The best film that ever bored me.

Rating: 6/10 (5 May 2012)

Impressive, intelligent, layered, rich in metaphor and subtext...and oddly boring. I don't know what it is about Watchmen. I never read the comic, so maybe that's why I didn't get it...? It should have been great for provoking after viewing conversation, but afterward I just didn't want to think about it. It starts great, but goes off kilter somehow, like a rhythm that goes out of sync 1/2 way into a song, and the further it goes the more obvious the off beats become. Then comes the point you just can't enjoy it anymore. But the concept was great. Amazingly clever play with hero archetypes, and the social and political statements suggested in the blurred distinctions of right and wrong. It's challenging in that regard, but dominated by a meandering sort of cerebral pomp, especially in Rorschach's Noir style monologues; and the white angst evoked in the 'Noble Lie' conclusion. The only stereotypes that remained intact were the bad guys, who could have been plucked from any generic superhero fantasy. For a film so complex it embraced some pretty 'central casting' social memes. Perhaps I am just taking it too seriously, but that's the way it was presented. And if a virtually omnipotent being like Dr Manhatten can't enjoy life... then why live? Friends have been recommending this for a long time. I finally got around to viewing it. It was impressive film and I really should have liked it, but... maybe it was just too long?