Watchmen

Alright. I'm in the middle of Nancy's class, so I figure its a good enough time to do my Watchmen post, which has been a long time coming.

This isn't a fresh thought about the movie. I've had a lot of discussion time with people. I've read a lot of different reviews, and I've had a chance to see it twice now.

I really like the movie after all this. As time goes by my appretiation has degraded, but at the end of the day, this was a huge ambitious story told with reverence towards some very unique source material.

If I do have a problem its with Zak Snyder's direction. At the end of the day this is a movie where the best parts of it aren't action, they're talking. The conversation on Mars, the first Watchmen meeting, the cat and mouse game in the prison with Rorschach. Snyder is not an actor's director. He leaves some of his actor's out to dry. Malin Ackerman was pretty awful. I thought that Rorschach was well played. I thought Dr. Manhattan was well played.

The other thing about Zak Snyder that I can't defend is his violence fetish. The book is violent, and that is part of the subversion that is supposed to go with the story. At the same time he took the violent bits and extended them out too long. The skeleton arm hanging from the ceiling is ridiculous.

I couldn't do this without talking about the music. Maybe a bit much. I think the design idea was bold, but fell a little short.

What I will say positive about Zak Snyder is he kept the story intact. This was in development for a long long time, and this could have went a lot of different ways. Snyder kept the story as faithful as he could with the restraints from the studio. He used a lot of creative capital to make this work and I applaud him for it.

I do think it was a little bit short. I can't wait for the director's cut. The great thing about this story is the world it is set in. It makes a whole universe in a very short amount of time. In the director's cut I'm sure we'll get to spend more time in this universe.

I do think that the movie is better if you came from the book. My hope is that the movie will get people to read the book. It's not for everyone, which is great for a big movie.

AND...best credits ever!