The author of BEATING UP DADDY and ''The Other Worst-Case Scenario'' web site shares his random insights.
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Wednesday, July 16
Posted
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
by Gene
Well, The Dark Knight opens Friday, and I'm so giddy I can barely contain myself. I went and splurged, buying two tickets to the Friday night 10:30 showing at the Premium Seating theater in Framingham, a place I think I've mentioned before. It's an enormous screen, a flawless sound system, reclining leather seats, and a full bar and restaurant. Since you can't be under 21 and attend this theater (because of the liquor availability) the kids can't come with us for this, which is okay as they're getting a jump on the film by seeing it at Midnight on Thursday.
Watchmen
And there's supposed to be a trailer for Watchmen airing. I'm nearly as giddy about this, but I understand if I'm the only one.
Here's a little history. In the Eighties, two seminal comic books were released: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, and Watchmen, by Alan Moore. In terms of comic book narrative, there has never been and never will be anything better than Miller's four issue DKR, although he personally came close with Batman: Year One, Electra: Assassin, and the Daredevil: Born Again storyline. Miller's Batman-- especially Year One-- directly influenced the last two incarnations of the cinematic Batman, with some film sequences cribbed directly from the books.
Watchmen is an entirely different thing: literature. I have seen it on several lists for the best novels of the 20th century and it belongs there. Watchmen is the pinnacle of graphic art. If you want to know how strongly I've felt about this book and for how long, my first online handle was Ror1schach (the 1 is silent), a name I took from one of Moore's characters.
Unfortunately, Moore's work has failed almost all attempts to film. The only one that came close to working was V for Vendetta, an angry story he wrote before Watchmen, and before his completely brilliant Swamp Thing stint. It was a less mature story for him, in other words. The other two attempts were The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell, and I don't think I need to go on about how bad they both were.
If Watchmen manages to be a successful imagining of the graphic novel, it could well be the best comic book film ever made. And the Eighties high school kid in me will be very happy about that.
Comments:
Mine and my Fiance'sanniversary falls on opening night.
We're torn. We both badly want to see DK, and we're both terribly impatient. Thing is though, we have a nice Blu-Ray Player and we're ordering our 67" HDTV soon, and I know from experience that a GOOD Home Theatre experience is better than an ACTUAL theatre experience (we have a good surround-sound system too). Then you factor in the convenience of pause, potty, and caramel popcorn for 50˘ instead of $50, plus the rental costs ~$1 on netflix....
Yeah we'd enjoy it more @ home. The question is, can we actually WAIT that long? I'm not so sure. We may have to make it our Anniversary Thing®.
But just in case: no spoilers, please!
We're torn. We both badly want to see DK, and we're both terribly impatient. Thing is though, we have a nice Blu-Ray Player and we're ordering our 67" HDTV soon, and I know from experience that a GOOD Home Theatre experience is better than an ACTUAL theatre experience (we have a good surround-sound system too). Then you factor in the convenience of pause, potty, and caramel popcorn for 50˘ instead of $50, plus the rental costs ~$1 on netflix....
Yeah we'd enjoy it more @ home. The question is, can we actually WAIT that long? I'm not so sure. We may have to make it our Anniversary Thing®.
But just in case: no spoilers, please!
Bob, I had a plot point spoiled by an early review, and it wasn't even meant to be a spoiler, it was just a brief aside, and I inferred the information from there. I'm quite certain I'm correct about this particular plot feature, and I'm certainly not going to tell you what it is, but I will tell you this: you will hear it from somewhere, and it will diminish your enjoyment of the movie ever-so-slightly. My advice to you would be to see it soon and then see it again and again later.
Yeah I think I know that one, too. Though we shouldn't discuss it just in case we're talking about two different plot points.
Yeah, I'm thinkin' we're going to go see it in the theatre. We're too damn impatient, and this one's a special one. We both loved the first one and we've been excited about the sequel since the credits rolled on "..Begins."
Yeah, I'm thinkin' we're going to go see it in the theatre. We're too damn impatient, and this one's a special one. We both loved the first one and we've been excited about the sequel since the credits rolled on "..Begins."
Seeing the movie at the premiere was so worth it. People were dressed up like the joker and the line went around the block (and that was at 10:30). I felt so much better wearing that shirt I made.
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