Over the first weekend of the March holidays, this NYConneXions reporter went to watch his very first M18 movie, the recent superhero offering, Watchmen. Having never read the original graphic novel, I didn’t have much expectations going into the show.

The Comedian’s symbol during the movie. Turn the smile upside down, and you get the audience’s symbol!

Technically, I didn’t even intend to watch the show. But since this reporter was asked to watch and then offer a few cents’ worth of opinion from a teacher, I figured why not, and spent close to 3 hours (162 minutes to be exact) on a Friday afternoon watching the show.

For fans of the graphic novel, turn away now. ‘Cause I very well could say the show was great and it was 162 minutes well spent, but that would be akin to saying that Joseph Fritzl should be awarded the “Dad of the Year” trophy. In my opinion, the show was a complete antithesis of what a show featuring superheroes should be for casual viewers.

For, director Zack Snyder is apparently so afraid of drawing the fans’ ire towards an inaccurate portrayal of the Watchmen, that he lifts entire chunks of text from the novel for use in the movie. Yet in doing so, he does exactly what film critic Devin Gordon observed for Newsweek – “That's the trouble with loyalty. Too little, and you alienate your core fans. Too much, and you lose everyone – and everything – else.”

One of the many gratuitous violent scenes in the show. This one happens within the first 3 minutes of the movie. ‘Nuff said.

One particular thing that irked this reporter was not the gratuitous violence and totally off-putting Owl Ship scene. It was the alternate version of history that got to me. The movie claims that the Comedian was the person who assassinated JFK, and that Nixon served THREE terms with no mention of Watergate, as well as the most bigoted claim, that the US won the Vietnam War.

Other sources of irritation arise from the usage of famous songs like Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-changing” to serve the warped purpose of the movie is quite frankly, an insult to the songs, and I believe the one who signed the release of the copyright should be fired. The other thing that drew fits of choked-back incredulity from the movie audience was the many scenes in which Dr Manhattan appears au natural, complete with blue skin colour and glowing all the time. I hope the mental picture sticks.

Dr. Manhattan, the blue superhero that glows. Trust me, EVERYTHING is blue... And glows!

Apart from that, one insight I took away from the whole show, (which by the way has no plot until about 2 hours into the show) was the thought that this in essence is a tale of human morality and apathy.

Since superheroes are meant to be reflective of problems plaguing society at that time, the movie tries to show how magnified and horrific it would be for superheroes to display seemingly superhuman amounts of apathy and lack of a moral compass. The movie sums this up with the following sound bite… “God doesn’t make the world this way, we do”. The ironic part of this rather insightful quote? It’s spoken by the sociopathic anti-hero, Rorschach.

For all the gratuitous violence in the show, the tale of an attempt to seemingly avert a nuclear holocaust ends up being turned on its head and becomes a tale of how “the smartest man in the world” (who in my opinion is a 21st century Machiavellian manipulator) tries to forge world peace through very Machiavellian methods. This results in what I would perceive to be a dystopian utopia. The term may seem oxymoronic, but there’s no better way to put it.

All things considered, this movie is for you only if you fit into the following categories: you’re a die-hard fan of the graphic novel, or you’ve been desensitized to nonsensical violent scenes which serve no purpose at all to the advancement of the plot of the movie.

For a casual movie-goer however, the movie is only worth watching if it’s bought at student prices. And I believe the following sound bite from The Comedian sums up the movie perfectly - “It’s a joke”!

Article by Daniel Keng.
Photos taken off Flickr.