Movie Review - Watchmen (2009)

Starring Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson, and Carla Gugino
Directed by Zack Snyder

This is one of those movies (embarrassingly like Twilight) where even though I know it's bad, I still kind of like it. There's plenty of problems, and, honestly, not a ton to fawn over, but it still doesn't fail for some reason.

I read the graphic novel earlier this year as part of the Book-a-Week Quest and it holds no place in my heart, that's for sure. Not that it was bad, but I'm not geeking out over it.

Since the comic means nothing to me, my first problem is that the movie is much too long, retaining way too much of the superfluous storylines. It really feels like everything could be whittled down to an hour and forty-five minutes instead of two hours and forty-five minutes. Cut out the ridiculously awful sex scene aboard the "owl ship." You could truncate the first 50 minutes down to 20 easily. And the end felt a tad drawn out, too.

The acting was pretty darn awful -- Malin Ackerman, in particular. Good Lord, at first I thought it was just the dialog she had to spout, but towards the end, I realized it was her. And nobody (with the exception of Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach) was really any good.

Despite the fact that I felt the beginning was filled with lots of nothing, I was interested because of Zack Snyder's direction. Unfortunately, the direction became flat after the first hour.

So, with all the bad, why the heck did I like it? I'm not sure. I guess it stems from the fact that the premise in and of itself is kind of nifty. I like the idea of a group of "superheroes" being shunned by the public, trying to regain their image. I liked the interesting question that the film raises -- is it okay to kill some to save others? And, despite the fact that it was really long, it didn't feel like nearly three hours...I mean, don't get me wrong...like I said above, it's way too long...but it wasn't Funny People or Public Enemies long, if you get my drift.

The RyMickey Rating: C