Watchmen

What it's about:

Someone is killing superheroes. As the sociopathic vigilante Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley) sets out to discover why, the USA’s most powerful weapon, a superhero called Dr Manhattan (Billy Crudup) disappears, bringing the world to the brink of a nuclear war between East and West.


What we thought of it:

The original Watchmen is what you would call a literary comic. Time would agree; they listed it as one of the 100 greatest novels of all-time, along with The Great Gatsby and Lord of the Flies. But we all know how Hollywood works, don’t we? Take something smart, turn it into a romantic comedy with gags and blushes and presto, $200m at the box office. Right?

You should know that Watchmen’s creator, full-time weirdo Alan Moore, has disowned this film, dismissing its interpretation of his untouchable original. You should also know he was going to pan it no matter who adapted his story and how. Alan Moore is as much of an elitist old fart as he is a genius.

Watchmen, the film, is both entertaining and smart. You might not notice at first, as the cut-and-paste apocalyptic conspiracy scenario will remind you of every ‘comic book’ movie ever made. But its characters, while clearly born out of fantasy, are convincingly humane (or in Dr Manhattan’s case, convincingly inhuman). They seem to realise, some of them, the ridiculousness of donning tight-fitting hero gear to catch baddies in the night. The Comedian, who is murdered in the beginning of the film but appears in several flashbacks, knows as well as anyone that caped crusaders are a joke, and entrusting them with the safety and security of the world? That’s the biggest laugh of all.

Nothing says “implausible” like Ben Affleck trying to save the world. Which is why the lack of star power in Watchmen is so refreshing. Instead of the usual A-list suspects, we get the dead guy from Grey’s Anatomy (Jeffrey Dean Morgan as The Comedian), Patrick Wilson from Hard Candy (as Nite Owl II) and a host of second-tier under-achievers, all of their performances interesting, all of them believable. Jackie Earle Haley’s is perhaps the most memorable as Rorschach, a brooding, difficult personality who has dedicated his existence to destroying the lives of wrong-doers. Karma may be a bitch, but it’s nothing compared to a visit from Rorschach.

You might say Watchmen’s intellectual ambitions fly out the window once the Silk Spectre II (in thigh high boots) makes love to a fellow ‘supe’ inside a flame-throwing airship. But do they really? Throughout, Watchmen floats somewhere between being a superhero movie, and being a movie about superheroes. Its cheesiest Hollywood moments seem like a set-up, a knowing wink to our expectations of blockbuster movies.

Like your classic superhero, Watchmen will go ‘whoosh!’ over the heads of many viewers, who may have expected a more action-oriented experience. But if you enjoy movies about good versus evil, surely it’s worth asking "what is 'good'?" In so doing, Watchmen is perhaps one of the first truly worthwhile films in the post-Oscars pack.