Late-Breaking Reviews
[UPDATED BELOW]
A couple of days ago I highlighted some of the poorer notices Watchman was starting to get. In all fairness, now that we've reached Friday and seen the various newspaper reviews that have been released, I should update the figures. Metacritic has boosted its number of reviews from seven up to 39, and its rating is up to 57 from 34 the other day. Roger Ebert is a key reviewer who loved it and added his four-star rating into the mix (which translates to 100 at Metacritic). He even says he's going to see it again, but in IMAX this time. Rotten Tomatoes, which has upped their number of reviews from 38 on Tuesday to 198 today, has dropped a bit from the 76 I reported earlier--it's now at 65, which still keeps it above the more elite Metacritic. The elite Top Critics section of the site, however, only gives it a 43.
I talked to someone earlier tonight who was standing in line for a showing of the movie, and I've got another friend who's got his ticket lined up for an IMAX showing on Sunday. If you've seen it, feel free to drop your thoughts on the film into the comments thread.
UPDATE--I mentioned above that Roger Ebert intended to see it a second time in IMAX. Now he has, and he likes the movie even better. Here are his comments at some length.
posted by Doug @ 12:31 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I went to see it last night, and quite enjoyed it. Seeing the low scores (I didn't read the reviews) didn't really affect my opinion much, except for slightly lowering my expectations. I enjoyed the story as much as I did when I read it a couple of years ago, and didn't mind the almost 3 hours it took to tell it. I also liked the high contrast colors, which was different enough from real-life to blend well with the graphics and animation making the total world more believable somehow. (Contrast that with a movie like Roger Rabbit, which does not try to blend the real people and the animation.)
I didn't enjoy the graphic violence, which (surprise, surprise) affected me much more than the 2-D drawings did. But I tend not to like extremely violent scenes anyway (in contrast to those in the audience who were laughing and shouting out approving oohs and aahs), and the darkening of the soul they bring. But overall, the story, with its altering of recent history and the paranoid ideas that resonate with me, done in a contrasty, comic-bookish, animated, real-life way sucked me in.
The worst part of the evening was realizing that the 3-year old voice that occasionally called out was not part of the movie, but was an actual 3-year old sitting down front with her mom. I don't she ever went to sleep, even though we didn't get out there until 12:45 AM.
Post a Comment
<< Home