This was a great flick, and a good bit deeper than most critics gave it credit for. The movie earned it's right to have a murderous 12 year old by showing the heroes to be just as sadistic as the villains. I also think the film was making a statement about Americans, how we love violence, revenge and war, and how we rationalize our violence as acts of virtue. There are patriotic musical themes sprinkled throughout the flick that hint at this. If you breakdown the superhero, they are very authoritarian figures. I think this movie is a different take on some of Alan Moore's themes in Watchmen. Sorry if I'm stating the obvious.

Hit Girl was badass, and her action scenes were so well done. They'd better film a sequel before she grows up.

Having seen quite a few comic book -> movie translations in my time (Watchmen, anyone?), I think cinema has done more to destroy comics than vice versa.

>> ^campionidelmondo:

Based on a comicbook? Bleh. Nerds completely ruined cinema.

You're >> ^bla
nkfist:

"much more easily than say, getting rid of 100% of the bad cops without some kind of telepathic superpowers or magically preventing 100% of the crimes that lead to victims sueing the police"
Exactly my point about breaking a few eggs to make your big government omelet. Statists may dislike the atrocities of government, but they see it as a necessary casualty. Every day we see cops doing downright untoward and malicious things to people, even murdering them, yet the system keeps right on going. Never does a statist say, "Shit, maybe this whole police state thing isn't panning out as expected."
It's always, "there are some good cops out there too." It's senseless Stockholm Syndrome battered wife apologies.
I love Watchmen because of this very notion. Tangent alert. Nite Owl II is your typical effete modern liberal and a sensitive intellectual. He believes violence is necessary to correct the social injustices, but believe it should be just. That doesn't stop him from continuing to work with people like the Comedian and Rorschach who use violence with a great deal less restraint. In fact, he enjoys Rorschach as a partner and accepts his overzealous violence. He may not condone it himself, but he sees it as a necessary evil. Breaking a few eggs to make an omelet.


You're not even making sense. No one said it's OK to have a few bad cops. They should be fired wherever they're found. But you can't catch all of them. You can't get rid of 100% of the bad cops without getting rid of 100% of cops in general, and if you did, there'd be a hell of a lot more violence. If men were angels, there would be no need for government, but they aren't. Anarchy = prehistoric tribal warfare, mob justice, etc.

"much more easily than say, getting rid of 100% of the bad cops without some kind of telepathic superpowers or magically preventing 100% of the crimes that lead to victims sueing the police"

Exactly my point about breaking a few eggs to make your big government omelet. Statists may dislike the atrocities of government, but they see it as a necessary casualty. Every day we see cops doing downright untoward and malicious things to people, even murdering them, yet the system keeps right on going. Never does a statist say, "Shit, maybe this whole police state thing isn't panning out as expected."

It's always, "there are some good cops out there too." It's senseless Stockholm Syndrome battered wife apologies.

I love Watchmen because of this very notion. Tangent alert. Nite Owl II is your typical effete modern liberal and a sensitive intellectual. He believes violence is necessary to correct the social injustices, but believe it should be just. That doesn't stop him from continuing to work with people like the Comedian and Rorschach who use violence with a great deal less restraint. In fact, he enjoys Rorschach as a partner and accepts his overzealous violence. He may not condone it himself, but he sees it as a necessary evil. Breaking a few eggs to make an omelet.

Beat you to it, but I can't call dupe on it:

http://videosift.com/video/Sucker-Punch-Trailer-Zack-Snyder-300-Watchmen

Cheers!

In reply to this comment by bleedmegood:
have a *promote.....

I Like it.
But I liked 300, and loved Watchmen.

Anyone else this of the Watchmen opening credits?
http://videosift.com/video/Watchmen-Opening-Credits

Specifically the part where the MPs shoot the crowd of protesters right after the girl puts a flower in his gun?

Mr. Moore, will you sign my DVD of Watchmen babies??

*quality

Love your new avatar. Watchmen is great!

I was skeptical at first, but the trailer won me over by the end. The cast, cinematography and action all seem above average, so it could work.

I admit I'm getting weary of the silly, over the top, grimdark, ultra-violence of comic book movies like Sin City, 300 and Watchmen. And this seems to be very much in the same vein. But then again that's perfect for the franchise; it was senseless that the previous movies went for the adolescent friendly PG-13 rating.

To me, their complete overhaul of the story and setting is less of an issue. Everything that was interesting about original setting, with out-world and elder gods, has been driven into the ground or ruined by the games past MK2. And honestly, the MK franchise is not really a hit with the kids today, so most nostalgic fans will be in their 20s or 30s now.

Just to say that since seeing the film, I also read the comic which has been improved in many ways for the cinema.

One of those rare instances where the source material, when adapted smartly, works better at the cinema. To cite an example Watchmen was a failure imo but they knocked this one out of the park. And it's more upbeat which I liked.

Good call on watchmen... there is definitely a short conversation between the silk specters about alcoholism.

Watchmen = pass!

Things i noticed:

- Isn't it a bit sexist of her to assume that the robots in transformers weren't their equivalent of female?
- Ditto District 9, though we couldn't pronounce their names nor tell if they were conversing.
- I thought there was a bit in watchmen where older/younger silk spectre spoke about something other than a man - at least for a bit.
- The bourne supremacy has 2 named women talking to each other about old assassination missions and capturing a rogue assassin. As does the third one because it follows directly on from the second. Does this qualify as 'talking about a man'? If so, that is a very arbitrary line to be drawn.
- Isn't wall-e about robots?
- Austin Powers are films lampooning the objectifying of women/the wallflower stereotype.
- The wedding singer has the two named sisters talking about the degree of tongue acceptable at weddings. Again, i say that if you can bend the rules to say that is technically 'talking about a man', then you could equally bend them another way in this and other examples.
- ^ Such as X-men where there are many group conversations involving named women. I'm not an expert on those films so i can't say for sure if there's a clear conversation between 2 named women, but group convo's with multiple named women there are.
- Interview with a vampire has a conversation between the child vampire (who is of course a woman trapped in a child's body, this is a big point in the film) and the woman selected to be bitten to be her mother, both are named.

If you make a film based anywhere in history past 50-60 years ago, you're going to hit the culture factor. You can't just manufacture women into places where they wouldn't have been in a time where women were not considered equal. You may as well complain about racism in a film taking place when black people were used in slavery.
- Shawshank
- Pirates
- Gladiator

There are films with a very powerful and strong female protagonist battling against the odds and coming out on top. Some of these films don't even pass the test - how can this be when it's basically saying "Women can be better/stronger than men?"
- GI Jane (vs. GI Joe) - fights against all the odds and eventually shows people how wrong they were.
- Fifth element - she saves him, he saves her, she saves the planet?
- Alien 3
- Tomb Raider
- Arguably 'Wanted'

^ It almost feels like she's mocking her own theory/criticism by naming these films. "Hey look everyone, even films with a super-strong female character kicking everyone's ass and showing how women aren't wallflowers........................is perpetuating the stereotype that women are submissive wallflowers!"

It's almost like naming examples of where the theory fails to be true. Which ...renders the theory useless?

I do think there's a point to be made, but i don't think it's as bad as they want to believe it is, and i certainly don't think that this is demonstrated by the films listed. Show films like pulp fiction, se7en, etc. even fight club. Those convince me. The others make me think "I don't think these people will be happy until we make 2 versions of every film with the sexes mirror'd."

If they can't value the fifth element, alien and tomb raider as films that fight against a stereotype, when exactly are they going to be happy?

Ghostbusters shouldn't be on that list.
Neither should Dead Mans Chest.
And most likely neither should At Worlds End.
X-men and X3 don't have females with names that talk to each other? I'm Sure Storm, Rogue, and Jean gray would have something to say about that.

And then there's things that shouldn't even really be on that list. Bruno? That's a documentary style movie.
Wall-E is about robots.
The Dark Knight is based on a comic book character.. specifically one aimed at boys, Same with Watchmen. (Although, it's arguable that both silk spectres talk to each other, and therefore shouldn't be on this list.)
The original transformers? I've seen it once, but one scene I remember is Shia LeBouf's mom comes in and is talking to Meagan Fox.

This seems kind of silly to me. Different movies cater to different tastes. What's the point of this test? What's the true goal? Women still enjoy seeing them (As far as I can tell).

And as for girls starved of things to daydream about? Guess again. I have 3 sisters, one older, two younger. The one older loves seeing movies and has never complained about anything mentioned here before, and the younger watches things like Buffy, and all sorts of other movies. Never a complaint.

Different things cater to different tastes.