Watchmen
Friday, March 6th, 2009One hour into Watchmen, I thought it was going to beat out Dark Knight as my favourite superhero film.
I didn’t expect much. The graphic novel is dense and long and literary, and although 300 (the director’s previous film) was visually lush, I wasn’t moved by it. I knew it was going to be pretty long, and would nonetheless have to do some fairly savage cutting to get it finished under three hours. I was prepared for compromises. That was the first surprise. It fit in far more than I was expecting, and patiently laid things out without the kind of mad rush that infected such films as The Golden Compass. It even made an improvement in discarding the giant squid in favour of the very logical “Doctor Manhattan goes nuts” scenario, tying things together very effectively.
Still, perilously close to greatness, the second half meandered into setpieces that were cool but left the plot hanging. The subplot about Black Canary’s patrimony *was* rushed and so was Doctor Manhatten’s ultimate conversion to save humanity.
For a change, let’s open the comments for suggestions for changing the film, even if it is just me in the end.