Watchmen Review

I suppose I should start out by saying that I have never read the "Watchmen" graphic novel. To be perfectly honest I had never heard of "Watchmen" until I saw the trailer play before Dark Knight. As a film critic I wanted to be able to judge the movie by it's own merit and not have any preconceived expectations from the book.

This is a spoiler free review.

All and all I quite liked "Watchmen". Sure it's got all the action, stunning visuals, nifty gadgets, and gore that you would expect from an action flick but there is more to it then that. It completely subverts the super hero genre and it makes you think, for me that's a good thing.

Normally when you walk into a theater to see a superhero movie you turn off your brain enjoy all of the pretty stunts and special effects. Usually there is some sort of plot twist throw in, but it's normally not something you think about or anything you didn't see coming a mile away.

The movie challenges the viewer to ask themselves: Do the ends justify the means?

There are no clear cut good guys or bad guys. Most of the heroes have mental problems. Really when you ask yourself what type of people would dress up in costumes and act as vigilantes, it's not all that surprising to find that there is something wrong with a lot of the heroes. Even with Silk Spectre II and Nite Owl II who are easily the most well adjusted people in the bunch, you have to question their mental state when you see the sheer brutality they use when fighting.

This brings me to an important point, this is not a movie you should take your kids to. This is one of the most violent movies I have ever seen. Even though you know that many of the things being done aren't physically possible the violence is so jarring that I sometimes found myself looking away from the screen. The violence never looks cartoonish, or fake, and when you see fights they are one on one. There isn't that much gore or blood per se, but some of the violence is kind of jarring.

There are also sex scenes (which by the way I felt went on for far too long), a rape scene, and you see a lot of glowing blue penis in the film.

Side note: I found the naked Dr Manhattan kind of distracting. From a film making stand point it probably would have saved them money in computer animation if they had just kept him in his black speedo the whole time. But I suppose from character development standpoint, if you are as powerful as Dr Manhattan no one can tell you that you have to wear pants.

Ok seriously back to the notes on plot.

The story is quite dense and requires the watcher to pay attention, and even to question the information they are getting. I fell like I could really benefit from from seeing this movie a second time because I'm sure there are a lot of things that I missed. This is not to say that the average person wouldn't understand Wachmen, because they can, I'm just saying the average person will have to keep their brain turned on for the duration of the movie. There is a lot of conspiracy woven into this plot, but boy is it fun to watch it all unfold.

I really liked Watchmen but this movie suffers from an issue that occurs with any movie that makes you think, the ending isn't completely satisfying. There is no big happy Hollywood ending, justice may not be entirely served, but there is closure. This may turn some people off, but I felt it made sense given the nature of the story that this would not end with some giant victory.

There is a whole lot of badassitude in this movie. The characters are fascinating, well developed, and well acted. I particularly loved Rorschach and his unyielding morals, but thats just me. I loved the way background stories and facts on this alternate history were brought into the main plot. I also love that for once in my life I did not fully predict the ending of a movie.

Ok so "Sixth Sense," "Identity", and this one small budget thriller where my werewolf theory proved to be completely off the mark. But seriously I normally predict the ending of movies, hell I even figured out the big plot twist in "Fight Club" half way through.

The plot in "Watchmen" keeps unfolding and evolving further then most action movies, you may have figured out who the "bad guy" is but trust me you haven't figured out how everything is going to go till the very end.

So my basic verdict, go see it if your over the age of 17, and are not completely adverse to violence. This is not your average super hero film, and I mean that in the best way possible.