Watchmen: Yes. Solas: Wait.

I liked The Watchmen a great deal. I can see plenty of legitimate reasons for panning it--Silk Spectre is weak, the stylized look can get old, sections are definitely preachy--but I watched every moment of it intently and came away happy to have seen it. I'll buy the DVD and watch the extra stuff as well, though I expect to conclude that they were right to trim the film to its current already long running time.

The central problem with this movie for many folks, I suspect, is that it is not a typical superhero offering. It's something quite different, far more satire and social commentary (as the original author, Alan Moore, is prone to write--and write well) than action film. It's also more brutal than many will expect.

If you're at all interested in the movie, and by now you've had trouble avoiding the hype and so have had a chance to have your mental taste buds whetted, go see it. As long as you're not expecting an early spring action flick, I think you'll be glad you went.

By contrast, our dinner before the movie was at a locally hyped newish place, Solas, that fell far short of its press. The menu looked delicious, and a few dishes, notably the truffled frites, were quite good, but most of the time the kitchen failed to deliver on the menu's promise. A prime example was the foie, which arrived on a very pretty plate with two pieces of foie, one thin and one thick, stacked on small rectangles of brioche toast. That's a classic presentation and a dish that is not simple to prepare but that a good kitchen should be able to handle easily. I started with the thin piece. The brioche toast was a bit gummy, but tolerable, and the thin piece of foie was very good. Call it a B+. The thick piece, however, was cold in the inside; that's an F. Almost certainly the chef who prepared the dish put both the thin and the thick pieces in one pan and took them out at the same time, an error you might make at home but one a pro should know to avoid.

If you live here and you've been pondering Solas, wait, and while you're waiting enjoy a meal at The Mint, where Executive Chef's Eric Foster's kitchen has, at least in my experience, always delivered.