Leave intellectualism at the wayside

[fredericks]

IMAX rocks so hard. I'd read the graphic novel a while back but deliberately avoided picking it up again prior to seeing the movie. I remembered most of the big plot points and twists of the GN, mind, but knew going in there had been some changes in the screenwriting process. Overall, I liked the movie. The one main thing I didn't like? the, many MANY lines of groan-worthy dialogue. I wish I'd whipped out a pen and pad to write them all down. At first I figured it might have been due to shoddy acting (Akerman, I'm looking at you; most of her exchanges with Carla Gugino's character were seriously awful), but when Patrick Wilson and Jackie Earl Haley can't sell me on something? I know it's bad. But I enjoyed the flashbacks, and while the profundity of verbal exposition had me rolling my eyes while in the theatre, in hindsight it worked quite well.

My favorites characters were Nite Owl (II:Electric Boogaloo) and Rorschach, no question (cue the slash fairy, 'cuz I know some of y'all are clapping right along with me). Nite Owl began as the most sympathetic individual, but I found myself empathizing with Rorschach at the end. But did I like any of the characters? Hell no. I remember finishing the GN being quite fond of Nite Owl II, but the Minutemen as seen on the screen were all too human. Laurie Jupiter was one dimensional, Nite Owl was driven by his need for "heroism" and violence to feel fulfilled, Dr. Manhattan took up too much screen time (and I'm pretty sure he just left Earth halfway through the GN, which IMO works better in an allegorical sense than what we got in the movie, particularly with Adrian's stupid destabilization plan at the end), Ozymandias's "for the greater good" ideal never worked for me, and the Comedian was the most honest about personal philosophy but was a blatant douche. I disliked the people on the screen but I liked their story. And, yes, there's a whole treatise on the portrayal of women in this film. Still wouldn't stop me from recommending it. Great debate fodder, if nothing else. I'm tempted to see the damn thing again, if only because there's a lot I feel I missed the first time around.

And naked Patrick Wilson. Which, you know, bonus.

Linky link link:
Paul Rudd. I'm using my cropping skills on this one, I tell you what. Image borderline NSFW?

Cracked has "The True Stories Behind 5 Famous WTF Images, which I'm linking to solely for the pictures of the gentleman they've hilariously dubbed "Professor Badass".

And I can't believe I didn't know there was a Street Fighter movie with Chun Li in theatres now. Starring the wooden Kristen Kreuk. Gotta love The Onion A.V. review.

***
There's been a publicity storm around AMC's "Breaking Bad" recently, and although a bevy of advertising around a show usually makes me avoid it like the plague I decided to tune in during Friday's marathon. And now I've dun downloaded the first season off iTunes (it's half the price of the boxed set offline). The show didn't really win me over until halfway through the fourth episode. There was a moment where the main character is grappling with his diagnosis in the midst of his family's "intervention" where the actor (Bryan Cranston, and thank GOD the man won an Emmy for his work on this show) lets all the pain and indecision and utter fucked-ness of his lot shine through, and I said to myself "Jesus, I love this show". Amazing stuff. Season 2 premiere's tonight, but this is the type of show that requires close watching from the beginning before you can pick up the nuances of what's going on.

Comments

[anogete.livejournal.com]

Oh, god... why is Paul Rudd such a fox? I might be willing to jump into that pile of scary manflesh for him.

The cast and crew of Breaking Bad have done several little Q&A session here in Albuquerque since the show is filmed here. I've only heard about them after the fact, which is such a bummer. It's definitely on my list of shows-to-watch, though.

[wyldemusick.livejournal.com]

A lot of the groan-worthy dialogue came straight out of the GN. Some of the gronaier lines were clumsy inserts to explain something -- like Rorschach's ramble about what happened to the first Minutemen.

Part of the problem with the women in the film is that they're not playing strong enough to carry what they need to -- Laurie's bit about her life essentially being stage-managed by her mother just sort of floated by like fairy dust. I'm also annoyed that Dan's character beats changed so much -- it isn't about his need to beat people up, it's about his sense of self-esteem. Dan Dreiberg is half-a-man, the pudgy, balding nebbish who can't get it up; as Nite Owl he's whole and confident and sexual -- not because of violence, but because he has that confidence there in costume; he resolves that in the sex scene after the fire -- he gradually sheds every last bit of his costume, so by the finish it's Dan & Laurie humping away, not Nite Owl & Silk Spectre.

Speaking of that scene...they really had to duplicate Moore's gag with the flamethrower didn't they? Augh.

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

I find his humor a big part of his appeal. And, you know, his eyes. And his smile. And his nose. And his strong hands. Little things like those.

Breaking Bad is worth your time. It seems to have drifted off into complete crack post- eppy 5, but it's still awesome.

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

Some of the gronaier lines were clumsy inserts to explain something -- like Rorschach's ramble about what happened to the first Minutemen.
See, that I didn't mind so much. It would be single lines that dropped like stones: there was an exchange between Nite Owl and Silk Spectre I remember, roughly Spectre asking why the Comedian was called as such as he wasn't funny and then Nite Owl said something along the lines of "this was his final joke", which even coming as a comic fan and knowing the gist of the portent of the lines it STILL had me rolling my eyes.

And I certainly got the deal behind Nite Owl, but the way it'd been meant by Moore would only be picked up by people who'd read the comics. The scene in the alley where Dan and Laurie smiled/smirked at one another before royally busting ass really ruined the character for me. Turned him from vaguely sympathetic to somewhat of a shallow dick.

[rustler.livejournal.com]

I only read the GN about 2 years ago (I was a late bloomer on the whole GN thing. :g:) and liked it overall, but def had issues -- particularly with the treatment of women. I mean, I'm glad it was at least a complicated kind of issue-taking, but there was a little skeevy reek coming off the GN when I finished that left me feeling conflicted. So I've been really curious to hear how the movie came out -- wondering if they were going to try to be very literally faithful to the GN, or to do some "updating" -- at least with the treatment of female characters.

Sounds like...not so much. :g: I'm glad to hear you liked the movie overall though, because I'm still interested in checking it out.

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

I find myself wanting to give Moore the benefit of the doubt when it comes to his characterization of females, but I remember finishing up the GN feeling more or less what you've mentioned. And the movie made things that much worse with the miserable acting from the two female characters (I feel Gugino ending up *acting down* when paired with Akerman, which, heh, yeah, alright). But Patrick and Jackie made it happen. Check it out in theatres, see how it moves you. There's enough explode-y to justify movie house bucks.

[army-kitten.livejournal.com]

okay, that cracked article about the 5 famous wtf images was fucking hilarious!

i didn't see watchmen and have no plans to see it. i did, however, finally see the dark knight and the first half of iron man while i was trapped on a megabus for 8 hours. i was very wtf about ironman, and still don't know what to think because i never saw the end of it.

i don't watch movies very much. ^^;;

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

Megabus. I've been seeing them everywhere. Better than Greyhound? y/n?

Really? no Ironman love? why is that?

[army-kitten.livejournal.com]

much better than greyhound! for a bus, anyway.

not really no ironman love... more like i couldn't figure out what to think of it, and i still don't know because i barely saw half of it. what i did see made me curious, though. it was not at all what i expected for a comic book movie. i'll probably have to watch the end of it one of these days...