Blog Review: "Watchmen"

Director: Zack Snyder

Produced by: Lawrence Gordon, Lloyd Levin, Deborah Snyder

Screenplay: David Hayter, Alex Tse

Starring: Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earie Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson

SPOILER ALERT! MONKEYS AND DINGLEBERRIES BEWARE

Who Watches the Watchmen? You Should

Watchmen, one of the most highly anticipated films of 2009, adapts the apocalyptic, quasi-dystopia alternate future of the graphic novel by the same name. All masked *heroes have been outlawed by 5^th term president Richard M. Nixon. The film casts a caveat on the label “hero” through depictions of narcissistic sadism by “The Comedian” and the affluent “Ozymandius.” But is either of them in the wrong? Is the public at large wrong to revolt against the heroes who risk their lives to protect them? While the film is visually astounding, has a story line unique but logical enough to follow, and is caked with a sufficient amount of high-definition-choreographed violence and sex to satisfy fans of Snyder’s 300, 2 hours and 40 minutes was simultaneously too long and short for such a venture.

Showing off his mastery of slow-motion and possibly gratuitous violence in the opening battle sequence, those of us whom seldom witness superfluous violence in movies in comparison to that which propagates the non-fiction world offer Snyder our praise. But the next twenty minutes reveal that Snyder not only is attempting to, but has developed in his vision as a director. We witness the world Bob Dylan surely could not have imagined as his song “The Times They Are A-Changin’” peruses through what the world became as the Cold War escalated, Nixon stayed in office, and Vietnamese communism was defeated. Our narrator then makes his entrance as Rorschach, a pessimistic realist; he represents an extreme product of his time. Through his journal we retrace the steps of his and other heroes as they deduce why ex-hero Ozymandius is killing retired heroes.

Considering the film introduces the story behind over 10 heroes from pre-WWII up until 1987, introduces us to the alternate reality of 1987, and effectively develops character and story plots all while hopping back forth through time, it is a masterpiece. There really is very little confusion as to who are whom, what day and age each scene is taking place in, and the current or changing point of view of each character. And because this is done so effectively, we are allowed to become witness to the varying natures of a number of characters, each of whom may represent the nature of mankind.

Dr. Manhattan, the only true superhero in the film, obtained god-like powers in a lab experiment gone wrong. Able to see time in the past, present, and future simultaneously, be in a nearly infinite number of places at once, capable of living in any environment in the universe, and actually capable of creating his own universe, Dr. Manhattan is suppose to be the savior- or rather, God realized for man. The only problem is that, like the understanding of God in real life, the masses can’t conceive his understanding of the larger picture in the universe. For all the power he has been endowed with, the power of human understanding still eludes him, as it does us.

Other heroes serve as the pessimistic, the hopelessly optimistic, the nurturing, the idealist, the pious, and the base aspects (among many others) of humanity. Perhaps it is because the various heroes are portrayed as such familiar humans that we can empathize with “The Comedian” even though he shot a woman pregnant with his child at point blank range. Or how we find our selves empathizing with Rorschach even though he killed 3 policemen for doing their job. Yet, in the film the masses rebelled against their heroes and dismissed them while chanting “Who watches the Watchmen?”

And we see that they too, to a point, want some one to guide them and tell them what is right and wrong. This question is put to the ultimate test at the end of the film when Ozymandius and Dr. Manhattan agree that to save the world they must destroy much of it. By framing Dr. Manhattan, nuclear war will be averted through mankind’s instinct of self preservation: they will ally themselves in fear of a power outside their control. It is in this view of Dr. Manhattan that he truly becomes a god: the good in mankind is stimulated by its fear of god’s power. I give "Watchmen" 9/10 stars.