Hey hey,
So, stuff to talk aboot:
The His Dark Materials plays. AWESOME. If I hadn't already read the books and therefore known how it all ended, I would probably have cried. I particularly enjoyed the dude who played Lord Asreal; he had much more the sort of presence I expected Daniel Craig to have in the film, and was much more suited to the part. All the puppetry was really well done, especially the Gallivespians (though I'm not sure I spelt that right...) and overall it was a very good adaptation. An entire side-plot was skipped, but to fit the content of those three books into just two plays was a massive achievement so I wasn't all that bothered.
I also went to see Paul Blart: Mall Cop last weekend. It was actually a lot funnier than I'd expected. (Now, I know what you're thinking; why the Hell did you go see it if you weren't expecting to like it? I got a Cineworld Unlimited card, that's why! :P Though I ruddy hate my picture on it; I've got a big peanut face and for some reason the picture is discoloured at the top so I look like I have a jaundiced forehead... Anyways...) Yeah, so it was pretty good. Quite predictable, but enjoyable. Some bits really made me chuckle.
Reading-wise, I read the Marvel Classics version of Picture of Dorian Grey the other day and enjoyed it quite a lot. If I thought I had time to devote to the original I'd probably buy it off the merits of this comic adaptation. I'm now midways through the trade of the first few issues of Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing, which I'm really enjoying.
Finally, I ended up getting tickets to Bristol Con in May. I wasn't going to go because I wanted to go to Cymru Con instead, but unfortunately that had to be cancelled. I feel really bad for Iz because she put so much time, effort, work and heart into the project. I guess the midst of an economic crisis is not a good time to be trying to start up a con, huh? Still, there's always next year, or the year after. I'm quite excited about Bristol now, even though I'm not actually that big a fan of the cons themselves. I find usually after walking around the exhibition hall/room once or twice and chatting to a couple of creators that I'm pretty much done with the convention part, I just love seeing all my maties on the evenings. For this reason, Rich and I have opted to just get the Saturday tickets for the Con, but to go down to Bristol on Friday for the pre-con piss up :P I'm excited now, I get to see Iz, experience Dave's beard and chat with all the forumites! :D
Thursday, 26 March 2009
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
For your reading pleasure...
Since I haven't posted anything worth note in here yet, here is the rather ramble-y review I did of the Watchmen movie over on my LJ last week. Just so you know what you're getting yerself into by reading this blog, like :P
So, Rich and I went to see Watchmen on Saturday. I went into it very nervous; although I don't hold the comics in quite such a high regard as other comic readers do (I think that's mostly because I read it for the first time about 3 years ago, and I doubt it had the same impact on me it had on people reading it at the time), but I still think it's an amazing comic. The fact that the film was rated 18 made me feel slightly better about the whole affair as I sat down in the cinema to watch it, as I was worried they'd tone down the book and snip out/brush over a lot of the gorier or uncomfortable bits that made the book all the more interesting.
So, the lights go down, the film starts rolling, and OH MY WORD was it totally worth it. The opening credits alone were fantastic. I often find myself watching films and wishing that the credits would wait til the end where they belong, but the credits for Watchmen totally contributed to the film itself, setting the tone and generally being awesome. Fantastic choice of song during the sequence, too.
I figure before I launch into why this film is the shiznit, I shall briefly touch on the two or three things about the film which I didn't enjoy (all of which were minor and mostly down to personal preference):
1. A lot of you will know that I'm not a huge fan of sex scenes in films which aren't porn. For the most part, I think you can totally allude to two characters having had sex without showing them going at it like rabbits. Now, I did go into this film fully expecting a sex scene as it was in the book originally and it plays quite a big part in showing how being a superhero effects these people's lives, the exhiliration and excitement it brings. It practically brings them to life again. However, I do think the scene was maybe just a tad on the long side. Like I say, this is a total Stacebob preference; I'm just not a big fan of sex on screen, especially so when I'm in a cinema full of people I don't know ;P
2. The reliance on slow motion. Now, at some points in the film, I thought it worked superbly. The slow motion punch to the Comedian's face in the first scene, for example, looked great and really showed the power of the guy attacking him. But there was, in my opinion, far too much of it, until it became rather redundant. I can't help but get the feeling that they could've more impressively spent that screen time on other things.
3. The effects/make up in parts, Richard Nixon's putty nose in particular. In a film where they've taken the time and effort to make everything look as realistic as possible, they could've spent a bit more time on that nose... (This is where someone comments to say that that was the actors real nose and I feel awful :P)
Negatives over with, I have to reiterate that I love this movie. I've heard a lot of criticisms regarding the length of the film; I disagree. I didn't feel like I was in the cinema that long at all, and I felt like all the important bits were covered enough that it didn't need to be any longer. I am, however, very excited to see the Black Freighter stuff added when the DVD comes out.
I'm usually very picky about actors performances, but in this film everyone brought their A game. I would say that of all the main characters, the new Silk Spectre was the least exciting for me performance-wise, but that's not to say that she's bad at all. My Stacebob Award for Best Actor in Watchmen has to go to the dude who played the new Nite Owl. There was just something about him that was so amazing; he did a fantastic job playing the part and I hope he gets recognised for it (although I think most people would favour Rorshach, who was, to be fair, also awesome.)
Effects-wise I was pretty pleased with most stuff; some of the gore looked a bit wrong, but nothing so bad that it took me out of the film or anything.
I will admit that I've only read Watchmen once, and it was a few years ago, but as far as I recall this was a pretty true-to-the-book adaptation. I was fine with the few changes they made, and certain scenes seemed to be almost panel for panel. The ending still worked for me, so it was all good.
I think my favourite part of the film was my favourite part of the book (go figure :P), which is when Dr Manhattan realises what a miracle humans are just in and of themselves and decides to help save Earth. I've loved that whole chaos into specific form speech since I read it, and it was delivered incredibly well here.
So, in short, I loved the actors, the fight scenes, the effects, the story, and the soundtrack (aside from the My Chemical Romance song, and the random inclusion of the German version of 99 Red Ballons which was completely odd), with some super-minor gripes on the side.
I am definately gonna see this again at the cinema.
"Thermo-dynamic miracles... events with odds against so astronomical they're effectively impossible, like oxygen spontaneously becoming gold. I long to observe such a thing...
And yet, in each human coupling, a thousand million sperm vie for a single egg. Multiply those odds by countless generations, against the odds of your ancestors being alive; meeting; siring this precise son; that exact daughter... Until your mother loves a man she has every reason to hate, and of that union, of the thousand million children competing for fertilization, it was you, only you, that emerged. To distill so specific a form from that chaos of improbability, like turning air to gold... that is the crowning unlikelihood. The thermo-dynamic miracle."
So, Rich and I went to see Watchmen on Saturday. I went into it very nervous; although I don't hold the comics in quite such a high regard as other comic readers do (I think that's mostly because I read it for the first time about 3 years ago, and I doubt it had the same impact on me it had on people reading it at the time), but I still think it's an amazing comic. The fact that the film was rated 18 made me feel slightly better about the whole affair as I sat down in the cinema to watch it, as I was worried they'd tone down the book and snip out/brush over a lot of the gorier or uncomfortable bits that made the book all the more interesting.
So, the lights go down, the film starts rolling, and OH MY WORD was it totally worth it. The opening credits alone were fantastic. I often find myself watching films and wishing that the credits would wait til the end where they belong, but the credits for Watchmen totally contributed to the film itself, setting the tone and generally being awesome. Fantastic choice of song during the sequence, too.
I figure before I launch into why this film is the shiznit, I shall briefly touch on the two or three things about the film which I didn't enjoy (all of which were minor and mostly down to personal preference):
1. A lot of you will know that I'm not a huge fan of sex scenes in films which aren't porn. For the most part, I think you can totally allude to two characters having had sex without showing them going at it like rabbits. Now, I did go into this film fully expecting a sex scene as it was in the book originally and it plays quite a big part in showing how being a superhero effects these people's lives, the exhiliration and excitement it brings. It practically brings them to life again. However, I do think the scene was maybe just a tad on the long side. Like I say, this is a total Stacebob preference; I'm just not a big fan of sex on screen, especially so when I'm in a cinema full of people I don't know ;P
2. The reliance on slow motion. Now, at some points in the film, I thought it worked superbly. The slow motion punch to the Comedian's face in the first scene, for example, looked great and really showed the power of the guy attacking him. But there was, in my opinion, far too much of it, until it became rather redundant. I can't help but get the feeling that they could've more impressively spent that screen time on other things.
3. The effects/make up in parts, Richard Nixon's putty nose in particular. In a film where they've taken the time and effort to make everything look as realistic as possible, they could've spent a bit more time on that nose... (This is where someone comments to say that that was the actors real nose and I feel awful :P)
Negatives over with, I have to reiterate that I love this movie. I've heard a lot of criticisms regarding the length of the film; I disagree. I didn't feel like I was in the cinema that long at all, and I felt like all the important bits were covered enough that it didn't need to be any longer. I am, however, very excited to see the Black Freighter stuff added when the DVD comes out.
I'm usually very picky about actors performances, but in this film everyone brought their A game. I would say that of all the main characters, the new Silk Spectre was the least exciting for me performance-wise, but that's not to say that she's bad at all. My Stacebob Award for Best Actor in Watchmen has to go to the dude who played the new Nite Owl. There was just something about him that was so amazing; he did a fantastic job playing the part and I hope he gets recognised for it (although I think most people would favour Rorshach, who was, to be fair, also awesome.)
Effects-wise I was pretty pleased with most stuff; some of the gore looked a bit wrong, but nothing so bad that it took me out of the film or anything.
I will admit that I've only read Watchmen once, and it was a few years ago, but as far as I recall this was a pretty true-to-the-book adaptation. I was fine with the few changes they made, and certain scenes seemed to be almost panel for panel. The ending still worked for me, so it was all good.
I think my favourite part of the film was my favourite part of the book (go figure :P), which is when Dr Manhattan realises what a miracle humans are just in and of themselves and decides to help save Earth. I've loved that whole chaos into specific form speech since I read it, and it was delivered incredibly well here.
So, in short, I loved the actors, the fight scenes, the effects, the story, and the soundtrack (aside from the My Chemical Romance song, and the random inclusion of the German version of 99 Red Ballons which was completely odd), with some super-minor gripes on the side.
I am definately gonna see this again at the cinema.
"Thermo-dynamic miracles... events with odds against so astronomical they're effectively impossible, like oxygen spontaneously becoming gold. I long to observe such a thing...
And yet, in each human coupling, a thousand million sperm vie for a single egg. Multiply those odds by countless generations, against the odds of your ancestors being alive; meeting; siring this precise son; that exact daughter... Until your mother loves a man she has every reason to hate, and of that union, of the thousand million children competing for fertilization, it was you, only you, that emerged. To distill so specific a form from that chaos of improbability, like turning air to gold... that is the crowning unlikelihood. The thermo-dynamic miracle."
Figured I'd give it a try...
It seems that a lot of people who's blogs I'd be interested in peeping at are over here at Blogspot (which blows because I've already got a blog elsewhere and so I keep forgetting to check over here :P) Anyhoo, I figured I may as well sign up here, then I can just copy and paste from my LJ to here whilst remembering to check others blogs.
And so ends your first episode of Getting Bored By Stacebob ;)
And so ends your first episode of Getting Bored By Stacebob ;)
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