#watchmen

icarusignited:

TW: SLIGHT BLOOD/GORE

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Anyone like Watchmen?

What do you guys think is a normal height.

Like 1.70 m is normal for me.

But many characters I’ve encountered have that same height and people says they’re small.

Like rorschach is 5'6 and that’s considered below average.

I mean in the book it’s funny because he wears specifkc shoes to look taller but that’s a normal height, isn’t it?

Actually what people don’t understand is that Dan, Nite owl, isn’t pathetic like basically any other character.

He’s deeply weird to the point of stopping in the middle of the night, petrified about the thought of an owl getting him as if he was a mouse.

But he has an hobby and friends

Tell that to any other characters

Wow they’re all really pathetic.

You could say that Dan is the most pathetic but you would be wrong, he’s the only normal guy

I’ve read watchmen.

Mmmmh all these characters have so many problems and I like them

Fear and Moaning in Las Vegas

After the mammoth task of directing Superman and Batman in the Justice League,Army of the Dead sees writer-director Zack Snyder returning to his roots. Free of the well-known restraints he faced in superhero territory, this Netflix release feels more personal and smaller in scope. Well, small by Zack Snyder standards. Revisiting zombie lore for the first time since debut film Dawn of the Dead, this is about as down-to-earth as a zombie tiger.

Set in Las Vegas, the film’s stylish opening is reminiscent of Snyder’s Watchmen. After a military car crash results in a zombified test subject running loose, we witness a dazzling slo-mo montage that shows how the virus spreads through Sin City. When Vegas becomes overrun with zombies, a government-imposed quarantine keeps the population protected.

A heist movie that just happens to feature zombies, the plot kicks into gear when a shady casino owner (Hiroyuki Sanada) comes to former mercenary Scott Ward (Dave Bautista) with a proposition. Can Scott and his team extract £200 million from a casino vault before a nuke drops on this city of dead? Described as ‘a simple in and out’ job, this is, of course, anything but.

As Scott rallies his misfit crew, the main issue of the film becomes clear. Do we actually feel attached to any of the characters here? For the most part, the answer is no. From a tough-talking zombie killer (Omari Hardwick) to a talkative pilot (Tig Notaro), these characters have few if any distinguishing features. There are attempts at comic relief with a goofy German safecracker (Matthias Schweighöfer), but these mostly fall flat. In a film this silly, a little extra humour would have gone a long way.

This lack of connection sadly extends to the main character. Scott’s character motivations are grounded by an attempt to reconcile with his estranged daughter (Ella Purnell), whose mother he was forced to murder when she joined the ranks of the undead. However, her reason for even being involved in the mission is questionable, while the action-heavy story leaves very little chance to focus on this emotional connection.

If the human character development leaves a lot to be desired, this is probably because a lot of the attention has been lavished on their zombie counterparts. With the help of mysterious city guide Lily (Nora Arnezeder) we learn about the interesting hierarchy of the zombie kingdom, which is led by the ‘Alphas’. Unlike the slow-walking zombies of old, these zombies are intelligent and fast, carrying a palpable sense of threat right to the end. Beware – there are some truly gory deaths here.

Despite its flaws, Army of the Dead is plenty of fun. Synder has a solid grasp of his action sequences, from a tense scene with a room of slumbering zombies, to a bonkers final act full of betrayal and zombie carnage. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, and some of the decisions will have you scratching your head in disbelief – the characters don’t really seem aware of the time limit - but there is never a dull moment. 

Though it’s certainly more style than substance, Army of the Dead delivers what you’d expect from a zombie heist movie – fun, ridiculous action and not a lot of brains.

★★★

Who’s the daddy now?

In the spellbinding Moonlight, Ashton Sanders commanded the screen in the most heartbreaking act of the film, communicating a great deal of emotion with the slightest tremor in his facial expression. Unfortunately, his silently tortured performance is just about the only memorable thing about new Netflix film All Day and a Night, an underwhelming crime drama that does little to distinguish itself from other tales of boyz in the hood.

In prospect, there are a lot of reasons to have expected more here. As well as a strong cast that includes Jeffrey Wright and Watchmen’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, it’s written and directed by a co-writer of Black Panther, Joe Robert Cole, who explores a similar story about the sins of fathers, and the cyclical tragedy that this can bring to families. We follow Jahkor (Sanders); a troubled young man who we learn is serving life in prison for murder. Tracing three instrumental time lines in his life – a time structure that feels too clumsy to fully connect – the story traces the abusive upbringing that got him in his situation.

This should be a premise brimming with tense anticipation, but Cole struggles to generate much interest in what follows, largely because a lot of the material feels so familiar. Jahkor’s trials with an abusive gangbanging father (a slightly off-key performance from Jeffrey Wright) feel rote, as do the random flashes of brutal violence, and Jahkor’s futile aspirations of using rap to get out of the hood. The film also tries to fit in a romance, a gang turf war, and a story of father-son reconciliation into its two-hour running time, meaning that neither section manages to convince. Sanders’ compelling presence does a lot to hold the story together, but with it’s dour tone and plodding story, you would be better off watching Moonlight for a more rewarding exploration of black male masculinity.

All Day and a Night is about how long it feels watching this uninspiring crime drama.

★★