Just let it be surreal violence. Don't pretend it's something more.

Rating: Null/10 (11 October 2011)

Violence has always been the source of entertainment whether we are talking about movies or video games. The dramatic change occurred when the the people of today, apathetically feeding out of entertainment, actually found violence without drama or philosophical bases boring and insulting. That was when we started to have movies that were/are made for people wanting to see that usual content but which were this time filled up with more intellectual stuff. Watchmen is one of these examples.
Judging from the evolving level of our current society here, I have always assumed that we know where violence stands. Entertainment is entertainment and I respect that. To each his own. Taking a look at the director Zack Snyder's previous two films you can easily predict how the film is going to be. That was what I did. I expected to see lots of physical harm, limbs moving around or something similar and got prepared for it. So, why had they seen so much trouble trying to make the movie be more than physical harm, limbs moving around or something when it clearly was about that?
When you have two people hitting themselves for almost a minute, don't try pretending the fight itself wasn't your interest. There is a difference between violence that is the part of a bigger story and violence that is just there for itself.
The final indication of this movie's true target audience is the way they handled the philosophy. Every time I could have had something to think by myself, the characters in the movie explained those things to me so fundamentally that all I needed to do was drool. Maybe the scriptwriters knew that the ethical questions were too hard to be just visually presented to the audience for pondering.
Positively, this movie did feel somewhat refreshing, maybe because of it's surreal content and it's tone changing ridiculously often. I don't think this movie is the best example of an action movie desperately trying to pass off as a serious masterpiece. If you want better alternatives of those, you can go see Batman Begins and The Dark Knight.
So, how will you enjoy this movie? Just put popcorn in your mouth, let your brain cells go and try to ignore the fact that you might be deluded to actually use them during the movie.