Movie Review: Watchmen

First off - dig the STYLE! Stripped of all the extra stuff like plot/characters/themes/etc., this film is, well, really fantastic. The visuals are fantastic. The camera work is fantastic. The soundtrack (and the way it's handled) is fantastic. Yes, the whole superhero-graphic novel film infusion has been underway for some time, but in Watchmen you get a sense that the creators have put that little bit of extra thought into the production, pushed the bar just a little bit higher.

The soundtrack, for example: usually, little snippets of familiar pop songs get inserted into movies for the purpose of evoking some emotional/nostalgic response to fit with a scene - and then they're gone. So when in the opening montage it gradually became apparent that ALL of "The Times They Are A-Changin'" was going to be granted to us, I was pretty darn excited for the rest of the show. And it did not disappoint - the visuals, spectacular in themselves, were greatly enhanced throughout by thoughtfully extended song selections.

That introductory montage, by the way, may very well be the coolest part of the whole proceedings - it's essentially an alternate American history in which the Watchmen have...well, affected certain outcomes.

So, a four-star presentation. But how about the rest?
(See Wikipedia for plot/character info)
Here's what occured to me as I watched: Watchmen was either an incredibly ambitious attempt to smash down cliches, step outside of the typical superhero movie storytelling techniques, present a deliciously ambiguous set of themes, and essentially go where no film of its type has ever gone before; or, the source material was plain brilliant.

After a bit of research, I can confidently say that the latter is true. What that means: as far as plot and themes go, all credit must go to the director's efforts to maintain fidelity to the source. Responsibility for the great meta-superhero story construction lies solely with the creator of the original graphic novel series.

It also explains the major "issues" I have with the film. First, the scope is so huge and the style so mesmerizing that there is very little empathetic emotion expected from the audience. There is no one to feel sorry for, no character whose demise could seem truly tragic. The grandness of the story swallows everything up. This leads to the second issue: the acting is nothing to speak of, not really. (See, so I won't. ha ha)

I put the quotation marks around "issues" because these things are really not big problems - they are simply weak links I run up against when trying to consider Watchmen's standing in relation to the best films I have seen. When the production and ambience are so stunning, I must have some reason to avoid calling this one of the greatest screen marvels ever, right?

And in the final analysis, I think this sums it up: there's a prominent sex scene - I would not exactly call it gratuitous, since there is definitely a little thematic superhero/sex undercurrent going on throughout the movie - and, well, the scene is clearly meant to resonate as something triumphant (song playing: "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen). I have seen but one truly non-gratuitous triumphant sex scene, and in that case the reason is because we CARE about the characters. (That whole movie's on youtube? Wow - it is highly recommended). In Watchmen, we don't really care too deeply about the characters, and so the sex scene is...well, the kind where you raise your eyebrows and remember all those little kids you saw jumping around the theater before the lights went down.

Yeah, so on that basis, I go with 3.5 stars

....well, then there was the over-featured Dr. Manhattan Junior....alright, 3 stars.

Nah, 3.5 it is. This was no Ironman. They really did try.

*** 1/2