The WATCHMEN has been WATCHED!

I remember reading the graphic novel in the early 90's. A good 5 years after it's initial release. The Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons comic changed all of comicdom forever and upon it's first reading I could tell why. A grand, epic and dark story of an alternate history of 1985 where Nixon is still president, we're seeped deep into the Cold War and costumed heroes actually exist and and run amongst the city "protecting" it people. That is until they are abolished and are forced to loose the capes and masks and try and live real lives. Part murder mystery, part commentary on society's ills and part pulp action comic, Watchman proved that comics weren't just for kids anymore and that not all costumed heroes had all of society's best interests in mind. It forced comic companies and writers to look at new aspects of the medium that were quite a bit more dark, sad and gritty.

Since last weekend was filled with 40th B-day festivities for my good friend Iris Von Beaverhousen, I sadly did not get to go out and see the movie. But, I made time after work on Tuesday night to shuffle over to a local megaplix and sit down for the good 3 hours and view the movie.

I have to admit that when I first heard that Hollywood was going to adapt the piece of literary art into a movie, I was really worried. I knew how epic the story of the comic was and I thought there was no frellin' way they were going to do any type of tasteful homage to the comic. How the frack were they going to fit that big of a story and plot into a film. A miniseries, maybe. But, a film? Could anyone really capture the full extent of the graphic novel in a movie???? Then I heard that Terry Gillaim's name was bandied about as a potential director. This peaked my interest as hope that perhaps someone with the right tools could bring the story to the big screen. Then after a while, for whatever reason, Gilliam's involvement with the film dissolved and we fans of the comic were left wondering, "Well, what's next?"

After a few years news on the potential movie didn't surface. In the meantime a phenomenally awesome flick based on the Frank Miller comic, "300" was turned into a movie and directed by Zack Snyder. It was beautifully done and one of my personal faves.

Then I heard that Zach was going to take the rains of the Watchmen film. I started to get a little excited again. I loved 300 and wondered what Snyder could bring to the immense story of Watchmen. I, again, got the hope that someone had the capable hands to translate this dense, yet incredible story to the big screen.

I wasn't disappointed. Upon my viewing I found that the flavor of the comic was consistent and I was pleased with the outcome, overall. I can't say there were any major complaints about the film. Perhaps some very small quibbles.

I still feel that perhaps two movies would have covered the epic saga a bit better. There were some important parts of the comic that were understandably omitted, yet still important to the original story. The comic's chapters are separated by verse. The verse can be considered short stories that link the main story together. A lot of these are completely omitted or are converted to the opening credits. Not a horrible mistake, by any means. Especially since they were tasked with turning the epic into a motion picture. But, some of the real story is cut out. The mini-story of The Tales of the Black Freighter is nowhere to be seen. I feel that this is one of the key story points. They're going to release it as an animated DVD later this month, but I felt it should have been part of the main story of the movie. I do understand how they only had so much room for the points they wanted to convey in the movie. But, I was still saddened to see that it didn't make it into the film.

The film is almost 3 hours long. I really worry that people not familiar with the comic might be turned off by the running time. If you're a fan of the comic, you'll have a vast appreciation of the film. If you're some lame schmo off the street who is not at all familiar with the subject matter, you may be looking at your watch two hours into the movie. (At which point you deserve to be slapped upside the back of your feeble head.)

What does make this movie rock? The actors are a major factor in turning this literary piece of wonderment into a motion picture! Milan Akerman, Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earl Haley, Billy Crudup (even if he was dumb enough to leave Mary Louis Parker), Mathew Gooode, Jeffery Dean Morgan, Carla Giugino, Matt Frewer (Max Headroom), and even bit player like the beautiful Apollonia Vanova,( who has no speaking part and is only featured in the credits), are what make this film a triumph and all deserve golden statues!! Rorschach and The Comedian are the psychoes we feared and loved from the books! Silk Spectre I and II are both as desirable and tragic as they were in the comic. And Night Owl is the geek you cheer for who gets the hot cheerleader in the end. They all seem to devour what the comic's characters are. They really bring them to life. They all have full understanding of who they play and make them a real entity for the screen! As a fan of the comic I found this to be the film's biggest asset! They all seemed to really care for Moore and Gibbon's superheroes.... and villains.

The effects are frackin' good and the action / fight sequences are darn brutal! Perhaps even more so than the comic. There is some great fight choreography and some intensely violent action sequences in this film. Fine by me.

The ending to the film is changed slightly from the book. This may erk some hard core fans. It also ends on a slightly more upbeat feeling than the book did (Hollywood does have to whore itself a bit, doesn't it?). But that's minimal when you look at the big picture.

So, if you're a big fan of the orignal comic, you really need to take a look at it. If you're not, you may have a hard time dealing with the 3 hour storyline. But. please, sit through it! If you have a soul and a brain you'll really get it. If you're a geek, like me, you'll want to see it in the theater and then buy it on DVD! The acting really brings these charters and movie to full life. 'Cause Snyder really tries as hard as he can to bring the whole monster to the big screen and succeeds quite well! You can tell he is a fan of the core material, and it really shows. Though, it's not quite up there with The Dark Knight or Iron Man, this puppy has a special little place in the comics to film genre. You'd be less of a person or geek to not go see Watchmen!


I'm going to go have some dinner, so please, until next time, Stay vertical! And God bless the likes of Milan Akerman, Carla Giugino, and Apollonia Vanova! What can I say. I'm a goofy fan-boy.

Zangz!

Saints Row 2 vs. Grand Theft Auto 4: Compare and Contrast.

I know it's been a month since I last posted here, but February really sucked the life out of me. The cold, the snow and the destruction of our national economy as a lasting remnant of the previous administration was a real bummer. On top of that, February isn't really that great of a month. It's just a lot of snow and cold and nothingness.

Right now Spring is trying so very hard to peek its head out from Winter's gloom. The last couple of days have been sunny and "warm" (high 40's to low 60's). It's pouring rain right now which is sucha vast improvement from that god awful snow that I can live with it!

I spent much of the month of February doing exactly what a self respecting geek would do. Playing video games on the good ol' '360! Right now I'm between several different games.

I still haven't finished Fallout 3 which I took a break from for a while. I also find myself popping back in and out of Grand Theft Auto 4 (GTA4) which also is far from being completed. Then there's Fable II which I haven't quite gotten to far in as of yet. The little gem I find myself going back to again and again and again is Saint's Row 2 (SR2)

Saint's Row 2 can be described as GTA4's bastard, unruly son. Both are open world, crime simulation games with big cities to race around in, chase around in and create as much destruction and bedlam as possible. However, I'm currently finding SR2 far more entertaining than GTA4. SR2's controls are 100% better, the freedom is far more reaching and the amount of customization is just crazy! Add to that the mini-games within the city are far more addictive than any of the actual missions in GTA4.

When I recently went back to GTA4 and drove around the city a bit, I found steering the car a monumental task. Try and take a curb at a fast speed and you'll find yourself in an uncontrollable power-slide that is hard to recover from. In SR2 you can take curbs and do a very controlled power-slide AND get extra points for doing so.

Your character in SR2 (that you create from the get go - we'll get into this in a bit) can pretty much run rampant throughout the imaginary city of Stillwater all they want. Sure the cops will chase you, but that's half the fun. You can pretty much do the same in GTA4, but I find the IA police a bit more relentless in their pursuit. Sure, this is more challenging, but is it more fun? You also have to constantly manage relationships with many of the side characters in GTA4. Imagine you're out exploring what Liberty City has to offer and suddenly your cousin, your girlfriend or your drug supplier calls up on your cell and wants to go do something with you. If you don't they wont help you out later in the game. And they call ALL THE TIME! It's great to get immersed in a virtual world, but this ain't The Sims!

The customization of your character in SR2 is far and vastly superior in every way shape and form when compared to GTA4! In GTA4 you get the male, Russian character of Niko Belik. A lovable rogue if there ever was one. But, outside of his limited amount of clothing, you're stuck with the designer's' character they have created for you. In SR2 it's a whole other monster. A monster you can create from the ground up! At the beginning stage of the game you choose if you want your character to be male or female, athletic or fat, have a big or small nose, have beady or large eyes. I don't even want to go into the hair options 'cause you'd be here reading it for next few hours. Needless to say, my character is a male with jet black, mulletized hair with bright purple dye in it's back who has a King Diamond goatee, Alice Cooper eye makeup and wears tight black jeans with skull and crossbones t-shirt. He speaks in an East Ender English accent and occasionally sports cop sunglasses. For a nominal fee of money you obtain in the game, you can go to many of Stillwater's plastic surgeons and change the look, swager and attitude of you character as well as darn near anything else you want. That way you're not stuck with the same look for the entire game.

Not only is your character uber-customizable, so are the many autos you can obtain the game. There are a few special designed cars you can't change, but they are far and few between when compared to the insane amount of vehicles that can be taken to a Stillwater mechanic to have paint jobs, upgrades and awesome stylization. In GTA4 you can take a car to a mechanic who will fix it up and give it a paint job of the game's choosing. Not your own. You can also customize your own radio station or just listen to the many that Stillwater has.

Now, am I saying that SR2 is far superior than GTA4? Not at all. Let's look at the overall quality of the games. GTA4 wins hands down. The story and game are far more epic. The details are incredibly more in depth. Just look at how Liberty City mirrors many of the aspects of the actual Big Apple. It's darn right spooky at times! Also GTA4 is a far longer game than SR2. SR2 has a heck of a lot of missions to get through before you complete the main storyline, but I finished it in less than a month. I bought GTA4 nearly a year ago and my Niko is still being sent out on missions. And GTA4's graphics are several grades up the color ramp than SR2's. SR2's are a bit cartoony where GTA4's are quite in-depth and gritty.

Here's what it feels like. The guys at Volition played through many of Rock Star's GTA games and said, "Let's make a mirror copy of this kind of game, but let's make it less restrictive and concentrate on giving it a more playground feel to it rather than overly challenging and dark and gritty."

This is why I found myself playing through SR2 one entire time with my English King Diamond Alice cooper character and then starting it all over again with a newly created character (a cute but deadly Goth chick!). I rarely do that. Once I play through an entire game I go onto something else. Like I said, I have a couple I need to get back to, fer crissakes!

Sure, I hope to pop into Liberty City again and complete the game at some point. But, right now I'm having a blast in Stillwater! GTA4 might be the better all around game, but SR2 is fun as hell!!!!

'Nuff said there.


You know, I'm finding myself quite the Anglophile as of late when it comes to renting DVDs. I just completed seasons 1 and 2 of The Tudors and now I'm starting on the 25 year old Britsh series, Robin of Sherwood. There's something about English history and legends that has gotten a hold of me recently (and, NO! It's not Natalie Dormer or a young Judi Trott you pervs! Well...not totally).

I found the fate of Anne Boleyn, of The Tudors, both tragic and slightly self deserved. Sure, it's weaselly to sleep your way into monarchy for your kaniving family. It's a whole other thing to be falsely accused of things you never did and sentenced to public death just because King Henry's ego has been bruised. Karma can be one brutal sledgehammer of payback.

So, I'm watching Robin of Sherwood this morning and I'm looking at the bloke who plays Jack Scarlet. I'm lookin' at him and lookin' at him and going,"God, I know that guy". I get my answer in the end credits. Scarlet is played by Ray Winstone who was Mac in Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull! He also voiced Beowulf in the GD animated movie of the same name (useless Zangz's pop culture item #556).

I remember watching the sword and sorcery show in the late 80's on Sunday afternoon where they aired on the local public television station. I forgot how piss poor the sound quality was. The music was this soft Enya-esque keyboard slop that they must have recorded in someone's basement. Then instead of using quality sound effects, they used what was recorded on set live. So instead of Clank, Clank Clank during a sword duel you hear, tink, tink, tink. When someone gets punched you hear, pat, pat, pat, instead of SMACK, SMACK, SMACK! I find the poor quality of sound in this show really disturbing. Perhaps I'm spoiled with what we have now on today's TV show sound. I still enjoy the storytelling the show has to offer.

Anyway, I can see I'm rambling on endlessly and will call it a day here soon. I do need to start to prepare for some covert hi-jinx involving a very good friend turning 40. Welcome to the club, Honey.

That's it. I'm outta here.

Zangz.