Until I saw the first trailer and read the initial reports about Watchmen, I knew nothing of what I now understand to be the most popular of all graphic novels. So I am not one of these “fanboys” 
we keep hearing about. However, I am a fan of the cinematic adaptation of comic books, and what I saw in that first trailer really piqued my interest. I am disappointed by the film, but I suspect that there are multiple reasons for the disappointment, not all of which are reliable markers of the film’s quality. First, the film is incredibly dense and really quite long, at 2 hours and 42 minutes. Director Zack Snyder has championed his loyalty to the source material, not just to the story but even to the point of emulating specific panels from the comic. That is a choice that comes with consequences, one of which is begging the question as to what we should take away from a grim and graphic story about an anachronistic alternate universe. How does having a five-term caricature of Nixon in the White House with the nuclear Red scare still looming tell us about today? I still don’t know the answer to those questions, but I am certain that the film needed a more merciless editor. Faithfully told or not, this story isn’t large enough to last more than two hours.
The second reason I was disappointed, I think, is that the first trailer was edgy and ostentatious, setting up an expectation that the actual film does not satisfy. 
This isn’t the first time that the music in a trailer transcended the experience of the film (the use of The Postal Service song in the Imaginary Heroes trailer comes to mind). For the first Watchmen trailer, that Smashing Pumpkins song, combined with exciting imagery and the irreverent dialog from the Rorschach character, told me I was in store for something innovative on every level. I was expecting the film to be potentially alienating as a result of a bold new cinematic language. What I got instead was a story told about as traditionally as any costumed comic book film cold be. Sure, there are big effects, visually stunning use of CGI, and huge set pieces, but we’ve seen that all before. I wanted something I might potentially hate and therefore maybe end up loving. But Snyder wanted to make everyone happy and played it too safe. That’s not to say Watchmen isn’t impressive as a big, loud, extra-large-popcorn-with-plenty-of-butter fantasy picture. I just wanted something more.
Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a 
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet... Leave one in the space below.
Leave a Comment