2009 - WATCHMAN, the extended Director's cut.

The world probably didn't need any version of the Watchmen when you get right down to it much less the extended director's cut but here it is.

 

I've read the graphic novel or comic book or whatever it's called, twice. I read it because it's been acclaimed as the best graphic novel or comic book or whatever written. Set in the 1980's, the graphic novel or comic book or whatever it's called, seems like a total period piece with it's criticism of Nixon and Vietnam. Does President Nixon still have that kind of resonance for the public anymore? After surviving eight years of Bush the younger as President, what's worse in a national leader ruthlessness
or stupidity?

 

The graphic novel was kicking around Hollywood for many years before Warner Brothers decided to sink a whole lot of money into it. Hoping for a repeat of that The Dark Knight kind of success, the studio was asking for and got a disaster. The problem was that the Watchmen stories are pretty outdated in the 21st century. A film that requires a knowledge of Richard Nixon and the culture of the 1980's and wants to mix it up with a critical look at the role of the superhero in our society seems like a lot to ask of a viewer looking for a couple of hours of entertainment. It's a very long film and a fairly violent film, the R rating made sure that the film would have a limited audience. The whole project probably should have been written off years ago.

Honestly the acting was not seem so hot. The character of the super heroine Silk Spectre was played by an actress named Malin Akerman. You can zip her up in a latex outfit but that doesn't make her a particularly sexy super heroine, you actually have to know how to act sexy. She's supposed to be the voice of humanity presenting the case to godlike superhero Dr Manhattan that the world is worth saving from nuclear war. She came off more like a shrill harpy.

 

Mixing the story lines of a murder mystery and the potential destruction of earth by nuclear war seemed pretty shaky. It was weak in the graphic novel or comic book or whatever it's called, and the film just makes it look even weaker. The old Space Ghost cartoons did a better job telling stories and they were at least short.

The whole idea of people dressing up as super heroes to rid the world of evil is really kind of stupid when you really think about it.

 The screenplay was by David Hayter and Alex Tse, the running time is 186 minutes.