The men who watch

Rating: 7/10 (15 August 2017)

I remember seeing this movie when it first came out and understanding nothing of what was going on. It wasn't a usual superhero flick with a clear villain. And besides it was weird and graphic, so naturally I didn't like it that much. Now on my first proper viewing of the film I decided it would be best to check out the Ultimate Edition. I can honestly say that I like a lot more compared to what I did eight years ago. It's a conspiracy story that takes place in an alternate version of the 20th century. The visual narrative is gripping and it's what I enjoyed the most. Just the image of Rorschach on a rooftop while it's raining gives me such a great noir feeling. It was kind of refreshing to see superheroes in a complex thriller like this. You get to know the characters decently well even though I'm not the biggest fan of some of them. Dr. Manhattan and Silk Spectre are OK, but Manhattan's behavior and monotone voice started to bug me. I found myself siding with Nite Owl and Rorschach the most. Their relationship felt the most pure hearted to me. I still think some of the graphicness could have been toned down. But I guess that's because they followed the novel so closely.
The Ultimate Edition is over three hours long. Yep.. Well, I saw the whole thing. It's overstuffed, but the additional runtime gave each character-arch more air to breath. There are definitely some interesting moral questions brought up which I did get intrigued by. The extra animated segment was a good mood-piece, but it's something best left for the curious fans. It's basically a story within a story and it goes in a dark and psychological direction. When it comes to the actual live-action movie I feel that some exposition eventually started to drag. And most of the gratuitous stuff and slow-motion still came out as a sore thumb to me. I'm sorry, but it got distracting. Nevertheless we get excellent cinematography, good action and great visual design. This could possibly be Zack Snyder's best comic book film. We'll have to wait and see how "Justice League" turns out.