Watchmen Just Watchable

Joss Whedon directs Robert Downey Jr. in superhero blowout

(NEWSER) - Sure, it's an effective moneymaking scheme: release movies about individual superheroes, then one about all of them. But with Joss Whedon at the helm, The Avengers really works. What critics are saying:

• "Even if you don't particularly like comic-book adaptations, this film just might make a believer of you," writes Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times . "Whedon is the key reason why this $220 million behemoth of a movie is smartly thought out and executed with verve and precision."

But Nicolas Cage seems to get it: critics

(NEWSER) - Critics agree: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is ridiculous. But they're divided over whether the silliness of the sequel, once again starring Nicolas Cage as the devilish superhero, is funny or just bad.

• In the Merced Sun-Star , Roger Moore calls the movie "a profoundly silly mash-up of comic book and quasi-religious 'prophecy' about a motorcyclist who sold his soul to the devil." It beats the original: "This time around, Cage and everybody else on board are in on the joke," and that makes it "almost a great bad movie."

Michael Cera and original storytelling make this a winner

(NEWSER) - Critics generally love the inventive storytelling of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, a very modern romance that stars Michael Cera. It's based on a graphic novel, and it shows.

• Joe Neumaier, Daily News : "Plugged into some kind of mental electrical socket by director Edgar Wright, this is a romantic adventure for the ADD age, a pop poem for Millennials that could just as well be titled Scott Pilgrim vs. the Old Ways of Storytelling."
• Eric D. Snider, Film.com : It's "an exuberant mixture of comic books, video games, and hipster romance," tied together with "unconventional filmmaking techniques." It might be the norm in 10 years, but "for now it's almost revolutionary."

(NEWSER) - Alan Moore’s Watchmen was supposed to be unfilmable. But with the director’s cut hitting stores today, that pretty obviously wasn’t the case. Scott Thill lists some supposedly unfilmable geek bibles for Wired:

• Sandman: “It’s not film-shaped,” says creator Neil Gaiman. “What I got was, ‘Does The Sandman have a clearly defined bad guy?’ I said, ‘No it doesn’t,’ and they said, ‘Thanks for coming!’” OK, but why not, say, an HBO miniseries?

(NEWSER) - Patrick Wilson has had many brushes with fame, but it’s fairly certain his role in the hotly anticipated Watchmen will finally make walking down the street a chore, New York reports. He’s done studio films before (remember The Alamo?), won praise for his role in Little Children, even dated Scarlett Johansson, but no dice: “Most people outside the business, it’s safe to say, have no idea who I am.” More»