Interesting, funny, politically uncorrect. But it's too much

Rating: 7/10 (4 April 2009)

This is a new History of Cold War through superhero eyes. It's a different America which won the Vietnam War thanks to superheroes. And "now", in 1985, Us faces the risk of a total confrontation with Soviet Union. But someone is killing all the Watchmen, the super-humans who defend America and its society. This is the interesting scenario of "Watchmen", not only a comic-movie, but a comprehensive reflection on America. To make a movie from the graphic novel "Watchmen" is almost impossible. Zack Snider tried, the result is not bad, but not perfect either. Moore, one of the two novelists, boycotted this project. While the plot is developed as a thriller (who want to kill the Watchmen?), the focus shift from one character to an other, each of them reflecting a different philosophy. This is the strength of the movie, but also its foe. In a novel, the authors had all the time and space to develop all their philosophical questions. Which are: when the use of brute force is legitimate? Is man entirely responsible of his actions? Does God exist? If God exists, why he ignores sufferance and considers the complete annihilation of humanity? Is life really a "miracle"? Is peace a value in itself? Does it justify sacrifices and millions of deaths? In a movie is impossible to reach an answer in 160 minutes. When we leave the theater, we can think: "it's too much". And we had no answer as well. The (not so much) happy ending is a great delusion, especially if we compare it to the open ending of the novel. But I don't want to make any spoiler. But there are other strengths in this film: it's fantastically politically uncorrect! And it brakes all the clichés of superhero movies: the Watchmen are not entirely good, they protect society by means of violence, sometimes brutal violence. In superhero movies, usually there no gore and no sex at all. Here we can taste ultra-violence and a lot of sex scenes. Usually in a superhero movie, political debates are off-limits. In Watchmen, politic is the main focus. And we can taste satire against liberals and peace-mongers (and vegetarians) never heard in other commercial movies. This is an act of courage in the era of politically correctness.