The Violent Gang of Six in vain; and all that...

Rating: 6/10 (6 March 2009)

'Watchmen' is set in 1985, in a alternative reality where USA and Soviet are on the brink of nuclear-war. Superheroes are outcasts, and vigilante Walter Kovacs alias Rorschach, is investigating the murder of his former colleague Edward Blake alias the Comedian. As he digs deeper into the case, a mysterious plot unravels - now he reconnects with members of his former legion, and starts uncovering a disturbing conspiracy.
I was a 'Watchmen' virgin watching this at the cinema. Having heard so much of the enormous popularity (I still believe it was mostly among geeks) of the graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, I understood that I (and surprisingly a huge percent of my fellow Norwegian movie-lovers) had missed out on one of many of-its-times cult-literature-works. The novel was supposedly "unfilmable" as directors as Terry Gilliam and Paul Greengrass had failed to capture its essence, but director Zack Snyder ('300') did certainly not let anything stand in his way when shooting one of the most ambitious superhero-tales ever written. Snyder lets it all hang out in this, but he's certainly torn between two camps; the ones who know and love the novel, and people like me, Watchmen-virgins.
The film tells multiple stories, and tries capturing every emotional, political, and moral complexity in bits and pieces throughout. The six superheroes are interesting and compelling characters; Jackie Earl Haley is Walter Kovacs aka Rorschach, a masked vigilante with a dark past, whose "do-it-or-drop-it" encouragement makes him an unstoppable force of righteousness; Patrick Wilson plays Daniel aka Nite Owl II, a man fearing his former alias and who's hiding away his past in the basement, unable and failing to blend into society; Malin Akerman is Laurie Juspeczyk aka Silk Spectre II, a leathery chicksa whose counter-responding to her mother's superhero-days and are conflicted in a difficult relationship with Doctor Jon Osterman aka Doctor Manhattan, played by Billy Crudup, a doctor who accidentally became empowered with otherworldly powers and are awing bleakly at humanity; Matthew Goode plays Adrian Veidt aka Ozymandias, the only former 'Watchmen' who has revealed his identity is a ageless Aryan who's now operating as a global business-man; and there's Edward Blake aka The Comedian, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, a psychopath whose humor has a brooding darkness and purpose. All of this characters have a dark edge, and at times they almost look too-hot-to-handle, and with already such layered philosophical dialogs and deepened mythology it comes a bit cooking when Silk Spectre II and Nite Owl II develops an affair that becomes dominating in the second part that appears neither natural, sparkling or vivid, it just becomes a bit annoying. And here Snyder fails to capture the humanity and humorous sexual tension between guys and dolls clothed in spandex, and neither all of the actors achieves to completely fulfill their characters soul (Matthew Goode, Malin Akerman and Patrick Wilson). But this is undoubtedly a gang-of-six full of spectacle and rousing aspects; for example Doctor Manhattan is a sort of anti-superhero, the cirupy piece of glowing CGI works splendidly when alone on Mars trying to seek for a higher ground, and his relationship-troubles with Laurie / Silk S, feels interesting in the film's humanization of the vigilantes; and Rorschach is truly a paranoid superhero-version of Philip Marlowe, wearing the classic coat-and-hat but with a mask full of ever-changing expressions, strolling down the rainy streets with a snarling voice including a under-used narrative, he's tracing down a murder mystery with brilliant determination.
Snyder makes it run for 2 hours and 40 minutes, and although I'm sure there's plenty of further details to investigate at a second viewing (for the geeks), it feels a bit long when there's really no climax to appear, and now there's things to love and hate about exactly that - but it surely could have been chopped down, because there's nothing to love about a film feeling like it's never going to end. But herein the long running time there are blasting visuals, the loads of green screen and digital effects are all over the place, but Snyder manages to create a world and vision that's got dark elements of film-noir, science fiction and Armageddon. In Snyder's previous film '300', he kept the story at 1st-grade levels, spoon-feeding the audience with ridiculous voice-overs and one dimensional characters, here he goes the opposite way around. Its bloody seriousness and anti-mainstream heart is way-interesting, but as said I feel it was a novel of its time, and so much of its references and "oh-so-intelligent" gibberish becomes, well gibberish, and the storytelling becomes a bit disorderly when the plot starts knotting up, and we're given quirky humor of various success and pop-cultural placings of great music that doesn't necessarily become executed greatly; Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'" playing under that nostalgic intro is great, the use of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" while Nite Owl and Silk Spectre makes love in a daft craft on the other hand, is simply terrible.
In the finale there's a lot that doesn't entirely make sense, but still, there's the bone-crushing violence and grim characters that makes for a interesting watch, and it's full of glowing ambition, and so 'Watchmen' succeeds to make a change in the path of superhero-movies.