We watched Watchmen

Seen Watchmen yet? If not, read our take on it. And before you go, see the interviews with stars Billy Crudup (Dr. Manhattan) and Malin Akerman (Silk Spectre II) in the current issue of The Wave Magazine, at www.thewavemag.com.

SYNOPSIS:
In an alternate 1985 America, costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday life, and the Doomsday Clock (which charts the USA's tension with the Soviet Union) is permanently set at five minutes to midnight). Following the murder of one of his former costume-clad colleagues, the masked vigilante Rorschach’s paranoia pays off, when he uncovers a plot to assassinate all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his onetime fellow crime-fighters – a ragtag group of washed up superheroes, only one of whom has any special “powers” – Rorschach glimpses a disturbing conspiracy with links to their past and catastrophic consequences for the future. Their mission is to watch over humanity... but who is watching the Watchmen?

REVIEW:
This cinematic adaptation of the legendary graphic novel is at once intense, enigmatic, romantic and magically surreal, not to mention explicitly bloody. The first 10 minutes alone are worthy of the ticket price, as the back story of the tale’s dystopian society (it’s the 1980s, Nixon is still president) unfolds in a stylish montage set to Bob Dylan’s anthemic track “The Times, They Are A’ Changin.” Squeamish viewers will have trouble with more than one scene later in the film – the violence is at times unrelenting, and always unsettling. But the story’s concept is so intriguing, and so cleverly avoids any superhero clichés, the film remains captivating in spite of the graphic (pardon the pun) violence.

Cast wise, the actors may not be household names, but all give solid performances. Notable is Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian – his tortured chuckle and tragic timing makes The Dark Knight’s Joker seem positively cheery. Also noteworthy is Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley as the implacable vigilante Rorschach, who hides his identity behind an intriguing, ever-morphing ink-blot mask. Rorschach may be the catalyst behind much of the film’s cringe-inducing violence, but he also gets some of the most killer lines. In the hands of a less nuanced actor, the inconspicuous Dan Dreiberg (who when suited up is nice guy hero Night Owl II), could have come across as self-pitying, but acclaimed performer Patrick Wilson’s portrayal is warm and endearing. On the female front, Malin Akerman is solid and sweet as onetime superheroine Silk Spectre II, while Carla Gugino manages to overcome an overdone aged makeup job to lend dignity to mark two’s mother, the original Silk Spectre – now wasting away in a retirement home on a diet of nostalgia and noontime margaritas.

Billy Crudup is rendered unrecognizable as the mysterious and mesmerizing Dr. Manhattan, although we do see him in some flashbacks, before he became a glowing, well-built blue man with the ability to control matter. While his inability to connect with, and sometimes comprehend, human emotions and frailty makes him an at times frustrating character, his confusion adds to the philosophical slant of the tale, which views humanity as both mindlessly violent and amoral, yet also capable of being courageous and noble.

Anyone buying tickets to this film will no doubt expect the usual ingredients of a graphic novel’s cinematic adaptation: bone shattering, blood spattering violence, insane special effects and lots of sexy, world-in-peril drama. That’s here in spades, but the flipside of this tale’s doomsday, brink of nuclear violence scenario also makes for some surprisingly poignant moments, and even some soap opera style, skeletons-in-the-closet drama.

With its philosophical, sociopolitical tale getting garbled in the at-times disjointed screenplay, Watchmen may not be the most lucid, coherent tale to have hit the screens in recent times. But with its talented cast, impressive visuals, sublime use of music (everything from Bob Dylan and opera numbers to ’80s tracks such as “99 Luftballoons” and “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”); it remains nothing short of a triumph in the realm of cinematic experience.
-Jo Abbie