Delivers different than expected

Rating: 10/10 (7 March 2009)

I went to see Watchmen today with high expectations and I haven't read the comic since I wasen't even born when it was first published. I really thought this would be the best blockbuster of the year, but it doesen't turn out to bee a blockbuster. Instead, it delivers on almost every other front.
The story is complicated but amazing and very very deep. You really have to be alert every second of the film to understand the next twist in the plot. The producers changed the ending of the comic in a new ending and I really can't understand why this isen't the end of the comic. Thats the biggest compliment I can give! The actors were good although Marilin Akerman was a bit disappointing. You really can't ignore the fact that she was casted for her beautiful looks, instead of her acting. The main part of the film she plays well but when it starts to get more intense, or emotional, she fails to convince you. A shame because she plays one of the most interesting characters.
The star of the show however is Jackey Earle Haley. He play's Rorschach, a tormented psychopath with a textile "face". Rorschach investigates the murder on The Comedian, one of the former Minutemen and Watchmen. Rorschach immediately thinks that someone is trying to kill all of the former superheroes.
There is only one person however, which has superpowers and that's Dr. Manhattan. As a result of a accident during a scientific experiment, he can teleport, make himself enormously big and change the substantion of materials. Dr. Manhattan is a fully CG character but most of the film you don't realize that. What plays a big part in that is that Dr. Manhattan glows blue, so the animators didn't have to precisely reproduce all the lighting in the set. This blue guy is one of the mayor philosophic characters and sometimes you want him to shut up and do his magic. But when you think about his part in the story after wards you're glad he didn't. I'll explain in a few moments.
The last two main-characters are Night Owl and the superhero with the most ridiculous name ever; Ozymandias. Those two people are almost the exact opposite. Night Owl is someone who's afraid of the suit he's wearing and has a low sense of self-assurance. Ozymandias however is an arrogant prick who loves being the worlds smartest man, and turned his Watchmen-image into a wealthy industry.
I forgot one person, the victim, The Comedian. In the first shot of the film you see he's brutally murdered and the ongoing of the film increasingly want's you to know who's done it. The big reason for this seems to lay in the fact that he played a big part in the outcome of the Vietnam-war, together with Dr. Manhattan. So was it a political killing, or is someone really picking on costumed-heroes? The outcome, I have to admit, didn't surprise me that much. I've looked at all the sites and the down-loadable images from the inter web and I had a feeling the film would end like this. The main part of the theater I was in however didn't, so you can see the polttwist as a success.
Watchmen is not a bluckbuster. Of course there are big expolsions, amazing fighting-scenes and simply spectaculair special effects, but the film serves an other goal. It doesen't want to push you into your'e chair thrilling of excitement, and therefore it doesen't. But is does let you think about everything else. What exactly the point was the film tries to make I still don't know, but it still keeps me busy. And that's something I never expected.