J and I were supposed to catch up and work out our flight plans to book online, but instead we ended up going to Carousel for the $8 movie promo Hoyts is having. We decided to take up the Hoyts promo to catch Watchmen… it looked cool and potentially mind-blowing. And because we were left so dissatisfied with Watchmen (read below to find out why), we had to go back and watch He’s Just Not That Into You.

Watchmen

We walked into the cinema expecting Watchmen to be something along the lines of the typical superhero kicks bad-ass line. Let’s just say we really should have prepared ourselves better. I don’t have anything against comic adaptations (X-men was pretty entertaining) or comic-like storylines (Killbill and SinCity turned out to be surprisingly good too).

I watched the trailer AFTER watching the movie, seems to me that the trailer can be a bit deceiving? Anyhow, when they say graphic novel, they mean graphic novel. My gripes aren’t against the movie per se, it’s more against the graphic novel which the movie is apparently closely following.

Anyway there were two major issues I had with Watchmen which makes me feel bleh

**Spoiler Warning**

The first being that the girls in Watchmen wearing anime-like costumes (body hugging, extremely suggestive) are OK with me (I do love my anime), but random nudity and sex scenes just aren’t cool. If they developed the characters more, gave viewers something to relate to, it might not have felt like they threw in the relationship between Laurel and Dan just for the sex (wasn’t she getting it on with Dr. M only a few frames ago!?).

I also didn’t appreciate the way Watchmen made all the female characters whores, and it definitely didn’t improve my opinion when they threw in the kinky twists (I’m guessing Watchmen was created by lots of testosterone). AND if they didn’t show so many frontal shots of ‘Mini Manhattan‘, it might not have made viewers feel so… disturbed…. or distracting! Seriously, it felt like the first half of the movie was blue-penis-free and then suddenly all you see is very naked Dr Manhattan frontals.

It’s something I would expect from a Japanese anime NOT a hollywood film

The second thing which irked me is more of a personal preference because I like my heroes to stay as heroes. Watchmen are allowed their off-days and hissy fits, but in my world, they shouldn’t be humanised. What I mean by that, is that they killed the heroic characters and turned each and everyone of these Watchmen into pathetic reflections of the faults in humanity.

Where’s the logic in turning a superhero into a wuss? an obsessive freak? an emotionally stunted child?

Is Watchmen trying to suggest that we’re all twisted, even our heroes? Are they trying to rob us of our hope and our naive ideals?

Anyway, Vic at ScreenRant did a detailed review of Watchmen. And after reading the review, I’m positive that I would have enjoyed Watchmen a lot more if I had read the comic…

I do have something good to say about the film though, the graphics are very very impressive! I enjoyed the graphics so much so that I might even watch it again (not in cinema though).On a side note, the only characters I liked were Rorschach and The Comedian.

**End Spoiler Warning**

He’s just not that into you

I’m a huge fan of romantic comedy and He’s Just Not That Into You fits my criteria perfectly. It’s the type of movie which makes you laugh and pulls you right into the plot like you’re right there with the characters. Well, relationships is a topic which we can all relate to after all

Thankfully it wasn’t a let down like P.S I Love You which I didn’t think lived up to it’s expectations (Love Actually). I won’t be going into detail because I would definitely recommend you to go watch He’s Just Not That Into You! It’s most probably one of the best movies I’ll ever watch in 2009… but it’ll come second to Star Trek which will be coming out in May!! Watch the full trailer at the official Star Trek site. I think that I’m going to like this movie no matter if they mess it up , just like Transformers =P