It was all a joke...

Rating: Null/10 (2 April 2009)

A prevailing sense of nihilism washes over the bleak and barren landscape of Alan Moore's graphic novel, the pages lined with fragments of doubt, paranoia, anger and mistrust. It's a depiction of humanity that does not spare any dark corner from the revealing rays of sunlight, casted instead into clear vision; stark, undignified and frightening all the same. Dr. Manhattan would have us believe that we as humans reassure ourselves into thinking that we are in control through delusions of pseudo-omnipotence—a vague and callous form of collective megalomania, devoid of universal sympathy, or an ounce of concrete truth. Indeed, he asserts that rather than embrace the truths of our existence, we would prefer to shelter ourselves under blankets of frivolous distractions fit to serve us to our dying days when we finally have to come face to face with the cold bitter reality that we all mush perish. A dead body he says, isn't any different from a live one; at least, not in form; not in its molecular makeup. It's a cold, objective look at life through the lens of a cynical, and yet completely unbiased view.
Watchmen, in very many ways is simply an embodiment, or elaboration on Dr. Manhattan—a twisted, contorted form, long distant from its idealistic and human ways, instead embracing an indifferent and foreboding stance. The world that Moore paints isn't pretty, no, but it's far from the pages of fiction; or at least, that overbearing sense of reality that governs its message is, and it's tangible and potent enough to go beyond mere fiction. In this regard, Watchmen exists as a rare breed of film that works just as well off the screen as it does on it—it's a film about ideas, criticisms on our own existence, and questions that beg to be answered amidst the petty babbling and double edged swords of modern semantics. Most of all however, Watchmen is a film that manages to do all this, all the while telling a unique and unforgettable tale that resonates long after the conclusions are drawn, the bombs are dropped and the orchestra begins to pack up their instruments.
Without a doubt, Moore's depiction here is an Earth rooted in dystopia—if there was a God, he is nowhere to be seen now, and to a select few this was only a matter of time, even if most of the world have only just caught up to the obituary penned by Nietzsche a century earlier. But these select few, casted out years beforehand as a result of a growing disdain from the public for their seemingly threatening amount of power, The Watchmen as they were once known, no longer serve the people—in fact, most are either dead, insane, or have settled down to live as a regular Joe Hasbeen. Yet with disaster looming in the air, there is a spark somewhere off in the distance, and in that short ray of light comes a small miracle; a glimpse of hope for mankind.
Behind this parody and criticism of the commonly accepted superhero mythos, Watchmen details a potent struggle of the hopeless, nihilistic revelations of world gone astray, with the idealistic, somewhat existentialistic hope of a select few with the power to make a difference. Hidden beneath the cracks of Moore's story is an allegory of morality broadened with empathy rather than prevailing omnipotence; it's about a society coming to the brinks of their deaths and then taking one last breath before the final page is slowly turned for the good or bad fortune of mankind.
Make no mistake, this is a feature that doesn't suit well to casual viewings taken purely on an ostensible level; it isn't built for passively soaking in to the background ambiance of popcorn crunching and soda slurping—in fact, this is a superhero movie that isn't even about superheroes. It demands attention and patience, something which modern cinema goers have no doubt lost much of over the course of the last decade or so. The "superheroes" of Watchmen (being no such thing in actuality) exist primarily to offer grander, more exaggerated images, and expressions of our own qualities as human beings, and with that, Moore's story becomes less about what we are watching, and more about what we are feeling.
Yet for all its intellectual benefits, emotionally engaging sentiments, and breath taking visuals, it's the story at the heart of Watchmen that makes it what it is. It's a story that manages to connect not just through the intellect, but through the heart, and through the naturally questioning soul that defines us from all other life we know. That story, which defines humanity in one fleeting image after another, exists here on the big screen as relevant and moving as ever, echoing the current social climate with vivid resonance and potency. Our struggle, symbolised simply by a cute, bright-eyed smiley face smeared with a single droplet of blood, forms the redemptive tear of a misguided and squandered race trying desperately to survive against their own tragically savage nature. It's poetic but grounded and sporadically flawed, but Watchmen nevertheless succeeds in continuing the advancement of the superhero movie into a new realm of adult entertainment fit with intellectually rewarding themes and tangible characters with more to them than tight spandex, special effects and clean-cut morals.

A (heavily cut to less than 1000 words) review by Jamie Robert Ward. For the full, uncut article please visit http://www.invocus.net.