Month: March 2009

Every time I attempt to do something new and exciting, I invariably get bitten in the arse. This is precisely why, in these heady times when I am inexplicably attempting a second degree and also thinking “perhaps I should make a go of actually writing as part of this writing gig”, my laptop has died.
It may be a short lived death; it may return, like Lazarus, and walk once more.

The fact of the matter is, until then, I’m living on borrowed computer, sneaking peeks from the iMac downstairs (are they still iMacs? I don’t know. The ridiculously large screened ones that have the built in hard drives), and breaking into the UNSW libraries and using their computers for an hour at a time.

If you never hear from me again, it is because I have been devoured by people who are utterly mystified by the internet. People who are within the 18-22 age group, and don’t know anything about this online world excepting Facebook and Youtube. It’s depressing, really. How can you never have heard of the Great Firewall of China, be unable to conceive of government censorship?
How, for that matter, can you be doing a Media degree and not notice that the government has, for the past little while, been trying to censor and strangle our own internet with all the grace of an ocean trawler indiscriminately taking in dolphins and narwhals along with the pedophiles, anorexics and paranoids?

For my own part, regret nothing. Have lived life, free from compromise… and step into the shadow now without complaint.
If reading this now, whether I am alive or dead, you will know truth. Have done best to make this legible. Believe it paints disturbing picture. Appreciate your recent support and hope world survives long enough for this to reach you, but tanks are in East Berlin, and writing is on wall.

I realised, after watching the Watchmen film today, that I had been approaching it as an adaptation rather than as a film. I really don’t know how it is as an actual film, apart from the fact that it is quite long with no indication as to its pacing if you’re unfamiliar with the story, and that it remains fairly episodic.
What do I think of it? The reviews have been mixed, I know. Unlike Wil Wheaton, I have not been waiting for Watchmen for more than twenty years. Unlike Roger Ebert, I don’t consider it a four star film.
A brief history of me and Watchmen: I bought it about eighteen months ago, and read it last month. As is the case with such things, the moment of consumption is the moment that you kick yourself for not doing it earlier. It was very good. I was even moved at points, and would describe the end of chapter eleven as one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen in comics.

The movie is brought to us by “the visionary director of 300“. I advise rereading that sentence. If it makes you shout “THIS IS SPARTA!”, carry on. If it makes your eyes roll back into your head and your mouth begins to foam, I accept no responsibility for your medical bills. I’m not sure how much of a visionary you have to be to produce near carbon copy faithful recreations of comic books, but I’m not sure that Zack Snyder is one … particularly in light of the fact that, despite the absolutely ridiculous fidelity to the source material, Watchmen differs in places both minor and key … including the much talked of yet infuriatingly vaguely whispered new ending.

SPOILER CITY FROM THIS POINT FORTH

NO, SERIOUSLY, I SPOIL THIS MOVIE SO HARD