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

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.

300

Written by Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad and Michael Gordon
Directed by Zack Snyder


Additional review writing by Trevor Adams

Spartan King Leonides: Pray that they are not so dumb.
Pray that we are lucky.


Have you ever heard of a little argument called, “Style vs. Substance?” If you haven’t, I’m afraid I cannot help you. You must stop reading now. No, seriously, of course you know the debate. In a visual world, what holds more relevance, the way something looks or what is ultimately being said? When related to film, some would argue that style can and should exist without the burden of having to show meaning, that a provocative, effective aesthetic can stand alone. Others would argue that beauty is only skin deep and that without meaning or attention placed on other areas of focus, one is left with an empty experience. In this review, this argument will be applied to Zack Snyder’s 300, a film that is drawing mass hordes of people to the theatre to feast upon its blood soaked violence, based on the Frank Miller (SIN CITY) graphic novel. Included amidst these masses are my roommate, Trevor Adams, and myself. Trevor will argue for style and I will argue for substance. Trevor has a background in animation and special effects and carries with him a childhood love for comic books and video games. All of these influences lent weight to his enjoyment of 300. If you’re a regular reader and you know me at all, you know that I am most satisfied by well-strung words that are given even more meaning by appropriate and innovate visuals. Trevor and I are two people with often similar views that left the theatre entirely polarized. Whereas he saw art, I saw a failed attempt.


TREVOR: Truthfully, I’m not so much a fan of blue/green-screen filmmaking. If the recent STAR WARS films are examples of using this technology to create an entire feature, why would I be interested at all in seeing this 300 film? 300 Spartans acting in front of a screen that would later be replaced by computer graphics just didn’t appeal to me as a concept. I blame the trailer for convincing me of otherwise. In its 2 minutes, I knew that this was going to become an important art film that would have to fight to assert its value. The frames are painted in a way that they create an astoundingly beautiful, living comic book. I’ve treated myself to reading a number of comics in the last few weeks and although the stories and dialogue make my eyes roll in a way that sometimes gets me dizzy, the drawings, color and composition keep me heavily interested and eagerly turning to the next page. 300 is no different. A single film frame can be worth a thousand words of script. The fight sequences are so strikingly rendered, I found myself at points begging for the director to slow down so I could absorb more of each and every frame … and in fact, at times, that was exactly what he did. My appreciation of this film lies not within the 300 naked Spartans or the violence they promote that brought on the comic book geeks and raving macho WWE crowd, but rather within the frames of perfection that I was given. I was so filled with love for what my eyes were witnessing, the style became the substance of this film.


JOE: It’s not that I cannot applaud 300 for its innovation and effort. The framing at times approaches a higher level of art and the tonality and quality of the film are engrossing, despite the obvious GLADIATOR influence. What GLADIATOR had that 300 does not is depth, a more personal sense of urgency and purpose. Spartan King Leonides fights with passion and love for his empire but his almost entirely faceless army fights blindly alongside him. 300 spends little time establishing itself historically and even less time developing its cast past their drone status so what you are left with is a bunch of boys in battle. It is violence for its own sake and its energy is not enough to overlook the banalities of their dialogue or the ridiculous fashion in which that dialogue is delivered. Even the look wears thin. As one fight leads to another with little to no other development taking place in between, the cheaper elements of the design unveil themselves. Gimmicky monsters appear to attempt new levels of excitement and the skimpy outfits and painted-on abs of the Spartans draw attention to the film’s thinly veiled intentions. 300 is nothing more than a stylized masturbatory fantasy of violence, blood and misogyny. In other words, it is pure Frank Miller.


TREVOR: The story is simple in 300. It doesn’t try to hide itself under any complicated military strategies, nor does it weave in any intricate politics within the Spartan government. Zack Snyder simply connects the simple dots of Frank Miller’s story and then beautifully paints his colors within and around those lines. It’s not that I couldn’t go on and on about the elements that bothered me in this film (i.e. the Golem-like ogre character; the horribly-acted Xerxes; or the simple fact that this was based on a Frank Miller comic book), but I‘d rather take the same approach I did in exiting the cinema: Focus on what I loved. No film is perfect, but there can be perfect moments. This film had about 300 of them.

JOE: There are certainly a select group of film and graphic geeks, like Trevor, who will see this film with the sole purpose of devouring its visual extravagance. It is their art and I do not begrudge them of it. As far as I am concerned though, when a filmmaker spends all of his focus on one element of style and allows for so many other formal aspects to just get by on their own, you are left with a hollow shell. 300 is beautiful but beauty fades fast when there is nothing underneath.

TREVOR

JOE