Even in the Face of Armageddon

Well, this has been an unavoidable subject as of late.  Watchmen has been on the cusp of everyone's fingertips for a while now.  Well, until last week but, I'm a firm believer in being fashionably late.  So, I shall offer my opinion on a film that almost reached mythical status, as it lingered in development limbo.  Finally, after several failed attempts, the deed has been done.

I've seen it an I enjoyed the shit out of it.  Though I do feel that there were some points missed by Mr. Snyder and his crew.  In his past films, Snyder has had some crisp clarity of image to get across his blurry ideas.  This does not change.  When a film is already perfectly story boarded for you in original form, it's hard to mess it up.  Snyder does in some respects but, he translates the main story very well to the screen.  I admire his attempts to do so and I am looking forward to his directors cut, rumored for dvd release.  Now, even if you are not a fan of Zach Snyder, you have to pay him respects.  Look at his resume.  The fact that he hasn't been ritually murdered by fanboys should attest to something.

Besides some changed lines, omitted characters etc, there were some things that i felt were misrepresented in the film.  There were some nods to the homosexual preferences of some of the characters, which gave a little nod to fans but, the theme of sexual frustration was nowhere to be seen.  In the comic, when Nite Owl and Silk Spectre go out in "Archie" after Dan's embarrassing impotency, there is a sad, pathetic tone to the ordeal.  Dan takes on his role as Nite Owl and starts up his ship, a misguided attempt at masculinity, perhaps.  Silver Spectre, embarrassed for Dan, goes along in a mere attempt to humor him.  In the film, however, apparently they miss the old days (though it is obvious Silk Spectre does not at all, she detests it) and go out to fight crime.  Simple.  Obvious.  Unflinching.  The whole ordeal lacks any type of meaning or theme.

Later, when they "rescue" Rorschach from prison, they have a fight, oddly similar to one in Oldboy, of epic use of slow motion.  In the book, there is only one frame of them beating people up, all the while they are discussing possible ways to get out of their ordeal.  You know, thinking.  We just shut our minds off from what is going on to enjoy some rib crunching, abnormally flexible fighting.  Given Zach Snyder's affinity to stylized violence, this did not surprise me that much.

What I did find surprising was the amount of punishment these characters could take.  This was the one thing that actually got me angry.  Alan Moore took superheroes and made them human.   Snyder took these humans and made them superheroes.  Watchmen, as a comic, was seen as either a dawning of a new era or the end of one.  Apparently, pertaining to film, its neither.  It continues the trend of impossible violence and, because of this, it does not tread new ground and therefore does not create a deeper breed of comic book films.  Though, it is unfair to ask that of the film.  I just got my hopes up that the originality of the comic would spread to the screen.

Those are my main grievances and they are pretty minor ones.  It does succeed at being more than a "popcorn flick,"  and I am grateful for that.  Watchmen is not my bible in comic books, that would be Hellblazer.  They already fucked that up.  I just hope in this era of reboots, John Constantine gets a fair chance.