Normally, I don't do 'movie reviews' here, but had such mixed feelings about this one, I figured why not. Soo.... on to the review!


This is a movie that the statement "people will either love it or hate it" does not apply to.

I'm sure some will love it, and some will hate it. But I think a good majority will fall somewhere in between. Like myself.

Overall, it's not a bad movie. But the problem is that it's greatest strength is at the same time its greatest weakness- the storytelling.

Visually, it is stunning. The acting, when taken in context of just itself, is excellent (Rorschach in particular, OMG he's AWESOME).

The sex scenes... (yes, there are 3 of them).. if you are male, and/or like to see such things, you will be in heaven.

If you don't (such as myself- that's why I have the playboy channel, thank you), be prepared. The first one isn't so bad. It takes a little too long to get to the point for MY taste, but it is actually a necessary part of the story, so I don't begrudge the movie that one. The second one is longer than the first, partly story based, and partly gratuitous, though it doesn't get that far. The third one is nothing but gratuitousness. (literally, think the sex scene in 300 between the king and his wife, except LONGER). If this sort of thing ruins movies for you, you are now warned.

Now, what made the movie great was the storytelling concerning the characters. You cared about the characters and who they are, and why they did what they did (well, except for the one with the blue cat- they really didn't deal with him a whole lot).

Unfortunately, that is exactly what made the movie disappointing- the storytelling for most of the characters was so great, that the actual plot of the movie felt more like a hollow afterthought, as did the character with the blue cat. You cared about the rest of the characters, but didn't really give a rats ass what they did in relation to the rest of the world. The threat of nuclear war really didn't feel like it was anywhere near as urgent as it was supposed to be, and it really did seem like the only people worried about it were the government, and the heroes. No one else really seemed all that concerned. It was almost like they felt they had to throw in some kind of plot to justify telling the stories of most of the characters! (I'm hoping -guessing?- that this is not the case in the actual book, and seems to be a little of what I am hearing, so apparently, that part did NOT translate well at all)

My husband and I were talking about it, and I was sort of comparing it to kingdom come (which, if they ever did that as a movie, it would totally SMOKE watchmen!), and he said that in a way, watchmen was a lot like kingdom come in that the heroes had a big decision to make, and that is was sort of the same thing but from a different perspective.

Which, i can kind of see, but in the movie, at least, that "decision" as it were, wasn't covered until the last maybe 20 minutes of the movie, it didn't feel like there was any real weight to it, and then after that, there was absolutely nothing that gave any indication of the consequences or effects of that decision, on either the characters, or the world.

Had the movie been twice as long, or had it been about JUST the characters, it would have been spectacular.

But as it was, it was so great in telling the stories of all but the one character, that the rest of the movie just fell incredibly flat and felt so hollow and almost pointless, making the whole thing rather disappointing.

So much so, that it doesn't even inspire me to read the graphic novel at all! I probably will, someday, but the movie really did not make me want to at all.

Anyway, that's just my few cents.

-LC