Even after seeing it almost a week ago, I can't say whether this was a good movie or not. While watching it, I remember thinking, "wow, this is kind of slow" alternated with, "whoa!". But it has stuck with me and I have forgotten the slow, mundane parts and am left with the more powerful scenes and performances. Which primarily were by Jackie Earle Haley who played Rorschach.
Even Dr. Manhattan with his shining blue penis I did not really care for. His story is probably the most stereotypical super hero tale, being a scientist in an accident and coming out alive with super powers. He is god like in Watchmen, to the point of being a Gary-stu. There is quite literally nothing he can't do, except perhaps bring back the dead and wear a pair of pants. He is also one of the most uncaring, unmoving and apathetic characters.
The accident not only changed him into something inhuman, but removed any and all traces of his personality. He turns into a being who is disconnected from morality, emotions, humanity in general and is just plain bored with everything. He is in a relationship with Silk Spectre, although he is completely uninterested in her. I'm not sure why he is even in a relationship with a woman at all, why he would have the desire for one. It seems that it is just a convenient plot device, there are no real feeling or connection between the characters that comes through.
Silk Spectre was fanservice fodder like I've never seen. Perhaps she wasn't in the comic, but in this movie her main purpose was to have unnecessary sex scenes and to try to keep Dr. Manhattan from letting the world be annihilated by making him have a moment of giving a shit.
There is absolutely no reason for the sex scene between her and Night Owl. None. It was so random and so completely out of place that it couldn't have been anymore obvious as a ploy to get teenage boys' attention. There is another 'love' scene between the two, but Night Owl has some performance trouble. It was long and completely unnecessary as well. But why have characterization when you can have 5-10 minutes of grunting and slow motion fucking? Tits sell tickets, not interesting characters.
The Comedian is a character you almost immediately dislike after the opening scene when you find out more about him and what he's actually like. He is yet another shallow unexplored character who is portrayed as nothing but a cruel individual who has no qualms with killing a woman pregnant with his baby or trying to rape a fellow member of their band of masked heroes. None of his back story or perhaps a reason why he is such a prick and an evil man is ever even hinted at. It makes you wonder why anyone would even care that he was killed and are not in fact happy about it. Jeffery Dean Morgan gives a good performance for what he was given to work with, he looks great as a psycho. Although he occasionally looks like Robert Downey Jr. in this film to me.
Then we come to Rorschach. We in fact do get a glimpse of his backstory and is the only character who gets any real meaningful scenes and dialogue in the entire film. He is the only one to make any kind of emotional attachment, the only character you actually care about. I could honestly care less about what happened to the rest of the characters and my entire focus on the movie was, "When is Rorschach coming back on screen?" "What is he doing?" "Omg quit showing these shitty sex scenes and show me Rorschach!" When he comes on screen, you pay attention and you are rewarded with intensity and a powerful performance. Hell, even just watching his mask change was more interesting than having to watch Silk Spectre being emo about her love life and hump any guy she's in the same room with.
Rorschach is a key character in the story, his journal is what starts the plot and we get a glimpse into his view of the world. He has no sympathy for the immoral of the world, he sees himself as bringing retribution to those that deserve it. He is perhaps the most sympathetic and upstanding character, even though he is portrayed as a bit of an unstable vigilante. However, the actions of the rest of the Watchmen make Rorschach look like a nun. He not only is the most determined and active in trying to solve the death of the Comedian and the further conspiracies, he refuses to go along and keep silent with the horrible truth of what Ozymandias did, and that the rest of the Watchmen throw all morality out of the window with little care or emotion. Because everyone's reaction to a few million people being murdered is, "Oh, it's not that bad."
The problem with this movie was it spent so much time trying to fit in as much of the comic as possible and not concentrating on making it more film friendly, that it is in fact downright boring for most of it. It's 3 hours, when probably only 45 minutes are actually interesting and pull you in. Since there is so little to no characterization of all but one character, there is no reason for me to sit and watch 2 hours of filler of people who are flat and mundane and wear capes. And then of course in the end, the only interesting one gets bumped off. I know fanboys were flipping their shit about this movie and how much ANGAR they would have if it wasn't as exact as possible to the comic, but come on.
As a film, Watchmen is not a great movie. It's not a bad movie, but most of it I could have fast forwarded through. It was bloated and should have been cut down in some areas and expanded in others. The scenes that have stayed with me and I've kept thinking about are the ones involving Rorschach. He's a fascinating character and Jackie Earle Haley did a fantastic job playing him. And as much as I don't want to like this movie, he is the only reason I would watch it again. And perhaps again. But when I have a remote and that lovely FF button.
No comments:
Post a Comment