2009 Review #29: Watchmen

Watchmen

Rated R

(Graphic violence, language, sexuality and some nudity)

2 hours 35 minutes

Storyline:

In an alternate 1985 where former superheroes exist, the murder of a colleague sends active vigilante Rorschach into his own sprawling investigation, uncovering something that could completely change the course of history as we know it.

Starring:

Billy Crudup

Jackie Earle Haley

Malin Akerman

Matthew Goode

Patrick Wilson

Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Critics Grade:

C+

My Grade:

B

OK it took me quite some time to watch this movie, I'll admit that. I honestly never had that much of an interest in seeing it when all the hype came around for this flick. Usually I enjoy a good action movie and I find superhero movies pretty darn entertaining, but there was something about this movie that never peaked my full interest. Well I finally caved in and rented it on Netflix to check it out. I have to say I really was a bit surprised by what I saw...I wasn't blown away or anything, but I found it to be entertaining enough.

The movie is visually stunning! I mean this is one of the coolest damn looking movies I've seen in a while. It used a lot of the same techniques that 300 tried to use, but I think Watchmen executed the visual stunt with more awesomeness. The slow down camera effect was actually pretty sweet in this movie whereas in 300 it seemed a little silly. That and the special effects were just amazing to look at. Everything from Dr. Manhattan to the numerous things going kaboom, I thought this special effects team did a freaking great job! This is by all means a visual effects movie, but it was never to distracting from the overall story. At times it did seem to much, but never long enough for me to really care. I liked the mask work for Rorschach...that was pretty interesting...even though they never explained how that actually works.

To go along with that, the camera work was phenomenal. I love it when a film uses brilliant cinematography, because it adds so much to how good a movie is (and a lot of people don't actually realize that). The camera work here truly captured this fictional 1985 world with such beauty and also some real grittiness. I feel like whenever a film noir type movie comes around, we usually get solid cinematography from it, and this movie is part noir. Zach Snyder has an excellent talent for directing a film to make it look the best it can be, and he definitely showcased it here. He also chose really cool music to tie into the film and a lot of it made it pretty exciting. I'm also a sucker for good use of music (soundtrack or scoring).

Watchmen had a fairly large cast, with a lot of recognizable faces (well...behind those masks of course). Honestly I was very surprised by how good the performances really were. Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley (Little Children, upcoming Nightmare on Elm Street remake) was my personal favorite. I kind of liked how his voice in the film was just about identical to Christian Bales Batman (in those films it was annoying) but Haley's version was great. It really brought this character to life and he did a brilliant job portraying him. Billy Crudup (Almost Famous) has always been a reliable actor in his so far short career. I don't know if he actually played Dr. Manhattan or just did his voice...but he did a solid job with it I thought. The rest of the cast were all very good in my opinion. Not Oscar worthy by any means, but they carried the film rather well.

I was able to follow the storyline for the most part, and I liked what I was able to get. I like these superhero movies that have these cool crime storylines and not just stopping burglars. There was a serious story to the film and I liked it for the most part. What I didn't like, and I knock this movie down a lot for this, was that you can tell it was more appealing to fans of the graphic novel. The story had a ton going on, and it started to get a tad confusing towards the middle. The ending also kind of lost me a little. I feel like we had a film made that was pretty damn loyal to the graphic novel. That's awesome for the fans of that, but for people like me...you tend to get lost in the mix. It got jumbled at parts and I didn't understand a good chunk of this movie. I don't like that. You have to make a movie that will appeal to everyone who goes to see it. The new Batman series has done an excellent job with this. But overall, the story was pretty easy to follow. There was definitely some good writing here.

There is something I'd like to clear up. There was a lot of talk and negatively surrounding Dr. Manhattan. People made comments like "Yeah if you like to look at a bunch of blue penis you will love this movie". There was a whole hooplah of people reacting to the fact that Dr. Manhattan was naked the whole movie. Yes, he certainly was, I'm not denying that. But the stuff about seeing his genitalia "the whole movie" is a HUGE over reaction! To be honest...I didn't even notice (get all your gay jokes out now). In order to really see his genitalia...you have to actually deliberately look down to see it. Most of the camera shots of this are far enough way that it's not even THAT noticeable. This is a rated R movie not NC-17. And he was all blue so everything faded in. The people who joked about it and complained about it...well...those are the people who purposely sought it out on screen. The character is maybe on screen for a total of 35 minutes of this movie and it's a 2 hour 35 minute film. Yeah...people totally over reacted to that aspect. You all looked for it when his character was there...you know you did. And you honestly complain about it because YOU deliberately looked for it.

But yeah, overall this is a pretty good film and that surprised me. It wasn't perfect, just because it had a lot of elements that appeal only to the fans of the graphic novel. There is some sweet action scenes, some pretty awesome fight sequences, GREAT visuals, solid performances. Prepare for a 2 1/2 hour chunk of your day to go missing though. This movie does drag at times, and it feels like a long movie. There are some super long movies that are so good and so well paced that it doesn't feel like its running time (Inglorious Basterds is a good example). This movie is also pretty violent and gets pretty bloody at times so don't let your kids see it. And yes, there is penis on screen...althought not that noticeable. So really don't let your kids see it. Ha!

Check out Watchmen if you have some free time and haven't seen it yet...it was an alright movie!