WATCHMEN

I'm really proud of myself for making it through this whole 3-hour cinematic babbling which when finally decided to give its place to the final credits all I could think of was ..."missed! missed! missed!".

Based on an '86 comic series, the creators were obviously going through existential crisis when making this. It is a story about superheroes, but an aspect of them that we hadn't seen before. That is, not before "The Incredibles".

Let's start with what I liked about it and it couldn't be anything other than the open credit sequence. Although very contemporary artistic, it was also baffling to some point. I couldn't really tell what it was preparing me for. Was it another "oh! the dilemmas that we superheroes face"? Was it an "OMG! That was freaking awesome!"...? And the fact that this sequence was actually three sequences long did not help the situation. I guess this was justified when considering the length of the film. Anyhow, as the plot progressed, I was becoming more and more convinced that even the creators could not decide on a specific line. Let me clarify my point...

Superheroes are always -ALWAYS- a political theme. They are an American invention. The primitive ones were even wearing suites with the colours of the American flag. Their conception is closely linked to the effort of the Americans to boost the confidence of the people during or after wars. OK, the first superhero might not have been like that, but it was American propaganda that made Superman and his league famous.And then at some point the marginalization of the hero appeared. In the eyes of the people he was fighting for, he looked like the bad guy. He was like "Hey you fools! I'm trying to save you!". Now, the latest trend appears to be a hero that has completely lost his way. He is fighting for the wrong side.

In Watchmen, heroes have gone one step further, and I would say, one step closer to reality. Fighting has completely lost its meaning. There is no end to it and violence only breeds violence. Yupi! Welcome to the adult world! I want to believe this was one of the points they were trying to make. The other one seems to be about fear, war and enemies.

America always had an enemy. It looks like people were responding more positive to the government's actions when there was a threat lurking somewhere. Even superheroes are fed up with this invisible enemy. The whole last part of the movie is about reaching that higher mental understanding, higher than Einstein himself maybe! You see, only scientists and very intelligent people grasp the notion that nature will go on even after humans extinct. It is that conclusion you reach when you are mad at people and your girlfriend has just dumped you. Now, even higher than that is one step back. Humanity is worth saving. Even inside this rotten world there exists beauty, love blah blah blah cliche...
Don't get me wrong, I am happy that the Americans started thinking, I am just unsure about the rest of the context. To put these realizations in between cool fighting and very hot chicks dressed in leather to me seems like a major indecisiveness issue.
It is not until the final scenes that you start getting the impression this might be a complete mockery. All the characters that were sane were killed and in the name of the sense of security all the righteous were silenced. We know that this is wrong in so many levels but these stupid creatures that compensate brain mass with muscles get the ultimate happy cliche ending. And the avalanche of repetitiveness keeps getting stronger when there is a hint that nothing is assured. All these lives were taken for nothing. Duh!
Again, don't get me wrong, the plot was good. But did all these people that urged to see this movie realize what it all means? Because my impression is that they were looking for a "bang! bang! boom! boobs!" and cliches.

Anyhow, before concluding I feel compelled to mention one last thing. I have never, ever, seen any other scripts of the same complexity keeping it all together like that. The screenwriters made a really good job in getting this gibberish crap to make sense. Well done!


This concludes the things I liked about this movie which generally missed so much of its original target and yet it was "spot-on" for a large group of money-making audiences. If only there wasn't this driving need to pay the bills....