If you enjoy super heroes from the 1940s and ’50s, “Watchmen” is definitely a movie you need to catch. The long-believed unfilmable “Watchmen” has finally arrived on movie screens, amid a flurry of fan boy expectation and speculation. The results of this movie will leave those who truly enjoy comic books very pleased.
“Watchmen” takes place in an alternate 1985 which finds Richard Nixon serving his sixth term as president after term limits have been repealed following his success in winning the war in Vietnam, the world on the brink of annihilation as the United States and Russia play an ever-expanding game of nuclear chicken, and the actual existence of superheroes/caped crusaders (the characters are all normal people with no superhuman abilities, a la Batman, with the exception of one character who develops superhuman abilities after an accident in a nuclear fission chamber), although their activities have been deemed illegal by an act of law (save for the few that act as governmental pawns).
When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed-up but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion – a ragtag group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers – Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future.
The movie’s plot unfolds against the background of visually attention-grabbing sequences, moments of extreme (even sadistic) violence contrasting perpetually-spinning glass prisms swirling against a barren Martian landscape, paying homage to the original illustrations of the comic book. If nothing else, the movie does a great job capturing the aesthetic of its source material.
The decision to use full frontal male nudity was fine for the print medium but once translated to film, it becomes a distraction. Add to that the disappointing acting performances from most of the cast (notable exceptions being Jackie Earle Haley as the sociopathic, ultra-conservative Rorschach and Patrick Wilson as the anxiety-ridden Dan Dreiberg) and “Watchmen” may leave a disappointing taste in your mouth.