Who Watches the Watchmen?

I do! That's right. Yours truly went to see Watchmen on Friday night. Let me just say, holy frakking crap! That was frakking awesome! This movie feels like you are watching a comic book, which was what they were going for. And it was graphic! Possibly the most graphic violence that I've ever seen. Of course, that's part of why it was so awesome! I will admit that it actually surprised me just how graphic it was when the first violent scene finished. I think it was key to the overall look of the movie though. Oh, and the nudity. To all you uber geeks out there, yes, you get to see Silk Spectre II naked. Very much so in fact. Picture some Friday night Cinemax soft core porn. Yeah, that's pretty much it. I would spoil it, but they had a unique way of making it not completely cheesy. :-) Needless to say, this is not a kids movie. I'd probably caution against even early to mid teens.

Now there is one thing that I could have done with a little less of. If you seen the movie, yes, I'm talking about the ridiculous amount of Dr. Manhattan blue CGI penis. I mean, the nudity doesn't really bother me, but the guy hardly wore cloths for the entire movie, and I swear they didn't miss a chance to display that not quite right penis front and center. I wouldn't say that it really hurt the movie at all, it was just a bit odd.

Probably the coolest thing was how ever now and then, they would throw in a slow-mo scene that would make everything look straight from a comic book panel. I mean, picture the scenes in The Matrix where they did the whole slow-mo thing. Then imagine it being twice as cool. Yeah, that's it.

Overall, I was impressed with how deep/layered this movie was. From what I saw, there were a number of side story lines that they could have explored. At 2 hours and 45 minutes long, I can see why they didn't. I was a little worried at the beginning. It does start a little slowly, but it just continues to build all they way to the end. My favorite character? Rorschach of course. Despite the brutal violence, I couldn't help but laugh every time someone made a smart remark, and he'd crush them in some completely unexpected way. Greatest sociopathic dude ever! My ruling? Go see it! Go see it now!

To Boldly Go...

It's no big secret that I'm a huge Star Trek fan. My favorite series will always be The Next Generation. It's the series I grew up on. However, I like them all. I was a big fan of Enterprise too, and was very disappointed when it was canceled.

Regardless of my favorite, I know it all started with Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the original NCC 1701 crew from TOS. Imagine my excitement when I first heard that they were going to "reboot" the series with a prequel TOS movie. It's directed by J.J. Abrams, and is slated to release on May 8th, 2009. The teaser trailer first came out early this year, and the first full trailer is showing before the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, in November. Gonna have to go see that!

I think the casting looks very good. Lots of names I don't know, but several I do know. Most notably Zach Quinto, who most may know as Sylar from Heroes, as Spock. I think that could be spot on. It looks like a very fresh look at the franchise, which admittedly could use it.

Below, are a couple of my favorite images that have been released so far. First is a pic of the crew, minus Spock.


The next is a shot of the new bridge. It's very bright and Shiny. Not in complete contrast to any of the other series, but much brighter and shinier than anything we've seen before.


I'm very, VERY excited about this movie, and I can't wait to go see it. I'm not sure if my wife is nearly excited, but I've made her watch it before and while she'll deny it, she does like it. And if she doesn't, I'll just go without her! I'm not missing this!