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As the first of the highly anticipated films for 09, I was very excited to catch Watchmen this weekend. And being a rather important release for all of geekdom, we went with a group of 15, nearly enough to command an entire row. I’d spent the last week re-reading Alan Moore’s book cover to cover, totally engrossed, and very curious how certain bits would translate to film. Besides a lot of crazy sci-fi imagery, Watchmen includes an interesting narrative, often layering different dialogs or rapidly jumping through different timelines. The visuals by Dave Gibbons, are cinematic – panning, zooming – and often brutal.

Gotta say, I was very happy with the movie. Watchmen has gone from graphic novel to a film which is quite graphic. It shares the dark and gritty atmosphere of Nolen’s Dark Knight, but with more sex and violence. I think most fans were worried that the adaptation would be toned down to maximize the marketability of a “comic book movie”, but gladly they kept it fully an adult movie. There plenty of adult themes (like the nihilist outlooks on one’s own life and career and the world at large) and plenty of adult scenes (lots of nudity, mostly male, and some brutal fight scenes). Visually, as most people expected, the movie rocks. Director Zack Snyder really stayed true to the book’s look of each scene – in fact his trademark slo-mo created moments with an amazing resonance to the original cells. The casting was really good (though I would’ve preferred an Ozymadias a bit older looking), and even characters with small parts were spot on.

I really appreciate the thought that went into the soundtrack as well. I’m not a fan of Bob Dylan, but it was a perfect backdrop to the almost-still frame retrospective sequence in the opening titles. The result is a beautiful five and a half minutes of film. Later, 99 Luftballons was as fitting as could be both chronologically and thematically. Leonard Cohen’s dark and jaded tone in a couple of songs was also a perfect compliment to a world on the brink of nuclear armageddon.

For all the exact similarities though, the movie is unique from the book in a few ways. The most striking to me was a new take on the ending – and I’m glad. The original ending was fine in the book, but wouldn’t have played well on screen…at all. Besides that, most of the differences were just omissions in order to restrain the movie to its already massive running time. As I think through all the cuts, however, I can’t think of any that really weaken the story. Of course I’m coming in with all the detail provided in the book. I wonder if non-readers would feel that there were things unexplained. Or maybe less than that, perhaps without all the detail of the original, viewers just might not really “get” the characters or their alternate version of our world. Reading the book first will “spoil” key plot points, but I believe it makes the movie even better.

Despite the fact that I think The Dark Knight was dissed with the nominations, I’ve once again caught up with a few of the films that the industry’s elite are calling the year’s best.

Slumdog Millionaire

With small budget comparisons to Juno and Little Miss Sunshine I was very curious whether this movie would live up to the hype. Turns out it does for the most part. I think it was a very smartly made movie. There’s the excellent plot device in the game show, which propels the story along and connects an otherwise jagged connection of memories. There’s the smart use of language – primarily English throughout, but enough Hindi to keep it real. Plus there’s some nice camera work and editing – especially in the depictions of the Bombay to Mumbai transformation. On the weak side I thought the characters were simple dimensionally – maybe a lot of that you can explain away as being the impressions of a young boy. So, I’d say it was an OK story told very, very well. It didn’t blow me away, but it was a solid couple hours of entertainment. Plus, the closing credit sequence was nicely done!

Milk

This movie, about the first (openly) gay elected official, is a difficult one to form a fair impression of. With little to no knowledge of Harvey Milk going into the movie, I was as engrossed in the historical events as I was with the portrayal of it. Looking back, it’s difficult to separate the gravity of the real events, from the film itself. Without a doubt Sean Penn is deserving of the Best Actor nod. There’s not a moment you don’t believe him as a gay man, and Gus Van Sant makes sure of it by including plenty on onscreen intimacy. I found Josh Brolin on the other hand to be very flat and wooden and leagues less interesting than Heath Ledger’s Joker. As for Best Picture, it’s probably finishing that race in second.

Frost Nixon

Here’s another historical movie, but I was fearing this one would be more subtle and analytical. Turns out, this was pretty much the case, too. The acting in the film is great, but everything hinges on dialog – scene after scene. It doesn’t help that the two title characters, by nature, are pretty reserved, buttoned-down types. There are some nice moments where things get tense and bit fiery, but things quickly cool off and get buttoned-down again. It’s interesting, just not all that entertaining.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

This was maybe the largest budget flick up for Best Picture (between Brad Pitt and all the CGI) and was probably the front runner until the Slumdog hype ran it over. Unfortunately, the movie just isn’t that great. In the center of the premise there’s an interesting idea of a man aging backwards. Just around that there’s an interesting potential for what sort of relationships that would lead to. But then this movie gets a lot wrong. If Slumdog was a mediocre story told very well, then this is a good story told very poorly. From the slow pacing to the mostly worthless narrative framework this movie struggles to build any momentum. A lot could be salvaged by the romance between Pitt and Blanchett, but here too are so many starts and stops. Also, if there’s any meaning behind putting Katrina into the movie, that’s lost on me as well. I can only imagine it was used as a ploy to up the emotional gain, but it fails at even that. Worst of all, I think the progression of Button as he approaches death is so inconsistent and misconceived I’m amazed it made it into the movie.

And then there are the nominated movies I’d previously seen (and loved):

• The Dark Knight: It really should have been in the Best Picture running, but awarding Ledger with Best Supporting Actor will have to do.
• Ironman: I think it was every bit as strong as The Dark Knight as far as Visual Effects go, but it won’t see any Oscar love.
• Wall-E: It’ll runaway with Best Animated Feature by a mile, and really could have been in the Best Picture club.

Bullets being sweated. Halloween is coming and I gotta lot of work to do! This is going to be one sweet party, though.

I’m also excited that with Halloween (specifically the 31st) comes the release of Kevin Smith’s latest flick, Zack and Miri Make a Porno. I’ve been following the back story of this one from when Kevin was working on the script, to casting, to shooting, to the appealing the MPAA for the R rating, to the US ban on the original theater poster. Even got to exchange some words with Kevin about it back at the poker game in Jersey. All of that amounts to some serious cinema foreplay, so I’m really dying to see it (after rigorously staying spoiler-free all this time), and I’m really happy for Kevin to have a what should be a big hit on his hands.