WATCHMEN

ENGLISH - (18PL) - 5 March 2009 - Action/Thriller/Science Fiction
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Running time: about 163 mins.
Director: Zack Snyder
Producers: Lawrence Gordon, Lloyd Levin, Deborah Snyder
Writers: David Hayter, Alex Tse (screenplay), Dave Gibbons, Alan Moore (comic)
Casts: Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson
Plot: In a gritty and alternate 1985 America, the glory days of costumed vigilantes have been brought to a close by a government crackdown. However, after one of the masked veterans is brutally murdered, an investigation is initiated. The retired superheroes reunite and set out to prevent their own destruction with an extra mission to watch over humanity. In the course of doing so, they unwittingly discover a deeper and far more diabolical plot.

THE VERDICT:

Green Tea says:

WARNING SPOILER! Superheroes are getting outcasted by laws and people perception. First it was Batman in The Dark Knight, and now those 1986 vigilantes in danger due to government crackdown in Watchmen. Before I begin, this is to sum up the whole post, Watchmen is "not-so-freaking-awesome" but I like the darker theme and harder to understand plot lines in this movie.

Watchmen sets in 1985 in an alternate United States where the government feud with the Soviet Union plunged into an all time close to nuclear war. Meanwhile, a group of vigilante whom had retired from their job due to public anger were united to investigate a mysterious murder of one of their former team member. However, the mysterious death led the team to one of the plot of killing all the vigilantes in order to pursuit a devilish plan to initiate the nuclear war.

First of all, the plot story. For many, they might find the movie very hard to understand because the themes and stories it presented here are alien for Asian and require a very deep thought to fully understand. Graphical novel adaptation contains highly metaphor dialogues, narrations and plots that may hinder our mentality to accept it. I do agree the pace of the story is very slow at the beginning and the climax is rarely reached. Everything is seems to be dragging right till the last minutes, and it would be good if the movie runs only 2 hours, chopping away those unnecessary extra 43 minutes. I also agree that the screenplay is not as exciting as I was anticipating and may bored to death.

Do understand this, before you really indulge deeply into this piece of mind-challenging story, do prepare yourself by knowing more about the capitalism, communism and cold war itself. These are the core of the story and despite these, add another knowledge about the dark history of each of the six member of Watchmen. With these knowledge with some higher understanding about metaphor world, it should be ample for you to really understand. I figured that many feel this movie is hard to follow and ended up dislike it.

However, as I said, get your facts ready and I am gladly to explain any doubts you have regarding the movie.

The casting is so great that for those who had read the comic before, the casts in the movie satisfy the soul and elements of each character well. This is very true especially the role of Comedian. Although his screen time is pretty much limited, JeffreyD Morgan's role is pretty much an impact, a vital one and an enjoyable one. Also impressive are the roles of are equally oustanding. The feels of aura from the graphic novel are transmitted well into the movie adaptation. The other essential point here is the great flashback used for development of a good characterization, in fact all 6 members of Watchmen have a great presentation about their past!!!

Needless to say, the impressive works of special effects and cinematography. The illustrative perception of Dr Manhattan is awesome and represents the complexity in artworks and reimaginary of digital technology. A good work I say. Most of the environments portrayed in the film suit the plot story and dialogue well. Take Comedian's funeral for instance, raining and gloomy mood, just perfect. Another point to ponder is that the movie have no nonsense animated fighting scene that requires too much digital effects. What matters is the great choreograph and simple kung fu fighting.

Never been tired of being a lover of superheroes (with exception of The Punisher and The Spirit), these bunch of superheroes finally ended my anticipation for this movie for a full 7 months. However, the mode, pace and the themes used in the movie may irritated many of those who find it hard to appreciate. This movie requires deeper inner sense and thoughts before you start to indulge in it. Otherwise, characterization, special effects and so on are just awesome.

THE RATINGS.....

CAST - 4.5 stars

STORY - 3.5 stars

CINEMATOGRAPHY - 4.0 stars

EFFECTS - 4.0 stars

an overall>> 4.0 stars

GreenTea-O-Meter: 15.8