How cool is it that Jackie Earl Haley is back in the business?

Hurm…

Could be worse. I remember when the whole world was doing Karl Childers from Slingblade.

The girlfriend and I saw that the other night, and we both thought it felt a little long.  At the end, when the daughter superhero says something to the effect of “John taught me that some things don’t have an end” we instantly turned to each other and jinxed “Is this movie one of those things?”

It was the funniest part of the movie for me.

(I still liked it though)

Yeah, it was long, but I didn’t find myself squirming. In retrospect I’d say that it could have been longer because there was some key stuff left out and there was one thing that happened at the end (don’t want to throw out a spoiler) that seemed really rushed, especially considering it took place in a 160 minutes-long film.

BTW, Chris is one of the few people I know who didn’t read the graphic novel but liked the film.  It seems like everyone who liked or loved the movie read (and revered) the novel liked the film. Those who didn’t thought it was overly long, boring and/or confusing.

the daughter superhero

You mean as opposed to the Big Blue Glowy Guy and the Smiley-Button Man?

I’m sorry, PRN, but I am detecting a certain insufficiency of fanboyishness here. Please go to the blackboard and write “Juspeczyk” 100 times.

Strange, you are correct.  I’ve never been into graphic novels, and was only vaguely familiar with Watchmen before the film.  I think that the idea of complex superheroes who wrestle with their place in society is an interesting one, and I thought the film addressed some aspects of that well.

However, because there was so much to that idea to explore that they tried to cram into a feature film, it felt drawn out.  Particularly because there was a decent amount of stuff that felt excessively drawn out (lots of teary introspection…).

But yeah, I don’t remember the names all that well.

PRN—I don’t blame you a bit. Unless you’re a comic geek, I’m sure viewing Watchmen is like screening Dr. Zhivago cold and trying to remember every unfamiliar Russian peasant name while keeping the faces of the revolutionaries straight in your head.

I’m just glad you went, and succeeded in not being buried under a mudslide of characters, metaphors, interleaving plot lines and Secret Decoder wink-nods that only the ubernerds and cosplay devotees would pick up.

I haven’t seen it myself, but I’m told it can be a bit draggy even for the folks who are silently mouthing the words on the screen, by rote.

Anyway, I was really just mocking my own fanboy-fascist tendencies. Hell, I still identify most characters in Shakespeare as “the guy in the hat” and “the guy in the other hat.” But I can tell you the real names of every Green Lantern—which is a pretty fucking humiliating thing to admit.

I have to say the guy who played Rorschach looks cooler with the mask on than without.

Without it he looks like a grown-up Chucky doll that smokes three packs a day.