Sunday, March 15, 2009

Day 4: Watching the Watchmen Being Watched


This weekend was by no small means a "typical weekend". The culmination of 22 years of development came to fruition in the magical movie theatre of the Varna Mall. I refer to the long thought unfilmable graphic novel "WATCHMEN". Since 1987, people have tried to turn this comic property into a workable piece of cinema. Terry Gilliam took the first crack and had envisioned Robin Williams as the detective/psychopath 'Rosarach', Sigourney Weaver as the seductive 'Silk Spectre', and a post Conan, pre Batman & Robin Arnold Schwarzenagger as 'Dr. Manhattan'. (We can all thank Hollywood Development for dodging that potential disaster). AND NOW, 2009, in a former Soviet Bloc, I witnessed the culmination of years of tragedy and aggravation.....and it was pretty good.
I don't want to give a whole review, just a few highlights and observations on my viewing experience.

1) Before the movie started, I had my first hamburger in approximately 2 months. It was a Burger King Whooper. This did not sit well with my stomach

2) You can drink beer in Bulgarian movie theatres. The movie was almost three hours with previews. This did not sit well with my bladder

3) There was a kid who was somewhere between 8-10 sitting two rows behind me who did not stop talking from the moment I sat down

4) About an hour into the movie, a character on screen kills a man with a butcher knife. In the head. This same kid left immediately after wards. I felt no remorse, only the burning sensation of why any parent would take there kid to a movie like this.

5) I only have a few problems with this movie. The most glaring is a scene at a cemetery. I know what a cemetery looks like. I am fairly confident you know what a cemetery looks like. However, with this logic aside, the camera does a sweeping crane shot over a giant cemetery; row after row of tombstones. Then, the camera pans up to a sign over the cemetery; the sign reads: "cemetery".

I can't truthfully say who will like this film. I wouldn't recommend it to everybody, and even the nerd faithful could go either way on this one. It is easily the boldest, gutsiest decision I have scene by a movie studio, and in this era of formulaic, sequel-o-rama's, there is nothing more pleasing than seeing someone take a chance.

So in conclusion, have a happy st. patrick's day

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