His Take/Her Take: Watchmen

Worth the price of admission, or a waste of time? Brian McKechnie and Suzanne Ellis offer you their take on the latest movies hitting screens. Read their reviews every Friday, exclusively on CityNews.ca.

Let Brian and Suzanne know what you think of His Take/Her Take via email at brian.mckechnie@citynews.ca or suzanne.ellis@citynews.ca .

WATCHMEN

Rated R
Cast: Billy Crudup, Malin Akerman, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode
Directed by: Zack Snyder
Running time: 163 mins.
Official Site IMDb

When The Comedian is murdered, former colleague and vigilante Rorschach makes it his mission to find out who’s behind the killing. He connects with his former team of retired superheroes and they uncover a conspiracy that could have devastating consequences for the future.  Set in an alternate 1985 America where costumed superheroes are part of everyday society, Watchmen is a complex mystery adventure.

Brian’s Take

** out of 5 stars

For the first 10 – 15 minutes Watchmen had me hooked. 3-hours later I left feeling unfulfilled and questioning why they even attempted to make a movie that was once labeled “unfilmable”. Where the movie fails is that (from what I’m told – I’ve never read it) it is very true to the graphic novel it’s based on (so if you’re a fan of the graphic novel stop reading this review and go enjoy your movie). If you’ve never read the graphic novel (or don’t even know the movie is based on one) you will feel so detached from the characters and story you might as well get someone to tell you the same inside joke for 163 mins. If you look at other recent graphic novel adaptations like 300 (which Zack Snyder directed as well), Sin City and even V for Vendetta – they’re enjoyable films that can hold your interest without the need to refer back to the basis of the work. Sure you might get something more out of the film if you do but the point is you don’t have to in order to understand the film.

The other problem I had with Watchmen is that it felt flat on the screen. The cinematography, sets, costumes (with the exception of Rorschach’s inkblot mask) all felt tired and dull. A movie of this caliber should blow you away visually from the first frame to the last (like The Dark Knight did). Instead we have Dr. Manhattan’s ridiculous blue CGI glow (and his exposed…parts), Nite Owl II’s cheap looking flying machine and a scene on Mars that makes Brian De Palma’s Mission to Mars actually look good.

The movie did have a few high points. Jackie Earle Haley did an amazing job as the character Rorschach (although a reason of why you should care about the character would be nice). The flashbacks of how the ‘Watchmen’ began in the early days (as the ‘Minutemen’) were great and I wish they focused more on that aspect instead of skipping over it in the opening credits. The idea of an alternative 1985 has so much potential but it was wasted as an after thought.

My recommendation is stay home and watch one of the movies I mentioned above or check out Pontypool and One Week at the theatre instead (both deserve your attention more than Watchmen). 

Suzanne’s Take

* out of 5 stars

Do you know that sinking feeling when you realize the movie you’re watching is going to be a stinker? I felt that about 10 minutes into Watchmen – and the film is 163 minutes long. I found watching, or perhaps I should say enduring, Watchmen to be one of the most frustrating, painful movie-going experiences of my life. Which is saying a lot — I once sat through Freddy Got Fingered .

Full disclosure: I’ve never read the hugely popular graphic novel, and I didn’t know any of the characters going in. But so what? The same applied the first time I saw V For Vendetta, also based on an Alan Moore creation, and it was one of my favourite films of 2005. The characters in that film were richly drawn, the acting first-rate, the visuals compelling, and the plot cohesive.

With one exception – a mesmerizing Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach, the man with the inkblot mask who prowls the city at night and longs for the way things used to be – none of those qualities were evident in Watchmen.

Instead I found myself trying to make sense of what seemed to be an awkwardly-pieced-together series of vignettes, a yawningly dull first hour that barely touches on the movie’s main plot, and no real visual thrills (I was at least counting on that given the director is 300‘s Zack Snyder).

The film is set in an alternate-reality 1980s. The Cold War persists, and Richard Nixon is still U.S. President. He’s counting on one of the ‘Watchmen’, the blue-hued Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), to keep the country’s enemies at bay. The only ‘Watchman’ with superpowers, Dr. Manhattan can disintegrate pretty much anything in his path, making him a formidable opponent. His fellow ‘Watchmen’, some of whom are carrying the torch for a previous generation of costumed crime-fighters called ‘Minutemen’, include Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman), Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson) and Ozymandias (Matthew Goode). They’ve all but hung up their masks and boots, but when one of their own, The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), is murdered, they suit up once again to find out who’s behind the heinous crime.

What I keep reading is that Snyder, an avid Watchmen fan himself, was remarkably faithful to Moore’s work. For fans, I can see that being a good thing, and they may well appreciate this film. But I have a feeling they’ll be the only ones that do – Snyder’s slavish devotion to the source material in my mind is the film’s chief downfall. The work simply doesn’t translate onscreen. In my humble opinion, whole scenes could have been cut, minor characters left out – perhaps that might’ve tightened the story up and made the action more compelling.

Watchmen fans, enjoy. Everyone else – save yourselves 163 minutes of agony.

ALSO OPENING THIS WEEK: One Week, Pontypool, Nightwatching, Fear(s) of the Dark

Top Image: Matthew Goode as Ozymandias and Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian. Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.

Middle Image: L-R: Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian, Malin Akerman as Silk Spectre II, Billy Crudup as Dr. Manhattan, Matthew Goode as Ozymandias, Patrick Wilson as Nite Owl II and Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach. Courtesy Warner Bros. Pictures.