view of the battle as some form of heroic last stand is without much doubt a total fallacy, the final lines shown by clusters of cartridge casings seeming to show Custer’s group disintegrating into total panic as his overconfidence led to the near total destruction of his command. The sheer cowardice of the cav and the stupidity of Custer in ordering a charge on a village that he had not even reconnoitered properly is really evident and it’s easy to see how an organized resistance from the skilled first nations shooters quickly caused panic in the cavalry troops.
What surprised me most was the Cavalry monument… I believe it was built around 10 years after the battle by the regiment and lists the names of those “who fought and died in battle against the Sioux.” From the years of bullshit and the media frenzy of the time I would have expected it to say something about a massacre or butchery as is far from rare on items of the time. Perhaps the regiment was being honest in saying they new damned well it was a true battle and honestly felt a little ashamed at the way things were being painted.
In any case I heartily recommend anyone checking out. It’s an interesting piece of history and a moment that marked the beginning of the end of any armed resistance of indigenous peoples in North America. It’s also a rather hot place generally, pack some water if you’re doing any of the hiking trails (and ankle boots as there are apparently rattlesnakes) but there is also a car loop that the audio tour covers.
NOTE: I wrote 80% of this on Aug 23, but I haven’t finished and posted it til now, my bad. School starting sucked. Regular updates to resume.