Luc "Sandman" G. Watchmen Worth the Wait!
Watchmen. For many years uttering that single title sent shivers down comic readers’s backs. It is considered by many as being one of if not the best comic. I rate it in my top 5, along with Sandman, The Killing Joke, V for Vendetta and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. For years Hollywood and comic book fans alike stated that Watchmen could never be made into a movie. In steps Zack Snyder, the director of another comic based movie (300), takes the Watchmen story and gives us a movie that’s as worthy of praise as the book its based on.
One of the reasons that like 300, Watchmen really works is that it very seldomly deviates from the comic that its based on. Heck, the first 20-30 minutes of the movie is a scene for scene, dialogue for dialogue copy of the first few chapters of the book. This is the closest a movie has come for capturing not only the characters from a comic book, but the story and the atmosphere as well. As far as comic book to celluloid is concerned, Watchmen does it even better than The Dark Knight or 300. As expected, some subplots were removed due to time contraints (IE: Almost all the newspaper booth stuff, and most of the Janey Slater stuff was cut back). The ending itself is mostly different, but it still conveys the same theme, atmosphere, intentions and feelings as the book. I’m not quite sure why Snyder decided to deviate so much from the original story for the ending, but it does not make it bad in any way, shape or form.
[rant]A quick sidenote: If you’re a parent, Watchmen is not Spiderman or X-Men. This movie barely missed getting an NC-17 rating in the US. This is purely an adult movie in theme and execution. In ways its even darker than The Dark Knight. If the adult nature of the story isn’t enough to keep your younglings at home, also know that there’s very graphic violence, a graphic rape scene, nudity and sexual activity, with a tiny bit of swearing tossed in. If you can’t get a babysitter, don’t go see this movie with your brats in tow. I consider myself liberal, and I would still not suggest this movie to anyone under the age of 15-16. [rant off]
I won’t get into the story of Watchmen. If you’re never read it, head on over to Wikipedia and read a very good summary as to Watchmen is all about. Although the way the movie was made, you don’t really need to know anything about Watchmen in order to enjoy it. If you have read this masterpiece, then I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
I give Watchmen a 9 out of 10Â 
The Ottawa Senators were first out of the gate today, the last day of trading for the 2008-2009 NHL season. Our hometown Sens sent the much beloved Vermette to the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for goaltender Pascal Leclaire and a 2nd round draft pick.
2001 draft by the Columbus Blue Jackets. He has been a very good goaltender for that team but unfortunately got hurt earlier this year and is out for the rest of this season. In almost 7000 minutes of play, Leclaire has a very respectable .907 save percentage and 2.82 goals against average. Assuming he comes back 100% from his ankle surgery, Leclaire could end up being the best goaltender we Ottawa fans have seen between our pipes (Hasek notwithstanding). With him comes a 2nd round pick in what experts are calling the best draft in many years. All in all, I think that Murray did a very good trade and that Ottawa came out the winner. Unfortunately we don’t get to see until next season if it is truly so.
That wasn’t the only change to the Sens lineup. Even though he has been playing down in Binghamton for the farm team, Gerber was finally picked up off waivers by the Toronto Maple Leafs. Their #1 goaltender, Toskola, requires hip and groin surgery and will be out of the lineup for the rest of the season. The Leafs, not wanting to put the pressure on the again Curtis Joseph, picked up Gerber for the remainder of the season. Since he was picked up on waivers, the Leafs will only have to pay 1/2 of his remaining 800k salary. Not a bad deal for a team that absolutely required a goaltender. Gerber is a class act and I’m glad that he gets the chance to play in the NHL again, even if it is for the greatly hated Leafs.
For the last few years, a number of people have joined a photo project or challenge called the 365 Project or 365 Challenge. For this project, you take one picture every year and post it to a blog dedicated to that project.
Finally, a world war movie that shows the Canadian point of view. A powerful film about the sacrifice made by Canadian soldiers during World War I. Written by and starring Paul Gross (of Due South fame), who based the story on war stories shared by his grandfather who fought at Passchendaele.
This 5th season of Lost is starting off on the right foot. The 3rd and 4th season sometimes seemed to lack direction but the ship has been steered back on course. Inhabitants of the island are now travelling back and forth through time, having an adverse effect on some of the survivors. Some members of the Oceanic Six realize that they have to find a way back to the island. That their destiny is to be on the island and not back with regular civilisation.
Craig Hartsburgh was fired from the head coach position of the Ottawa Senators earlier this week after a big loss against the Washington Capitals. He was replaced by Cory Clouston, the head coach of the Sens’ farm team in Binghamton. Though I feel the problems are a lot deeper than the coaching, it was obvious that Hartsburgh could not find a way to inspire his players. He was a good coach, just not for this team at this time. His defensive minded system did not gel with the offensively-built Senators. I’m reserving judgement on Clouston until he’s had 5-6 games under his belt, but so far the team is playing with a lot more passion and heart. Lets just hope they keep it up.
A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Blizzard offering me a free 10 day trial of the World of Warcraft expansion Wrath of the Lich King. This offer couldn’t have come at a better time. I was already itching to try it, and having given up smoking I wanted to do something to occupy my time. It was great to catch up with people in the game that I had last spoken to over a year ago when I quit playing.
I’m on day 14 of quitting smoking. The cravings still come and go, but less often and with less intensity. Every day I’m breaking more habits where I smoked in certain situations. It hasn’t been easy, but at this point I figure that there’s no point to have suffered for these 2 weeks and take up smoking again.
Last week the OC Transpo strike that’s paralyzed the city since early December finally came to an end. Both the city and the union agreed to go to binding arbitration. Funny how they both agree to that just as the Federal government was ready to introduce a back to work bill and just before Obama’s visit to our capital. By going to arbitration both sides save face and can state that they didn’t give in to their demands.