Watchmen! Rorschach Revealed.

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Grand Master

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dr-manhatten-press-conf.jpg

Above is a pic of Dr. Manhattan at some sort of press conference - weird seeing that blue face sticking out of a suit and tie?

carla-gugino-silk-spectre.jpg

Carla Gugino as the original Silk Spectre

ozymandias2.jpg

Ozymandias with a bunch of government-looking types

rorschack-prison.jpg

Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach in prison

ozymondia-lair.jpg

Ozymandias? Antarctic Headquarters

zack-snyder-nixon.jpg

Zack Snyder tells President Nixon what to do

Screenrant

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Grand Master

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IGN AU reviewed it and gave it 10/10

Link

...and there we have Hollywood Reporter

"Looks like we have the first real flop of 2009"

It's not easy being a comic book hero these days. The poor boys have taken their lumps in "Hancock," "The Dark Knight" and even "Iron Man." Self-doubt, angst and inadequacies plague them. And now comes "Watchmen." Its costumed superheroes, operating in an alternative 1985, are seriously screwed up -- and so is their movie. If anyone were able to make a nine-figure movie, something like "Watchmen" would have been the opening-night film at the Sundance Film Festival.

As stimulating as it was to see the superhero movie enter the realm of crime fiction in "The Dark Knight," "Watchmen" enters into a realm that is both nihilistic and campy. The two make odd companions. The film, directed by Zack Snyder ("300"), will test the limits of superhero movie fans. If you're not already invested in these characters because of the original graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, nothing this movie does is likely to change that predicament.

That's bad news for Warner Bros. and Paramount, which hold domestic and international rights, respectively. Opening weekends everywhere will reflect the huge anticipation of this much-touted, news-making movie. After that, the boxoffice slide could be drastic.

Snyder and writers David Hayter and Alex Tse never find a reason for those unfamiliar with the graphic novel to care about any of this nonsense. And it is nonsense. When one superhero has to take a Zen break, he does so on Mars. Of course he does.

The film opens with a brutal killing, then moves on to a credit-roll newsreel of sorts that takes us though the Cold War years, landing us in 1985 when Nixon is in his third term, tipping us that we're in an alternate 1985 America, where our superheroes have taken care of Woodward and Bernstein and other forces have evidently taken care of the U.S. Constitution.

The opening murder happens to a character called the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), who was once a member of a now-banished team of superheroes called the Masks. Fellow ex-Mask Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) -- his mask one of perpetually shifting inkblots -- takes exception to his old colleague's death. He believes the entire society of ex-crime-fighters is being targeted even as the Doomsday Clock -- which charts tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union that could lead to nuclear war -- nears midnight.

His investigation and renewed contacts with former buddies fills us in on the complicated histories and problematic psychiatric makeups of these colleagues.

It's all very complicated but not impenetrable. We pick up the relationships quickly enough, but soon realize these back stories owe more to soap operas than to superhero comics.

The thing is, these aren't so much superheroes as ordinary human beings with, let us say, comic-book martial arts prowess. The one exception is Billy Crudup's Jon Osterman, aka Dr. Manhattan, who in true comic book fashion was caught in a laboratory accident that turned him into a scientific freak -- a naked, glowing giant, looking a little bit like the Oscar statuette only with actual genitals -- who has amazing God-like powers.

These powers are being harnessed by an ex-Mask, Matthew Goode's menacing though slightly effeminate industrialist Adrian Veidt.

When Dr. Manhattan's frustrated girlfriend, yet another former Mask, Malin Akerman's Laurie Jupiter, can't get any satisfaction from Dr. M, she turns to the former Nite Owl II, Dan Dreiberg, who seems too much of a good guy to be an actual superhero, but he does miss those midnight prowls.

The point is that these superheroes, before Nixon banned them, were more vigilantes than real heroes, so the question the movie poses is, ah-hah, who is watching these Watchmen? They don't seem too much different from the villains.

Which also means we don't empathize with any of these creatures. And what's with the silly Halloween getups? Did anyone ever buy those Hollywood Boulevard costumes?

The violence is not as bad as early rumors would have one believe. It's still comic book stuff, only with lots of bloody effects and makeup. The real disappointment is that the film does not transport an audience to another world, as "300" did. Nor does the third-rate Chandler-esque narration by Rorschach help.

There is something a little lackadaisical here. The set pieces are surprisingly flat and the characters have little resonance. Fight scenes don't hold a candle to Asian action. Even the digital effects are ho-hum. Armageddon never looked so cheesy.

The film seems to take pride in its darkness, but this is just another failed special effect. Cinematographer Larry Fong and production designer Alex McDowell blend real and digital sets with earthen tones and secondary colors that give a sense of the past. But the stories are too absurd and acting too uneven to convince anyone. The appearances of a waxworks Nixon, Kissinger and other 1980s personalities will only bring hoots from less charitable audiences.

Looks like we have the first real flop of 2009.

Veteran

QuantumTrickery

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I caught a show early this afternoon, And it wasn't bad at all. Far from great, just good/ok. They really had the visuals down, the movie looked fantastic. I found myself looking at some of the shots and remembering the exact comic book frame it came from. The letdown came in the form of **** poor acting, and a chopped up storyline. I find myself looking more forward to the longer cuts. Too much was taken away to make the movie theater friendly. I think people who haven't read the novel will be worse off than those who did, if only for lack of understanding some of it.

By the way, do this film justice, and see it in a good IMAX theater.

Grand Master

Kev1n

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Awesome movie! For the average moviegoer who hasnt read the graphic novel, a daunting task probably lies ahead and the movie is not the best place to start, but for those who've read it it's great. It's a bit condensed, so there isnt a lot of breathing room, but that's what the 4-hour cut is for. Four complaints:

1) I didnt really like the fight scenes, not because of the slow-mo (it's fine), but because it seems to portray them as having super-strength. A kick and the body flies 2 metres up and lands 10 metres away. I bet those not familiar with it will think they indeed have superpowers.

2) I also didn't like Matthew Goode. He just didnt look the part. He was too young and too wimpy, and definitely not the man "every woman wants to lay". Other than him, the cast was good. Earle Haley is terrific. Billy Crudup and Patrick Wilson and Jeff Morgan are really good. Even Akerman is okay.

3) Nixon is really bad. Damn, he looks like an older Yellow ****** from Sin City.

4) Those who have read the comic will understand this. I wished they had shown Walter Kovacs more before they revealed him. I got a surprise when it was revealed in the graphic novel, but in the movie no one is going to go "Ohh that was him!"

The changed ending was pretty good as well. But MCR's Desolation Row sucked. I like the whole Dr. Manhattan part the best... the one with the Philip Glass piece.

Grand Master

Corris Veteran

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I was going to go see it tonight, but after reading some reviews people who have read the graphic novel have really enjoyed it and those who havent felt it was either a bit mediocre or bad and didn't get it.

So i've decided to get the graphic novel sometime soon and catch the film either at the end of its run or when its out on DVD/BR, I think I would prefer to enjoy it than not get it.

Grand Master

Massiveterra

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I give the movie an 8/10. It wasn't perfect but I thought it was pretty awesome. I wish they didn't cut out the murder of Nite Owl 1, which is a pretty big turning point in the book. But I guess that's why the blu ray release is 3hrs 45 mins

By the way, for someone that hasn't read the book, Roger Ebert gets it

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.d...VIEWS/903049997

by Roger Ebert

After the revelation of “The Dark Knight,” here is “Watchmen,” another bold exercise in the liberation of the superhero movie. It’s a compelling visceral film — sound, images and characters combined into a decidedly odd visual experience that evokes the feel of a graphic novel. It seems charged from within by its power as a fable; we sense it’s not interested in a plot so much as with the dilemma of functioning in a world losing hope.

That world is America in 1985, with Richard Nixon in the White House and many other strange details, although this America occupies a parallel universe in which superheroes and masked warriors operate. The film confronts a paradox that was always there in comic books: The heroes are only human. They can be in only one place at a time (with a possible exception to be noted later). Although a superhero is able to handle one dangerous situation, the world has countless dangerous situations, and the super resources are stretched too thin. Faced with law enforcement anarchy, Nixon has outlawed superhero activity, quite possibly a reasonable action. Now the murder of the enigmatic vigilante the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) has brought the Watchmen together again. Who might be the next to die?

Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), the only one with superpowers in the literal sense, lives outside ordinary time and space, the forces of the universe seeming to coil beneath his skin. Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) is the world’s smartest man. The Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson) is a man isolated from life by his mastery of technology. Rorshach (Jackie Earl Haley) is a man who finds meaning in patterns that may only exist in his mind. And Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman) lives with one of the most familiar human challenges, living up to her parents, in this case the original Silk Spectre (Carla Gugino). Dr. Manhattan is both her lover and a distant father figure living in a world of his own.

These characters are garbed in traditional comic book wardrobes — capes, boots, gloves, belts, masks, props, anything to make them one of a kind. Rorshach’s cloth mask, with its endlessly shifting inkblots, is one of the most intriguing superhero masks ever, always in constant motion, like a mood ring of the id. Dr. Manhattan is contained in a towering, muscular, naked blue body; he was affected by one of those obligatory secret experiments gone wild. Never mind the details; what matters is that he possibly exists at a quantum level, at which particles seem exempt from the usual limitations of space and time. If it seems unlikely that quantum materials could assemble into a tangible physical body, not to worry. Everything is made of quantum particles, after all. There’s a lot we don’t know about them, including how they constitute Dr. Manhattan, so the movie is vague about his precise reality. I was going to say Silk Spectre II has no complaints, but actually she does.

The mystery of the Comedian’s death seems associated with a plot to destroy the world. The first step in the plot may be to annihilate the Watchmen, who are All That Stand Between, etc. It is hard to see how anyone would benefit from the utter destruction of the planet, but remember that in 1985 there was a nuclear standoff between the United States and the Soviet Union that threatened exactly that. Remember “Better Dead Than Red”? There were indeed cold warriors who preferred to be dead rather than red, reminding me of David Merrick’s statement, “It’s not enough for me to win. My enemies must lose.”

In a cosmic sense it doesn’t really matter who pushed the Comedian through the window. In a cosmic sense, nothing really matters, but best not meditate on that too much. The Watchmen and their special gifts are all the better able to see how powerless they really are, and although all but Dr. Manhattan are human and back the home team, their powers are not limitless. Dr. Manhattan, existing outside time and space, is understandably remote from the fate of our tiny planet, although perhaps he still harbors some old emotions.

Those kinds of quandaries engage all the Watchmen, and are presented in a film experience of often fearsome beauty. It might seem improbable to take seriously a naked blue man, complete with discreet genitalia, but Billy Crudup brings a solemn detachment to Dr. Manhattan that is curiously affecting. Does he remember how it felt to be human? No, but hum a few bars. ... Crudup does the voice and the body language, which is transformed by software into a figure of considerable presence.

“Watchmen” focuses on the contradiction shared by most superheroes: They cannot live ordinary lives but are fated to help mankind. That they do this with trademarked names and appliances goes back to their origins in Greece, where Zeus had his thunderbolts, Hades his three-headed dog, and Hermes his winged feet. Could Zeus run fast? Did Hermes have a dog? No.

That level of symbolism is coiling away beneath all superheroes. What appeals with Batman is his humanity; despite his skills, he is not supernormal. “Watchmen” brings surprising conviction to these characters as flawed and minor gods, with Dr. Manhattan possessing access to godhead on a plane that detaches him from our daily concerns — indeed, from days themselves. In the film’s most spectacular scene, he is exiled to Mars, and in utter isolation reimagines himself as a human, and conjures (or discovers? I’m not sure) an incredible city seemingly made of crystal and mathematical concepts. This is his equivalent to 40 days in the desert, and he returns as a savior.

The film is rich enough to be seen more than once. I plan to see it again, this time on IMAX, and will have more to say about it. I’m not sure I understood all the nuances and implications, but I am sure I had a powerful experience. It’s not as entertaining as “The Dark Knight,” but like the “Matrix” films, LOTR and “The Dark Knight,” it’s going to inspire fevered analysis. I don’t want to see it twice for that reason, however, but mostly just to have the experience again.

Grand Master

Smigit

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Saw it last night on an IMAX screen. Quite good I must say although I was a bit tirred going in and thus had wished that maybe it had been 30mins shorter at the start or so simply because I was struggling due to fatigue more than anything.

Really good otherwise. Don't go in expecting Batman or anything as it's nothing like that. Ohh and I hadn't read the graphic novel before hand either.

Grand Master

Massiveterra

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Saw it last night on an IMAX screen. Quite good I must say although I was a bit tirred going in and thus had wished that maybe it had been 30mins shorter at the start or so simply because I was struggling due to fatigue more than anything.

Really good otherwise. Don't go in expecting Batman or anything as it's nothing like that. Ohh and I hadn't read the graphic novel before hand either.

I'm just curious...from the perspective of someone that didn't read the novel...was it easy for you to follow the story? And did the dialog seem corny to you? Since I read the novel I knew everything that was going to happen and knew the words that were about to be said

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Yggdrasilly

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I haven't read the novel either, and I have to say I really enjoyed the film. I was curious for a while on how Dr Manhattan became... well, Dr Manhattan, so I'm glad they threw in that montage with him. The soundtrack was also awesome, and I thought it fit pretty well.

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