Sean's take on Watchmen

Watchmen--Sean's take

by Sean Marshall Metcalf

I give Watchmen *** as well. From what I have read Zach Snyder used the graphic novel of Watchmen as his storyboard. Does going shot by shot from the source material make him a good director? There is no doubt it makes for a visually stunning film. And Snyder had a big under taking here. Not only did he have to make try to make a good film but he had to make a film that would be accepted by Watchmen's legion of fans.

The opening credits montage was a great way to show the timeline of the heroes up to 1985. After the credits I had a hard time figuring out what the film was really going to be about. Not to say I was enjoying what I was watching. As the story played out I found myself drawn most the the storyline of Rorshash, who is played brilliantly by Jackie Earl Haley. He is very much an anti hero and his voice overs reminded me of a hard boiled detective in a Film Noir film. The film is very melodramatic and much plays out at times like Days of Our Lives as if it were directed by Roy Lichtenstein. Each melodramatic moment is framed like a Lichtenstein painting.

The make-up was a bit cartoon like especially Nixon. He looks like he walked straight out of a political cartoon in the editorial section of the newspaper. The old age make-up on the 67 year old is a bit much but I could look pasted it because her performance as a retired hero was good.

And yes the blue penis was very distracting. Are we not as used to seeing male full frontal nudity on screen because it seems that the female form is exploited most of the time in film?

Watchmen is not the best of the comic book/graphic novel inspired films. I enjoyed Dark Knight or even V for Vendetta (Another Alan Moore graphic novel) more. But Watchmen is a highly entertaining and visually stunning film.--Sean Marshall Metcalf