So I saw the midnight IMAX premiere of The Watchmen and wanted to know what others thought. I don't have a fully fleshes out review of the film at the moment and considering how it's still opening weekend I don't want to come down definitively on the film just yet until weighed in with some more friends. Then again, I saw the film with my brother, Alan, whose opinion I heartily respect and we were both somewhat disappointed.
Unlike The Dark Night, the IMAX experience wasn't much here. There are moments especially in the opening sequence where I was excited to experience the thrust and feel of altitude that the IMAX scope can provide but instead no such gasping feeling was elicited. My brother and I also had some of the best seats in the house as we were in the back and right smack in the center. So I don't think it's worth paying the extra money for IMAX just to see it projected larger than on a normal sized screen.
Also unlike The Dark Knight, I felt there was a certain amount of vision lacking in the execution of the film. Zach Snyder in visuals and script is as faithful to the graphic novel as he can be, but being a "visionary" does not just mean having the ability to see, or having the ability to represent or in this case to re-represent the visual. What was missing for me from the film was a lack of insight and and inability to set a tone or perspective to the material it was presenting. Alan Moore's Watchmen is a rich text that is definitely difficult to condense to the already long 2 hours and 43 minutes that the theatrical release was. Still in the almost 3 hours we were in the theater, I felt that some depth to the story and characters was missing. The film started out amazingly, faithfully recreating an opening action sequence and then having one of the best title credit sequences I've seen awhile. The film began knowing the epic nature of the novel it was trying to capture, and in turn that novel's desire to insert masked crime fighters into US history, mythology, and iconography. But somehow by the end of the film that epic nature is lost, what is left is something that doesn't take itself quite too seriously, but ironically relishes the violence it depicts by adding more bloodshed, though Moore's vision is already pretty grim. I think the film struggles with the tension to faithfully represent the novel and to be a Hollywood superhero movie. Though, it is definitely not a typical Hollywood superhero film, the ending left me feeling well, can you just be whelmed?
Ok, but I've got on long enough, and I really want to know what other people think. Also please let me know when people laugh during the movie, is it a "Joker effect" where people constantly laugh at grim violence, including the killing of Vietnamese people, because that was awkward and inappropriate and also My Lai and the war actually happened folks.
Finally, what did you think of the pop music use? I thought it was an interesting way to "audiolize"/"ensound" history and the period, but at times bordered on cliche.
I firmly recommend the book and I'm honestly looking forward to the DVD release, which will have accompanying comic inserts of Tales of the Black Freighter, which is featured in the novel, in addition to almost 2 more hours of footage.
Friday, March 6, 2009
The Watchmen: Can you ever just be whelmed?
Posted by Linde at 9:26 AM 0 comments
Labels: Alan Moore, DVD, IMAX, My Lai, Tales of the Black Freighter, The Dark Night, The Watchmen, Vietnam War, Zach Snyder
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Calling Riot Grrls of Cinema!
I might take a nibble here or there from the ladies' plates of He's Just Not That Into You, but I'll still take Meg Ryan's entire meal in When Harry Met Sally any day of the week. She's ballsy, opinionated, and proves the skillful ease of fake orgasms. Unlike her neurotic but independent character, He's Just Not That Into You presents women who need men to tell them what women think and how to overcome their blind devotion to archaically patriarchal relationship dynamics. Can I get a "WTF?"
Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed myself quite a bit watching this, and even told friends I would return to it again with them (although I thankfully never did). But for a book that shouts from the rooftop, "you are NOT the exception!," the film had no problem cradling women (and men) everywhere with the false hope that we are.
As an adaptation of a self-help book on relationships, the film proves a good narrativization of the original material. But, like my fellow feminist jouster, I couldn't help but want all the women of the film to stand up for themselves a bit more, take charge. "Pounce or bounce!" I kept silently screaming. And thank goodness a couple of them do, otherwise this film would have fallen horribly flat for me.
The cast is rather stellar, particularly for the genre (save for the never acceptable Scarlett Johannson). Justin Long and Ginnifer Goodwin have been favorites of mine since they co-starred in the 1990s television show, Ed, and Kevin Connolly from HBO's Entourage was well suited for the "nice guy." And the script was well thought out structurally - pretty well balanced and edited so as not to let any story line get too much screentime. Unfortunately, this also meant none developed too much depth, save for Ms. Goodwin's abyss of desperation.
As a date movie, I second my fellow jouster, Charley, in supporting it as a good 'cuddle up and watch other people's relationship issues and imagine you are protected from the drama of Hollywood.'
But I'll have to put a more solid foot in Linde's corner and question why in this age we couldn't have a He's Just Not That Into You where women say "F*%! this! I'm more important than a man's affection!"... whether he's into you or not.
Posted by Molly Hubbs at 1:13 PM 0 comments
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
I'll Have What She's Having?
"The women of "He's Just Not That Into You" probably have never seen "Thelma and Louise," but they've seen "When Harry Met Sally" a few times," writes William C. McLean. While I agree to a certain degree, I keep asking myself, did feminism even happen?
I definitely enjoy a good rom-com and would never identify Thelma and Louise as belonging to that genre, though I do love it as an empowering, albeit tragic, women's buddy film. When Harry Met Sally, though not as kickass, still offers more empowering moments for Meg Ryan's oh-so-cute Sally, than many of the women in get in He's Just Not That Into You. Granted, a rom-com should not be judged by how empowered the female characters are, but if the women in rom-coms are constantly preoccupied with figuring out what men want and seeking their affirmation, what does that say about the women in the audience, like myself, who watch this stuff. Ok, so it's not ONLY women in the audience, but still, I would like to think me and other women are not only obsessed with figuring out men and seeking their affirmation. Because for one thing, that's assuming a lot of straightness about my sexuality.
Movies aren't life. They may reflect it sometimes but I hate it when I leave the theater and a pack of girlfriends go on and on about how this rom-com is exactly like their life. Yeah, some awkward moments that the adorable Ginnifer Goodwin had ring painfully true with the trials and tribulations of my love life, but I really need to believe that I and other women are not that insecure.
For one thing, aren't the post-feminist women in the audience and on screen presumably fans of Sex and the City and therefore realize the importance of female sexual pleasure? The film is PG-13, therefore it lacks the full-frontal fun, but is made readily available for every girl and woman's adolescent (minus the raging hormones) fantasies. Sex is removed from relationship dynamics, and when shown or hinted at are acts of desperation and usually show the male, actually just Bradley Cooper as douchebag extraordinaire, in the dominant role. If this film is supposed to be considered THE relationship/chick-flick film, which I don't think it is, shouldn't depicting a woman's sexual experience be part of what gives this rom-com preeminent status? The film is definitely engrossing and will make you laugh and maybe even tear up a bit, but I'm left wondering do I really want what she's having?
Posted by Linde at 5:24 PM 0 comments
Labels: Bradley Cooper, Ginnifer Goodwin, He's Just Not That Into You, Meg Ryan, Sex and the City, Thelma and Louise, When Harry Met Sally
Measuring a Film's Success
For about a month I waited for the release of "He's Just Not That Into You." A primary reason for my media diet is to escape into the fictional worlds provided. Why escape? These worlds are easily (a return phone call) or sometimes not-so-easily solvable (flying into an alien ship planting a virus). But the point is that they are solvable - generally leading to a better (the scholar in me might say naive?) world.
Posted by Charley McLean at 10:38 AM 0 comments
Labels: Domino, Ginnifer Goodwin, He's Just Not That Into You, Justin Long, Manohla Dargis, Ocean's Eleven, Paul Blart: Mall Cop, Pineapple Express, Thelma and Louise, When Harry Met Sally
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Beef. It's the Oscar Roundup Special.
Just in time for Oscar Night, February 22, 2009, check out the Media Joust Podcast, as we go through the Academy's nominees for Best Supporting and Lead Actors and Actresses in addition to Best Director and Best Picture. We have some beef, plus a few atta-boy/girl/films. Also, make sure to check out the films that were nominated for Best Foreign Language Feature as well as Best Documentary.
*Addendum
Though we are incredibly affirmative of Slumdog Millionaire as a thoroughly enjoyable film, I have some hangups after learning more about how the young actors were not paid enough.
Please leave your comments, beef, rants, raves, and predictions, to the podcast below, and forgive us for a few technical difficulties as we modify the old Screen Junkies podcasts to the Media Joust name.
Have a Happy Oscar Night!
- Linde
Posted by Media Jousters at 8:15 PM 0 comments
Labels: Academy Awards, Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Oscars, Podcast, Revolutionary Road, Sam Mendes, Slumdog Millionaire
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Review: Revolutionary Road (Sam Mendes, 2008)
There is a moment in the new Sam Mendes picture where it turns into a horror film. It's a moment that you'll miss if your ears are not completely tuned in. April (Kate Winslet) senses her husband Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio), coming down for breakfast. They have had countless verbally violent altercations throughout the film and their previous one was the most heated. April faces the counter and Frank waits, knowing that she will turn and face him eventually.
Posted by Charley McLean at 6:19 PM 0 comments
Labels: Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Revolutionary Road, Sam Mendes, Titanic
Sunday, January 11, 2009
JOUST: The Unconventional Crime Solver
Linde and Charley have covered their bases rather thoroughly in this expose of crime solving-gone-public, but I need to chime in and throw a couple jabs. Once NBC proved Law and Order spin-offs could be just as successful as the original, and CBS followed with CSI and its franchise, there was no stopping the explosion of investigative television into every type of programming possible. And while I tend to agree with Ms. Murugan that unconventional crimesolver television is not quite a genre just yet, it is without a doubt a solid subgenre, or perhaps trope, of an established genre.
It is not a mystery that I myself am addicted to FOX's Bones that is not so unconventional as Veronica Mars or The Mentalist, but it does use scientists and artists in a fictional Smithsonian Institute, known on the show as the Jeffersonian Institute, to assist the FBI through an analysis of bones, bugs, dirt, chemicals, art renderings, and genius-level 'quantum leaps.' More than this, the show's characters lend to an on-going narrative of objective science versus subjective humanity.
Two shows that have yet to be mentioned in this discussion that have done well enough to give this convention some weight are CBS's Numb3rs and FOX's House. In the first, An FBI agent calls on his genius mathmatician brother to solve crimes through formulas, graphs, chalkboards, and math so difficult nobody can question it. Not the greatest show, although featuring David Krumholtz as math whiz Charlie Eppes and Peter MacNicol as his university colleague, Numb3rs is in its fifth season and sould be used by math teachers everywhere to answer the infamous question, "when will I ever need to know this?!"
House, the Emmy and Golden Globe nominated and winning program, is FOX's fantastic medical drama that I include in this crime solving programming because of the episode narrative structure: patient with mystery ailment comes to the ultimate doctor-meets-detective, Dr. House, along with his team of interns and doctors, who investigate not just the body, but the home, personal, interpersonal, and professional history of the patient to solve the case within the last ten minutes of the hour-long program.
While there is no crime per-se in House, the crime-solving structure on a medical program and the doctor as detective are great techniques that allowed the show to last so long. These, and of course, great writing and Hugh Laurie's incredible acting.
As an addict of these programs, I hope there is a future for the structure. With the success of The Mentalist, I am certainly not alone. But with the cancellation of Pushing Daisies, Veronica Mars, and a show you may not even know existed - New Amsterdam, from last season - about an immortal cop who uses his experiences from past ages to help solve contemporary crimes, there is a delicate balance of convention and unconventionality, style and narrative needed for theses shows to succeed.
ADDENDUM: Not included partly because it is not American and mostly becuase I forgot about it while writing this, The amazingly hilarious BBC program, Dr. Who, that combines science fiction and crime solving is one of the longest surviving unconventional crime solving programs and should get an American rip-off soon if it's not already in the works. Catch it on BBC-America for now, and fall in love with ridiculous special effects and over-the-top everything.
Posted by Molly Hubbs at 12:28 PM 0 comments
Labels: Bones, CSI, Dr. Who, House, Law and Order, New Amsterdam, Numb3rs, Pushing Daisies, The Mentalist, TV, Veronica Mars