"Put down that wrench!"

All things considered, we're doing pretty poorly at seeing films in the cinema of late. Finally dragged myself off to see Watchmen last night, which meant the late night slot (2245) at the big Odeon in town (not my favourite cinema).

Overall, I enjoyed it, even though it wasn't the film I'd hoped it would be. elseware, you can stop your sniggering now and just say "I told you so".

The film has a number of flaws, some serious, some less so.

I don't regret seeing it, although £7.50 is rather more than I would have liked to pay for it. There is a strong element of spectacle, so it was worth seeing on a big screen. I would quite like to see it again (when I'm less tired), but that can wait until the DVD release (hopefully with The Tales from the Black Freighter and the other goodies).

Rorschach's Livejournal

Ombudsmen: Scott Kurtz parody with cameos from the funny pages

Hitler finds out that there is no giant psychic death squid

Had a good night in London yesterday with andre_powell, kentonuk, laniel, john_callaghan, kowt, meryc and royan, the occasion being the celebration of royan and redshira's impending nuptials. Food at Papageno's near Covent Garden was slightly uninspired pan-Ottoman fare; I've had better Greek/Turkish food elsewhere, and the service left something to be desired, as did the 12.5% service charge automatically added to the bill. Looking at customer reviews here, it seems that I'm not alone. That said, this didn't dampen our spirits; I certainly think that we'd have been hard-pushed to find anything better in central London on a Saturday night at short notice.

Anyway, to carry on from a conversation with JC - Mark Harrison's (not that one) collected Travellers strips from the pages of White Dwarf are available here. They're not complete, and sadly don't include the suburbia finale that we were talking about, which was the conclusion to the third story ("The Travellers in... Shadows"). However, this third story does appear in the Pirata Publications reprint that I mentioned, though the photocopy reproduction is so lousy that it's hard to make out much of the detail.

I've been looking forward to the release of V for Vendetta with some trepidation since I first heard that an adaptation was seriously in the offing (see my previous posts). ias and I went to see it last night; I'm hoping that she will also post her views on the film, because unlike myself she hasn't read the comic and has a different (and more positive) take on the film.

Without spoilers, what are my feelings on the success of the film?

Is it a bad film? No.

Is it a good adaptation? Sadly, also no. It isn't a disaster, but I wouldn't class it as a success.

Do I think that Alan Moore's condemnation of the film is unjustified? No.

In many ways, the film reminded me of the Morecambe and Wise sketch with Andre Previn; all of the right scenes, just not necessarily in the right order.

For those that are interested, Charlie Brooker has a rant on V for Vendetta in today's Grauniad, and there's a rather good V for Vendetta in 15 Minutes that's going around LJ.

A little over a year ago, I commented that I hadn't heard that the Wachowski brothers were working on an adaptation of V for Vendetta.

Yesterday, Warner Bros put out a press release stating that they're going ahead with the project. There's a poster image for people to drool over:

For what it's worth, they appear to have cast Natalie Portman as Evey, which might work.

I hadn't heard that Alan Moore was retiring from the (mainstream) comic industry.

I hadn't heard that the Wachowski brothers are to make a film of V for Vendetta.

I am deeply worried by both of the above.