Watchmen

   I bought my ticket to see this on the opening night two weeks in advance. I waited outside the theatre nearly two hours before it started so that I wouldn't have to watch it from front row. Considering the massive hype for this, it just wasn't that great. It wasn't the film that wasn't great, it was the story. I can't believe this 12 part comic published in '86 was such a hit. I didn't like that it was about some retired vigilante "super heroes" who come out after they find that someone they know is behind the death of the Comedian. I did like that they showed the bad parts of the characters, the parts that we don't normally see about super heroes. At the same time I didn't like that they were retired and coming out again to fight the evil of nuclear war. I'm not alone in being slightly disappointed with the story, since the movie store guys didn't think that much of it either. It was beautiful, I liked the story about Laurie and Dr. Manhattan/Jon. In fact I thought the best part of the film was Jon. It was difficult to understand since it would never happen, yet conceptually it could, which makes me contemplate a whole range of other possibilities and the magnanimous size of the universe and the trivialities of the human life. I was annoyed by the fact that the always talked about saving humans. What about humans? What about every other living thing on this planet. I think that every other living thing on this planet minus human beings is worth saving the planet from human destruction. It is sad that to save humanity, you have to destroy it in order for people to make peace. One other thing that annoyed me was Rorschach's irritating Clint Eastwood voice. Talk about unoriginal. I liked the psychology behind his moving mask, yet I didn't get how the mask could move like that in the first place. I think why I didn't care for it was because I hadn't read it and had 12 comics merged into over 2 and a half hour movie. There is just too much to dissect and analyze since this was a thinking movie and thinking movies have to have time to think over all the miraculous details hidden in the colour and action. That's what separates a graphic novel from a comic. The amount of literary skill and relevance to society and not what entertains us. Finally I thought Jeffrey Dean Morgan was absolutely amazing in this.