Title: Watchmen
Distributor: Legendary Pictures (Warner Bros.)
Director: Zack Snyder
Writer(s): David Hayter (screenplay) and Alex Tse (screenplay)
Staring: Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson
MPAA Rating: Rated R for strong graphic violence, sexuality, nudity and language.
Running Time: 162 min (2 hrs and 42min)
Synopsis: "Watchmen" is set in an alternate 1985 America in which costumed superheroes are part of the fabric of everyday society, and the "Doomsday Clock" - which charts the USA's tension with the Soviet Union - is permanently set at five minutes to midnight. When one of his former colleagues is murdered, the washed up but no less determined masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to uncover a plot to kill and discredit all past and present superheroes. As he reconnects with his former crime-fighting legion - a ragtag group of retired superheroes, only one of whom has true powers - Rorschach glimpses a wide-ranging and disturbing conspiracy with links to their shared past and catastrophic consequences for the future. Their mission is to watch over humanity... but who is watching the Watchmen?"
Other Reviews
Critics:
Roger Ebert: 4 Stars
Michael Phillips: 1 ½ Stars
EW: Owen Gleiberman: B-
Other Sites:
At The Movies: Ben Mankiewicz: See It, Ben Lyons: See It
Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 64% (Fresh), Top Critics: 43% (Rotten), RT Community: 77% (Fresh)
Metacritic: Critics: 56 out of 100, Users: 7.6 out of 10
Yahoo Movies: Critics: NA Users: B-
My Review
Source Material: Based on the 1986-1987 comic book limited series Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, adaptation by David Hayter and Alex Tse
Acting and Dialogue: A-, I love the cast, they did a good job.
Art Direction: B+, the production design was good.
Cinematography: B+, it has some quality for a comic book movie.
Direction: B+, it’s defiantly Zack Snyder style. Not awesome but not horrible either. I also like that he stay true to the novel.
Sound and Music: B, the music fit the time period, but sometimes I thought it was strange.
VFX: B, Decent, This film had a good mix of booth real and fake.
Overall: B+, it’s a great “geek” movie but for the general audience I don’t think they will like it. I have heard it been described as a superhero soap opera. Most comic book movies have a lot of action but the Watchmen have more drama. Because it is a more drama driven film it has boring after taste. The other negative thing about the film is the constant use of male nudity via Doctor Manhattan, but what do you expect. It is a graphic novel and Doctor Manhattan did run around in the nude.
