Watchmen!!!

I'm taking a break from the scheduled food exploration/explanation to bring you a recommendation that you hie yourself down to your closest theatre wot shows those newfangled moving pictures and buy a ticket and then watch the Watchmen movie. Best thing you could do with your day, hands down.

Warning: This movie does contain graphic violence, graphic sex, graphic novel stylings and more graphic violence. It is complex and metaphysical and staggeringly physical. It is monumentally disturbing, like the source material.

I love Alan Moore's work, and am slowly reading my way through his back catalogue. When V for Vendetta was made into a film, I refused to see it because I love the graphic novel so very much. When I was finally forced into seeing it, I became as one with Alan Moore in his attitude towards film versions of his graphic novels: backing right off and wanting nothing to do with them. I mean, seriously, have you seen League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Jayzus. Godawful. And if you haven't seen it, don't see it to determine if it's really that bad. It's really that bad.

But V for Vendetta broke my heart and my spirit, so when I heard that Watchmen was being made (finally), I was not that excited - in fact, I was terrified that the filmmaker's would fuck it up. Then the first trailer came out, and it looked so much like the artwork of the graphic novel that I started to feel a bit better about it - until I remembered that V for Vendetta had promised the same thing.

But I kept hearing good things, and Wil Wheaton liked it, so I thought to myself, "Self," I thought, "Let's do this crazy thing. Let's watch the Watchmen" ('cos that joke never gets old...)

So, last night, on the opening weekend, I did just that. And for my tenacity in the face of what I thought was going to be a disappointment in some way, I was rewarded with the Star Trek trailer!!! I was very excited about that - so much so, that when the trailer was over, my friend next to me leaned over and said "So, do you need to change your underwear?" Heh.

Anyhoo. Watchmen. I really really really really really enjoyed it. There were some really violent bits that I couldn't watch, but that didn't take me out of the movie at all. I'm trying to figure out if I really liked it so much because it is ridiculously true to the source material, but I was with people who had never read the graphic novel who also really enjoyed it. I must note that really enjoying it includes feeling deeply disturbed by its' bleak and intensely dark (ie if you thought the Dark Knight was too dark, this blows the Dark Knight out of the water, dark-wise) view of a deeply flawed humanity.

So. Yes. Standouts. Visually stunning, and very close to the panels of the graphic novel. Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a favourite of mine for his work in Supernatural (and also for being really ridiculously good looking), and he was absolutely perfect as the Comedian. Jackie Earle Haley was Rorsharch to a freaking tee, and really made the film for me. Patrick Wilson as Dan Dreiberg was pitch perfect, really emotionally the centre of the film for me.

And for those of you who haven't read the graphic novel, the above means a whole lot of nothing. But if you're looking for a film that has real impact visually, is bleak and dark with dashes of very human emotional humour, has great action blocks and lots of explosions, then Watchmen is absolutely the movie for you.

So, what are you doing playing in the sun? Get yourself to a cinema!!

And if this rambling review hasn't done it for you, check out Margaret and David's opinions from the At the Movies review.