Wait for the DVD

Rating: 3/10 (6 March 2009)

Unless your rental store is just as expensive as a ticket to the movies, I would really avoid this one. I personally have not read the comics, but know the general story behind it as I have a friend who has read them. When I heard it, I was genuinely interested. so I decided to go ahead and see the movie with my friend. Unfortunately it turned out to be quite a let down.
The thing that stood out as being the worst possible thing in the movie was the musical score. Songs that don't match the scenes at all regularly occur within the film. They often sound as if they were in an entirely different mood. The songs themselves do not have much in common, and also sound rather varied and different with no unified theme.
The next thing would be character interaction and drama. This movie has quite a bit of character drama... and it all comes off rather horribly. Dr. Manhattan seems to be in a depressed state and cannot tell the difference between reality and whatever he sees in the vast universe. The Silk Spectre breaks up with John, then sleeps with the Owl within a matter of days. Though at least in that case something leads to it, unlike a later scene in an airship which comes out of no where and was not really necessary and does not advance any plot or relation at all. The Comedian is just an immoral superhero who wouldn't get away with the crime he pulls back in America when killing civilians for fun because they protested superheros. The Owl is probably the only character people are really expected to familiarize with... if you were the nerd who never got any and idly stood by as you let your superhero comrade run around shooting innocents (the Comedian of course.) Rorschach is... well, plain and simple, he's a freaking nut case. Due to a poor childhood and after beating down some of his bullies he somehow comes to the conclusion all the criminals need to be beaten to a pulp. Then after doing a rather sick and twisted case, he decides all criminals should be killed outright regardless of what they might have done. It's like a bad soap opera on crack.
Speaking of entirely out of place, let's talk about the gore. I have no problem with gore, you want limbs flying in every direction, that's fine with me. However, the movie uses it horribly. It only shows up every once in awhile as if it were an afterthought, usually in scenes that involve Rorschach. This includes Rorschach slamming a cleaver into someone's skull multiple times and another one where his actions lead to having a man's arm's cut off. While this is completely shown with gore and all, somehow when Rorschach dumps an entire vat of hot grease on a man, it looks like he just had a mixture of snot and gel dumped on him and isn't suffering from anything. Just screaming with gel on his face and upper torso. Likewise another man is shot in the head during the movie, and there's not much other than a drop of blood and some scabbing when you finally see his face.
While we're on the topic of imbalance, we might as well talk about Rorschach narration. The movie hops between the normal actors acting things out, and Rorschach suddenly narrating in descriptive, intellectual sentences that sort of mimics the old gumshoe feel but with a much darker flare. It's spotty at best and stops after the first 2 or 3 times, lasting for short periods. It looks as if they thought they might try narrating the whole story with Rorschach, then decided against it but kept a few parts in regardless. The reason for the narration is Rorschach journal of events, which plays a minor point in the roll of the movie.
Other smaller things I didn't particularly care for include Rorschach's voice which felt overdone with it's gravely tone. The CGI of Dr. Manhattan, especially that of his eyes, looks rather bad. His whole struggle with "is life actually important" and how he comes to his conclusion felt like a load of bull, and would never actually sway anyone with his previous mindset. He whines that he doesn't want to be involved with humans or stuck with them because they hurt him, yet part of the reason he hurts oh so much all goes back to him having an affair in the first place. Go cry me a river blue boy. Only 2 or 3 of the "superheros," would even stand a chance of being realistically sanctioned by law enforcement or government at ANY point in time. It's really no wonder why people where protesting against superheros with ones such as these. Dr. Manhattan is the only one that is technically "super," everyone else is just much more fit and better trained than the normal human (that's how the movie describes it anyways.) Yet somehow they are throwing people through bullet proof glass and taking on mobs of people like it's nothing. Never mind the fact that every bullet just happens to miss them and in the one case it does hit, it's because the hero somehow catches the bullet in a bullet proof glove WHILE AT POINT BLANK RANGE.
Now, once you look past all these things, you might see what COULD have been a good movie. The points the story is trying to convey about humanity is interesting. The fact it shows how world events are changed with the coming of superheros is also an interesting idea to think upon. If the movie weren't quite so half-baked it could have turned out really well. But it is half-baked, and as such, it sucks.