Spoilers! Write Spoilers! in case some of the gang haven't read the book!
- Original Message -
From: Augustus Augustus jazzynupe_...@yahoo.com
To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Friday, March 20, 2009 10:36:30 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re: [scifinoir2] Watch The Watchmen
this is by far, the best review that i have read of The Watchmen. it hits all
the points that i made 2 my circle of friends who were/are wavering on seeing
it. the only thing that is missing was the dynamic in the relationship between
Silk Spectre I and II. and what about the Comedian being the person who
actually killed President Kennedy? brilliant!
Fate.
--- On Fri, 3/20/09, ravenadal ravena...@yahoo.com wrote:
From: ravenadal ravena...@yahoo.com
Subject: [scifinoir2] Watch The Watchmen
To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, March 20, 2009, 2:40 AM
http://blackplush. blogspot. com
Watchmen is big and gorgeous with plenty to say and the misanthropic chutzpa to
say it. Rarely has such a fully realized alternative future reached fruition on
the big screen. I gloried in the opening montage where cherished cultural
touchstones were embraced even as they were twisted and perverted. I howled
inside when Alfred Eisenstaedt' s famous V-J Day in Times Square photograph
was subverted by the sailor being replaced by the super butch super heroine
Silhouette (Apollonia Vanova). The use of such hoary but hilarious devices as
the ersatz but dead nuts on John McLaughlin Group (featuring a faux Elenor
Clift and a fake ass Pat Buchanan) to advance story and provide context is
inspired. Every frame of the movie is chocked full of information (if ever a
movie would reward frequent viewing, Watchmen is it).
Watchmen is the movie The Dark Knight is reputed to be. While The Dark Knight
is just a big fat comic book, Watchmen is true to its lineage as the first
graphic novel to win the Hugo award. And while I loved it, that is not
necessarily a good thing. A real movie about real guys in tights, Watchmen
doesn't show any inclination to don super suits. Which is kind of a problem,
this being a superhero movie and the first rule of Superhero Club is to
dispense with the exposition and cut to the chase. Not only does Watchmen
violate that rule, it trammels it, exposition leaking out of every sweaty,
blood soaked pore.
Built on the simplest and most sturdy of narrative chassis, Watchmen opens with
a splashy murder and then follows a sad sack detective - Jackie Earle Haley in
fedora and rumpled trench coat - on a lonely but relentless search for the
truth and justice (if not the American Way).
Haley is a revelation as Rorschach the human ink blot. He inhabits his deeply
flawed, psychologically damaged but relentlessly moral avenger with a steely
humanity that is often thrilling. His one man against many stance while
incarcerated is an exhilarating set piece. His mission statement: I am not in
prison with them; they are in prison with ME! is tattooed on my consciousness.
In many ways Haley's performance is as impressive as Health Ledger's turn as
the Joker in The Dark Knight.
Equally impressive is Jeffrey Dean Morgan as the Comedian and Billy Crudup as
Dr. Manhattan. The blue-skinned Dr. Manhattan is a marvelous construct and
Morgan's sweaty, hormone oozing, cigar chomping, pure id performance as an
opportunistic soldier of fortune with a heart of lead is the messy glue that
holds this dystopian narrative together. The duplicity and complicity of
Morgan's character both informs and illuminates. His and Dr. Manhattan's
jingoistic stomp through the killing fields of Viet Nam won my heart and my
mind.
At its core, Watchmen is a Superman movie where Lex Luthor (Matthew Goode as
Ozymandias, the smartest human on earth) wins. It also takes the notion of the
all powerful superhuman to its inevitable conclusion. And, frankly, it's more
than a little disconcerting.
