Film 'Watchmen' is treasure trove for philosophers

[Dave Monroe]

Yeah, I've read that, though The New Yorker'd hardly be my go-to
source for this film (and Anthony Lane'd hardly be my go to guy for
much of anything, though he does fire off the occasional zingy one
liner).  I've read a LOT of reviews, I've heard from people who've
seen it (me, I had to work through a preview here, so ... but I need
the cash, so ...) and I figure, this is gonna be like Lord of the
Rings for me.  If it had to be made at this time, well, looks like the
best possible person, at least in terms of who those who finance such
things (and there's never ENOUGH money to do things properly, but
always TOO much to keep other peoples' mitts offa it, so ...) will
actually allow to do them (e.g., NOT me, and I don't want to hear any
whining about Gilliam, or Snyder, or Aronofsky, or Greenglass, they
all  would have worked with abominable screenplays), did it, did what
he could, with what he had to work with, made the inevitable mistakes
when it comes to casting (Akerman, Goode, I'm guessing), to keeping
some element and discarding others (I men, what is LoTR without the
Scouring of the Shire?  To squid or not to squid is nigh unto trivial
beside that debacle), there' ll be too much exposition up front,
instead of "naturally," along the way, though not nearly enough for
those not familiar with the source mat'l ...

Too little for the fanboys, too much for the nonfangirls et al. ...

But anybody who'll defend those execrable X-Men films, not to mention
the Hulks (Hulk NOT smash) and Fantastic Fours, or even much about the
Spider Man and/or Batman films (and that recent Superman film I
believe will ultimately be simply ignored, as it did to the later
Christoper Reeve films), or most any superhero film for that matter

I like the 60s Batman and the 70s Superman, by the way, as well as
Iron Man, but my resistance may have been worn down by that point ...

Anyway, I'll find out the hard way tonight.  See you this summer, DM
(?!), when the IV reviews start rolling in ...

On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 12:05 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2009/03/09/090309crci_cinema_lane