The first couple days of vacation :)
Mar. 14th, 2009 07:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
candylandUpdating from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lwyn's house! We go home tomorrow, and I'll post about the rest of the trip when I get there, but here are the first two days.
Train travel is awesome :D It was smooth, comfy, THEY GIVE YOU LEG ROOM, and I did not get motion sickness while playing my DS on it ^___^kaitodoushi got some sleep on the way here. I did not ^^;; Mostly because every time I started to doze off, someone would make a bunch of noise and I'd jolt awake. Oh, and I started playing Patapon on the train. I think I love that game ♥
Our train wound up being about an hour and a half late XD We went and got pizza, and then back to her house. Kat and I slept most of the way there. We watched some MST3K (they're converting me...haaaaaaaaalp ;o;), and went and got some foods at munchies. It has been a bad week for my diet. Back on it Monday morning!
Aaaaaand on Thursday, we saw Watchmen at Hollywood Blvd. My verdict?
...not impressed ~_~ *dodges thrown things, I'm sure*
I should preface this by saying that I have not read the comics, and also that I'm not a huge fan of blood and gore to begin with. Which makes it sort of a given that I'm not going to be all ZOMG YAYFACE about it. But I thought I'd give it a chance, at least. I mean, I love good fight scenes (Jackie Chan movies are awesome for those alone!), so I was sort of going in on the idea that there would probably be that.
...yeah, lost that when the first move of the first fight involved someone's limb getting torn off. So I spent a good portion of the movie staring down at the table. Fortunately, Kat was of the same mind. So we sort of kept each other company ^^;;
I called a good chunk of the ending. The twist was not that much of a surprise to me. And I didn't care much for most of the characters. The only character I could bring myself to care about was Rorschach, and the only two characters that actually interested me at all were Rorschach and the Comedian--the latter was not a good person by any stretch, but he was certainly not bland and boring.
Nightowl (or whatever the Batman-ripoff-looking guy's name was--he was bland enough that I did not care) did not do ANYTHING. And the girl (Laurie or something like that?) kind of felt like she was just there for the sex. I've seen better, more believable sex scenes on HBO at midnight. Also, why did they defile such a wonderful song as "Hallelujah" with that scene? And playing "Ride of the Valkyries" will make any scene campy, even a big bloody battle-ridden dramatic one. Hard to feel horrified when the music has left me able to only think of old cartoons.
Dr. Manhattan...I'm conflicted on him. The design and execution of the CGI was amazing. I can't say a bad thing about how he looked and moved--hell, I really can't say a bad thing about any of the special effects in the movie. They were SUPERB. But his character...at first I felt sympathy, but then for some reason it just started to grate on me. I can't say why.
The ending pissed me off. I'm all for bittersweet endings (god knows I'm a total sap for a tragic ending), but up until about the last fifteen seconds, I was like, "...this is it?" Yes, I'm sure I missed the big shiny point. And then Rorschach got the last laugh as they brought back a plot device that had been in use since the very beginning of the movie, but that most of us probably had not even noticed. It was almost enough to redeem the rest of the ending.
Really, though...I more or less stayed with it to see what happened to Rorschach. That was it for me. Sociopathic as he was, I liked him. He was interesting, different from the others, and he actually made me feel some emotions, something most of the rest of the cast failed to accomplish. And he gave us this exchange, which we promptly quoted a couple of times to commit to memory because it was the best part of the movie...
DOCTOR: *holds up inkblot* What do you see?
FLASHBACK: *slapped in da face*
RORSCHACH: ...a butterfly.
D: *next card* And this?
F: *IS BLOODY*
R: ...pretty flowers.
D: *another card* And this one?
F: *IS MORE BLOODY*
R: ...clouds.
All in all...for as much as I'm ragging on it, it's not the worst movie I've ever seen. I leave that title to the ones I'm watching right now on MST. If you like lots of gore and blood, then you will love Watchmen regardless of its flaws. The special effects are incredible, there are some amazing visuals, and there are a couple of interesting characters (though only one of those was a good interesting).
Maybe I would have liked it more if I had the background of the comics behind me. But a movie of this nature, I feel, should be made so anyone can come in and enjoy it without that background. But as Kat said, "I'd rather be watching The Incredibles."
...okay! Dinnertime! *scurry scurry*
ETA: I'll be putting up a layout voting post on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
professorlayton when I get home, guys. I was going to do it before I left for Illinois, but I just ran out of time ;o;
lwyn's house! We go home tomorrow, and I'll post about the rest of the trip when I get there, but here are the first two days.Train travel is awesome :D It was smooth, comfy, THEY GIVE YOU LEG ROOM, and I did not get motion sickness while playing my DS on it ^___^
kaitodoushi got some sleep on the way here. I did not ^^;; Mostly because every time I started to doze off, someone would make a bunch of noise and I'd jolt awake. Oh, and I started playing Patapon on the train. I think I love that game ♥Our train wound up being about an hour and a half late XD We went and got pizza, and then back to her house. Kat and I slept most of the way there. We watched some MST3K (they're converting me...haaaaaaaaalp ;o;), and went and got some foods at munchies. It has been a bad week for my diet. Back on it Monday morning!
Aaaaaand on Thursday, we saw Watchmen at Hollywood Blvd. My verdict?
...not impressed ~_~ *dodges thrown things, I'm sure*
I should preface this by saying that I have not read the comics, and also that I'm not a huge fan of blood and gore to begin with. Which makes it sort of a given that I'm not going to be all ZOMG YAYFACE about it. But I thought I'd give it a chance, at least. I mean, I love good fight scenes (Jackie Chan movies are awesome for those alone!), so I was sort of going in on the idea that there would probably be that.
...yeah, lost that when the first move of the first fight involved someone's limb getting torn off. So I spent a good portion of the movie staring down at the table. Fortunately, Kat was of the same mind. So we sort of kept each other company ^^;;
I called a good chunk of the ending. The twist was not that much of a surprise to me. And I didn't care much for most of the characters. The only character I could bring myself to care about was Rorschach, and the only two characters that actually interested me at all were Rorschach and the Comedian--the latter was not a good person by any stretch, but he was certainly not bland and boring.
Nightowl (or whatever the Batman-ripoff-looking guy's name was--he was bland enough that I did not care) did not do ANYTHING. And the girl (Laurie or something like that?) kind of felt like she was just there for the sex. I've seen better, more believable sex scenes on HBO at midnight. Also, why did they defile such a wonderful song as "Hallelujah" with that scene? And playing "Ride of the Valkyries" will make any scene campy, even a big bloody battle-ridden dramatic one. Hard to feel horrified when the music has left me able to only think of old cartoons.
Dr. Manhattan...I'm conflicted on him. The design and execution of the CGI was amazing. I can't say a bad thing about how he looked and moved--hell, I really can't say a bad thing about any of the special effects in the movie. They were SUPERB. But his character...at first I felt sympathy, but then for some reason it just started to grate on me. I can't say why.
The ending pissed me off. I'm all for bittersweet endings (god knows I'm a total sap for a tragic ending), but up until about the last fifteen seconds, I was like, "...this is it?" Yes, I'm sure I missed the big shiny point. And then Rorschach got the last laugh as they brought back a plot device that had been in use since the very beginning of the movie, but that most of us probably had not even noticed. It was almost enough to redeem the rest of the ending.
Really, though...I more or less stayed with it to see what happened to Rorschach. That was it for me. Sociopathic as he was, I liked him. He was interesting, different from the others, and he actually made me feel some emotions, something most of the rest of the cast failed to accomplish. And he gave us this exchange, which we promptly quoted a couple of times to commit to memory because it was the best part of the movie...
DOCTOR: *holds up inkblot* What do you see?
FLASHBACK: *slapped in da face*
RORSCHACH: ...a butterfly.
D: *next card* And this?
F: *IS BLOODY*
R: ...pretty flowers.
D: *another card* And this one?
F: *IS MORE BLOODY*
R: ...clouds.
All in all...for as much as I'm ragging on it, it's not the worst movie I've ever seen. I leave that title to the ones I'm watching right now on MST. If you like lots of gore and blood, then you will love Watchmen regardless of its flaws. The special effects are incredible, there are some amazing visuals, and there are a couple of interesting characters (though only one of those was a good interesting).
Maybe I would have liked it more if I had the background of the comics behind me. But a movie of this nature, I feel, should be made so anyone can come in and enjoy it without that background. But as Kat said, "I'd rather be watching The Incredibles."
...okay! Dinnertime! *scurry scurry*
ETA: I'll be putting up a layout voting post on
professorlayton when I get home, guys. I was going to do it before I left for Illinois, but I just ran out of time ;o;
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-15 02:16 am (UTC)Happy that you two are having a great time!!! Have a safe trip home!
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-15 03:06 am (UTC)It's definitely not my kind of movie. XD; Bleh. **never plans to see it.** But if you don't mind revealing, what was the thing that happened that gave Rorschach the last laugh? I was thinking it just ended extremely depressing and he got the short end of the stick.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-15 03:06 am (UTC)I still need to see Watchmen but I've read the book so I'm not too worried about spoilers (which you should read they book, it's a bit of a suspense meets mystery, with (as I'vw read it) a deconstruction of the superhero).
Here's something that'll either stroke your ego or embarass you: A DC meme off of deviantart.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-15 03:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-03-15 08:24 am (UTC)The Graphic Novel has a more elaborate/different ending, mostly as a result of the AWESOME NARRATION EXPERIMENTS(?) they put in, so I recommend it just for that. (And although they do go down disturbing/gore inviting paths, I don't recall it being that gory.) It also has more background characters that get developed on, so I'm guessing that would explain the weakness in the characterization of the main dudes.
That said, I don't know how the movie would affect one's reading of it, since a helluvalot of the shots looked like they were taken straight from the book. XD
Hi~! :c3