Watchmen

The Watchmen started out great.  Lots of action, and it was following the graphic novel quite well.  The story of former super heroes who were forced to quit by the government, which turned out to be quite a bit more than that.  When you think the movie is only about that, it quickly goes into another direction near the end of the movie.  At approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes, that length was needed for all the material that was in the book.  It was quite faithful until near the end where it went into what pretty much every comic book adaption leads to, making their own endings, changing it to make it more movie friendly perhaps?  I quite enjoyed the movie up until those changes were made, thus making it a very good movie for me, which should have been great. 

3.5 out of 5

Worth the Wait!

Compliments to director Zack Snyder on his laborious quest to bring one of the most celebrated graphic novels--Dave Gibbons & Alan Moore's Watchmen--to a theatre near you. Visually stunning, melodically nostalgic, and just plain fun to watch, the 162-minute epic updated a story first told back in 1986, and in my humble opinion, was well worth the wait. As one of the darker superhero movies we've seen, the R-rated Watchmen shamelessly delves into the loathsome chambers of humanity and its heroes, and comes out the other end questioning the morality of one's thurst for unity and peace, all wrapped up in a pretty--and expensive--package.

4/5 stars
Emil Tiedemann

Who Watched The Watchmen?

After the anticipation of hearing that one of my favourite books was being brought to the screen, I got a little worried. Could it be transferred without losing its effectiveness from book to film? Guess I shouldn’t worry when Zach Snyder is directing the adaptation of the Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons 12 issue maxi-series, which is now known as one of the greatest graphic novels of our time. “Watchmen” is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of everyday society, and the “Doomsday Clock” – which charts the USA’s tension with the Soviet Union – is permanently set at five minutes to midnight. When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed up but no less determined masked vigilante Rorshach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion, Rorshach glimpse a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future. Their mission is to watch over humanity, but who is watching the Watchmen?

Snyder adapted the film faithfully, not missing a beat even though he was forced to cut out scenes or avoid sub-plots from the book. The direction of the movie shows he was the right choice, not skipping any minor detail that was on the pages. Small hints at items from the book, a joke only someone who has read it would get but he did it without confusing the casual movie fan who has not read the book. The montage that Snyder created for the opening credits over “The Times They Are A-Changing” was worth the ticket price alone. Aside from the one scene that could have been probably left out as it almost ruins your view on a certain character right away. Bringing us the history, albeit brief history, of the Minutemen and the way the path the world has taken since the dawn of the costumed hero era started in the 1940s.

Casting was extremely well done; Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson and Malin Akerman are perfectly cast. But it is Jackie Earle Haley who takes the weight of the movie on his shoulders by really becoming the character Rorshach, almost to the level that Heath Ledger did with the Joker in the Dark Night. The only character miscast I felt, was Matthew Goode as Ozymandias. Robert Wisden as Richard Nixon also was miscast, but that could just be because of Frank Langella’s spectacular performance in Frost/Nixon as the same character.

Attempting to bring Dr. Manhattan to the big screen in his entire blue glory was probably the one thing I was worried wouldn’t work. Yet again, Snyder and crew make it work perfectly. Along with the stunning visuals was the soundtrack, which was taken from various artists in that era. While those songs may not have worked in other films, it works wonders for Watchmen. The soundtrack to the film reminded me of the Donnie Darko soundtrack. While the score for the film was almost forgetful, yet it worked well not overpowering the superheroes on the screen.

The ending has been changed, more of tweak from the book. Without giving it away, all I can say is the effect is the same. They just used a different means to get to the end. The only flaw I found within the movie was the lack of worry about the nuclear holocaust. Maybe it was because I knew the outcome of the book and assumed it was the same for the movie, but it came across as an empty plot just in the background. With more focus, it would require more emotion from the characters as well as the viewer if we were shown that a mass genocide was immanent

This film is a highly complex character study which is layered with everything from military posturing, politics, patriotism and asks the philosophical question of what is right and what is wrong. Sitting in the theatre after the credits roll, I still don’t know who was right as both sides have very valid arguments.

With the announcement of a really good chunk of footage being added to the DVD release I will have to do another review, as the movie will be much different. Until I can see those special features I will just imagine Snyder sitting with the cast and crew showing them storyboards, but really they are not storyboards. Just the graphic novel cut out and pasted in front of them, which is how faithful the movie really is. Alex Tse and David Hayter didn’t really write a screenplay, they just took Alan Moore’s graphic novel and typed it out word for word. Not to say they didn’t work on the script but, let’s be honest, Alan Moore wrote this film and Dave Gibbons shot it.

4 out of 5

Colin Enquist

Watchmen has big first-day numbers

Zack Snyder's Watchmen epic pulled in an estimated $4.6 million in its midnight shows alone, hitting theatres across North America at 12:01 am Friday morning. That bested the $2.5 million that Snyder's last blockbuster, 300, earned with its midnight showings back in March 2007, but came up short for first-day tallies, as Watchmen made about $25 million on Friday, compared to 300's $28.1 million take. That gives Warner Brothers' Watchmen the third highest-grossing first-day total for an R-rated film, behind 300 and The Matrix Reloaded, which garnered $42.5 million in '03. Watchmen also opened in more theatres--3,611--than any other R-rated movie in history, some 500 more than 300, which went on to produce an accumulated $210 million at the domestic box office.

Watchmen, which is a superhero feature based on the 23-year-old 12-book DC graphic novel series penned by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, is the first major blockbuster flick of the year, and is expected to rake in about $65 million in its first weekend, less than the $70.9 million total that 300 did two years ago. These numbers are more than good enough to give it the #1 spot at the box office this Sunday, bumping Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail from its two-week reign at the top.

Album of the Month (March): Only by the Night by Kings of Leon

The Kings of Leon are a Nashville-based rock band made up of brothers Caleb (lead vocals & rhythm guitar), Nathan (drums), and Jared (bass) Followill, and their cousin Matthew on lead guitar, and Only by the Night is their breakout record, and one of the best collections of songs I've heard this decade.

Originally formed in 2000 in a town synonymous with country music and its Grand Ole Opry, the Kings of Leon (named after their Pentecostal preacher grandfather) eventually signed a major recording contract and issued a couple of EPs in 2003 (Holy Roller Novocaine and What I Saw), before launching their first full-length album, Youth and Young Manhood, that same year. With 2004's Aha Shake Heartbreak the band's early garage-punk rock sound--with a hint of reggae--barely shifted, but demonstrated growth from their esteemed debut. They eclipsed their potential with a third effort, 2007's Because of the Times, which, like their first two albums, was an applauded commercial success throughout Europe, but sizzled on home turf, despite killer tracks like "On Call" and "Charmer."

Fast forward to September 2008 and the U.S.-launch of Only by the Night, which finally garnered the Kings some real homegrown attention, in addition to a Grammy Award and their first No.1 rock hit. With Angelo Petraglia (Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin) and Jacquire King (Modest Mouse, Tom Waits) at the helm, the Followill's penned all eleven tracks, including the radio-friendly, aptly-titled "Sex on Fire," which served as the lead single. The Kings are optimum with "Sex on Fire," but just as riveting on "Crawl," en route to be single as well, with a fuzzy bass strutting alongside Caleb's tangled anti-war serenade.

Caleb stretches out his rough voice as the record's most distinctive and enticing instrument, one that has the versatility to make one want to cry and dance at the same time, such as with "Revelry" and the album's second single "Use Somebody," which is a poignant distress call that lyricist Caleb credited to the city of Glasgow, Scotland for easing him through a bleak moment while on tour there. On the second half of Night the band changes gears slightly, and play around with a few unconventional ideas that only make the set more ambitious and charming, including "I Want You," "Be Somebody," and the enslaving "Notion."

At times Caleb's lead vocals sound like a cross between Jay Malinowski (of Bedouin Soundclash) and Jonny Lang, but he seems to find his own on most of the album's cuts, including "17," "Manhattan," and the haunting closer "Cold Desert," which exposes its singer probably more than anything else on the record. Despite all of the public comparisons--including U2 and an early Bruce Springsteen--Only by the Night is unambiguously the Kings of Leon, a band that has grown into its own by now. Only by the Night has captured the best of four provoked musicians that are in between their perpetuate arrival and their global dominance.

5 out of 5 stars

Emil Tiedemann

Public Enemies

In the action-thriller Public Enemies, acclaimed filmmaker Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Academy Award® winner Marion Cotillard in the incredible and true story of legendary Depression-era bank robber John Dillinger.