Watchmen

—Review Score: 8/10—

Watchmen is touted as one of the best graphic novel adaptation, and it lives up its name. In a way, -it’s marvelous- (oh wait, shouldn’t use that word), it’s D-li-C-ous (pardon the lame joke). From the same director of 300, another good graphic novel adaptation, Watchmen stays true to its source and delivers a stunning graphical presentation. The graphic part must be emphasized, though. It’s a true R-rated movie…

The movie is about superheroes called the Watchmen. They are (in order of my preference): Rorschach, Dr. Manhattan, Silk Spectre, Ozymandias, The Comedian, and Nite Owl. The basic story is about the same as any superhero comic story, that superheroes are ordinary humans at times, and they struggle with that reality. The setting is in an alternate reality after World War II, where there are several superheroes in the America, and they play pivotal rule on the victory of World War II. With that background, the movie starts with a murder case of one of the Watchmen. And from there, the story unravels in a rather complicated way. The storytelling is a bit jumpy, with flashbacks here and there, but overall with good action sequences, this movie delivers really well. It has that heavy theme of obtaining peace on earth, and while it’s basically a comic book story, the plot is pretty sophisticated for its class.

Watchmen’s good plot is complemented with its stunning audio visual effects. The fighting scenes are good choreographed and accompanied with fitting sound effects and realistic gory visual effects. The tracks used in this movie are classic great hits rock songs, somehow fitting the post-World War II setting. Visual effects, especially on Dr. Manhattan scenes, are simply stunning.

The actors are not that bad either, each character has his/her own weakness as a human (or in Dr. Manhattan’s case, inhuman weakness). The characters are bordering in gray part on their morality, there is no clear cut of which character is truly evil or which is truly good.

Back to the graphic nature of this movie, it is strictly R-rated. There is a lot of violence and gore in this movie, enough to make you cringe almost every 15 minutes. And there is particularly one sex scene which is a bit vulgar for mainstream movie like this. That’s one of my gripe for this movie, besides the hard-to-follow plot and unsatisfying climax of the story. But all of this contributes to the so-called a great adaptation of a graphic novel.

In the end, Watchmen is a great movie, if you can watch past all the graphic nature of the movie. The plot is confusing but rewarding if you want to think a bit more; the action sequences are intense; the visual effects are simply stunning; and the characters are memorable. It is definitely a great movie for the graphic novel fans.

(Picture Credit: Watchmen Official Site)