Flawed Heroes, Flawed Film

Rating: 5/10 (4 August 2009)

Snyder's Watchmen is a decidedly dark and visceral film which candidly illustrates the flaws of heroes. Unfortunately, this is as detrimental to the film as it is advantageous. It is of importance to note Snyder stays fairly loyal to the graphic novel. However, possibly due to the continuing "development hell" that surrounded the film, everything comes across as compulsory and superficial. The aforementioned flaws of the heroes are painstakingly brought to the audiences' attention in fragments. For instance, the Comedian is a rapist, Dr. Manhattan has nearly lost all ability to relate to humanity, Rorschach is blindly obsessed with "justice," and Ozymandias determines the only way to save humanity is by destroying a large part of it. In addition, Silk Spectre II exhibits her adulterous nature in a very awkward sex scene on board Nite Owl II's flying machine. Is the film sounding pretentious? Well, it most assuredly is.
Among the actors there is not an inspired, let alone a stand-out performance. Every character, including our narrator Rorschach, seem merely to be going through the motions. This lackluster presentation from the cast epitomizes the entirety of the film, which is carried largely by grandiose visuals and reliance on the original story rather than any new or interesting interpretation of the work itself. Further weaknesses in the films include the melodramatic musical cues that sound as though they came directly from Snyder's "favorite iPod play list." Simply because the film was set in 1985 should not have meant that all of the music featured within the film come before that time period. For instance, it was difficult to contain sneers of disgust as 99 Luft Balons kicks in. Also, songs such as The Sound of Silence, Hallelujah, and All Along the Watchtower are so comfortably familiar that it detracts from the gloomy, unrefined focus of the film. Moving away from musical discrepancies, was the glowing blue genitalia truly necessary? This is one aspect of the graphic novel Snyder could have deviated from without much complaint from fans.
Arguably, the most significant areas of discontentment stems from the closing sequences of the film. These shortcomings will be broken down into three parts.
1.) Ozymandias obliterates a large portion of the population and leads everyone to believe it was the fault of Dr. Manhattan. His reasoning: "A world united in a peace... they had to be sacrificed." Given the history of our tumultuous existence as a species, it is difficult to believe this would end in peace. It is far more likely that weapons creators across the globe would immediately begin work on larger and more powerful armaments in hopes of destroying the ostensibly omnipotent Dr. Manhattan.
2.) Ozymandias has effectively harnessed the power of Dr. Manhattan and used it to implement the aforesaid destruction. However, if he had successfully discovered a means to utilize this power, could he not have just as easily used this power to prevent nuclear war entirely? At the very least, this newfound power could have been exercised to wipe out the current nuclear weapons supply.
3.) The remaining characters of the film seem altogether indifferent to the fact that Rorschach was killed by Manhattan, Manhattan was betrayed by Ozymandias, and Ozymandias perpetrated as many or more murders than Adolf Hitler.
Aside from the compulsory nature of the film, limited artistic interpretation from the director, lackluster performances by the actors, poor choice in musical cues, an ending that lends itself to questioning (not David Lynch open-to-interpretation questioning, but "what the hell were they thinking" questioning) and let us not forget the glowing blue penis, the film was not without redeeming qualities. The austere demeanor of the film is a welcome change from the typical hero film. Of course Christopher Nolan already perfected this with the new Batman movies, but Watchmen had a noir mystique of its own. The fight sequences, though a bit melodramatic, were choreographed well. Also, as was alluded to earlier, the film is an exhibition in technological progression. These fantastic effects helped to create the feel of a graphic novel.
Watchmen is not a revolutionary film, but it is worth the time it takes to view. It explores the flaws of heroes, delivers a dark, graphic mystique and exhibits stunning visuals all while staying relatively true to the original work of Moore and Gibbons. This reviewer's score is 5/10.