In the Face of the Apocalyse, the Watchmen Fall Short of Saving the Day

Rating: 6/10 (6 March 2009)

WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST WATCH? (HEAVY SPOILER ALERT!)
I thoroughly enjoyed The Watchmen, but I do not feel that it met the caliber of the comic book films from 2008. The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, and The Dark Knight were all extremely better films than The Watchmen.
My biggest complaint with this movie was how campy it became. Early in the movie, during the scenes with The Comedian, I was extremely impressed, but as the movie grew longer I felt that it became less psychological and much more focused on visuals. The costumes took away from the focus on the story and theme and shifted it toward the characters. While the characters as a whole were well developed and unique, some of the characters fell short in my expectations of 21st century comic book film characters.
My biggest complaint was with Ozymandias. It wasn't until the last hour of the movie that I was confident Ozymandias was the villain. I also felt that Ozymandias was extremely underdeveloped. What was his motivation? I was under the belief that he was one of the new heroes, taking the place of the 1940's minutemen, but all of a sudden he became the antagonist. How was he capable of making the giant blue nuclear bomb/device that caused so much havoc? What was his relation or symbolism involving ancient Egyptian Gods and ruins? Extremely poor development on the villain of this film was a massive weakness and plot hole.
On the opposite side, Rorshach was spot on for a major character in a comic book based film. His past and present were clear indicators of his motivation. The scene where he tells everyone in prison, "I am not trapped here with you. You are imprisoned with me!" had the entire theater standing and applauding (the only point at which this happened during the film).
Overall, I still can't get over how campy this film felt. At times I wished I was watching the Joel Schumacher Batman films, because those movies seemed less ridiculous. This movie was so difficult to understand I started writing notes on my hand. Dr. Manhattan seemed too ambiguous in what he decided to use his God Powers to prevent/change.
Watch this movie, but don't expect anything better than what you've seen in the last year. I would have rather been asleep from 12:00 AM to 3:00 AM than watching this movie.