| Overall Grade: |
B+ |
|
| Story: |
A |
|
|
| Acting: |
B |
|
|
| Direction: |
B |
|
|
| Visuals: |
B+ |
|
|
A dark, visual feast for the eyes and imagination.
by Carlos el wrey (movies profile)
Mar 6, 2009
152
of
173 people found this review helpful
(NOTE: Yes, I have read the graphic novel, and I'm not giving out spoilers.)
How do i begin? Watchmen, the most controversial, complex, and celebrated graphic novel of all time has finally hit the big screen after a vast number of attempts. It is considered a masterpiece of modern literature, and transending it to a movie is more than a tricky business. For those who haven't read the comic book it is truly astonishing, and capturing the nature, insanity, and pace its almost impossible to imagine, and director Zack Snyder, Congratulations dude, he pulls out the punches, and delivers what it should be one of the best films of the year so far.
Watchmen revolves around an alternate 1980s version of what could be America with real superheroes. Super heroes are real. That's how it begins. Real people, with real problems (and strengths) who decided to put on costumes and fight crime. But where most super hero stories try to stay as far away from the real world as possible, "Watchmen" tries to imagine how they would affect every aspect of life. They fight in Vietnam for the U.S., and the war is won because of it. But far from being some jingoist message of the way things could/should have gone, it becomes a repressively logical thought experiment, heading inexorably towards one conclusion. On the heel of victory Richard Nixon is elected again and again, Cold War tensions ratchet up and up as the Soviet Bloc tries to hold onto its sphere of influence. The world isn't necessarily a better place because it has people in costumes in it. It's a powder keg of humanity that just needs one spark to set it off, a spark it gets when The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), one of the few costumed adventurers still active, is murdered. ****.net
Getting every crucial point from the novel would lead to a 210 inute-ish movie, so being cut down to 163 is impressive. The thing that really got me surprised was how many people at the show I went to left about twenty minutes before the film's end. Personally I thought it was impressive balancing the visuals, the acting, and the storytelling, Snyder does give the movie its cinematic, and potential moments through the comic book's screenplay, and every little aspect of it rellies on a fantastic visual, and art direction. There's the downisde to that to... It feels overwhelmed. Snyder has that tendency to make the movie have a bit of everything; the blood splattering ultra violence (impressivly done) sex, and including roles apart from the comic's- while giving a dark and human side to it.
The movie's visuals and music are its biggest attraction. Like the past "300", it feels like a comic book place taken away right-off into real life. From the amazing interpretation of Dr. Manhattan to the visually entretaining fight scenes, its all a stylish, brutal ride. And where lots of movies have its biggest flaws from, are acting, which in this case well, were very varied, from decent to impressing. The strongest yet to come were Morgan as the aggresive, self-abrosbred comedian, and Haley playing the masked detective.
Watchmen is everything fans have been waiting for, and yet it could be none. As a film, it's very impressive, and visually arousing on its own. Adapting comics is one thing, adapting Watchmen is another, I think Snyder has really exceeded and proved himself as one of the best visionary action directors of our time. But at the very core, Watchmen is a dark, complex, and a compromising visual feast for the eyes and imagination. |
My Public Profile 
