But one shocking disappointment is Matthew Goode, who had been good in past movies like The Lookout but comes across as a '90s pretty boy rapper type playing dress-up as opposed to the rich, confident tycoon he is supposed to be after being the only one who has revealed his true identity as one of the Watchmen to the world. As for Malin Akerman, well, her track record is not very good, with past films like The Heartbreak Kid and 27 Dresses. Seeing her faced with scenes here where she is called upon to strike some higher dramatic notes (as when she discovers a revelation about her origin late in the film) only underscores her decidedly narrow emotional range. The Valley Girl speak she often inflects in her dialogue certainly does not help matters either.
To be sure, some of the visuals that copy directly off the comic book page are arresting particularly when Doctor Manhattan starts taking frequent detours to Mars after feeling increasingly detached from earthly human beings. But that is also part of the problem. The surface visual wizardry is way too glossy for its own good. The visual panache worked for a movie like 300 where the characters were all archetypes anyway as opposed to more human characters but here, combined with some lackluster acting, it repeatedly keeps us at arm's length to get into the personalities of the superheroes. Additionally, the endless freeze-frame zooms that Snyder employs to show some of the hard R-rated brutal impacts like a punch to the face or a graphic arm-break are getting quite tiresome now after 300. It also ends up actually lessening the full visceral impact of the violence itself and prevents the audience from feeling the physical and psychological pain and, within a story that tries to explore the troubled and harsher psyche of superheroes, the splatter violence combined with pyrotechnic flash becomes mindlessly quease-inducing rather than properly unsettling or disturbing as the characters and the audience should be feeling.
It is all unfortunate that the visual whizzes and bangs get in the way of supplying a better dramatic backbone because actually the one thing that was admittedly improved in the film version was the ending. Some of the absurdities have been removed and the choices characters make seem a little bit more logical than in the graphic novel. But, by then, it is too little, too late. We are not fully engaged with these characters and the movie has not allowed us to ponder the moral balance to make the risky and audacious statement it wants to make at the end.
Article comments
1 - Al Barger
With due respect, Moviejohn is all wet. The Watchmen movie is brilliantly done, and in fact distinctly a little bit better than the Alan Moore comic books.
A lot of folks seem to get themselves all hung up trying to watch a movie based on famous source material. What the hell does "slavishly" following mean? There's no way Snyder could win with some people. He'd either be dismissed for being too close to the comic book or for straying from the source and betraying the original vision.
But there's not a damn thing "lazy" about the making of this movie. There's Gibbons pen and ink comic book drawings, then there's brilliance with which the image turn into moving three dimensional things. Even just the scenes of Dr Manhattan in the lab were things of beauty.
The acting was perfectly good and in a couple of cases outstanding. I just wish we could have seen more of Rorschach without the mask, cause Haley is really good. But then, he had the most interesting and beloved character to work with.
I've never seen Malik in anything else, but she did fine here. I'm not expecting her to win an Oscar - but it's a comic book character, not Shakespeare. There's only so much that acting can do for a character that ain't that deep.
Plus, the ending was clearly a major improvement over the alien octopus from Outer Space. This really made it zing.
2 - handyguy
Worst movie of the century, except for 300. Who directed that one...?
Well, actually Mamma Mia! and Sex and the City may be slightly worse. And Speed Racer is the worst movie of the millennium. Come to think of it, there have been several memorably awful movies the last year or two.
But the violence in Watchmen is genuinely vile, and not in an 'artistic' way. The parts that aren't disgusting are laughable. Sometimes, the disgusting parts are laughable too.
As has been pointed out, if the rest of the movie were as good as the opening credits, that would have been something worth seeing.
I did rather like the origin flashback of Dr. Manhattan, and Billy Crudup's sweet, beautiful voice is always welcome. And Jackie Earle Haley is excellent, but who wants to sit through his nauseating origin flashback? Or the godawful prison riot scenes? Yikes.
A 70% drop at the boxoffice in its second week, and not at all surprising.