Norm's Movie Review: The Watchmen
Went and saw the Watchmen last night. My reaction was similar to my reaction to the book: I liked it quite a lot, but was not overwhelmingly impressed.
My criticisms are this:
1) The director manages to subvert all of the drama in the movie. Only the lead character (Rorschach) is the only really "dramatic" character, in all other cases, there is not the light/dark battle which comes through so well in the book. The watchmen hero's are all the Han Solo type, you are never meant to be totally sure that they really are the good guys. This does not come through well in the movie. Also, both the romantic plot lines and the main plot line fail to engage the watcher in the way that the should, and so the viewer is left not really caring as much as they should about the things that happen.
2) The movie is too brutal. I dont know if the 300 caused this shift in movie making, but excessive blood is not really needed in a movie such as this.
3) Overly aggressive use of prosthetics. Not sure why this really bothers me, but it does.
4) The Watchmen, who are meant to be human other than Dr. Manhattan, are "superhuman," with physical abilities well above that of the average man. This does not fit well.
5) Ozymandias is meant to be handsome and jacked, and friendly, it would have fit the character much better than the skinny annoying guy they have in the movie.
6) The ending. It is in form very similar to the book, but it does not somehow deliver the dramatic punch it does in the book. I am guessing that this was somewhat intentional, as otherwise the movie would be depressing, or negative (which is exactly what the book is.)
All in all, I liked the movie, and it was well worth watching in a big movie theater. That said, I was left not overly impressed. Perhaps part of the disappointment was unlike a traditional book, I was not watching characters 'come to life' but rather watching a scene by scene replay of something I had already read/seen (the movie did stay very close to the book, other than one necessary change).
It was a good movie, especially if you liked the book. But personally, I never got that involved with the characters, so I never really cared that much what happened. Only Rorschach do you end up really caring about, in my opinion.
My criticisms are this:
1) The director manages to subvert all of the drama in the movie. Only the lead character (Rorschach) is the only really "dramatic" character, in all other cases, there is not the light/dark battle which comes through so well in the book. The watchmen hero's are all the Han Solo type, you are never meant to be totally sure that they really are the good guys. This does not come through well in the movie. Also, both the romantic plot lines and the main plot line fail to engage the watcher in the way that the should, and so the viewer is left not really caring as much as they should about the things that happen.
2) The movie is too brutal. I dont know if the 300 caused this shift in movie making, but excessive blood is not really needed in a movie such as this.
3) Overly aggressive use of prosthetics. Not sure why this really bothers me, but it does.
4) The Watchmen, who are meant to be human other than Dr. Manhattan, are "superhuman," with physical abilities well above that of the average man. This does not fit well.
5) Ozymandias is meant to be handsome and jacked, and friendly, it would have fit the character much better than the skinny annoying guy they have in the movie.
6) The ending. It is in form very similar to the book, but it does not somehow deliver the dramatic punch it does in the book. I am guessing that this was somewhat intentional, as otherwise the movie would be depressing, or negative (which is exactly what the book is.)
All in all, I liked the movie, and it was well worth watching in a big movie theater. That said, I was left not overly impressed. Perhaps part of the disappointment was unlike a traditional book, I was not watching characters 'come to life' but rather watching a scene by scene replay of something I had already read/seen (the movie did stay very close to the book, other than one necessary change).
It was a good movie, especially if you liked the book. But personally, I never got that involved with the characters, so I never really cared that much what happened. Only Rorschach do you end up really caring about, in my opinion.
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