Monday, March 9, 2009

Movie Review - The Watchmen



The Watchmen - Released March 6th, 2009: "Not Your Typical Superhero Movie"

Starring:
Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan (yeah, I didn't know who any of these people were either)

Tagline: "Justice is coming to all of us. No matter what we do."

Plot:
The movie is set in 1985 during the tension with the Soviet Union. A decade prior to this a group of masked heroes were forced into retirement. When one of them is murdered the rest band together to investigate his murder which leads them to discover things they had not planned on uncovering. They must work together to not only save themselves, but the world. (I can't say anymore without possibly spoiling parts of the movie.)

Tamara's Take: B+
First let me say this, I understand why a large amount of people were disappointed by the movie. The trailer is very misleading and would have you believe that this movie is an action-packed superhero movie when it in fact is not. I am the first to admit that I am usually very annoyed when I am expected one thing and I end up getting another. This time I wasn't bothered by it at all.

I thought the movie was great. The action scenes were amazing, the choreography of the fight scenes was flawless and kept me intrigued. I am often bored by fight scenes. There WAS a lot of talking in the movie and the movie could have been about 30 minutes shorter but that still didn't make it a bad movie. This movie contained a large amount of imagery and small connections all throughout the movie. I LOVE stuff like this. I want to be challenged intellectually, I want to be surprised by the ending of the movie. This movie is not for those that want to just sit and watch some fighting and explosions. This movie is for someone that wants to use their brain, sadly not many people do.

The one issue I did have with the movie was Dr. Manhattan. Now I know he wasn't a regular human being and he could manipulate time and space but that DOES NOT excuse him from covering up his man parts. It was completely unnecessary for him to be strutting around with his blue thang swangin in the wind. What value did that add to the movie? NONE and it was quite disturbing.

Bottom line: If you like superheroes and also like movies that discuss social issues then check it out, otherwise don't.

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