Commercial audiences expecting a superhero movie will be disappointed. Fight scenes are brutal, but sparse. No one attempted to reinvent the super villain. And many of the subtleties that enrich the graphic novel are embedded throughout the film, but require a second or even third screening to catch them all. That said, anyone open to a sophisticated psychological drama that asks questions about post-religious America, ego, fascism, torture, and the important role fear plays in world politics will have their brains atom-smashed and reassembled.
Walking out of the theatre, I got the vibe that people still have Heath Ledger carving up their psyches – that some people needed at least one character to twist them up. Rorschach accomplishes this to a certain extent, but the mask (and staunch principles) get in the way. The Dark Knight will haunt superhero movies for decades and rightfully so; it raised the bar in every way you can imagine. Thankfully, The Watchmen doesn’t try to be anything but The Watchmen. This might be the adaptation that entices Alan Moore to write specifically for the screen, yet I’d much rather ingest his stories in gloriously flat halftones.
Walking out of the theatre, I got the vibe that people still have Heath Ledger carving up their psyches – that some people needed at least one character to twist them up. Rorschach accomplishes this to a certain extent, but the mask (and staunch principles) get in the way. The Dark Knight will haunt superhero movies for decades and rightfully so; it raised the bar in every way you can imagine. Thankfully, The Watchmen doesn’t try to be anything but The Watchmen. This might be the adaptation that entices Alan Moore to write specifically for the screen, yet I’d much rather ingest his stories in gloriously flat halftones.
2 comments:
Really? Dammit. I really didn't want to see this movie.
Must see this soon.
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