An introduction to the world of Hip. Lessons to follow.

Artist: Del Close & John Brent
Title: Introduction
Album: How To Speak Hip - The Do It Yourself Psychoanalysis Kit

So at least one of my predictions was true.

I had previously predicted that BSG would end either with (highlight to read spoilers) the entire fleet getting destroyed, or it would set up the spin-off in which Sam Galactica makes the entire galaxy his pyramid court.

Of course, I had also at one point declared that everyone but Ellen was a Cylon.

From http://www.pinkcoyote.net/creativegrooming.html

And I had always been a bit bothered by folks who put clothes on their pets. But this? This is entirely disturbing.

Yet quite impressive.

Saw it, dug it. I was entirely ready to have the thing be tolerable, so perhaps my expectations were low, but the execution was pretty good.

My primary concern was that it would not justify the transition to screen. Moore and Gibbons made the comic to be a comic, not to be adapted into something else (unlike, say, Frank Miller who has a fairly cinematic style). There were many elements that were made stronger because of comic form (the rigid 9-panel grid, the symmetrical issue, the amount of background detail and cohesiveness).

Pretty early in the film, Snyder proved that there was a justification for the medium switch (During the audience's alternate history lesson, the tableaus were great).

Really, my biggest problem with it as that I kept analyzing it rather than just *watching* it. I wanted to be taking notes through portions of it.

Warning: Thar be spoilers ahead. Arr. (for both the movie and the comic)

Keeping in mind it's been about 15 years since I read it:

I didn't like that the group were (semi)formally referred to as The Watchmen. It was meant to be a reference to something else (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quis_custodiet_ipsos_custodes?) rather than the name of an alternate world's Justice League.

Wasn't it implied pretty strongly that the Comedian did not fight back? Considering that he knew who was coming after him, he had resigned himself to his fate.

As far as the "aliens" go... I have very little problem with that being dropped altogether. The comic audience doesn't require much prompting to accept that a comic-book general public would accept an alien invasion. The general movie-going audience is already being asked to accept a dude who can manipulate time and matter, and who is effectively beyond his own humanity. No reason to push it; makes the movie more generally accessible.

However, with the stressing early on that Doc M is all-kinds-of-American...he doesn't seem to be an outside force, pretty much undermining Ozymandias' premise.

Speaking of whom, did he seem a bit sinister too early on? My perspective may have been skewed some, but it almost immediately felt like he was up to something.

Really, that all seems a bit nitpicky. I enjoyed it quite a bit - and not just for the fan-service bits (Silk Spectre II targeting herself through Nite Owl's goggles and having the readout say "Laurie Juspeczyk" for a quick moment was a nice touch).

It managed to be brutal and uncomfortable, and very human.

The casting was great. The one I was most concerned with was Laurie (Malin Ackerman), having only seen the publicity stills (though I am told that she was in 27 Dresses, and I recently discovered that she had a fairly memorable part in the first Harold and Kumar). But she was good for the role.

Most of the buzz regarding performance seems to be for Jackie Earle Haley's Rorshcach, and rightly so. Though I'd always had his voice being more distant and unemotional (similarly, Dr. Manhattan but for *completely* different reasons), his 'unhinged' was pretty, um, unhinged.