Let's face it -- despite the time, energy and money put into making films, only a few end up being unforgettable. The rest range from mediocre to bad and ultimately slip from one's mind until suddenly being jolted back into consciousness through conversation or accidentally coming across them on TV.
Then there are those that -- at least for yours truly -- end up somewhere in between, where one is torn about how to feel about a particular offering. It doesn't happen often, and last did so for me with Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino" (that could be viewed as brilliant satire or a misfire of recycled elements).
Now one can add "Watchmen" to that small but notable list of hard to pin down films. While it's far too long (at north of 160 minutes), is wildly divergent in terms of momentum and interesting (or not) characters, takes a dim view of women, has special effects that, well, aren't always that special, and suffers from various other flaws big and small, at times it's downright mesmerizing and occasionally nears brilliance. In short, it's burrowed itself somewhat into my psyche, but mostly in just a perplexing way.
It's based on the "graphic novel" (adult comic book) of the same name by Alan Moore and John Higgins that debuted back in 1986 and subsequently ran for 12 installments. I've never read and frankly had never heard of them, although I've since learned they were reportedly quite seminal, like DC Comics' "The Dark Knight," in turning the superhero legend on its head. It's also been stated that the work was un-filmable, probably stemming from repeated but failed attempts to bring it to the big screen for the past two decades.
But movies are supposed to be viewed and rated on how they stand on their own, as their own experience, and that's how this review will proceed. Aside from those special effects that clearly don't seem to be state of the art, the film's clearly something to behold from a visual standpoint, with director Zack Snyder trying to copy or at least emulate the comic's story panel aura, much like he did with "300."
Even when the story or its character arcs begin to drag, it's certainly never boring to watch, even if Snyder utilizes too many similar fighting elements from his last film (normal to slow motion footage to emphasize the kinetic force of a fist to a jaw, or the balletic view of a body flipping through the air -- all which can be traced back to the likes of John Woo and the Wachowski brothers) and continues his fascination with the incredibly buff, bare male physique (here he goes the extra step in going full frontal, albeit along the lines of Blue Man Group).
The latter involves the story's only true superhero (in terms of super powers and their genesis), Dr. Manhattan, accidentally created in one of those freak science experiments from the 1950s. Now tinted blue and with glowing, pupil-less eyes, he does much of his work in the buff, both in normal and giant form. I'm guessing this is supposed to symbolize the character transcending the need for human trappings, but the only effect it's likely to induce is giggles (one of several such presumably unintentional moments).
Like most any comic book flick, there are back-story moments showing how he came to be, but with multiple superheroes comes multiple bits of exposition. The resulting jumping around through time -- thanks to David Hayter and Alex Tse's adaptation of the original work -- disrupts the overall plot's momentum, which isn't always necessarily a bad thing as the basic story, despite the setup, isn't anything tremendous.
The quick gist is that we're in an alternate reality where Richard Nixon is in the midst of his fifth time as president in the 1980s facing nuclear war with the Soviets, superheroes have been outlawed (when not used as government pawns), and one of the former but now aged ones (Jeffrey Dean Morgan in one of the more memorable if unsavory roles) is murdered. One of his former associates (Jackie Earle Haley in a terrific performance, especially once his ever-changing Rorschach inkblot mask is removed) believes someone's gunning for their type, thus alerting the likes of the rest of the team (Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode and Malin Akerman).
As they go about trying to figure out if that's true, the back stories, exposition, slow motion fighting and an eclectic hodgepodge of soundtrack songs come our way, occasionally all at the same time. It's often as messy as it is busy, and the mix of all of that along with the usual melodrama (all of the typical superhero angst and longings, this time in the unusual R-rated and middle-aged form), noir type dialogue and more often muddle the proceedings when not threatening to drown them in sensory overload.
Aside from Morgan's character (who's offed at the beginning and is thus seen only in flashbacks) and Haley's when the mask is off, the rest of the roles aren't particularly interesting. Without that and despite the informational flashbacks and voice over narration, we don't really know much about these folks, nor do we ultimately care about how or why things play out the way they do.
Which is surprising -- not to mention a let-down -- considering what's at stake. And I'm not referring to the "who's bumping off the superheroes?" angle, but rather the main plot of humankind being on the brink of nuclear Armageddon. Despite that potential fate, there's no urgency and the scenes featuring Nixon (as a symbolic stand-in for President Reagan and his anti-communist fervor) are surprisingly flat (and that has nothing to do with the absolutely awful Tricky Dick caricature).
Throw in a surprisingly boring alternate universe where this takes places (the best moments occur during a montage of twists on historic and popular American iconography during the opening credits), uneven and sometimes fairly slow pacing and those characters that, for the most part, don't manage to connect with us on an emotional or even just visceral level, and "Watchmen" ends up as an ambitious and occasionally brilliant, but ultimately failed experience. It rates as a 4.5 out of 10.
![[Logo]](/images/screenit_logo2.jpg){kind=logo}
