I had a lot of anticipation going into Watchmen for the first time in IMAX and I have to say, I believe it definitely helped the overall experience. This movie was huge in every sense of the word, a full on comic book epic that threw every cinematic CGI technique in the book at you but was so faithful to it's roots that it ultimately came off as an underwhelming opera of violence that took itself too seriously. I really liked parts of this movie to the point where like in 300 I was like, wow, that's awesome. But then there are scenes that are just so weird or corny that you wonder if you're watching the same film. The opening sequence of the movie really got me pumped as it's not only the most interesting, but has the best choreographed fight scene and the most effective use of news to make you believe in this fake history they create for this superhero world. Watchmen's plot gets so complicated though that I can't even explain it to you without seeing it a couple more times and reading the graphic novel, which I'm told is so much better. All I know is that I enjoyed the hell out of the action in this movie. There were some awesome slow motion fight scenes which were stylized just like 300 including gruesome bone breaking, a kid eaten by dogs and hardcore limb chopping that made me realize that this movie really packed a punch. Even though they try to flesh out the mythology that's given to this group of aging superhoes who are outlawed from wearing masks and protecting Earth as it spirals into nuclear holocaust, I thought we didn't get enough genuine character moments with Dr. Manhattan to balance out the plot of Rorsach solving the mystery of who's trying to kill them. This movie wasn't nearly as good as Speed Racer or even The Dark Knight because it almost tried too hard to make the characters read their lines right of the comic, making a weird flow of dialogue and sex scenes that just seemed out of place. Besides the big blue penis that flops around most of the time, another thing that took me out of the world this movie was taking us to was the continual use of popular songs to cover important or emotional parts. I'd rather have the sweeping score from Tyler Bates kick in during these moments and don't think using a song to represent the time period really fit into the creativity they were going for. It almost felt like they got lazy and couldn't think up a tune to accompany that part in the movie. The viewpoint this alternate reality of superheroes represented was so dense and cynical that it kind of bugged me when they made such negative views on our society and pretty much say that we will go extinct any day now. The glorification and closeup of the violence in this movie seemed to just be there to show the actors looking good in costume but actually contradicted the message of peace the Watchmen were trying to promote in the first place. Thinking back on it now, I'm much more intrigued by the parrallels this movie represents to our current civilization's fear of terrorism and the real heroes that have to step up to protect our way of life. I"m sure i'll get more understanding of this world with the new animated comapanions and extended director's cut, but after this first viewing I liked it but didn't love it.
No comments:
Post a Comment