Thursday 28 May 2015

Watchmen (2009)


 With the amount of superhero movies being released these days, I'm noticing a certain dilution of the charm that the superhero genre has. And to be honest, superhero movies nowadays seem very repetitive. I've heard about Watchmen since the day it came out, but I never paid much attention to it because I wasn't really a movie nut back in those days and to be very honest, my taste in movies wasn't so refined. So when I came by it in Virgin Megastore Dubai, I finally realized that it's about time I checked it out. Plus the price was unbelievable, so that's a win-win right there. Once I got back from Dubai, I popped that sucker into the DVD and watched the hell out of it.

You know something, it's always a pleasure when you watch a movie and then it suddenly becomes one of your all time favorites, that is actually a great feeling. I think it's the shock that got to me, you have to understand that I had no interest in this movie at all, but once I watched, holy shit; it was all that I was talking about. So the story is about the "Watchmen", a group of superheroes who come out of a retirement to uncover a plot that can not only kill them, but humanity as a whole. The movie is set in an alternate 1985 at the height of the Cold War.

I think a very strong point that Watchmen has is the fact that a lot of people like it because it is not your conventional superhero film. I honestly haven't heard anyone say anything bad about it, because truth be told, people are bored of the same old "I will start strong, then have a weakness in the middle, yet i'll still finish off on a very high note" typical superhero bullshit, they wanna see something different. And that's exactly what Watchmen gives them, something different.

I have honestly never seen such brilliant character development in a superhero flick like I've seen in Watchmen. You get to know each superhero, they don't miss out on the details, and believe me it's not an easy job to develop a one character in a movie, let alone six! Let's talk about the characters now, I think that we can all agree that Jackie Earl Haley's performance as Rorschach was captivating as hell. So captivating in fact that he's now my second favorite superhero (behind Batman), I mean he stole the show, he was just born to play Rorschach. Although Rorschach was a fucking star, In my opinion, the character that I really appreciated was The Comedian. *SPOILER ALERT* Although he dies in the beginning, The Comedian made as much of an impact (if not more) to the movie as the others did.*SPOILERS END HERE* To me, The Comedian was very symbolic in a sense that he was a character that represented mankind's primal and savage nature. He was, in all honesty, one of the most sincere characters I've ever seen in any movie. He doesn't sugarcoat it, he gives it you straight.



The soundtrack of the movie was just too good, I mean you know you're in for a treat when the opening credits play "The Times They Are A' Changin'" by Bob Dylan. Let me get one thing straight, Watchmen is not a kid's movie, got that? Nope, it's not Iron man, not Thor, not the Incredible fucking Hulk; you do not wanna show this movie to children. Because the movie is very gory (no problem with me), which is also something you don't see in many hero flicks. Also, the ending of the movie made me weep, I don't wanna spoil it for you but you gotta watch it to understand why it did that, especially towards the last 20 minutes or so. And I mean any movie that fucks with your emotions tends to be a very good movie (unless you go full on rage on that shit, then that's a different case). I think the only complaint that I have is the fact that the lighting isn't very good, I found the movie to be quite dark at times, and sometimes I couldn't even see anything. and I'm a perfect 20/20!

In conclusion, Watchmen is a blast from start to finish. I highly recommend it if you're a superhero movie fan or if you just appreciate good movies. It's really unique and I haven't seen anything like it. All in all, it's just a real treat and I would pop that sucker into the DVD any day.

Legend

"Never compromise, not even in the face of Armageddon."

Ahmed J. Almatrook