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Welcome to this Watchmen special edition of "Mike's Place For Words". It's so special, it has its own graphic. That's not the correct font, but close enough. In this one I'll bring you some Watchmen-related artwork and videos, a review of the downloadable Watchmen: The End is Nigh video game, and a review of the much-anticipated film. First, my own history with Watchmen.

I'm sure you've learned the history of the graphic novel by now from all of the coverage you see on TV. I bought the graphic novel when they first announced that Zach Snyder will be directing the movie. Since Sin City and 300 are two of my favorite movies, both based on graphic novels, I decided this time I would read the material before I see the movie. This was an amazing read and I highly recommend it. I've read it twice to get most of the information that I missed the first time, and I'm also watching the Watchmen motion comics available on iTunes, Xbox Live and now DVD, also highly recommend. Rorschach and The Comedian are my favorites from the graphic novel. I'm planning on going to Wizard World Philly dressed as The Comedian. My brother is helping me make the outfit, I've purchased a smiley face button, and I'm now growing out my mustache.

Watchmen Art and Videos

Since it's my special Watchmen MPFW, I want to show off some Watchmen-related artwork and videos. First, here is one of my school assignments. I made a composition using some of the characters of the Watchmen film.

Next, the teaser poster for the Watchmen film illustrated by Dave Gibbons.

This was from The Simpsons which I felt like sharing here.

Last, but not least for the artwork, here are some of the Peanuts characters as the Watchmen characters.

For the videos, I haven't found out yet how to directly show YouTube videos, so I'll just hook you up with some linkage.

Teaser Trailer - The debut trailer shown before The Dark Knight, making me even more anxious to see this movie. The Smashing Pumpkins song is perfect for this trailer. There is also a cartoon spoof of this trailer that is pretty funny.

Theatrical Trailer - The first theatrical trailer showing off even more of the movie. Lots of Rorschach dialogue which is great. If somebody can find me a good quality picture of that group photo (with Comedian, Rorschach, Dr. Manhattan, etc.), I'll love you forever.

LittleBig Watchmen - The Watchmen trailer recreated in LittleBigPlanet. Good stuff. Thanks to hh2news for this.

Saturday Morning Watchmen - HILARIOUS! Watchmen if it was a Saturday morning cartoon. Thanks to both Mike Awesome and Sir Third Films for this find.

Watchmen: The End is Nigh review

Even though this game cost 1600 Microsoft points ($20, the second ever XBLA game to be worth that much), I decided to download the game. This game can be summed up in one word - repetitive. I'll get to that in a minute. It is a prequel to the graphic novel/movie. You can play as either Rorschach or Nite Owl II. I chose Rorschach because he rules.

The graphics and animations in this game are amazing. Looks like it could be sold as a retail game. The framerate is also good, but it chugs from time to time. I had a major bug twice when playing this. I needed Nite Owl to open a door for me, but he was stuck behind and wasn't able to move.

I like how the cutscenes are done in the graphic novel style, but it would've been even better if Dave Gibbons did the illustrations. Because the game is very dark sometimes, you can barely tell where you are going or who you are fighting.

The gameplay is pretty simple, yet repetitive, like I said. You fight some guys, move on, fight some more guys, move on, fight more guys, open a door, fight more guys. The combat is the same thing over and over again. If you beat up the guy enough, a button will show up over his head, like in God of War. Unlike God of War, you don't have to push certain buttons to give an enemy a finishing move.

I wouldn't recommend this game since it is very short and not much replay value unless you're going for all the achievements. The price is also very high at $20 and it is a 1.35GB file. Watchmen fans might like it, but other than that, probably not.

Watchmen review

Going into this, I knew they weren't going to fit the entire graphic novel into this film. If they did, it would've been 6 hours, and that's not including the articles between chapters. I felt that they chose the right stuff to keep in the movie. Now this isn't a shot-for-shot remake. Most of the scenes are different and most of the dialogue is changed. I actually liked some of the changes which I'll mention in the spoilers section. The only thing that wasn't translated well was most of the symbolism found in the graphic novel didn't appear in the film. With the opening credits, it gives a little background that might help out people that have never read the graphic novel.

The acting in this movie is very good. The actors from this are unknown to me, so going into this, I've only known Malin Akerman (Silk Spectre II) from a small role in Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, and Jackie Earle Hayley (Rorschach) from a small, comedic role in Semi-Pro. Jackie Earle Hayley and Jeffrey Dean Morgan were great as Rorschach and The Comedian, respectively, and I'm glad since those were my two favorties from the novel. I never cared for Nite Owl II in the graphic novel, but Patrick Wilson's acting made me like that character. Since Zach Snyder directed this film, this movie feels like 300 sometimes with all of the violence, sex and slow-motion fight scenes. All of the special effects are well done.

I loved this movie and I recommend it. Whether you have read the graphic novel or not, check it out. Props to Zach Snyder for pulling off what many people thought would be impossible, turning the graphic novel into a film.

***Spoilers***

The ending is different from the graphic novel. Instead of the squid monster being teleported to New York City, it is a explosion caused by Dr. Manhattan's powers. I never got the point of the squid monster anyway. The end result is still peace between USA and the Soviet Union. Other changes that I liked better than the graphic novel was Dr. Manhattan going right to Mars after the TV interview, and Nite Owl not knowing Rorscach's identity until the end.

***End of spoilers***

Before I close out this awesome blog, I would like to thank the jerks at MySpace for disabling my links to this blog. This is something I've only noticed the other day. Apparently, it was disabled for being spam, somebody almost getting phished, or giving out viruses; none of which I have done on this site. When reached for a comment about the disabled link, MySpace replied, "That means the link was very naughty, and, much like head lice, had to be eliminated before it spread." So let's all give MySpace a big "EFF YOU!" and I'm going to try my best to still post bulletins about new blogs. I've thought about deleting my page on MySpace since I have Facebook which is 100 times better, but I still have friends on MySpace who haven't made the switch. For now, my own MySpace page will stay up.

Well that was fun. Number 36 might be coming in the middle of the month. Number 37 (or 36 if I don't do between now and the end of the month) will be the KING OF TRIOS 2009 SPECIAL!