Watchman Movie Review

Watchmen, a movie based on the graphic novel by the same title. If you are familiar with the Alan Moore work and enjoyed it, this is a must see movie. If you are familiar with the work and did not enjoy it, stay far away from this movie. Some films you know the viewer will either love or dislike, and this is one of those. “Watchmen” originated as a DC comic in the 1980s with a completely unique style. As directed by Zack Snyder, who appears to be making a career out of bringing graphic novels to the screen (“300”), the zany oddities of the original are carried forward. You have references to “The McLaughlin Group” and “Dr. Strangelove” interlaced with a soundtrack that leads off with Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changing” and going through a baby boomer’s sound heaven. If what you have read so far is not giving you any direction because you were not a graphic novel reader, I shall attempt to summarize the 2 hour forty minute telling of the 12 installment novel. The watchmen were vigilantes (Moore is the source for “V for Vendetta”) who in 1985 are in retirement when suddenly they start to be killed. To the extent there is a continuous underlying story it is the why and who questions regarding their death. We also have a superhero beyond all super heroes, Dr. Manhattan – the blue man is played by Billy Crudup – a nuclear accident survivor from the late 1950s who was Nixon’s secret weapon to bring victory in Vietnam (yes, we also have an alternate history) and is the reason there was no nuclear war with Russia. The movie opens with a violent fight involving one of the watchman, the Comedian, who the movie implies was the real assassin of John Kennedy. We have some genuine R material in the love story element involving Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson) and Silk Spectre II (Malin Akerman), whose mother was an original female watchman. I didn’t see a Nite Owl I. Ultimately, the story is political told as an idealistic male in his very late teens/early 20s may see the world. Both the sex and the violence are idealized but the Nietzsche questions are all present. The photography and special effects are all Oscar quality. If you go thinking you are going to see a version of “Spiderman” or because of the title, “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”, another Moore product, I believe, you are going to be disappointed.
If you just go and watch the images and only think about what you are seeing when it is over, then you may be pleased with the experience.

STEVEN GUTTMAN
Kessner Umebayashi Bain & Matsunaga
220 South King Street, Suite 1900
Honolulu, Hawaii 96813