TeamCTF

If you’re not living under a rock or in a cave in the wilds of Pakistan, then you’ve heard that Watchmen opened on Friday. Find out why only idiots would miss it.

Watchmen opens with a brilliant visual montage set to Bob Dylan’s Times They Are A Changing that sets the stage in an alternate 1985 in which the superheroes who walk among us have been outlawed, and tricky Dick Nixon is elected to a 4th term after America wins the Vietnam war. Now – if you think that one sentence was too complex for your simpleton’s brain to grasp, you’re going to want to skip the Watchmen. This isn’t a film that you should sit through and half-pay attention to while you’re texting. Unlike just about every other movie based on a “comic” (and we’ll use the term loosely here), the Watchmen demands your full attention. It’s not just a visual feast – it’s also the most darkly intense film I’ve seen in a very long time, and it’s not for the kiddies.

The mood of the film is dark as we follow Rorschach, the only active costumed hero, as he tries to solve the murder of another masked hero – the Comedian – who is tossed through the window of his high-rise apartment after a brutal fight with an unknown assailant. As the story unfolds, you meet other former masks – now retired from crime fighting – many of whom are living lives both anonymous and bland. The characters are complex, and appear completely realized. Rather than flat, comic book heroes, we find Watchmen populated with exceptional people that have histories, who have made mistakes, and who have regrets and their own self-interests in mind.

Visually, Watchmen is a stunning piece of filmmaking. There is beauty – a rough, gritty, broken-tooth sort of beauty in nearly every frame set in New York. The digital effects aren’t overpowering and add a layer of otherworldliness to the character of Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) – who is something that is no longer human and someone whose is losing touch with ties to the rest of us and our mundane existence

One of the things that separates Watchmen from other films based on graphic novels, is this one is based on what is arguably the best of the best in the genre. Fans of the novel will be satisfied – although die-hard fanboys will spot the places where the film veers off the course set by the original novel. As a film, Watchmen stands far and away above nearly every other “comic book” adaptation. Even so – you can’t really compare Watchmen to most other films, other than to say that it deals with some of the same themes that other films touch on: life vs. death, good vs. evil, etc., but Watchmen does this in a way that would never work in another “comic” film. Here, there are no solid lines between heros and villains, because the heros don’t just have a requisite “fatal flaw” – they have very real flaws that everyone has.

Of course, not everyone likes complexity. Idiots, for example, tend to like their fiction in a nice, neat package where you can spot the good guys and the bad guys using the color of their hats. If you fit in that category, go re-rent a copy of Electra or Daredevil. If you’re smart, please do yourself a favor and go see the Watchmen on the biggest screen you can. You’ll thank me later.

MPAA RATING: R for strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language

Starring Jackie Earle Haley, Patrick Wilson, Matthew Goode, Billy Crudup, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Malin Akerman, Carla Gugino, Stephen McHattie, and Matt Frewer

WRITTEN BY: Alan Moore (graphic novel)
Dave Gibbons (graphic novel illustrator)
Alex Tse
David Hayter
DIRECTED BY: Zack Snyder
RELEASE DATE: Theatrical: March 6, 2009
RUNNING TIME: 163 minutes, Color
ORIGIN: UK | USA
- Warner Brothers

Popularity: 93% [?]