Four out of four stars (Rated R for strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity, and language) Running time: 162 minutes. Reviewed at Cinemark Market Street on March 6.
When the seventh and final installment of the “Harry Potter” series was released to the public at midnight on July 21, 2007, a gent that I teach with—call him John—was there at a bookstore to purchase his copy.
He proceeded to read the book and gave me a full report the following Monday as to its contents. There are people like John that enjoy science fiction adventure stuff such as “The Matrix” and the “Lord of the Rings” trilogies. I’m not one of them.
So it didn’t surprise me when I asked John on Friday if he was familiar with the “Watchmen” series that had been made into the movie I was going to see later that morning. Of course he was familiar with it, going one step further by rattling off the details as though he had just read the thing. John told me about the superheroes story set in 1985 with Richard Nixon in the White House and the United States about to go to nuclear war with the Soviet Union. It piqued my interest.
Zack Snyder of the gore-fest “300” also directed “Watchmen,” so I knew the graphic violence would be there on full display.
My enjoyment would have benefitted by reading the Wikipedia description of the DC Comics series released in 1986 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmen). As far as the storyline of the graphic novel series is concerned, “Watchmen” skips few details in its lengthy (162 minutes) adaptation.
But let me make this disclaimer—if gore is not your thing, steer clear of this one.
As described earlier, the setting is October 1985. Yes, Tricky Dick is still occupying the White House with his cabinet officer Dr. Henry Kissinger, scheming to defeat the archrival Soviet Union in the Cold War. The world seems dark and dreary, similar to that shown in “Dark City.” Many 1985 icons appear—“The McLaughlin Group” gives commentary and analysis, Lee Iacocca is there offering his K-car and a rebate check, and get this—Vietnam has given up the fight and joined the United States.
The brutal murder of a superhero/vigilante named the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) brings back together a gang of masked, spandex-clad superheroes called the Watchmen. One of them, Rorschach (Jackie Earl Haley) wears a mask that looks like an evolving inkblot. He suspects that there is a plot to eliminate the old gang and in turn the rest of the world.
Only one Watchmen has superpowers, that being the (literally) all-blue, out of this world Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), who parades around in his birthday suit and takes up occasional residence on Mars (don’t ask).
There’s also the hottie Silk Spectre II (Malin Ackerman), Dr. Manhattan’s former squeeze but now taking up residence with the dweeb Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson). That leaves Ozymandias (Matthew Goode), who in his daytime job is the wealthy industrialist Adrian Veidt. Even the uninitiated can figure out he is up to no good.
The resultant violence is laid on thick—there is both a street riot and prison riot, blood flows freely, hands are amputated, a head is split in two with a meat cleaver, bones are crunched, and glass—lots of glass—gets broken with chilling effects.
Mixed in among the violent action is some heavy-duty philosophical mumbo jumbo that quite honestly flew over my bald noggin. I’ll likely see “Watchmen” a second time during spring break when I have the time.
