The Watchmen
Posted By: Shagz
Date:
A visually stunning and ridiculously faithful envisioning of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbon's seminal graphic novel. Visually stunning...and a bit too long.
Even as someone who was already familiar with and a fan of the source material, I felt like a good 20-30 mins could have been chopped from the film. I love (love to hate, sympathize, despise the actions of, be disgusted by) the characters, and all that exposition is what makes them so interesting...in a graphic novel. But in a movie, you gotta slim that stuff down, yo! All that talking, it got to be a bit tedious, even for me, and I already liked the comic!
Putting that aside for a second, how about the rest? The acting was, on the whole, pretty good, and the fight sequences cringe inducing (a good thing) and well choreographed. Actually, they were much better than I expected; shot by Hollywood, but the spirit of Hong Kong was there. Special effects? The creative and technical teams in this film are clearly at the top of their game.
But is this a film for the general public? I'm going to have to go with "no". Mr. Snyder and crew demonstrate that they have immense respect and love for the source material, and God bless 'em for making the "unfilmable film" a reality. But this is not a story for the masses. It was a deconstruction of the superhero mythos, a work meant to tear up and spit on perceptions of what a superhero story could be. As such, the story (and therefore the film) works best with those who already understand what is being subverted. Miss that and you may have to work harder to "get" the movie.
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Posted by: Vick on I had never read the comic book, my thoughts are: it felt like it took them way to long to get to the movie most of the show was background material, It should have been a little more action filled as you said lots of talking :) call me shallow i was expecting a better sex scene after all it was rated 18A. But after watching the entire movie i was thinking to myself i would like to watch it again. and maybe read the book
Thanks Stephen.
PS to make it more accessible maybe they should have updated the material to reflect current fears the nuclear Nixon business is a little outdated to people who don't read history :)