Often Watchmen is called one of the greatest comic books of all time, so good that it transcends comics and is an actual god-damned novel with pretty pictures attached. Fans of the award-winning comic have both clamored for and bemoaned the day it would become a feature film for 20 years, and Zach Snyder made it a reality.

As a true-blue geek, I viewed the movie with the same excitement and skepticism as most others; it’s clear that this was a task in the geek universe similar to Atlas’s burden, but it also must be palatable to a mainstream audience. It’s obvious that Snyder tried to essentially perform the splits over a gigantic fault line. If he failed in one way, he’d have vast nerd armies going medieval on his ass if he tarnished the legend; His previous directing effort of 300 might have been bad (in my own opinion), but it wasn’t nerd dogma. At the same time, he had to make something that was worth making and bring the story to life to a whole new generation.

The first task was tackling the humongous back story, and some parts of the movie did that brilliantly. The opening sequence during the credits was probably one of my favorite condensed chunks of the movie, which when paired with Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A Changin’” was a perfect fit for the time period and the longing for times past, which is a theme of the novel. (While writing this review, I’ve listened to that song at least three times.) Still, the movie is looong; it’s got 12 comics slapped into one huge trade with lots of text to cover, and it still (thankfully) skips some stuff.

The challenge of being true to the material was a bigger one, and many things were shot-for-shot lifts of the panels. I got chills when I saw Archimedes, the flying owl craft of the Nite Owl, rise out of the water next to New York City. And Rorschach, one of the most interesting characters of the book, was exactly like I imagined him to be, and he was expertly played by Jackie Earle Haley.

At the same time, while it was amazing to see some of my favorite scenes play out, I felt like the movie focused too heavily on the action of the comic book, and not the interwoven story and human drama as it played out. While everything on screen was faithful to the comic, it almost was so to a fault. First and foremost, Watchmen is not a superhero story; it uses superheroes and sci fi elements to play on the elements of human emotion, namely fear. Turning it into some dumbed-down action movie robs it of the powerful message, and while the message is still there, it’s somehow easier for the reader to let it digest when they aren’t sucked in by the flash and dazzle of the movie. There was also a lot of gratuitous blood. I may be a fan of over-blown action movies, but there is a time and a place for everything, and sometimes the subtlety of what isn’t shown is more thrilling than seeing a pool of blood ooze from beneath a bathroom door.

I don’t know how to feel about the entire movie. I wasn’t disappointed, but at the same time I feel like the cliche “the book was better” holds true in this case. It’s not because of any mangling of the story; I really feel that Snyder tried his hardest to do right by the fans — and the author, Alan Moore, who has snubbed the film anyway — but the comic simply is the best medium in which to tell that story. It’s fun, and worth a viewing, but doesn’t hold the same magic that the 20-year-old book does.

As a special note to all other fans of the book who were agonizing over it: the new ending does not suck. In fact, I really thought it added a lot to the story and kept the movie away from “goofy sci fi realm” while also avoiding spending too much time on the mysterious backstory. I may be called a blasphemious traitor, but it’s true.

Austin self-branded ‘nerdcore’ rapper Terp2It may need to find a new label for himself, because his most recent effort, ‘My Weiner Touches the Ceiling‘, is hardly nerdcore.

I’m not really sure what genre Terp’s music fits into, but after giving the album several listens, I feel almost like comedy-core could be an accurate term. Chris Trew’s background is in improv and comedy in Austin, and I feel that the music he makes is in jest, but I’m not entirely in on the joke.

It’s clear that Trew has fun with the music he makes - just take at his music videos. I can respect him for that, because isn’t that what we all want to do? At the same time, I miss the days of old when rap was still music and you couldn’t get away with just talking rhymes in front of a generic beat.

I don’t want people to think I’m a snob, but I think the addition of the label nerdcore just chaffes me the wrong way. To say that Terp is nerdcore is a stretch, because nothing about his rap is really nerdy - he may be a geek himself, but it’s hardly reflected in his music aside from occasional reference to his iPod or carrying a fannypack. Sorry, there isn’t a genre called ‘awkward-core’.

His songs themselves consist of pretty generic beats, which should never been musically discounted. But his lyrics and energy aren’t well-meshed to the music, and the songs didn’t leave me wanting more. Some songs, like the track “O”, had catchy ideas behind them, but didn’t quite make it from concept to catchy rhythm.

I should be watching Terp at a live show in Austin soon, so I’m definitely willing to give him a second chance. I hope that his on-stage persona brings something new to his rhymes.