I was interested to watch the watchmen movie, however it took a long time for this movie to release in Pune, finally i got to see it this weekend, however i had read the watchmen comic before hand as i knew it was not just another super-hero movie which one could sit through, the story is dark and complex.
I had read few reviews about the film where critics had labeled this movie as a failure since they felt it did not meet the charm of the comic series, i was awed by the gripping story telling of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, in spite of this comic released way back in 1986-87, the comic series also has an interwoven story of The tales of the black freighter, which was cut out of movie.
Zack Snyder adapts the movie in a perfect way from the graphic novel, the best part is i enjoyed watching the movie as much as reading the comic series, while reading the comic series i found characters of Dr. Manhattan and Rorschach were much strong in terms of story telling, however the movie did equal justice to all characters as it explored the phases of a superhero group that is split and most of the members retired, re-group post the death of the senior most member of their group, Blake Edwards the comedian played by Jeffery Dean Morgan, who is killed and Rorschach is on the trail of the killer who is out to pin down this group of long forgotten superheroes.
Jackie Earle Haley plays the role of Rorschach to perfection, Rorschach's character is identified with moral absolutism, who has seen the real face of the savage nature of the human society hidden beneath the clothes of civil behavior, Malin Akerman plays the Silk Spectre II, she takes on the reigns of the super women act from her mother and has being staying with Dr. Manhattan at a military research center, eventually deserts Dr. Manhattan due to his growing display of non human feelings, Bill Crudup plays the blue super hero, who turns to matter changing, teleporting hero due to a lab accident strays away from his long time lover and drifts towards Silk Spectre II, Matthew Goode plays Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias, one of the members of the watchmen group who has made his identity public an turned it to a money making business, Patrick Wilson plays the Nite Owl, the only member of the watchmen group with fancy gadgets, a owl eye shaped aircraft he eventually falls in love with Silk Spectre later in the movie.
This movie combines a good mix of action, story telling, suspense element, with good emotional content amidst the backdrop an impending nuclear threat to the world during the time of cold war between USA and Russia during the mid 80's. this movie almost 3 hours in length, considering the 12 series long comic book being crunched into a movie the director had to strech the movie length to do proper justice to the story.
one of the scenes which i really liked in the movie is where the Night Owl dreams kissing silk spectre on Mars and a nuclear explosion rocks the planet, rising cloud of fire, well it's something different to see from the regular swiss alps backdrop seen in our Hindi movies while the hero kisses the heroine.
