Review: Watchmen is Excellent, Just Uneven

Rating: Null/10 (31 March 2009)

For a film as ambitious and complex as Zach Snyder's visionary Watchmen, it would be a crime to brand the movie's legacy with a single letter grade or numerical score. Watchmen is above rigid classifications. And while film critics are pioneered watchmen (it is their job, after all to watch films), the most valued watchmen are theater-goers willing to risk $10.75 to satisfy their desire for escapist entertainment. What makes Watchmen so challenging is that it is not easy-watching.
While most comic-book flicks these days are purely geared towards escapism, Watchmen compels viewers to consider humanity in its lowest form and think about the human capacity for evil. Snyder brilliantly depicts a world drained of hope in an opening montage of revisionist history meant to challenge viewers to acknowledge the explosion of evil in recent decades. Rather than focusing the introduction on just a character, Snyder sets up the the film's underlying tension of nuclear war by illustrating the increasingly evil nature of humanity over the course of many years.
That Snyder was able to capture the essence of human futility by uniquely demonstrating the accumulation of this hopelessness over countless years is a unique vision which deserves praise. And the feel of Watchmen at points can be frighteningly committed to the nihilistic atmosphere Snyder sets up. Snyder's Watchmen in this respect is far more convincing than The Dark Knight in its portrayal of a noir-like dystopia.
While Snyder's 300 was visually enthralling, it felt like the kind of disposable entertainment which you can chew up and then spit out. Watchmen, on the other hand, lingers in your mind like a bad spell. The film is more than just visual dessert. It is a philosophical challenge to all viewers to side with their own protagonist. While all (or most the Watchmen, depending on your opinion) can be considered protagonists, they all represent opposing views on the value of human life. As the entire world holds its breath, the Watchmen simply wait, too conflicted and wary to take action. These Watchmen are no ordinary heroes. They are deeply flawed, complex, and extremely well-developed.
As the script's storyline is really only a couple hours long, the film inter-cuts each individual of the Watchmen's past history to their present-day apprehension with the world on the brink of nuclear war. What makes this technique so effective is that unlike the average cinema superhero, the Watchmen are anything but super. What they really are are just washed-up retirees who have a little taste of nostalgia for who they used to be. And it isn't until this nuclear debacle that they found out who they really are.
The only major criticism worth noting is the film's editing. Forget about "Who Watches the Watchmen?" Who watches the final cut? Watchmen's soundtrack is just all over the place. It likens to the product of what happens when a teenager and his friends make a home video on their very first video-editing program and add their favorite songs to layer the soundtrack. Individual songs in Watchmen's soundtrack are great, but the combination of these songs polishes this film with an unnecessary Hollywood glaze. Perhaps the editors and Snyder weren't quite on the same page.
But Watchmen should be remembered for what makes it great instead. Granted, it is difficult to purely appreciate the film when it is incredibly uneven. With regard to the performances, for instance, some actors were really on (Jackie Earle Haley) while others were detrimental to the viewing experience (Malin Akerman). Certain parts in Watchmen are incredible while other parts are bound to just tick you off. And that's a damned shame for a movie with so many touches of greatness.