Watchmen - Quick Movie Review (no spoiler alert)

Ok. We have nothing more to do tomorrow than to get our haircut and go to a electronics liquidation extravaganza ($79 HP laptops!!) at the Meadowland Expo Center. We decided, while Matt's still sick and because we're going out to San Francisco next week, to go ahead and see the midnight screening of Watchmen. I know a few friends will be quite pissed at us, but who in their right mind wants to wait three more weeks to see this? Now you're all free to see it, so that when we get back, we can all discuss it. Plus, the Thursday midnight screening is a distinct pleasure enjoyed by the unemployed; be happy you have jobs!

OMG. OMG. OMG. It's SUPERB! The special effects are really well done. The storyline - almost verbatim - matches the graphic novel, which is a really good thing - I didn't really want too much of the dialogue or background stuff to be glossed over.

Ok. I have to say it, the blue cock is pretty interesting - well-endowed - but you get over it. That is, of course, unless you're a middle-aged adolescent virgin, who surrounded us and kept giggling whenever it was on screen. It became part of the scenery, even though, inwardly I kept thinking, "Oh. Ok. There it is. That's nice."

Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Comedian) is HOT. Not as hot as the character is depicted and drawn in the graphic novel, but J.D. Morgan is handsome, all man, and hot as he naturally is. Thing is, if you haven't read the graphic novel, be prepared for some pretty graphic scenes.

Patrick Wilson does an excellent job (and has a hot ass and thighs to boot!). As you can tell, there is quite a bit of nudity in the film. There's also a lot more blood and gore than in the novel.

Everyone is depicted as flawed as they are in the novel and the period piece aspect (in an alternate universe) is done really well. With one prime exception: Nixon. Makeup and actor were horrible. The makeup made good speech very difficult for the actor, and the actor didn't seem to care about overcoming the impediments.

The ending diverges from the original, which is a good thing (and was well-advertised). They make the ending very "realistic" in graphic novel terms. Suffice it to say, it beats the 30-foot squid (for those, who read the novel).

NOTE: For those Iron Man fans out there, there's no need to wait till the end to see a coming attraction. Nothing was there - we stayed till the end to save you the time.

Go see this movie! It's well worth the $10.75 and 3 hours to be entertained.

New Camera!

Today, a buddy of mine and I met for lunch at The Dish in Chelsea. I toted along my new Nikon D40 that some of you are familiar with already (from previous posts or replies). mondragon and I exchanged a couple of things today about his expired film work, developing them, and so forth. He does EXCELLENT work and I'm always impressed and in awe of the things he puts out. Great eye and composition.

Here is my first day breaking in my new camera that I bought from my partner's brother-in-law for a wonderful price. I've painstakingly picked out initially two really good lenses for it over the last month or so, along with a mounted flash (more for indoor and portrait shots) and two filters. I discovered today that I have to be more selective with the filters, even though they happily lend themselves to multiple mounting. One gets a black blur in the corners of the photos because the lens "expects" perhaps only one filter. Otherwise, I will expect to do some cropping and have to plan out the extra space needed to crop out the blurs.

I was working on field depth as well as the automatic settings that highlight either greater aperture or greater shutter speed. The photos with motion blurs are with a extended aperture, and the pictures with deep shadows are with quicker shutter speeds. All today were taking with the 18-55mm lens including both a UV and polarizing filter.

#1 - Joyce Theater Marquis (done with the Automatic everything setting)


#2 - Uptown Shot of 8th Ave from Chelsea (higlighted shutter speed - deeper shadow)


#3 - Uptown Shot of 8th Ave from Chelsea - Taxis in motion (higlighted aperture - greater blurs)


These are just a few. I'll post more tomorrow after I've looked at them a little more. There's one below that shows the profound corner blurs that I was mentioning due to the filters (I believe). I'm going to remove one of them to see if it makes a difference, and it really should. I will have to be more judicious with their use over time.

#4 - 6th Ave Library (served as background in The Fisher King) - Auto Setting - stark blur


All in all in was a good test day.

Thanks, Captain Obvious!

Finally!!


Here it is.


The answer to the question we


have all been heading and asking


for sooooo many years!!



And the answer is:



YES!!





(I apologize unreservedly for this joke, but it made me giggle in a lethargic state even, so hopefully, it'll brighten your Friday, too! Oh, and if perchance you don't know the question, please let me know...)