Cast: Malin Åkerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson, Carla Gugino, Stephen McHattie

Category: Action, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller

The time is 1985 and the US and Soviet Union are slowly entering into a nuclear war with each other. Mask vigilantes have been around since the 1940’s and were then outlawed in the 80’s. One night The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is attacked and thrown out the window to his death. His death is not seen as a big impact until Rorschach (Jackie Earl Haley) begins to suspect that someone is killing mask vigilantes. As Rorschach dives deeper to uncover The Comedian’s killer, he ultimately uncovers something that goes deeper than just him and The Comedian’s death. What Rorschach eventually realizes is that everyone, from Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup) to Ozymandias (Matthew Goode) to Nite Owl II (Patrick Wilson) to The Silk Spectre II (Malin Åkerman) are involved.

Before I give my criticism I must point out that I have never read the graphic novel before viewing Watchmen. So I went into Watchmen with no knowledge on this. “Watchmen” was unlike any other superhero movie before it’s time. The story was dark but it really connected with me at times. What if we sent our superheroes to fight our wars? If superheroes protect us, who protects the superheroes? These were questions I got from watching this movie. Now the plot seemed very solid but it kept jumping around throughout the movie. At first I thought that Rorschach was the main character but it then deviated to Dr. Manhattan showing to develop him a lot even giving his entire origin. Then the middle of the movie was concern into Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II. The jumping from character to character doesn’t hurt the story, but I wish I could find some sort of balance with every character.

The cast is range from perfectly casted to somewhat miscast. The truly perfectly casted character is The Comedian played brilliantly by Jeffery Dean Moran. The Comedian was the one character I completely believed in this movie. He seemed so genuine for me it was a character you don’t hate even though he did unspeakable things. I wish there was more screen time with The Comedian. Rorschach was another character that was almost perfectly casted. Jackie Earl Haley seems to grasp the emotional aspect on Rorschach. The character of Ozymandias, Dr. Manhattan and Nite Owl II were somewhat casted perfectly. Ozymandias proclaimed smartest man in the world is played arrogantly by Matthew Goode. Billy Crudup plays Dr. Manhattan almost robotically. As for Patrick Wilson he leans from somewhat mis-casted to somewhat perfectly casted. Nite Owl II seems to be The Batman of the group but the way Wilson plays out Nite Owl II as a timid and reluctant superhero. While the only one that seemed somewhat miscast character would be Malin Åkerman as the Silk Spectre II. She’s played out as whining as someone who isn’t content on what she has and it seems irritating at times.

I respect Zach Snyder for attempting to bring to life Watchmen, but it seems as if he fell a little short. The soundtrack to this movie is extremely random. There songs that contribute to the story greatly like “The Times They Are a-Changing” for the title sequence was perfect while the inclusion of “Hallelujah” seemed really out of placed. The pacing of the story feels slow and it makes the film feel longer than it should be. Time has never been a complaint for me for films, but when a film drags out its running time it gets tiring. The one giant complaint I have throughout the entire film is the use of slow motion. If it’s used to provide a reason that this effect should be used and adds to the characters and story then it should be used once or twice. But throughout this entire movie it was used just for show and hardly had anything to do for the story.

While I did not fully fall in love with Watchmen I did not hate it. This is not like any superhero film and I welcome any new interpretation on the caped vigilantes, but this is not the vision I hoped for. For fans of the graphic novel no amount of criticism should stop you from watching it, but for people who have not read the novel it comes with a slight recommendation.

Author Bio: Johnathan Sanchez

Hey I'm Johnathan Sanchez and I'm a huge movie lover. I watch at least 2-5 movies a month in theaters and constantly buy Blu-rays. So am knee deep in movies. This is a passion for me and I'm always honest with my reviews. Hope you enjoy them!