Now, that doesn't mean it was worth the hype. However I acknowledge that this movie did need hype to be seen by a general audience. A general audience that won't appreciate the opening credits, nor the finer details that went into bringing the book alive. An audience that will see this group of disfunctional superheroes as generic and will be unremorseful towards them. I'm writing this "review" as spoil free as I can, so it will have general synopsis and I will discuss NOTHING of the plot. Let me get the things I didn't like out of the way first.
This movie had a heavy weight to carry. How do you translate a Graphic Novel that deals with so many (minor) details into a Movie? I guess I get what Alan Moore said about not being able to make WATCHMEN a movie. You really can't, and here's why: The general overall story of WATCHMEN is stale and won't connect with the audience. No longer is the reality in the WATCHMEN a reality we are faced with. Now I can see why Moore liked Hayder's version better, if only because it would do what the original did for it's timeline. We're looking backwards at WATCHMEN, not forwards, or presently, as the original book intended. You might ask "then how does the book hold up and the movie does not, in this case?" Simple: The book isn't just about the general plot the movie exploits. It gives so many finer details to "distract" you from the basic formula type storyline. These details are important and they really did try to fit in as much as they could without making this an "all-nighter" of a movie. I do appreciate that, but even taking out something small will affect how an audience, that has never read the book, looks at the movie. Some will see Nite Owl as a parody of Batman, not inspired by (there is a difference). This goes for pretty much all the characters. It feels like they bum rushed the origin stories. Stories that are very important, because we really don't know these characters going in. These are nobodies, to the general public. So with that in mind, had I not read the book, I wouldn't care about them so much. The scenes in the movie that mean the most meant the most only because I knew what the character had gone through, but I knew this because of the way the book portrayed the character. Bottomline, this movie isn't about replacing the book, nor replicating it or even being a tribute to the book. It's merely the "Trailer" for the book. You see this, and you will have to read the book, if you don't want to feel like it was an over-hyped going nowhere "franchise".
That's one other problem I have. What do you do with a movie like WATCHMEN? It's a one hit movie. All this work, developing the characters in the movie, and it all seems to come to an abrupt end. The audience will feel cheated. It's not like in the book, for the same reasons I stated above. I believe they should cut this up, Kill Bill style, and explored the finer points of the book. Sure, it'd be long, but that's a "franchise". That would be a continous money maker, if done. But then again, and like I said, it being one movie, with one tale and that's it (as it stands, it better be it), will make people want to care even less about these people. The problem with Superhero or comic book movies is that they are a running joke. They aren't "romantic". They are "childish". That's how people go into this movie, to be entertained and have the kid in them awoken. That's not the mindset the original book was written with. i've heard people say the book was their "passage to adulthood". So, if this a "serious" book, and this is supposed to be a "serious" movie, then why not do whatever it takes to get the same desired affect in the movie? You really can't though, and that's what Alan Moore meant. WATCHMEN was good for its time, but in our world, in our time, this isn't even a possibly. It's a parody of what the world became, it's a joke. Well, putting it that way, it will fit perfectly with the message (and if you read the book and/or see the movie you'll get what I just said, hopefully).
I know, it sounds bad, right? Nah, that's just over-analyzation from a nerd. This is a GOOD movie, though, because the same nerd that just wrote the above shitty words can tell you it was amazing, and that I for one am glad I saw it AFTER I read the book. As much as they left out, what they left in or alluded to was so much fun, it was like a treasure hunt. It was like at every scene I was looking for something. A smiley face, a symbol that showed these guys making the movie cared about the source material. The easter eggs are there, if you look hard enough. The movie delivers so much, too much even to explain, and I do say that everyone must see it. The visuals are fantastic (yes, there is an adbundance of slow motion, but it's not too disgusting). The sound and music is fantastic, I am a personal fan of the soundtrack and wish I had snagged a free copy. The acting is top-notch, and the people chosen to play the characters deliver. If anything, only Silk Spectre dissapointed, but I think that's more of the fault of a detail that's been left out. However, it's clear that everyone of these heroes has problems. They all want to save the world, for different reasons and in different ways, and at the end of the movie, you come to realize that none of them are right, really, for the reasons established in an oldie of a book, The Fountainhead. A Collective mind cannot succeed nor exist, it is about the individual. These are indeed a bunch of individuals, and I cared about every single one of them, and loved the way the movie worked out its differences from the book. There is a crucial difference most people complained about, but I actually didn't mind the ending because it really nailed home the message of the movie. There is only one message of the movie, just like Moore intended there to be for the book. The great thing is that Moore knew to add more and to layer it and to work in a way that only a comic book/epic novel could. A movie cannot be so disjointed and throw in so many details without becoming convoluted. I wouldn't be surprised if a few people who didn't read the novel left the theatre saying "huh? but..why..I don't get...why is that...what?" but even more people left saying "Wow, that was a good movie."
And it is a good movie. It's a great movie. But it's not worth the anticipation. Of 20 years or so of waiting. It's not that "ah-ha" moment you always had when you were a kid. It's more like the feeling you get now as an adult. The idea that something fun is coming up, that something new is just above the horizon, that a moment is coming, and when it comes, you now realize what that feeling was when you were younger.
It wasn't the moment you were there. It was everything that went into getting to that moment. Getting to the movie, to see it, after going through the journey that was the book, I can appreciate seeing the movie. But it was the journey I really loved, the ending was just a nice way to pay homage to that.
Go see WATCHMEN, read WATCHMEN, love WATCHMEN, and then get on with your life. Simple as that.
rating: 7
Users that liked this also liked...
 The International Internet Conspiracy Chart 2009 |  Bad Math Joke |  A moment of stillness... |  HAPPY ST. PATTY'S DAY! |  Monica Fell |