The Watchmen is a film noir comic book gore fest, with sex. Set in the 1980’s, it imagines a world where the United States and the Soviet Union are on the verge of a nuclear showdown, and humankind is terrified. But, reassuringly, America has a convincing deterrent: a big blue guy named Dr. Manhattan, the only true superhero among The Watchmen; he experienced some kind of a nuclear accident that made him godlike. And he’s on our side! Or is he? Can a big blue guy who exists in a quantum universe outside of time really be invested in the people of planet Earth?
The rest of the Watchmen gang are superheroes in the Batman mode: regular people who are in really good shape. The best of them is Jackie Earle Hayley, and whenever he is on screen the energy, action, everything picks up. He plays Rorschach, the guy with the weird face mask that looks like a big sock with morphing patches of ink spreading across his features. I liked him better, though, when he took the mask off. Not an imposing presence, he’s a little guy wired up like a ticking bomb, and no matter how many linebacker sized thugs he faces down, his expression is slightly impatient, slightly amused, never afraid.
The Watchmen has a paper thin plot with a twist at the end that is only surprising if you’ve never seen a movie like this before. It’s not as visually arresting as 300 or Sin City, and it’s not as much fun as Iron Man or Dark Knight. And it is very, very gory; lots of disturbing images that don’t add up to much, plot wise. But if you have a strong stomach, and you’re looking for some late winter escapist action, this movie will do. Playing all over the place, won the box office on its opening weekend but lost the second round to Race to Witch Mountain. Huh.
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