You know, it's pretty entertaining. It's not flawless but I give it a thumbs up.
It is more character/plot driven than special effects. Good things because I was surprised how ordinary the special effects were.
This was true of several sequences. Plus it has to be said, in the post Benjamin Button world, the process of aging characters through conventional prosthetics and make-up - which happens a few times in Watchmen - seems inadequate and distracting. And the guy made up to be Richard Nixon looked like a joke. Really distracting.
But the characters were interesting. It was not Steinbeck but they worked. The plot was absorbing. The cast was very good (with the exception of Malin Akerman as the hot chick. She was out of her league acting-wise and frankly, not hot enough either).
But I enjoyed it. I'll take a superhero epic with some moral/philosophical issues to contemplate over some action flick where the plot is just a device to move from one action scene to the next any day.
PS - the soundtrack was puzzling. The movie was set in 1985 but they had tracks from 60's Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Simon and Garfunkel. I would have expected them to skew younger with that. I'm not complaining - I like those tunes a lot - but it just had me scratching my head.
It is more character/plot driven than special effects. Good things because I was surprised how ordinary the special effects were.
This was true of several sequences. Plus it has to be said, in the post Benjamin Button world, the process of aging characters through conventional prosthetics and make-up - which happens a few times in Watchmen - seems inadequate and distracting. And the guy made up to be Richard Nixon looked like a joke. Really distracting.
But the characters were interesting. It was not Steinbeck but they worked. The plot was absorbing. The cast was very good (with the exception of Malin Akerman as the hot chick. She was out of her league acting-wise and frankly, not hot enough either).
But I enjoyed it. I'll take a superhero epic with some moral/philosophical issues to contemplate over some action flick where the plot is just a device to move from one action scene to the next any day.
PS - the soundtrack was puzzling. The movie was set in 1985 but they had tracks from 60's Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Simon and Garfunkel. I would have expected them to skew younger with that. I'm not complaining - I like those tunes a lot - but it just had me scratching my head.
Watchmen is a graphic novel—a book-length comic book with ambitions above its station—starring a ragbag of bizarre, damaged, retired superheroes: the paunchy, melancholic Nite Owl; the raving doomsayer Rorschach; the blue, glowing, near-omnipotent, no-longer-human Doctor Manhattan. Though their heyday is past, these former crime-fighters are drawn back into action by the murder of a former teammate, The Comedian, which turns out to be the leading edge of a much wider, more disturbing conspiracy. Told with ruthless psychological realism, in fugal, overlapping plotlines and gorgeous, cinematic panels rich with repeating motifs, Watchmen is a heart-pounding, heartbreaking read and a watershed in the evolution of a young medium.—L.G.
