Watchmen

At two hours and thirty five minutes, I can certainly see why many had a hard time getting through it, it's quite exhausting. WATCHMEN to me was Zach Snyder's epic. As I was watching it I said to myself, this is the GONE WITH THE WIND of superhero movies. Snyder pulls out all the stops, he does. He develops each and every superhero painstakingly in great detail. Rorschach, the only crimefighter who has defied the law banning masked heroes..his mask, interesting enough, reflects his psyche. The fedora hat and leather jacket complement him excellently. He's our narrative focal point, his journal details the events which could lead to catastrophy at a global scale.



WATCHMEN follows a different US history than we have in reality..Nixon was elected five times for chrissakes and is the one with the burden of possibly sending missiles towards USSR in order to prevent our country from being utterly destroyed. Jon, before his physiology was rearranged(to put it mildly)thanks in part to a nuclear reactor he was trapped in, a giant blue wonder, some consider him a god, whose powers are unmatched, used by USA as a defendor who strikes terror into our enemies, was once just a lowly scientist working on, I'm guessing, nuclear fusion or something. Jon and former crimefighter Laurie(known in her superhero title as Silk Spectre II)are going through what one might say is a rough patch. She feels Jon is losing what humanity and human emotion he might've had left before being transformed into nuclear man. Jon is working with former crimefighter, now a meglomaniac, Adrian Veidt(Matthew Goode; terrific)who says he's on his way to producing an energy source to take the place of other natural resources mankind is so dependent on. All may not be as it seems.



I want to announce my deep, passionate love for Malin Åkerman, as Laurie Jupiter..how cool a name is that, the geek in me just totally swoons not only for the beauty behind the tight leather costume(oh man, those knee-high boots are the ticket), but her character. All that wavy brown hear, man, I'm sleeping well tonight. Anyway, she is tired of ole blue's attentions elsewhere..he is fucking her while feeding information to Veidt(he can separate himself into multiple bodies, split apart like clones, with extra hands to touch her in ways that cause mucho bliss). She soon finds comfort in another former crimefighter, the hospitable, well-tempered Dan Dreiberg(Patrick Wilson; Hard Candy), once under the alias of Nite Owl. He offers her a place to stay, and after a night out in his sky vehicle(which also works under water, submerging from the river located near his access tunnel), they find comfort in each others' arms(climaxing in sex above the city, just hidden above the clouds). This love triangle between Dan, Laurie, and Jon is certainly complicated, to say the least.

Billy Crudup remains in CGI form most of the movie, and it's really hard for him to display the human that remains because he's not in control of his face, computer visual effects guys are. His superhero name is Dr. Manhattan and someone will use his power against him(he will be framed for causing cancer to his associates and former flame, and possibly for a cataclysmic disaster which could wipe out cities of innocent people across the country; the reason far more intriguing than some mad science often cooked up in old serials and James Bond movies). He makes trips to Mars for peace away from the human race.

Jackie Earle Haley hit the motherlode with his role of Rorschach. I mean, all is forgiven if you starred in what many considered a piece of shit NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET remake. His character is the driving force behind the group's re-emergence, and even when it seems his knowledge of horrors which might(or do)occur to millions of people could remain hidden thanks to opposing forces which would stop him from implicating the mastermind, his voice(including dates and his own opinions, grim and often darkly poetic, yet containing instances of moral obligation towards justice) within the diary may make it's way to the public someday.. What I love about Rorschach is that he'll lay it all on the line for the innocents, risking his life, making the ultimate sacrifice against the dregs and slime of society.

My favorite part of the entire movie is the prison sequences which paint a bleak picture for Rorschach who was set up for the murder of an archenemy(Matt Frewer) feeding him information regarding the murder of crimefighter Edward Blake(Jeffrey Dean Morgan), alias Comedian. Considered a sociopath, Rorschach, is considered a blight by society in regards to how the crimefighters are represented. If anything, he was the most loyal to the cause. Anyway, I really enjoyed how criminals threatened to tear Rorschach apart for putting them in prison, yet he always gets the last laugh..a midget with two giant goons grin about what they plan(repeat:plan)to do to Rorschach when he's vulnerable. This also features an awesome "rescue" as Laurie and Dan arrive at the prison to get Rorschach out and must mow down a whole host of convicts(Laurie and Dan also have a battle with street thugs where they snap limbs, toss bodies around with ease, and break bones).



Gosh, the money spent on this movie. The opening credits, using Bob Dylan's "Times They Are a Changing(the soundtrack is killer), traces historical events and goes on for like twenty minutes it seems(or that's how it felt). There's a feeling, a dead seriousness, that Snyder and company were going for all the marbles, crafting an exhaustive(many might consider bloated/long-winded)superhero opus for the ages. I was really, really fatigued, but can not say that WATCHMEN didn't keep me interested. And, my attention was held, and I don't recall yawning or becoming bored with what Snyder was doing with his characters. As I said at the opening, I could see how WATCHMEN might cause many superhero/comic book fans to become tired with the approach of epic grandeur, but I must say that I enjoyed it. Jeffrey Dean Morgan's Comedian is certainly the most egregious crimefighter I can think of in recent memory..I mean he is the man responsible for JFK's death and shoots a Vietnamese girl he impregnated after she cuts him in the face(not to mention he almost rapes Carla Cugino's crimefighter after she stops him momentarily from doing so, taking a pummeling afterward). Man, the way Jon obliterates bodies of those that supposedly commit wrong is splattery and bloody..gotta love it the gratuitousness of it all.