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Loading ...Watchmen, good but.
Big_Adam
A few days ago I finally got my hands on a copy of “Watchmen”. It’s one of the many comics I’ve seen but never read (seen random pages or pictures) and it’s always looked rather interesting so I finally dumped £20 on the internet and got myself a paperback trade copy and gave it a read.
If you’re wondering why “Watchmen” may sound familiar to you, it’s because it’s currently being turned into a film. So I’m using this opportunity to give a review of the book and say what I think the film is going to do wrong as Hollywood yet again rapes a good thing.
Before I go into detail about the book, first a little something about the author. Alan Moore is the guy who did “V for Vendetta” and a few other hefty comic strips. Not having read the “V for Vendetta” series I can’t comment but he wrote “Watchmen” to change the view of comics being childish. Considering “Watchmen” features sex, drinking and fights you can see he did well and the comic world of today formed. So he’s done some damn good work and “Watchmen” was some of his first.
Onto “Watchmen“, the books is set in a slightly in a parallel world around the 1980’s. The world has super heroes but more the Batman kind that the Superman kind. They are mostly average guys who wanted to do more so they don a silly outfit and fought crime. The heroes that exist are mostly just regular people in good fitness apart from Dr Manhattan or Jon (I’ll get to him later).
The story starts out with “The Comedian” (Edward Blake, pretty much a mercenary but with a mask. He started more as a super hero but over the years became much more hardcore due to wars and fighting) smashing into the pavement from his apartment and soon after (well, after the police) Rorschach shows up to do some investigations of his own. Rorschach (who is slightly insane and beats people to get answers while wearing his mask which is similar to Rorschach inkblot test hence his name) figure there must be some mask killer, taking out all the old heroes (as you find a few have died earlier on before the book) then begins his story of attempting to find the killer.
Now, this investigation story plods along but while it’s happening all the new characters (Night Owl or Hollis J. Mason) are bought in and very nicely their pasts are revealed, either by interaction of the characters in the story or via the use of newspaper and journal clipping at the end of chapters. It works really well for brining in new characters and ones of massive important (such as Jon) are given an extend origins somewhere in the book.
Example is Jon. Jon is a proper super hero, complete with a proper origin story. He came to be after a science accident where his body was ripped apart by light (if you see the trailer for the film they do show this) and many months later he puts himself together again and becomes Dr Manhattan or simply Jon. He can see atoms and move things around using his mind. Think Superman but FAR smarter and with psychic powers.
Anyway, basic story is a murder mystery but with one hell of a twist and that’s where my problem is. The story was going along lovely, the world was on the edge of war and … won’t say but it’s was getting really good.
Then the writer drops a bomb and the story (for me) goes bat shit insane and blobs on then ends. In the book the world has changed slightly thanks to Jon. He made electric cars and is basically a big scary walking bomb so no one messed with him and he changed the world technology somewhat. The problem is the story takes that fact and just goes a touch too far with it when the sudden idea of teleportation is introduced. Okay Jon is a giant man made of electricity who can teleport but then there’s a guy who made a machine to do it and … the story just lost it for me. Luckily that’s right at the end and ride getting there was good so I can let it go somewhat. It just gets a bit screwy at the end, it still works out. The insanity works with the story so it’s not so bad, don’t be put off by it.
So … the book. Well it’s pretty damn good and the artwork and character development is awesome. You do end up caring about everyone as they run around either trying to live or attempting to save people and being slightly slick about it (Night Owl saves a building full of people in his OwlShip which has a coffee maker on board! You homes gone but the guy who saved you gave you a nice coffee. That’s just slick). Comparison of artwork would be similar to Transmetropolitan even though “Watchmen” was done 20+ years ago. It’s really a nice bit of work and I can see why it’s so well respected and bigged up (couldn’t think of a better way of putting it) inside the comic and book world.
Well, enough about the book. Let’s talk about the film.
Film we got the guy who did 300 directing and from the look of the trailer it looks really slick. My only problem is the costume director seems to have jumped on the Batman wagon and made all the character either wear bugger all or wear silly plastic body suit things. The book is set in the 1980’s yet the character all look like they’ve just jumped out of the Batman film (rippling plastic chest pieces) which doesn’t sit right with me. There’s a few other thing too such as Jon’s “palace” but that’s no so much of a problem and at least Rorschach has a shape shifting mask (it’s explained in the comic that Rorschach mask is made from a weird fabric of silicone gel inside a skin. Like liquid jelly mouse mats you used to be able to get) so that should be good. My other problem is that it looks like they are going to try and stuff the entire book into one film. I’m not sure how well that’s going to work as there is allot to take in and it would be annoying if they skimmed some major plot point for the sake of being quick.
I’ll have to reserve my judgements on the film until I see it. Still, it dose look good so I’d probably see it anyway. The comic to film tend currently can’t put a foot wrong it seems.
Rated: 60% (2 votes)
Loading ...Wall-E and GLaDOS.
Big_Adam
Being the sort of chap I am, I’ve recently been looking for anything Wall-E related since it’s coming out soon.
I’ve watched trailer, clips, interviews, specials and … other things.
Anyway, the film is absolutely STUFFED with references to past robots and great robot points.
Look at Wall-E himself … itself. He’s a little robot who has a personality on a world full of rubbish. He also has one hell of a likeness to Johnny 5. Really, I mean it. Wall-E is a hell of a lot like the old J-5 from the 80’s. He inquisitive and a bit dumb because of it.
Then there’s Auto. Auto is the ships wheel and as far as I can tell, distant relative to GLaDOS of Portal fame. Well, if GLaDOS got it on with HAL 9000 from “2001 a Space Odyssey”. I mean, look at him. He’s white, black, smooth and awesome looking and looks a bit like GLaDOS when viewed from below (GLaDOS has various pipe work connecting her to the rest of the labs so looks a bit like the wheel).
Anyway, that’s about it. Can you tell I have nothing to do today?
Wall-E is out on the 18th of this month. Being Pixar it will be awesome.
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Loading ...Allotments and Crash.
Big_Adam
Thanks to an old friend of mine (aka TV) I’ve seen some rather good stuff today and because of it I will now prattle on about it.
So … I shall begin.
Allotments - I watched “Around the world in 80 Gardens” and saw the most amazing thing. Not some massive garden of some palace but an allotment. This allotment proved to me that England isn’t the place to live. This allotment was at the bottom of a waterfall. In Rome or somethings. It was a massive thing with grapes, tomatoes and all sort of lovely things, a brick shed and oven. It was a little oasis but it was an allotment. Switch to the UK and an allotment is a bit of brown with some plants, few veg and an old boy looking after it.
Something went very wrong when we (as a nation) didn’t move at some point to one of these sunny far away lands with nice weather and what not.
Anyway, enough about that.
This was just on channel 4 (the good one, not the f**ked up one) and I must say it’s a marvel of a film to watch. It was interesting, well shot, each character well defined. It just worked really well as a film and even though it follows four or five story lines at a time it doesn’t feel muddled and you can follow it really easily.
So, if it comes on again you should watch it.
Ermm…thats about it really.
Peace.
Not yet rated
Loading ...Bad Gut, Good Tunes.
Big_Adam
Urgh,
For the past few days my gut has decided to try and remove my entire bowels along with my left lung in a few massive movements. Oh what joy. So much time has been spent on the crapper reading my new CPC and new Focus (like QI if it where a magazine) during this time I’ve also been listing to some really good tunes.
To be specific the “Juno“ soundtrack (Gah! Crap UK cover art!). I must say it’s really rather good. Damn good evening. It’s a nice collection of semi-indy stuff by little unknown artist and some bigger but older artist. It works really well and is just a really good listen. I rather like the track Kimya Dawson - Loose Lips which is a little guitar track and Antsy Pants - Vampire another cool track.
Oh, also; Juno = AWESOME film. Really well done. Proper funny not stupid funny (aka, Wedding crashers, 40 year old virgin).
Well, thats all for me. I must now crap out my other lung then make a new lung from toilet paper, magazine and some other things from the toilet room.
Lovely.
Rated: 100% (3 votes)
Loading ...I Miss Originality.
Big_Adam
The decade that is 2000 been a bit of a cop out on the originality front, more so in the last two or so years.
Everyone is either “remaking” or “adapting” stuff for the big screen. I am Legend, Dawn of the Dead, Spiderman (well all the Marvel films) are all just remade or adapted films.
A better example is Knight Rider. The classic show with The Hoff and K.I.T.T. (a Pontiac Trans Am) tearing ass around saving people and foiling evil plans. 1980’s classic show.
NOW it’s not only being made into a movie (with no Hoff or Trans Am) it’s also being remade into a TV show with a Mustang. A FREEKIN MUSTANG! Who the hell thought of that. It’s the complete wrong car for new K.I.T.T. It’s not classic, stylish or funky. It’s just a mustang thats a classic mustang on steroids (hey look, another remake!).
Also talk of a new Star Wars with no William Shatner, Alvin and the Chipmunks got remade, we had 300 which is adapted from a comic. The list goes on.
It’s not that all these films are bad. 300 was excelent, Dawn of the Dead isn’t too bad (the zombie babie brings it back). But just seem that the rich lazy gits of Hollywood just seem to go “what new film can we do…hmm…lots of nice scripts here….fug’ it. Remake that show!”.
I want some originality to come back. Games are getting similar with the likes of Lara Croft’s remake in the past few years. Mario is churned out every few months. Master Chief is paraded up and down with new bump map every year or so.
I’m looking at a list of “Must see 2008 films” and it looks like someone copy and pasted half of it.
Got another Batman film, another Hulk, another Borat style film, another Bond, another Harry Potter, another Hellboy, another Indiana Jones.
I mean come on, really. Speed Racer! It was crap when 1st shown it’s going to be worse now as it’s another film that just goes into photoshop and makes everything on screen.
Originality isn’t hard. I got a stonking idea for a zombie film where people aren’t bloody morons. I got plenty of ideas for games.
So where is the problem?
Okay, there’s a writers strike at the moment but they still seem to just be churning out remakes of old shows.
Ah bugger it, I’ll go watch some more anime.
Rated: 100% (2 votes)
Loading ...Cult Films/Filmstars.
Big_Adam
I had a discussion with Skull_FCUK of CPCFF about films a few nights back.
We both came to the fact that big cult life changing films just don’t exist any more.
Think about it, in the last few year there have not been too many films that give that true sense of “damn, got to see that” or any sense of wonder. Newer films seem to just rock up, make a hell of allot a noise then fizzle away to DVD land.
Lets look at the big classics;
- Ghostbusters, inspired a generation on ghost and has load of collectables.
- Jaws, scared the cheese out of everyone for years.
- The Shining, gave a few generations a catch phrase (”Here’s JOHNNY!”)
Then threre’s the biggy, the one that still has a heavy swing today in the film world, people dress up, learn the script, re-enact it.
Star Wars.
No film has ever influenced people like the great and mighty Star Wars. El cheapo special effect but that’s not what matted. What matted was the force and the power of the dark side. Hell the film spawn it’s own religion of Jedi’s. I mean what film has ever done that before or since Star Wars?
Not to say there haven’t been any good films out in recent year. Fight Club, Shawshank, Goodfellas and plenty of other good films but nothing seems to have that spark that the films from a few years ago did.
The same thing with movie starts now too. In The Godfather, Marlin Brando become a legend in his own right. From Evil Dead we have the man Bruce Campbell. Mark Hamill from Star Wars. Film stars now only seem to be in the spot light because they smoke, screw, steal or are mad as a bad of rabid squirrels in heat. The older movie stars seem to just be legends and to admired (a little), movie stars of late are just media whores.
It might just be that I’m a child of the 80’s (mid 80’s to early 90’s) but films just don’t seem to have that spark, that magic that makes them truly a sight to behold. I mean the films on at my cinema are Saw 4, 30 Days of Night, Stardust and Ratatouille. Not exactly anything to instill any delight in their viewing. Not hear much bad about any of the films just I wouldn’t be excited to see them, I’d enjoy it, I’d have a good time just not have a true need to go and see any of them films.
I pray that soon we have another ground breaking film. If not Hollywood is just going to keep remaking stuff and attempting to recapture the lightning they once had.
Rated: 100% (2 votes)
Loading ...Hostel isn’t horror.
Big_Adam
In recent years more and more bloody and horrid films have been coming out.
We got “Hostel” and now “Hostel 2″ as well as the “Saw” films. If you look these films up on IMDb you’ll see they come under the genre of “horror”.
I don’t know about you but horror scares the crap out of me. That’s sort of the definition of horror, scare the crap out of you in a massive way then leave you scared of your own shoes at the end of the film.
Now, I don’t class “Hostel” or any of the “Saw” films in this area as…..well….their really not that scary. I mean they have plenty of gore, death, blood but their really not that scary. In my mind both of these films are about as close as you can get to a snuff film without watching a true snuff film.
Lets look at “Saw”, in it the 1st film (I’ve not seen it. I have seen a later “Saw” film thats about it) you got a few chaps in a room who have to do horrible, horrible things to each other to get out. not really scary, interesting as to how they will get out and an odd look into their human choices but it’s not scary. You don’t walk out the cinema thinking “oh no my choice could be bad for Bob” later on.
Same with “Hostel”, not scary just disgusting with people getting their faces torched off by some old nutter in a basement.
It’s disgusting, sickening and wrong. But not scary.
While I write this I bought it up with good Mr JJ(W009) who puts it in a nice way:
” there isn’t a better label… ”
And damn it he’s right. We need a new label in the film world to cover these snuff sick style films that seem to be alright with the world (oh, but Manhunt is bad?).
Their just not scary films. Alien, Day of the Dead, Exorcist all proper scary ass films that will make you jump out your skin if you watched it late at night at home……alone.
Film people need to get off their arse and get on with proper films and classification of films. Or at least a sub section or something.
Not yet rated
Loading ...Sunshine, A B.A. Review.
Big_Adam
Sunshine, a review by Big_Adam.
“It was doing so well then…..crap out”
Yep, that’s how I’m starting this.
Just watched Sunshine which is about load of people taking a long ass trip to the sun to drop off a big ass bomb then go home all the time breathing oxygen from their garden and being merry and happy.
…till it all goes WRONG (big f**king surprise right?)
The crew are in the Icarus 2 as the 1st one f**ked up. Also I2 has all the nuke material left on earth after the 1st big bomb didn’t happen. Why? No one knows! So I2 are bombing through space when they come upon I1 (Icarus 1) SOS signal. So rather than leaving it and carrying on to save THE EARTH they decide “lets stop off and see if we can half in a bomb from a ships thats been flaoting around for 7 years.
Lovely idea.
From their the s**t hits the fan in a massive way. That the basic story of it.
I was really enjoying it, it looked good, the tech seemed right (no holo rooms and stupid SUPER sci-fi stuff) the most they had was a TV room. So it works you know.
What I didn’t like was the end. Ah the end, should have been good but it didn’t make a whole heap of sence. One point two of the crew fall of the edge of the big ass bomb….they half way down they stop falling…I’ve not really understood why.
Then right at the end………the proper end end…..the sun…..sorta….well….stops. I don’t mean stops burning it just stops like a wall in front of a bloke. The sun sort of becomes alive and a god of sorts so it decides to stop.
That just riuned it for me. It’s a big nuke reaction, not a god. Big fire ball of death life….you get the idea. It’s fire.
So, that f**ked it for me. Was doing well then …. *pop* …. crap house ending.
Score : 6 / 10. would be more but the crap ending spoilt it. Nice HAL refrence tho.
Rated: 100% (1 votes)
Loading ...Film Review : Belleville Rendez-vous
Big_Adam
Belleville Rendez-vous (2003)
Director : Sylvain Chomet
Run Time : 80mins.
Plot outline : The story of a young boy (Champion) whom gorws up in the care of his dear grandmother (Madame Souza). The boy has a sad life, so to cheer him up Madame Souza buys him a Dog (Bruno) as well as toy trains and other things children like. All no no avail. Until, while making the boys bed Souza discovers a book of clipping about bikes and bike racing. So she buys the boy a bike and his life as a cyclist begin. (Time lapse) The child grows up to be a cyclist to take part in the Tour De France (okay, thats not it’s name but I can’t think of it now). While he is racing he mysteriously is kidnapped and taken to America. Why…..who know (watch the film!).
Review: A french film, I’ll say that now. So be prepared subtitles. Only a few but you can get through okay with a little understanding of french. The film itself is wonderfully done, the animation style and the caricature style of the people and places is good. From a tiny French woman to MASSIVE Americans.
The story plods along nicely, maybe a bit slow at time but not so slow as to bore you. It keeps you interested and entertained by it’s unique people in the film and the fascinating places they visit. Everything stretched and distressed to cartoon form, cars, people, places all twisted in their own weird and wonderful way.
I did really enjoy this film, I have watched it before but it was heavily editited to take out a few bits. Watched it on DVD this time so that wasn’t a problem for me.
All in all, I’d give it……. 7/10. Good, I enjoyed it no real bad points.