beautiful expensive nonsense

Rating: 4/10 (4 July 2012)

I am no fan of the super-heroes films genre, and 'Watchmen' did not change this. The film tries to build a sophisticated intrigue which gives to several superheroes a past and some dilemmas to deal with (beyond saving the world) in a revisionist version of history where the Vietnam war was won by a super-heroes helped America and Nixon won four consecutive presidential mandates. Actually this alternate history landscape and the beautiful cinematography are the best parts in the film, which otherwise I found to be a pretentious and long nonsense.
Now my son points to me that איק graphic novel the film is based upon is one of the best and most known modern literature works of our age and is studied and read even in academical institutes. Maybe, but this still could not make me believe for one fraction of second the view of the latex-costumed heroes dealing with relationship traumas. The level of the cinematographic realization was also uneven. Splendid computerized effects (like when Dr. Manhattan finds himself on Mars) coexist with what looks like bad make-up of the main heroes. Was this intentional? Maybe, but I missed the intention.
Oh, yes, one more grouping of sequences I loved - the scenes with the plethora of generals in the situation room surrounding the old venerable president Nixon ready to decide on starting WWIII based on a 54% estimation that the whole Soviet Union will be nuclearly annihilated, while 'only' a few big cities on the US East Coast will be hit in the retaliation. This looked like an homage to 'Dr. Strangelove' and was superb. But not enough.