Watchmen (2009) - Was It Really That Bad?

No, it's you again, well, since you're here, let me tell you another story from the annals of film history. When it comes to controversial film directors who are still working today, it's hard to think of one more divisive and controversial than Zack Snyder. As for who you're talking to, the man is either a visual genius who helped usher in a unique new filmmaking style for comic book adaptations or an overrated, talentless pirate whose movies look like they were filmed in the middle of a power outage, while While the iconic shots of 300

really

put him on the map, the bleak and depressing tone of Man of Steel and Batman v Superman pretty much took him off the map, but there's another Zack Snyder film that's a little harder to categorize, a film which dared to tackle source material so challenging that it frustrated some of Hollywood's best writers and producers for decades a film called Watchmen based on the labyrinthine and extremely mature comic book series Watchmen tells the story of a group of former crime fighters who live in an alternate 1980s America on the brink of nuclear war.

With a cast of flawed and morally questionable characters doing clearly unheroic things to achieve their goal, it dared to ask if superheroes could exist, would you

really

want them to watch? The series were somewhat surprised that a two-and-a-half-hour film was not able to incorporate all the elements of the 450-page graphic novel; On the other hand, no general public went to theaters expecting a fun, action-packed superhero movie about a bunch of good guys determined to save the world and well, that's not exactly what they got, as a result, Watchmen failed. generating enough momentum to break through at the box office, combined with lukewarm reviews from journalists - remember when people still cared what they thought - it gained a reputation as being a bit of a critical and commercial failure, but it was really good.

It's not like I can go back and alter the box office numbers. What do you think I am Disney? But I can look more closely at Watchmen as a creative endeavor and try to answer the questions. The old question was really so bad now that the theatrical cut is over two and a half hours long, so needless to say the story is a bit of a monster and if I tried to break down every plot point this review would probably end. It's longer than Muller's TFA series, but I'll do my best to give you a decent overview of the story, so let's get started.

Watchmen is set in an alternate 1985 America where masked crime fighters have existed since the 1940s, at least until they were banned a few years earlier after a wave of public backlash, now the few that remain have retired to live. their lives as normal people and have become agents of the government or ignored the ban and continued to operate outside the law while a god was accidentally created. -as if being known as dr. Manhattan would have allowed Richard Nixon to win the Vietnam War and his third term, not to mention shift the balance of the Cold War in favor of a cornered United States.

The Soviets are becoming increasingly desperate and unpredictable, pushing the world to the brink of Armageddon. The main story begins with the murder of an elderly crime fighter known as the Comedian who attracts the attention of his former comrade Rorschach, named for the inkblot mask he wears to hide his identity, believing that former members of the vigilante crime fighting group is being targeted for murder rorschach tries to contact the others and warn them this is where we meet the other main characters of the story there is night ielt who used to be a batman type character in a suit badass and a hover jet but now he's fat and retired and some kind of ozymandias, on the other hand, has used his scientific genius to become a billionaire tech giant in hopes of using science to prevent nuclear war.

Then there is Dr. Manhattan himself, who now works as an agent of the American government. The abilities of the American government along with his girlfriend Silk Specter Manhattan allow him to experience the universe outside of linear time, meaning that his mind basically exists in the past, present and future, all at the same time, as you can probably imagine, this makes it quite difficult for him to concentrate. little things like the outcome of the cold war and there is a growing rumor that he may actually be a threat to humanity. It all comes to a head during a disastrous television interview in which he attempts to reassure the public only to be confronted by a former lover who claims he caused her a terminal illness.

Overwhelmed by all the attention, he teleports to the surface of Mars for a time. of inactivity, but with America's ultimate weapon missing in action, the Soviets took the opportunity to invade Afghanistan, bringing the world even closer to World War III. Just as Rorschach gets closer to the truth about the comedian's death, he is framed for the murder of a former supervillain and sent to prison knowing he will die within hours if they don't do something that Nitrile and Silk Specter are forced to do. to do. come out of retirement to rescue him those are the three basic threads of Watchman's story the first follows the growing relationship between the night owl and the silk specter as they dust off their capes and costumes for the first time in years the second follows the search for the truth by rorschach and his growing suspicion that there is a much larger conspiracy at play and the third focuses on dr.

Manhattan trying to decide if humanity deserves to be saved; In between all of this, we get flashbacks to the events that defined each character's life over the previous decades, most of which focus on the comedian and his gradual transformation from an honorable crime fighter to a bloodthirsty warrior, to a cynic and a bitter old man. It is like the bridge that unites the different generations of superheroes from the innocent optimism of the 40s to the turbulence and disillusionment of the 70s and, finally, the gloomy foreboding of the 80s, where there are no more heroes and the world is on the verge of annihilation with no one to recover it.

He also gets one of the best lines in the entire movie: what happened to the American dream, what happened to the The American Dream came true. You are watching it when the main characters finally joined forces to discover the truth. They learned that the comedian's death was part of something much larger and sinister than a simple murder and that one of their own may, in fact, be working against them and with the doomsday clock ticking toward midnight, they discover that The price of saving the world could be higher than any of them ever imagined. Now, when I think about Watchmen's relative failure at the box office, I can't shake the feeling.

While at its core it was a poorly marketed movie, anyone who watched this movie expecting a traditional, light-hearted comic book movie where the hero defeats the bad guy and saves the world will be pretty disappointed in Watchmen, it's just not that kind of movie. movie. because it was never meant to be seen beyond flashy visuals and Watchmen is a complex film that explores interesting aspects of the superhero genre. I'm a little hesitant to use the word deconstruction because these days it conjures up images of an angry, purple-haired land. whales who think their gender studies degree is a magic key to unlocking the mysteries of complex storytelling, but in this case it really is the best way to describe what Watchmen does.

It's a film that isn't afraid to challenge our conventions and assumptions about superheroes. It tells a complex, multi-layered story that spans decades with characters representing very different ideas and worldviews and does so in a patient, detailed and methodical way, laying the groundwork for the great emotional rewards that come later. It takes time to build the story of your world. and the characters living in it give us big, elaborate flashbacks to previous groups and events whose connection to the main story only becomes clear much later, like seeing a young version of the comedian trying to rape the first Silk Specter back in the decade from 1940, a scene like This may seem like a pointless detour into self-indulgent territory until you realize that it not only establishes the darker side of the comedian's personality, but is also placed in an entirely different context later on, when you discover that Silk Specter really fell in love. with him despite his flaws, even having a child with him, a child whose unlikely conception ultimately helps Dr.

Manhattan rediscover his humanity like a clockwork mechanism, even the smallest piece has a role to play in every scene and The flashback sheds a little more light on the events. that brought us here providing insight into the film's cast of morally ambiguous and flawed characters and this is another aspect of Watchmen that I really have to give the film credit for because most of the characters in Watchmen are neither good nor evil , everyone acts according to their own vision of the world. and whether you consider them heroes or villains depends largely on your own perspective. Rorschach, for example, is a violent vigilante who operates outside the law and continues his investigation mercilessly, regardless of anyone who crosses his path.

He is extremely conservative in his view of his world. He openly despises liberals, homosexuals, prostitutes, drug users or anyone who deviates from the right path, is a man of deep principles and convictions, shaped by a hard and unforgiving life, and sees the world purely in terms of rights and wrongs. black and white, compared to everyone else, he's not particularly big or physically strong, he's not super smart and he doesn't have any powers or gadgets, he's just a tough and tenacious little bastard, ready and willing to take on guys who are twice as big as him. size without any fear or hesitation, ready to fight dirty and use any advantage he can find, like when this guy tries to confront him in prison, it doesn't end very well for him, even though Rorschach is a man who lives by a strict moral code and doesn't He will break it for no reason, even at the cost of personal friendships or his own life.

He represents an unbreakable force of will and his philosophy is perfectly summed up in this line: never make concessions even in the face of Armageddon. On the other end of the spectrum is the comedian who has no real morals or principles to live by. He treats everyone around him as if he is openly abusing his powers and seems resigned to the imminent threat of nuclear war, but at one point, when faced with the truth of what is about to happen, he breaks down and recognizes his own failures and errors. He is an old man who is now haunting. for a wasted life, Dr.

Manhattan, on the other hand, is so disconnected from the world that he sees the survival of humanity as a simple intellectual problem rather than something he actually cares about on a deeper level, such as in this flashback when The comedian shoots a pregnant woman to death. woman who attacks him only to point out that Dr. Manhattan could have prevented everything if he wanted to. Instead, he chose not to do anything that says much about where his head is at. Ultimately, the character is there to pose an interesting question if you hit a man. The powers of a god, what will that really do to his humanity?

The Night Owl and the Silk Specter round out the main cast and, for what it's worth, are probably the most well-adjusted of the bunch. They both retire at the beginning of the film once they live. a life of luxury and privilege as Dr. Manhattan's girlfriend, the other is a shy, overweight bookworm who spends his days reminiscing with the first owner of the nitrile name, but both are frustrated and dissatisfied because their lives lack of purpose and meaning now a dinner. The date quickly turns somber when they realize there isn't much to look forward to, only when they are forced to get dressed again do they begin to come to life and the adrenaline of beating up some criminals rekindles their physical relationship. and it makes you wonder if they're really doing this for the right reasons or are they just two aging crime fighters trying to recapture their glory days on the subject.

One of the threads that runs through this film is the idea that youthful idealism is gradually giving way. to cynicism and disenchantment as characters are forced to make way for the next generation, such as the first Silk Specter who becomes a bitter drunk who longs for his younger days or Dr. Manhattan's ex-girlfriend to who literally traded for a younger model or even the first night cell. who wrote a scathing autobiography exposing the darker side of masked crime-fighting vigilantes not only asks questions about what happens when flawed and unworthy people are given the mantle of hero, but alsoexplores what happens to those people when they have to hang up their capes. for the last time facing their autumn years knowing their best days are behind them, but the biggest and most interesting revelations are saved for last when our heroes converge on the enemy fortress to confront the film's villain at the last moment. and thwart his plans to take over the world, except this particular villain doesn't want to take over the world, he wants to save it and there's no chance of following his plans here, there's no last second respite like we've seen a million times before.

They track him down, he's already put his plan into action and even Dr. Manhattan's intervention isn't enough to stop him. It's a scene that's both surprising and refreshing and you're left wondering what the hell is going to happen next, like Thanos a decade later, Ozymandias. can be seen as the tragic antihero of the Watchmen story, an intelligent, logical and pragmatic man forced to do the unthinkable to save the world from total destruction, sacrificing millions of innocent lives to save billions more and uniting the entire world. against a common enemy. Framing Dr. Manhattan for the whole thing Peace is based on a dark lie, but peace anyway the question is: is it enough?

They hate to admit it, even the heroes come to recognize the wisdom of their plan. You understand, right? Without forgiving or condemning the man, it's nice to see that Australian Mandy is being treated with respect and reverence here instead of becoming the target of an unfunny person. Pranking Damon Lindelof, yes, useless trick, is a brilliant resolution to the overall threat of annihilation that perfectly sums up everything this movie has been trying to say. That in the real world there are no easy and comfortable answers. There are no clear heroes and villains. There is no simple choice between what is right. and wrong, there are only flawed, weak, human people trying to make the best decisions possible and this to me is what makes Watchmen such a smart, complex and satisfying film that does not provide easy answers or clear resolutions, but rather raises questions difficult that Lesser films would have avoided what a man loses if he gains the power of a god.

How do people control their darkest impulses when they have been freed from responsibility and are humans only able to work together when they have a common enemy to face? wrestling with these are interesting questions and I'm glad the film had the guts to ask them; Not everything is perfect, of course, while the bleak and dark atmosphere of the comic is perfectly conveyed here and it's clear that some shots were taken literally from the beginning. page, the endless rain and darkness can be a little monotonous at times and some of the references to nuclear war are a little obvious, like, do we really need to hear 99 red balloons going off twice?

Does everything have to refer to the blood-covered smiley face he points to? At five to midnight on the doomsday clock, the film also emits many details and subplots from the graphic novel for obvious reasons. If you're trying to condense a 450-page story into about 150 pages of actual script, it's clear that some things need to be cut. The definitive edition actually fixes many of these problems and even adds content from the Black Freighter stories, but the result is a film that runs over three hours, it's up to you whether you consider that a worthy compensation for a bleak and dark time. .

Maybe it is, but I think Watchmen does a pretty decent job of capturing the essence of the comic by conveying the same ideas, even if it does so in a simpler way, and I'm just going to say that this is the kind of movie that Zack Snyder was born to direct why they thought he was the right guy to make a Superman movie is beyond me, but Watchman is well within his comfort zone as a director and it shows across the board, although it may not be to everyone's taste. , I really think Watchmen is a decent movie. attempt to bring some fairly challenging source material to the big screen, it's a film that isn't afraid to give us a complex, morally gray, thought-provoking story with equally complex characters that offer style and substance, and for that reason I suppose it's a solid drinker recommendation anyway that's all I have for today go now