Being one of the most anticipated movies of 2009, many film critics and avid moviegoers eagerly awaited the results of Watchmen. This DC graphic novel now turned film opened with a large fan base and along with the massive ad campaigns for the film turned a large number of people out for this new movie. Directed by Zack Snyder, this action/adventure film was arguably a largely disputed film among critics. Overall, the film received a wide range of reviews. On metacritic, the film has received an overall score of 50%, showcasing what critics have pointed out as a decidedly mixed film.
Critic Bob Mondello of NPR, gave the film one and a half stars rabidly stating that, “Synder recycles some the better effects from gladiator epic 300…he might as well have used the graphic novel as a story board.” Overall, Mondello faulted the film for having too many digitally rendered scenes while at the same time refraining from developing a sufficient storyline for the film to actually have substance. Additionally, this critic seemed to take issue with the pacing of the film believing that only those fans faithful to the Watchmen graphic novel could follow the movie effectively.
Similarly, Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune also awarded Watchmen with one and a half stars. However, Phillips unlike Mondello took issue with the film’s hyper-specific adaptation of the graphic novel faulting the notion that it takes about forty minutes to simply relay the backstory. Afterwards, the film seems to devolve into cheap thrills choosing to emphasize, “eye-for-an-eye, severed limb-for-a-limb vengeance. Pointing out for example, the use of child molestation to justify repeated shots of head splitting death sequences several times over and over and assuming that the audience will approve because the child molester is “vermin.” The brutality in the film adaptation seemed far overdone by this critic’s standards and Synder seems to have eclipsed any moral conclusions with the due to the excessive violence portrayed in the film.
Faring a little better with Claudia Puig of USA Today, who rated the film two stars, the cinematic adaptation was quite simply, “forgettable after the opening blast.” Claudia seems to summarize previous critical complaints about the film point out that, the cinematography seemed to overshadow the story, while at the same time the violence depicted in the film had a far more sadistic quality than intellectually stimulating one. Even the costumes Puig writes, were far more distracting than cinematically illuminating. The example that Puig used, was the “buck naked” Dr. Manhattan who resembles, “a radioactive and NC-17 member of the blue man group.”
Yet, not all critics lashed out at the film’s cinematography. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone gave the film an acceptable three out of four stars praising the digital cinematic as a useful tool in unraveling some of the deepest parts of the dense graphic novel. Unlike other reviewers Travers credits the film for having gotten at the core of some of the deepest symbolism of the novel. Doling some pity toward Synder for a good attempt at trying to combine hardcore fan elements with the complete “newbies” of the novel for Travers, the forty minute back story is completely justified because it simply takes that long to get at the symbolism entrenched in the novel. Unfortunately the film adaptation falters due to the extreme violence depicted in the film.
Finally however, Kyle Smith of the New York Post was one of the critics who hailed Watchmen as “exhilarating in breadth and depth.” Literally gushing over the film, Smith writes about the similarities between this film and classics such as A Clockwork Orange. Although he writes almost an hour is devoted to introductions, the art and pleasure in watching the film lies in decoding all the symbolism hidden beneath the surface. The political and social overtones that lie at the heart of this film truly shine when combined with spectacular visual effects. In the eyes of this critic Synder does no wrong and every act of violence and every character seems like one large game of chess where one mind must rule over the other.
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