WATCHMEN
Image courtesy of Warner Brother Pictures
I started off the movie year with the first of the Midnight Movies by seeing the highly anticipated film adaptation of Alan Moore’s popular comic book series, Watchmen. First of all, I went in blind, not having read any of the comics; so, I didn’t really have any expectations for the movie to live up to. Was that a good thing? I don’t know. I’m still trying to figure that one out. Maybe it’s my lack of comic book prowess. Maybe the end of my geek status is at hand. Or, maybe it’s just my age showing. But, whatever the case may be, I was not very impressed with this film. The story itself is interesting because it takes place in what seems like Marty McFly’s alternative version of 1985: tensions with Russia haven’t subsided, Nixon is still in office, and America won the Vietnam War. Superheroes (i.e. “Masks”) have also been incorporated into everyday society. Well, most of them anyway. There are still a few vigilantes running around, namely Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley – AKA Kelly from the original The Bad News Bears) who learns that someone is intent on killing the Masks after finding the corpse of The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Of course, while Rorschach and the rest of the vigilante Masks run around trying to prevent Armageddon while looking for whoever’s offing their buddies, the film takes several detours into their psyches. One 2^nd generation Mask, Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman), has relationship issues with Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) who almost became inhuman after an accident turned him blue…ALL of him (if you know what I mean). Another, the retired Night Owl II (Patrick Wilson), spends most of his time swapping stories with the original Night Owl (Stephen McHattie). There’s also Ozymandias (Matthew Goode), the lone Mask working with Dr. Manhattan to solve Earth’s problems…or, so it seems. (For the record, all the Watchmen purists who can’t admit there are more than just a few coincidental similarities between Night Owl and Batman are on crack.) Now, before you rush out to take little Johnny or little Susie to see Watchmen, you need to remember the film is rated R for a reason – nudity and graphic violence (a la Tarantino). As for the special effects, they weren’t overtly fake, but they weren’t very mind-blowing either when compared to director Zack Snyder’s last film (300). In any case, they definitely helped the graphic novel leap off the pages and come to life on the silver screen. Another issue to take into consideration is the film’s 3 hour length. I literally sat down at midnight and left at 3am, thanks to all the 60s flashbacks and overly drawn out mood-setting scenes that could have (i.e. should have) been deleted. More often than not, it seemed like Snyder was trying too hard to encompass every single aspect of Moore’s 12 issue comic book series into one movie. It was slow in parts and had a couple of funny one-liners but not enough to carry the film through the rest of the elongated backstory. Overall, I’m glad I saw Watchmen even if I didn’t quite understand everything that was going on in the film. The more I discuss the film with others, the more sense it makes. Yet, no matter how much of it I eventually come to understand, the fact remains that the film really isn’t put together all that well. If you feel you want a more in depth or true fan review, go online and see what the true geeks are saying before you rush out to see Watchmen. They’ll probably give you more insight than you ever wanted. © Goose 3/6/2009
Run Time:	1 hour, 43 minutes
Release Date:	March 6, 2009 (wide)
MPAA Rating:	R (strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity, & language)
Distributor:	Warner Brothers Pictures