We don't get out to a lot of movies these days, maybe 4 or 5 a year in the rare year there are 4 or 5 worth paying to see. So it's our anniversary (actually today is) and we plan the 'date night' thing last night, and being a not entirely reformed geek, I wanna see Watchmen. Ok, I've wanted to see Watchmen since the first production rumours started circulating about it a year or so ago, being a big fan of the dystopian, anti-hero motif and having read the graphic novel in High School (and again a couple months ago when I found a site where someone had scanned the entire thing in, before the movie hype got big enough that the powers that be found out and shut the site down).
So I convince Kristy, who is really cool about this sort of thing and has gone into several of my comic book movies with little or no background and found them entertaining enough (even the ones I found grimly dissapointing due to butchery of the source material.. sometimes ignorance is bliss). Anyway, as I said this is a partial movie review because almost exactly 2 hours in to the 3 hour movie, the house lights come on, screen goes blank, and fire alarms go off! This was, to be spoiler-free, right exactly at the beginning of the climactic scene... the cinematic equivilent of cotius interruptus! (I could work a Dr. Manhatten/blue balls joke in here somewhere which would crack up people familiar with the comic/movie and confuse everyone else... there's this blue glowing dude, see..and he's naked alot..nevermind.)
So.. the first 2/3 of the movie are really good. For all I know they could have botched the ending so horribly bad that it would have taken away from everything else and left me grumbling and shaking my head. I did hear they changed it some, but don't know how or to what extent. Maybe I should be grateful to the schmuck who pulled the fire alarm, which is what we assume happened since only 1 fire truck came, there was no smoke, and only about 5 mins after going out the emergency exit we and everybody else went back inside and stood in a cluster of lines to get free passes for next time. I was thinking on the way out that somebody had better have flown a freakin plane into the mall or heads were gonna roll.
Anyway, here's the review without being spoiler-ish to those familiar with it. It would take far too much space to explain it to those who aren't btw... if I peak your interest go to the Google and find a synopsis and come back to me.
The opening montage was incredible. There is a lot of backstory, spanning 40 years or so, and half the story is told in flashbacks.. but they were able to communicate enough of the evolution of the characters in the context of history, to the tune of Dylan's "The Times They Are A'Changin'" (The soundtrack in it's entireity.. er..2/3 of its entirety..is excellent). Kristy was impressed by the make-up effects that made the historical figures like Nixon and Kissenger uncannily recognizable even aged. They looked just slightly unreal enough to fit the unreal world context without being parodies. The characters all looked good. Dr Manhatten's voice was a bit goofy but they were trying for that inhuman intonation. Rorshach and The Comedian were pretty spot on I think.
Overall, it was 2/3 of the best movie I have seen in quite awhile, with abotu as much appeal to a source-material fan as is possible for a Hollywood movie which still has to, and successfuly so in this case, appeal to the "uninitiated masses" in order to make money. We'll hopefully be able to go back with our free passes and see it all the way through next week, thanks for Melissa offering to watch Colleen again.
The rest of our 'date' went fine, thank you. Went to Rom Thai which is always incredibly good. 12 years today for the 'mundane wedding' + 2 years handfasted before that (our real anniversary is Ostara/Spring Equinox).