I Watch the Watchmen (Again)

Rating: 7/10 (18 February 2012)

My first viewing kept me awake during a transatlantic red-eye. Earbuds don't quite work for me so I kept it only on video. In a phrase, visually arresting, but by the end I rubbed my eyes and muttered, "Um...say what?" That didn't prompt me to read the source graphic novel. It still hasn't. But two recent re-viewings provoke the same odd attention from me as did The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: There be Acting here.
Jackie Earle Haley is superb as a masked vigilante who feels faceless without the mask. Given what she has to play off of, Malin Ackerman keeps your attention throughout...sometimes that's all that's needed...and her scenes with a crudely made-up Carla Gugino remain special. And given what the FX crews do to him Billy Crudup's portrayal of a godlike being is singular and striking.
Matthew Goode is spot-on as The Man Who Has Everything (If No One Interferes). Patrick Wilson is quietly hilarious as a conflicted and at times distracted Clark Kent who truly needs "the suit". And Jeffrey Dean Morgan captures perhaps the most prismatic hero of all, for compared with Haley's character who feels compelled to punish, Morgan's enjoys that.
As I felt with LXG, you truly do start to believe in these deeply flawed paragons of...well, if not virtue then let's say idealism. And whether or not it was done for those familiar with the graphic novel, much thought was put into the portrayals, and at least to me the results clearly showed on-screen. Hat's off for that.