Stop Frame

Sometimes excess is just that, excess. It serves no purpose whatsoever, and that’s my biggest problem with Watchmen . It presses the outer boundaries of an R rating for no reason other than to make you cringe; it doesn’t serve the story, it distracts and detracts. In a different age this film would have been rated NC-17. It’s a sad commentary that Watchmen makes A Clockwork Orange appear tame. The irony is that Watchmen ’s best character, Rorschach, would probably condemn a film like Watchmen . Nonetheless, and here’s the twist, I think A Clockwork Orange is a brilliant film, and I’m beginning to believe that Watchmen is, too. The genius lies in creating a superhero, masked vigilante world and taking it serious. If The Dark Knight illustrates the high ideals such people would have to hold, Watchmen is their dark side. It illustrates what happens when some of those “heroes” fall prey to their baser instincts, the very instincts they claim to fight. How well you appreciate this...

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a decent enough film, but the accumulating problems of the series are beginning to take their toll. I’ve never read the books, but I’ve seen all the films. The first two are near-dreadful, the third is near-brilliant, the fourth is near-meh with glimpses of brilliance, and the fifth is just meh. With the sixth film, however, it’s become clear that to really understand what’s going on, you have to have read the books. In the films, characters tend to speak in short-hand. Fans of the books will easily fill in the missing pieces; those who haven’t are left hanging. The accumulating lack of data is beginning to show. For example, why did Voldemort kill Harry’s parents? Why is he obsessed with Harry? Where’s he been lo these many years? In the books, much of this is explained in the prophecy Voldemort was after in The Order of the Phoenix . If you’ve read the books, obviously, you know this. If you haven’t...? Fans of the books know this stu...

I woke up the other day with the realization that I was one of maybe three people on Earth who hadn’t yet seen the latest Transformers film. Feeling the need to lower my IQ, I went to remedy this. There are now, somewhere, only two people who haven’t seen Michael Bay’s latest...thing. Possibly the most accurate review of the film, though laden with spoilers, may be found here . Written as a Q&A, an example of its commentary is: Can you explain Megan Fox's appeal? Yes. She looks like a porn star and has the same acting talent as one, yet for some reason she makes mainstream movies. This tonal disconnect is what's so appealing about her. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (RotF) is a loud, sprawling, loud, drawn-out, loud, colorful, loud, spiraling, loud, dizzying, loud, train wreck of a film.  And knowing that train wrecks are governed by the laws of physics, and even while appearing chaotic proceed along understandable lines, calling this film a train wre...