Student Movie Review: WATCHMEN
By Jessica Ruhl
The Nebraska Film Critic
Alright here is what i thought of Watchmen…
First off, I didn’t get into the movie at all. In the beginning, it didn’t capture me as an audience member whatsoever. I went into the theatre not knowing anything about this comic novel, and although I love comics, this was definitely was not one of the greatest movies.
Secondly, there was WAY too much nudity and too much sex in it! I understand that it was a “R” rated movie but honestly it was too much for me. I have been to one or more “R” rated movies and that was borderline nasty. I also know that Dr.Manhattan was supposed to be “revealing” but they could’ve shown just the waist up for most of it and then once in a while showed a full body shot.
I took two of my friends with me and all of us agreed that the movie was also waay too long. I thought the “Lord of the Rings” movies were long. I have been proven wrong. The actors in the movies were good actors but I don’t know if they were connecting with the audience at all. When my friends and I were in the theatre, no one laughed at anything. There were things that I guess were supposed to be funny but in this case, I didn’t catch any of the humor. I was worried about how I was going to keep my food down because of how much of the “nasty nasty” was going on. I was told who the watchmen were and what they represented but I wasn’t told what the story was about. I still don’t know. Another thing that bothered me was the goriness of the movie. I can handle gore but this wasn’t the same. It was pointless gore to me. On a good note, I liked the graphics and special effects of the movie. I also liked the movie’s score. That was good too.
Overall I would have rated this movie 1/2 a star.
Now it’s your turn to sound off: What did YOU think of Watchmen? Worth seeing? Or a total waste of cash?
5 Comments
Your statement comes from the completely wrong perspective. To truly appreciate this movie one needed to be a fan of the graphic novel. Sadly, even then though it left you with wanting and expecting more, leaving it only average at best.
The comedy was all older(written in the 80s) the only ones who would properly understand them would be the fans of the graphic novel. The gore level was spot on. You had to take out the central meaning of the film, that humankind is heading toward a bad path and that we must fix it before drastic measures are needed. In the graphic novel to convey this it was shown with the high level of gore. This theme, however, was almost completely dropped from the movie and some of the more important scenes did not show up. Ones showing humanity has a chance to come together.
The sex there was exactly what was present in the comic as well. You have to take in mind, this was a HIGHLY adult comic.
The biggest problem people more than likely had was, they expected a superhero movie. The movie in essence is ANTI-HERO. It showed the negatives of heros in society. Everyone goes in expecting a superhero movie is let down, because it’s not a traditional struggle of good and evil. The lines in the movie and comic blend, not allowing you to know what’s what.
The final thing to take out of this, though, was the simple fact you had Zack Snyder(300) directing the movie. He wanted to make this movie his own, but out of the respect and the request by Alan Moore to stick to his original work. He obliged. He still tried adding and subtracting to make the vision his own. This bloody, violent, mess, which was thrown out of order with the message cut and some of the minor, yet impactful scenes not ever shot. Along with the fact he tried making events and characters more mysterious, by leaving holes, that were clearly explained in the book. One of the movie’s problems was in fact it’s director! He did an amazing job with 300, but when it comes to the complex work of Alan Moore’s The Watchmen, he fell.
Overall, the movie by my view was completely average, not the best or the worst. It had parts that I loved and parts I despised.
When you take any pre-existing story and convert it to film it should be your goal to please the fans of said work AND bring new fans to the table.
So, in response to Twily – If the only way you can enjoy Watchmen the movie is by reading Watchmen the comic, it’s on some level a failure as a piece of cinema.
Ruhl went in to this open-minded and uninformed and was not entertained. I’m sick and damned tired of fans of anything explain to a non fan WHY they don’t like it…because they don’t understand it, or they didn’t grow up with it…how about they just didn’t like it?
just wanted to say that your review is foolish and extremely unprofessional.
Well, I’m watching it right now, and I have to say, its story isn’t the best (considering the comic is so short, it’s fairly good). However, the acting is pretty good. I think that the movie was fairly decent.
That is the worst movie review I have ever read. Spelling was awful, you shouldn’t type how you talk, and for you that’s a total fucking retard. I am offended this would be posted anywhere on the internet, or anywhere for that matter. Your only complaints against the movie are it’s too long, and it earned its R rating? Also, I doubt you “like” or even read comics.