blue with anticipation

So the numbers are coming in about the movie and I sorta hoped for better. What is mostly mind-blowing is the discrepancy in the numbers between Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.


I don't usually associate with Metacritic. Maybe it always grades down. 15 points may not be much of a difference, but when J.R. told me a couple of days ago that the reviews were pretty rough going in the reports were 75 on Rotten Tomatoes and 30 on Metacritic. 30.

That's not too hard to believe considering that Metacritic highlighted the review of esteemed Anthony Lane of The New Yorker. I didn't read the review in its entirety (fear of spoilers -- and yeah, I know I read the graphic novel three times -- I still haven't seen the screen interpretation of said graphic novel), but here's how it ends:

I'm not even sure where to start with this. It's not like Watchmen was ever a comic strip. It was, I suppose, a comic book -- but even the highest educated snob in the nation ought to know that 90% of comic books aren't actually comedy. Not that I should compare Watchmen to Shakespeare or anything, but can you really justify hating Hamlet if you say "Where did the comedy go?" as the play finishes?

Perhaps getting in the right frame of mind helps. Joe disliked the book. The first thing he said to me was "there was not one redeeming character in the whole thing." For the most part I agree, but where he found annoyance, I found pleasure. Perhaps I'm morose, melancholy and morbid; but I've always gotten a bigger kick out of the antagonism in the arts and entertainment I subject myself to. I take more out of peoples' failures than successes. Maybe that's why The Old Testament is so wicked fun. Negative conditioning works better for me.


So a few years ago I read a story where the superheroes are failures. I can see why anyone would have a hard time enjoying that. The trick of course, is to distinguish what the message is. Is the message that superheroes are dead and therefore heroism is dead and the world is stuck in relentless entropy? It may be easy to think. In my own warped way I find stories such as these incredibly optimistic. The world may very well have no one to depend on, so that's where we come in. The world very well may have ended 30 minutes ago. Is it time to give up now? For most people -- for most heroes -- it would be. Watchmen spells it out. But is it right? Nope. The answer isn't given, but the question is asked... and answered rhetorically.

So sorry Anthony Lane. I love comedies and I love happy endings, but they have little value without tragedy.


My hope for the movie has picked up a little. Since I grabbed the Metacritic image several hours ago the critical praise has shot up to like 54. This week marks my first association with Metacritic and I'm not sure I'll continue. Among the new critics coming in is of course is Roger Ebert's high praise. The guy tends to go all over the place though -- especially with superhero movies. One reason I like reading his stuff is because he personalizes his experience a lot more than most.

Also, Maxim finally broke the three-time streak of people I gave my copy of Watchmen to who hated it.

So now it's a party. About 20 of my friends are going and my birthday celebration that started last week, comes to a close in about 40 hours. Even Joe is excited. This can only mean one thing: I'll hate the movie.

David Edelstein from New York Magazine makes a much better point.

Way too many people complain when movies diverge from the source material. I have the opposite complaint. If there's no difference between book and movie, what's the point of the movie? Where's the new life? Are we creating or are we Xeroxing? Anyway, good point David.

*sigh* I'll be doing the same thing when Ender's Game finally comes out. In the meantime...