Watchmen is a difficult movie to categorize. As an adaption of an existing work, it is excellent. The attention to detail is amazing, the cast all fit well with their characters and an impressive amount of the plot is exactly the same. A for effort.
As a stand-alone work, Watchmen is less of a success. It is very, very long and filled with talky scenes whose purpose only becomes clear later and sometimes not even then. It’s not that it is a terrible movie, just that a viewer not familiar with the source material might easily lose track of what is going on. So much of the plot hinges on the motivations of the characters – the book provides extensive back stories that the film cannot linger on, leaving the story feeling a little flat.
The production values are first rate, with excellent special effects. The actors are all look the part and for the most part are pretty good, except for guy playing Rorschach, who is excellent. Watchmen is an ensemble piece and the fact that none of the characters are played by major stars works to its advantage. The R rating is very well deserved, the film is quite gory in places and there is a lot of nudity. Watchmen may be the first mainstream film to have more male than female nudity, which I guess could be called some sort of landmark.
On the whole, I would recommend Watchman to anyone who enjoyed the book. I would still recommend it to others that enjoy the odd superhero film, but others will probably be bored.
Here endeth the review. The following section contains spoilers and crowing about how smart I am. Discerning readers may want to stop here – you have been warned.
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The city of Los Angeles finds itself protected by an honest-to-god super hero with the unlikely name of John Hancock. Unfortunately, this hero causes more damage to the city than he prevents due to the extreme lack of due-diligence expressed during his slapdash crime fighting activities. One day Hancock saves a mild mannered PR consultant named Ray. In return Ray uses all the tricks of his trade to redeem Hancock’s image in the eyes of the public, over the objections of Hancock himself (who sees little reason to change) and Ray’s increasingly skeptical wife.
In the pantheon of super heros, Iron Man is strictly C-list. Batman and Spider Man are the top of the heap, Superman is boring but gets a pass by being there first. Who else? Possibly Wolverine and the Hulk on a good day. Wonder Woman? Maybe. The Silver Surfer? If one was being charitable.