Mostly nice to look at

Rating: 4/10 (22 March 2009)

I found the movie's attempt to match what I assume are the visuals of the source material to be attractive, and I really wanted to like the story's subtexts about such things as the nature of heroics and the shifting boundaries imperfectly separating courage from foolhardiness and cynicism from concern. In the end, though, it was hard to care too much about the film because so much of it was more or less tepidly silly. Even to the uninitiated (like me), the bad guy is clearly announced about halfway through, and his great master plan, once revealed, is one of those dumbfoundingly convoluted but stupid ideas that only works in bad fiction because a character has been given an absolutely impossible amount of resources and lucky breaks by authorial fiat in order to make it work.
The acting doesn't help matters. Jackie Earle Haley is an interesting actor and Rorschach an interesting character, but Malin Akerman is simply awful and Matthew Goode and Patrick Wilson not much better. Having seen Billy Crudup in _Almost Famous_, I know he's a good actor who will likely recover from being in this, if for no other reason in that he is normally filmed in flesh tones and with pants. At least he has the grace to sound bored with his character's ridiculous dialog.
Still, it looks nice, and Rorschach is entertaining (though why he would want to rely on the rest of these drips is lost on me).