Watching and Watching and Waiting and Writing and…
Categories: uncategorized, reviews, movies, watchmenSo Watchmen had it’s World Premiere in London over the weekend, and, though there is supposedly a press blackout on reviewing the movie until after the American premiere, nonetheless, the first reactions are beginning to come in… so what are people saying?
Well, Kevin Mayer of the London Times opines:
It’s not for the faint-hearted — and, despite the preponderance of Spandex outfits, capes and costumes, not for the kids either.
The movie, a 2¾ hour epic… is a mesmerising and brutalising experience, and will be, for some at least, more than worth the wait. Set in a mid-Eighties Manhattan of the comic book imagination, where “costumed vigilantes” have changed the course of US history (Nixon is saved, the Vietcong defeated, etc), the dense narrative unfolds as a whodunnit in the head of a psychopathic do-gooder called Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley). In Stygian nightscapes reminiscent of Taxi Driver and Seven, Rorschach visits his four former crime-fighting buddies, including Matthew Goode’s brainiac businessman Ozymandias and Malin Akerman’s killer femme Silk Spectre, in an attempt to expose a secret assassin who’s nurturing apocalyptic plans for the entire Eastern seaboard.
Along the way, limbs are broken, bones are smashed and skulls split as the film earns its unprecedented 18 certificate (the supposedly ultraviolent Dark Knight was a 12A). And it’s not just blood and guts. There is unwanted pregnancy, erectile dysfunction and deep sexual anxiety too. Patrick Wilson’s Nite Owl, for instance, cannot “perform” unless he has beaten up some criminals first, while Billy Crudup’s fluorescent blue Dr Manhattan, complete with exposed genitalia, offers kinky yet loveless sex to Silk Spectre.
Add to this some startlingly incisive monologues on fascism, free will and American democracy, and you have a movie that is reaching utterly beyond the confines of its genre.
Meanwhile, Mike Ragogna of the Huffington post tells us:
From the moment we see The Comedian’s blood streak across his seventies Happy Face button, we know that the movie version of Watchmen and its caretakers were going to be as respectful as possible to the vision of the original comic miniseries…
But unlike the thought-provoking Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, and John Higgins 1986 creation that demanded one’s imagination stretch beyond a page of panels, this thoroughly-engaging incarnation of Warner’s DC Comics property attempts to achieve that level of examination through a more stylized, literal approach.
For much of the movie, a Sin City-esque rain washes over a dystopian, mid-’80s New York City whose World Trade Center’s twin towers control a skyline filled with Veight-logo’d zeppelins and his own corporate high-riser. The city hates its “heroes,” mostly because of The Comedian’s non-discriminating assaults on both villains and innocent citizens, and Doctor Manhattan’s omnipotence. On one occasion, Nite Owl — the movie’s sanity compass — confronts Comedian/Edward Blake on his aggression; Blake justifies what he is doing as the fulfillment of the American dream. Of course, this is a universe where Nixon was elected five times, we won The Vietnam War (thanks to Doctor Manhattan’s intervention, accompanied onscreen by an Apocalypse Now nod and Wagner’s “Ride Of The Valkyries”), Russia and the US threaten nuclear exchanges over Afghanistan, and Ronald Reagan (differing from the comic’s other “RR” reference) runs for president in 1988. The movie exhibits about four world views, touching on pacifism, militarism, evolutionism, and interventionism.
Overall, comicdom probably will embrace this movie, but its critics are going to compare it to The Dark Knight, Iron Man and Sin City , though it would be unfair to use those familiar templates. This kind of film hasn’t been done before, it has no clear “right” or “wrong,” that, even in current Batman movies, still is very well-defined. Also, it’s pretty refreshing to see a “superhero” movie with no superheroes — well, there is one, the omniscient Doctor Manhattan. But he is so powerful and above human logic that the terms “hero” and “super” are inadequate to describe what he really is. Watchmen purists, whose expectations will be off the chart, shouldn’t be too disappointed because whatever scenes seem to be omitted (especially the Halloween murder of the original Nite Owl, Hollis Mason) most likely will be included on a planned four hour or so special version whose DVD release is rumored to be nothing short of The Lord Of The Rings expansions.
And for those still craving more, you can run out and buy the “absolute edition” of Watchmen, the graphic novel, that includes additional sketches, and the whole shebang. But focusing back on this mythic movie, on every level, it will demand your attention and intelligence as it entertains; it’s sophisticated and sensationally sophomoric; and for those just watching Watchmen for the Watchmen without any expectations or knowledge of the comic’s storyline or historical importance, this really will be a blast.
Matt Selman of Time gives us this somewhat more personal reaction:
I’m not allowed to talk details, but let’s just say it is astounding how much of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ graphic novel is in this movie.
(Really, the absence of Alan Moore’s name on this is like Stan Lee’s being missing from Spider-Man, because 95 percent of the words and ideas in this movie are all Moore.) Has there ever been a movie adaptation of a comic book (or book book) this close to its source material? Probably the two Frank Miller movies, Sin City and 300. But, while awesome, Frank Miller’s comics didn’t solve my Rubik’s Cube of a 1980s teenage heart every single time I re-read them the way Moore’s and Gibbons’ did.
Sitting in that screening room and watching the visual world of the Watchmen movie unfold was one of the most powerful experiences I’ve ever had. Not film experiences. Just EXPERIENCES. I don’t think I realized how close I was to the original book until I saw such a loving, detail-rich, almost obsessive recreation of that universe. It had my heart pounding and head swimming. I barely slept that night. Someone took the most special personal thing of my adolescence and put it on a movie screen. That doesn’t happen every day.
What will people who’ve never read Watchmen even think of this film? What will it be like for them to sit through these crazy, violent, colorful three hours and not recognize almost every line – almost every image? Will they be utterly baffled, bored, or totally love it? Is Watchmen even a good or bad movie? I have no idea. I stand powerless before the Gods I once worshiped in my attic bedroom, now moving and talking and fighting and loving on a giant screen. And I find myself unable to judge them.
Finally, Moviehole’s Clint Morris sums thing up like this:
Part detective story, Part Superhero adventure, and Part Portrait of the Imperfect Human, ‘’Watchmen’’ is a must-see movie. It rarely trips up, and though a little long (there’s a lot of content to bring over from the comic books though; one fellow journalist said a lot wasn’t in the movie that was in the books – an impossible task to bring everything over though), running at about two-and-a-half-hours, it’ll keep you entertained until the brilliant, didn’t-see-that-coming conclusion.
Now, obviously, these early reactions are coming from folks who are fans of the original material. And just as obviously, they’re giving the movie a hell of a lot to live up to. Still, even taken with a pretty sizable lump of salt, they definitely give the impression that this movie may just live up to all the hype in just the same way that last year’s Dark Knight did. But in the end, I guess we here in the states won’t really know for about another week and a half when we finally get our chance to watch for ourselves…
(for the full texts of these reviews please click on the links above…)
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