We watched the Watchmen. Dante walks. Munchkin watches Superman
March 12, 2009 in COMIC BOOKS, FAMILY, MOVIES, THE SIMPSONS NEWS
THE SIMPSONS NEWS
Well, not much to report for this week. Just working on finishing up the show on paper. It’s good to be back drawing on paper but I miss the ability to time my own scene and look at how it will work with the dialogue. Still, it’s fine. I’m having fun. Hope this job lasts a bit longer ’cause I don’t want to be laid off anytime soon.
FAMILY
Dante has started walking now. He’s very proud of himself. On Monday, he mostly did it between spaces that he could see a definite end point. Such as, from the couch to the living room table, or from the living room table to one of us. If he would take a few steps and see everything he might be able to walk to was more than ten steps away, he immediately would go back on his hands and knees and begins to crawl.
By mid week, he was confidently walking toward nothing, then he would look around, stop and walk in another direction. He would then crawl if he lost his balance. It’s great to see him get more and more confident. It’s also darn funny to watch him walk too. I’m sure by Friday of next week, he won’t be crawling at all.
FAMILY
Munchkin has gotten into wanting to watch Superman and Justice League Cartoons. I don’t know why. She suddenly decided she wanted to watch them. She went over to the DVD shelf, pointed to the Superman and Justice League cartoons, looked up at me an said, “Supaman, Supaman?”
I think her favorite heroes so far are Superman and Batman. She likes Superman because he can fly and Batman because…well…I have no idea why she likes Batman. Maybe because she’s played with a Batman action figure before. I’m not exactly sure what she finds so entertaining about the cartoons either. This weekend she watched two seasons worth of Superman Cartoons and one DVD worth of Justice League cartoons. By “watched”, I mean, she had them playing in the background while she played with her toys. She would occasionally look up and watch for about five minutes before going back and playing. Although, when she grew tired of playing with me or her toys, she would sit down and watch an entire episode. Even though she wasn’t watching them all the time, the moment one of the DVDs ended, she insisted on putting on another.
The cartoons are not anywhere near the kind of thing she’s used to watching. They are very action oriented cartoons. Lots of superhero fights in them. Lots of life or death situations with many things at stake and very serious themes. Very complicated stories that would just go ever her head. I think she has gotten used to watching action oriented cartoons from watching Disney cartoons like, Tarzan, Treasure Planet and Lilo & Stitch. Little by little, she’s learning the names of all the Superheroes in the show. She now knows that Hawkgirl’s name is Hawkgirl. Although, every hero that talks with a gruff voice, she insists on calling Batman. I find it funny and strange, yet I can’t help but feel a bit proud of her for being such a geek. That’s my daughter.
COMIC BOOKS
Speaking of Superheroes, I was thinking of maybe buying Munchkin some Superhero comics because she likes the cartoons so much. Lucky for me, both DC and Marvel have started coming out with kids comics.
Now you maybe saying to yourself, “Hey Luis, aren’t ALL comic books for kids? DC and Marvel ONLY do kids comics”. To which I would reply, “You haven’t read any modern comic, have you?” By no means are modern comic for kids. In fact, if most comic would be given a movie rating, they would mostly be PG13 and up. Comics are full of sex and violence, and in many of them, the superheroes are about as immoral as the villains they fight. There are very few comics that I would say are “kid appropriate” and even those would be dealing with themes that would go over a little kid’s head.
DC and Marvel have come to realize that they no longer have comics that would appeal to young readers (and therefore are not getting new readers), which is the reason why they have developed a line of comics especially for them. This is great news for me, since now I have some comics I could get my kids. So I was thinking maybe I’d get her a Superfriends comic and see how it goes. Maybe I’ll take her to the comic shop next week and pick one up.
Guess I’m raising a geek.
MOVIES
(The following, is a spoiler free review of the Watchmen movie)
Alesha really wanted to go watch Watchmen last weekend, so we did. I didn’t own the Watchmen comic until a few weeks ago. I had read Watchmen in high school when a friend of mine had lent me his copy. I remembered the book, so I knew what it was all about. At the time I read it though, I didn’t really truly “get it”. The book is very deep and brings up a lot of philosophical questions about human nature and the problem of evil. It’s also one of those comics I was talking about above that are in no way meant to be read by kids. It’s a very “Adult” book.
Alesha wanted to see it because she had heard so much about the comic. Which in turn, made her bug me to go buy the comic so she could read it, which she did, after I bought it. She enjoyed the book and then got even more excited about going to see the movie. I began re-reading the comic myself but only got half way through the 200 or so pages before we went to see the movie. As of the time of this writing, I’m still making my way through the rest of it. Taking my time, in order to “soak it in”.
So what do I think about the movie? Well, I thought it was an incredibly faithful rendition of this epic comic book. I’ve read many reviews of the movie that say, they didn’t like the protagonists. They where all unlikeable. Well, that’s because the protagonist in the book where not very likable either. In fact, the protagonist in the movie where far more likable than their book counterparts. Watchmen is not a movie about good, superheroes. It’s a movie about messed up superheroes that are really screwed up in the head. Many people hate what they call the “juvenile view on humanity” the movie has. I saw one person say it was a “hippie movie”. I think it’s great that it pushes people’s buttons. That’s why the book is so interesting to begin with. I also read a review of a guy who took his son to go see it. He left the theater very upset and even told the theater owner that he should be ashamed at playing the movie. Which I think is ridiculous. The movie is rated R for a reason. Why blame the theater owner? It was the father’s responsibility to find out what the movie was about before taking his son to go see it. Especially if it’s rated R. He shouldn’t blame anyone else. I think he thought it would be okay to watch because it was a “superhero movie”. Well, wake up. Comics aren’t for kids anymore dude. Watchmen (which was written in 1985) was one of the comics that where responsible for making the comic medium grow up.
Do I agree with the world view the book and movie puts forth? Not completely, but I will say that part of the view point put forth, is no different than what Blaise Pascal puts forth in his book Pensées. Of course, Pascal‘s solution to the problems is much different and much wiser than it is in Watchmen. The solution to the problem put forth in the movie is quite evil and would be, at best, temporary. I think that perhaps most people just don’t want to be told that there is a problem at all, or at least, be reminded there is.
So what’s the movie about? It’s a murder mystery. In an alternate 1985, where Nixon is president and America won the Vietnam war (thanks to one of the superheroes in the movie), someone has killed a superhero (the Comedian) and another hero (named Rorschach) is trying to figure out why.
There is a lot to this movie and I recommend it. BUT it’s by no means perfect. If I have one real complaint about the movie it’s that the violence and sex in the movie is gratuitous. The comic was pretty violent, so I expected to see the atrocities in the book, but I didn’t expect them to be enhanced. Nor did I expect them to add more violence when there was no need to. The stuff in the book was bad enough without adding more. Also, the book had sex in it but the movie seemed to relish in making the sex scenes go on forever. Both these things where unnecessary and just plain took you out of the movie.
Oh, and one more thing…having read the book, I expected this, but if you haven’t, this might take you aback. There is a character in the book named Dr. Manhattan, who is a super being. He stopped being human a long time ago and therefore no longer feels shame, or embarrassment, nor does he feel heat or cold. This means that, whenever he’s not out in public, he’s naked and, just like in the comic, he is shown in “all his glory”. Most people I talked to at work said that the audience they saw the movie with, didn’t react at all to this, but the audience I saw the movie with, had some giggling girls/women in it and I heard a friend of mine say he heard some guys giggle in his theater.
You’ve been warned. Remember, this movie is rated R. You want to know what you’re getting into before watch the movie? Read the comic.
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I am probably the biggest Alan Moore fan there is Luis, and I agree with you. I have many issues with the movie along with the extra violence and unnecessary sex.
Like always Hollywood goes and emphasizes the WRONG things for the wrong reasons. The sex in the Watchmen Book was to further the plot! Not to titillate the reader. I don’t go to Super Hero movies for the sex. I go to see Good guys win and Bad Guys lose period. Adolescent male power fantasy. I go to escape horrors of our world where bad guys win and innocent people are not saved by Superman and a school bus full of kids falls into the bay.
Dr. Manhattan’s sexual attraction to Silk Specter is the only thing that kept him on Earth. His “MOJO” was the last vestige of his humanity to go. So when he creates multiple versions of himself so he can work on an experiment while playing hide the salami with Silk Specter at the same time it was to show he was on auto pilot and found playing with molecules as satisfying as sex.
Night Owl’s sexual problem tied into his choice of retiring Night Owl rather than to register with the Keene act. Impotent, helpless. Silk Specter is the product of a sex crime,. Like her mother before her She uses her sexuality to get what she wants like a super power. The Comedian well I don’t want to spoil but he used sex as a way of showing power. Rorschach was all messed up because of his prostitute mom and never knowing his dad. Alan Moore wanted to show that our human sexuality defines a large part of who we are because sex determines most of the choices we make whether we like to think so or not.
None of the Watchmen had “normal’ sex lives. If they did they wouldn’t need to run around in masks. The movie totally missed this and just tried to make the sex all hot which totally goes against the whole friggin’ point Alan Moore based his book on. We are supposed to be repulsed by the behavior of these nutjobs and feel sorry for them not get turned on.
and another thing!
I for one am tired of this trend in Super Hero movies with the overly Digitized slow motion “artsy” ballet fights. Gratuituous slow motion abuse is a crime that should be punishable by flogging. The beauty of murder and mayhem. WTF? Look how exquisitely the sun reflects off that severed head as it hangs in the air like that. Or ooh look at how ripped his abs are as he gets sliced open with a sword. Did you see 300? It was the single gayest thing I have ever seen! A bunch of naked guys butchering a bigger bunch of less naked guys. All choreographed like a dance. Stupid, stupid stupid.
Watchmen the book was violent, but no more violent than the crap we hear on the news every night. Moore wanted the horrific violence to reflect what happens in real life. In the Marvel or DC universes Supers rescue hostages and stop the death ray in time. In Watchmen Rorschach finds that a missing little girl has been butchered and fed to dogs. Which type of story do we see on the 10 o’clock news in real life?
Moore didn’t put that there just for shock value. When Rorschach discovers the fate of the girl it is so horrific he snaps. In order for him to do what he does at the end, this HAD to happen. He saw the world only in black and white, good or evil. Nothing gray or inbetween. Nothing could stop his mission, lest there be another little girl fed to dogs. Powerful motivation.
The movie has too much pointless sex followed by pointless violence, put there by an insecure director and clueless studio neither of which believe the audience is sophisticated enough to get the story and that the source material needs a little MOORE MOORE than what MOORE put into it.
Anyway thanks for your great post. You really got me thinking as you just read. And anything that does that to me is Aces in my book!
Excellent Blog Luis!!!
congrats on the little ones man!
Raul
http://www.studioraul.com
Thanks for the review Luis. I was debating whether or not I want to go see it. But I think I will.
Rorschach was an especially well developed as a character (in Watchmen); i hope the actor that played his role is nominated for some kind of an award (when that season comes around again)
My five year old insists she’s terrified of _Fraggle Rock_ and _Strawberry Shortcake_, but she loves watching superhero shows. A year ago, i asked her about the contradiction, and it occurred to me: one “girlie shows,” the monsters are taught to be “nice,” but, in the child’s eyes, the monster’s still a monster.
When she watches superhero shows, it comforts her to see the monsters get beat up!
Wow JC, that’s something to think about.