Watchmen: another so - so reality show

Rating: 6/10 (6 March 2009)

Right up front, the fact is, this movie was just interesting. The story seems to imply that superheroes are just people too. My reaction is "so? superheroes aren't real." I can go to any movie knowing that any person is just a person. Am I supposed to be drawn to these superheroes because they are people? Am I supposed to suffer with them because they acted like people? Not every person is the same and not every superhero is the same. So? Can we get to something substantial please? Guess what? We do. We find out that superheroes are like people when things are good AND when things are bad!. Wow. Another lesson in life - redux.
The special effects were simply OK. I challenge critics of special effects in other superhero movies to give this a higher grade. Dr Manhattan and his "fortress" were cartoonish to a fault and should have been given more attention.
While some of the action was enjoyable, it usually felt gratuitous and simply distraction from the slow moving pace. I can say I did not go to this movie for action but some more would have been nice. At one point, I was even imagining Rorschach fighting Batman - that would have been fun.
Rorschach(Jackie Earle Haley) and Nite Owl II(Patrick Wilson) were the most interesting characters and yet were both still underused in my opinion. Malin Akerman was enjoyable as Silk Spectre II, well, because I am a person and I have person desires. While Mr Comedy has the most action, I enjoyed the action the other three provided much more.
I did enjoy the story somewhat for having a different take on what it can mean to be a superhero and some of the characterizations were noteworthy. For the most part, though, it felt too preachy partly because of the extensive narration. Although, in a weird way, because the narration was done by Rorschach it did lend some sincerity to the story as it is Rorschach who really is the bonding agent in the movie.
I know this is a confusing review but the movie itself was somewhat confusing and frustrating because it was only "just interesting". It gets 6/10