From The Vault – The Week of March 30th

Watchmen: Tales of The Black Freighter Review

Bringing the comic book to life, literally…

When I heard about them doing this DVD for Watchmen I thought wow, this could be really cool. As a big fan already for the book I thought this was a great idea, but why didn’t they just include it in the movie. As we all found out that it would just be too long, it was a shame because this would have really brought together the story in a different way I think. Maybe even give the movie more of the same feel of the comic book then it already has.

Let’s start first with the animated film Tales of The Black Freighter. I personally really enjoyed it. The animation was great and wasn’t done as just some cheap put together to get this out there. With Gerard Butler doing the voice for the film it definitely brought something to the table. I had read somewhere, and I can’t remember the source, but Gerard Butler really wanted a part in the Watchmen movie, and after working with Zack Snyder on 300, he had asked if he could have one. Well Zack told Gerard that he would see what he could do, but nothing came of that. Then when Zack Snyder put forward the idea to Warner Brothers for this animated short, he automatically brought Gerard into the picture. Which I thought was great. At times as you are watching it you can hear 300 Gerard, and at others you can hear RockNRolla Gerard, but most of the time the voice in unrecognizable and that’s a good thing. The voice by the end becomes its own and really works.

Although the animated short is not shot for shot, word for word, it is pretty damn close. I really enjoyed it for what it was, but for some reason it really didn’t connect to me like the story in the Watchmen comic did. So I’m very curious to see how the extended directors cut will come out with this animated version laced through the original film.

Now I heard of the Under The Hood bonus feature and although it sounded interesting, I didn’t really get too excited about it. Well interesting enough, I actually enjoyed that more than the animated short. It was really great and kept my attention for the whole thirty something minutes. I actually felt like the Watchmen world was really alive and that this was a real documentary. It was too cool. I mean they interviewed all the actually actors from the film, which what more can you ask for. Plus characters that we got such a little glimpse of in the movie, got full parts in this documentary. It was great to hear from Bernard the news vendor, Edgar Jacob aka Moloch the Mystic, and Wally Weaver to name a few. Then even having Hollis Mason doing the whole Under The Hood thing, and Silhouette making such a big appearance really made this better than I could’ve ever imagined.

The first time I read through Watchmen I have to admit that all the extra book clips and what not at the end of each chapter really didn’t catch my interest. Don’t get me wrong, I read them, but after reading them the third or fourth time after reading the actual story three or four times, I really got into it. The opening chapter in Under The Hood is one of the best written pieces I think in the Watchmen book all together (I admit, most of the writing in that book was the best, but this was just one of many.) So to see these few chapters from Under The Hood brought to life was really great. I just enjoyed believing for thirty something minutes that all this stuff whether it be the book of the movie, could somehow be real.

For extras it includes Story Within a Story: The Books of Watchmen, which is a documentary of the making of both Tales of the Black Freighter and Under The Hood. It’s cool and definitely worth watching. Also in has the Watchmen Motion Comic Chapter One, which if you haven’t already seen it, worth checking out. Last is a First Look at Green Lantern which is very cool and worth a watch.

So as you can tell by this, and my Watchmen movie review, I love anything Watchmen. I’m not the type to nitpick and bring it down, I just really like to enjoy what we get served. If you’ve seen the movies, let me know what you think, or any questions or comments just post them. Hope you guys enjoy this as much as I did.

Quantum of Solace

Quantum of Solace… has anyone figured out what that means yet? As the first true sequel of a James Bond film, it’s the follow up of what most claim to be the best bond film ever, Casino Royale. So how do you go from the best and make it better? Well in this case, you don’t. While Casino Royale was an action movie, it was still layered with character growth and relationships that shaped a character that we all know and love today. Casino Royale really gave us the feeling that we know where James Bond is from and why he is the way he is. Quantum of Solace just lacked all of this and was just a straight action film.

Not that there’s anything wrong with action, quite the contrary. I really do love great action sequences and explosions and shoot outs just as much as the next action junkie, but the fact that Casino Royale was so damn good, Quantum of Solace just felt lacking in the story department. Marc Foster who directed it did an amazing job with what he had. Shot for shot it was great. The opening sequence of the car chase with the Aston Martin was the most edge of your seat experience I’ve had in a long time. The opening chase with Bond and the double agent during the interrogation was great. And the boat sequence was something you have to see to believe. But then where did this all go wrong? Well like I said it lacked any emotional attachment to the characters. Especially when I heard that Marc Foster was doing this I thought great, this is the guy that brought us The Kite Runner and Monsters Ball, both great character building pieces where you are able to invest your feelings into the characters. Boy was I wrong.

He did try to develop the relationship with Bond and Camille, who like Bond, is seeking revenge, but it never pans through. Bond is so disconnected after losing Vesper in the first one that he has no feelings for anyone and has become a cold hard killer. What I thought was interesting is that the trailer made it look like there was going to be so much more to it, but again, just seemed to lack.

As for the DVD itself it looked great. I really felt that the colors were bright and the transfer from the big screen was spot on. And if you have a nice sound system, turn up the base, trust me, it’s worth it. For extras they pack in a few. It has its trailers, two to be exact and a music video called Die Another Day which is worth one watch at least. Then it has a feature that is called Bond on Location which are really cool videos of where all the locations were and watching the stunts being performed is really cool. Start of Shooting is a feature that is a short documentary styled video of the cast and crew talking about their parts in making the film. Then there’s On Location which is another short docu style of the camera set ups and the difficulty behind them. Last of the Bond on Location features is Olga Kurylenko and the Boat Chase which is a cool short on how they shot just that, the boat chase. Another short video is called Director Marc Foster Featurette which is another interesting short video with some cool info. The Music Featurette is a short video on the composer David Arnold who I thought did an amazing job of working on the music. Last is something called Crew Files which is the longest of the features and offers some great outtakes.

Now after beating up the movie so much I come to this. I really did enjoy it, I know I complained about the lack of character development, but that’s the screenwriter side of me lashing out for something that bothered me. The film junkie side who loves everything movies did really love this movie. I thought overall it was a great ride that keeps you going from beginning to end with fast paced action that is a ride that I really think everyone should get on board once. If you’re a Bond fan do yourself a favor and see it. If you just want a good action movie to sit down and watch then definitely consider this. Let me know what you think.