BLU-REVIEW: WATCHMEN

Written by David Hayter and Alex Tse
Directed by Zack Snyder
Starring Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode and Malin Akerman


Early on in WATCHMEN, a store front window is defaced with spray paint. The words read, “Who watches the Watchmen?” The question, in the film, is asked by the general public as a serious concern that no one is policing the super forces that the government has hired to police the people. The answer here is rhetorical of course. The question, when asked out of context, is of course completely different but somehow, just as rhetorical, depending on how you see it. Last spring, WATCHMEN quickly went from one of the most anticipated films of 2009 to a supposed disappointment with very little explanation. The easiest explanation is that there had been a backlash to the hype; that fans of the iconic graphic novel had flocked to the film but they brought no one else with them. Now given the royal BD treatment, WATCHMEN can go direct to the basements where its true fans have been lurking and waiting all this time.


Clocking in at just over three hours, Zack Snyder’s director’s cut is a lot easier to stomach in the comfort of home. WATCHMEN is a bleak film, very dark for the superhero genre. It was possibly too intense to cross over in theatres but, on a rainy summer night, it will thrill lucky renters. This epic comic book picture spans decades and weights itself in a dense but intricate recreation of history, one which includes all of these supposed heroes and makes them an integral part of humanity’s progress. An immense amount of effort was made putting all of the tiny details together when making this movie and that same effort was used when putting this BD together. Aside from a number of interesting documentaries on varying elements of production, there is also the BD exclusive, what is being called the maximum movie mode. To watch the film in this mode is to watch a guided tour. The guide is Snyder himself and he interrupts the film intermittently, even going so far as to pausing it, so that he talk to us about what shooting was like and point the details we might miss. This is accompanied by graphic novel illustration comparisons, as well as storyboard comparisons, in a picture-in-picture option. You can even leave the film to watch an appropriate extra when you are prompted. It truly is unlike anything I’ve experienced on BD thus far.


I admit to not loving this film but I can also admit that I can see why many people would and those people should feel very happy with what is included in the BD release. The only thing that might upset these people is that there is an ultimate edition coming this December.

FILM


BD

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Race to Watchmen Mountain

No one considered the race to be much of one with any actual contest. WATCHMEN may have had a sturdy but not epic debut last week but certainly no one expected the spring’s most anticipated film to fall off by nearly 70% in its second week. And so RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN, a film I can’t imagine anyone was anticipating on any level whatsoever, was able to finish with a surprising first place. More embarrassing still, the race wasn’t even close.


Disney’s pursuit of fusing amusement park rides with big adventure movies in order to drive business back and forth between the two continued this weekend with RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN. With no other family fare in sight, save for CORALINE, which held up well despite the fresh competition, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was able to get those little space alien kids back to their home planet on top of the big, scary mountain (I didn’t actually see the movie so I’m guessing here) and give Disney a solid opening. The week’s other debuts went from decent (THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT) to embarrassingly bad (MISS MARCH). Well, MISS MARCH’s box office returns are proportionate to the intelligence of the premise so maybe it isn’t as embarrassing as it is appropriate.


Now, I have to get back to WATCHMEN. Warner Brothers is claiming that the 67% drop falls completely in line with other event pictures. They are right about that. After all, it only ranks 89th in terms of overall largest second week drops isn’t nearly as steep as the 80% plummet posted by FRIDAY THE 13TH last month. Still, I imagine they must have been making this statement through ground teeth. This was supposed to be a blockbuster and now it looks like it may go on to make as much as a movie about a mall cop. Where were the devout fans that have been supposedly waiting for years for this film to hit? Not only did they not show up in hordes (or in costume) for the premiere but those who did didn’t even care to see it a second time this weekend. It is all very un-geek-like.


And speaking of unexpected, a little female-skewed indie comedy starring Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, managed a debut per screen average of over $53K. SUNSHINE CLEANING, distributed by Overture pictures, opened on just four screens but brought in the highest per screen average of any film this year. The pic expands to 50 screens next week.

Overall, the box office was down 17% over last year, the first decline it has seen all year.

NEXT WEEK: Nicolas Cage knows too much (for a change) in THE KNOWING (3000+ screens); Jason Segal and Paul Rudd aren’t afraid to say I LOVE YOU, MAN (2500 screens) and Julia Roberts and Clive Owen reunite for the first time since CLOSER in Tony Gilroy’s first feature since MICHAEL CLAYTON, DUPLICITY (2400 screens). Look for the Black Sheep review of their latest adventure, as well as a previously unpublished review of the award winning MICHAEL CLAYTON, later this week.

Source: Box Office Mojo

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE: Watching the Watchmen

It’s not like I wanted it to fail. It’s not like I knew it wouldn’t succeed. There is a part of me though that is tickled to see that WATCHMEN hasn’t shattered any records upon its highly anticipated release. I am even more amused to see the film’s devout followers defend its sizable but hardly sizzling debut. After all, WATCHMEN is the third highest opening weekend for an R-rated film outside of the summer season. That matters, right?


Realistically speaking, WATCHMEN did do well. It just didn’t do what was expected. Opening in the same frame two years ago, Zack Snyder’s breakthrough film, 300, opened to about $15 million more than WATCHMEN did. Advance buzz seemed just as deafening as it did for 300 and midnight screenings for WATCHMEN doubled the gross of 300’s midnight screenings. Everything seemed on track as reports suggested that most WATCHMEN screenings were sold out all weekend. Yet, it never got to the heights it so clearly felt destined to reach, despite WATCHMEN boasting the widest R-rated release in history. Maybe it was the nearly three-hour run time that set it back. It certainly is a viable theory. The other is that it just didn’t matter that much to anyone outside of the comic-book crowd or, at the very least, as much as Warner banked on.


The rest of the Top 10 held very tightly … well, with the exception of THE JONAS BROTHERS: THE 3D CONCERT EXPERIENCE. After a disappointing debut last week, it plummeted nearly 80%. Maybe there is still time for the brothers to sneak a cameo into the upcoming Hannah Montana movie to redeem themselves. Meanwhile, sleeper hits like TAKEN and PAUL BLART: MALL COP inched up the charts well into their runs. Even CONFESSIONS OF A SHOPAHOLIC managed an upward move and it has already been declared a flop. The 2009 box office continues its record breaking run and this cynical world is watching and wondering when its all going to come to a hault.


No major studio risked opening any wide release opposite WATCHMEN. Platform releases stepped in to take advantage with counterprogramming. The most notable is the three piece homage to Tokyo, aptly named TOKYO! The film opened on just one screen and pulled in a per screen average of over $21K. The Swedish import, EVERLASTING MOMENTS, opened to mild but solid $10K average on five screens. And finally, indie drama, PHOEBE IN WONDERLAND, starring Elle Fanning and Felicity Huffman, opened on a handful of screens but did not report its estimates at press time.

NEXT WEEK: WATCHMEN will race for the top with RACE TO WITCH MOUNTAIN, starring The Rock, who coincidentally hosted SNL this past weekend. Crazy timing. A young stud tries to get some in MISS MARCH after he fell into a coma before he could lose his virginity. Riveting. And THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT will try to creep out audiences who have been inundated with horror flicks all year now. The little ray of sunshine clearing the way is the potential indie darling, SUNSHINE CLEANING, opening on just four screens.

Source: Box Office Mojo

WATCHMEN

Written by David Haytor and Alex Tse
Directed by Zack Snyder
Starring Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Jackie Earle Haley, Matthew Goode and Malin Akerman


Laurie Jupiter: You have to stop this. Everyone will die.
Dr. Manhattan: And the universe won’t even notice.

Up until last year, I have to admit I had never heard of WATCHMEN. Apparently, I was too far removed from the realm of the graphic novel, formerly known as the comic book universe, to have heard of one of the most influential works of all time. This doesn’t surprise me really as I’m not that kind of geek. (I am a geek, just not that kind.) Still, it seems to me that a lot of the supposed die-hard’s out there only really learned about WATCHMEN around the same time as I did. I know that isn’t the case for everyone but you would think that a classic of this supposed magnitude would have worked its way into the pop culture lexicon somewhat deeper and earlier than it did if it was truly that important. Still, here it is now, smothered in all of its hype and lore, and the question is, does it matter as much as they’d like us to think it does? More importantly, is WATCHMEN worth watching?


The answer is that yes, WATCHMEN is at least worth a gander. It is a superhero movie of epic proportion, clocking in at somewhere close to three hours. It spends a great deal of that time demystifying the superhero image while delicately balancing that with maintaining the very same conventions it is trying to tear down. Tricky? Yes; but Zack Snyder, the freshly minted “visionary” director of 300, performs his own super feat by making it all fit together and maintaining a strong and mysterious intrigue almost throughout. The term, “visionary”, is used pretty lightly these days and, while I’m not ready to shower Snyder in accolades just yet, I will say that he has a good eye and, at the very least, a unique, if not bloody, vision. WATCHMEN, no matter how much or how little meaning can be derived from it, is nothing if not visually exciting. There is sometimes so much happening on the screen that you know you’ve missed at least one tiny detail that would have further filled the frame and satisfied your insatiable geek hunger pains.

Snyder’s accomplishment is only more impressive considering there isn’t very much of a plot to hold the film together. It is the mid-80’s and Richard Nixon has just entered an unprecedented third term as the President of the United States when the country is on the brink of the Cold War with Russia. A band of masked avengers, known as The Watchmen, have been forced to disband after the public turned on them and it would appear as though the former crime fighters are being hunted down and picked off. This is the set up but there is very little build past that. WATCHMEN meanders through vignettes about each major character that are engaging on their own but don’t serve to move anything further along. It isn’t as though this goes unnoticed either; I found myself occasionally removed and wondering if anything was actually going to happen. Unfortunately, when the film does find its focus is when it becomes much less effective. It practically plunges into cliché in the film’s final act – from trapped screaming children in a burning building to secret lairs in the arctic – leaving me wishing it was going nowhere again.

It’s not easy being a superhero (or green from what I've heard). And what is a superhero anyway? It’s just another guy dressed up in a silly uniform trying to find his purpose in the world before he comes home to a cold can of beans and a copy of Hustler to bring with as he crawls alone into bed at the end of the night. The Watchmen are just men (and women) after all. And try as it has so very hard for oh so many months now, WATCHMEN is just another comic book movie and not the genre-defining masterpiece it touts itself to be.