 | | | | | |
| LAPDANCE LARRY |
| SEVENTIES SIMON |
| PHOTOGRAPHY |
| COMIC ART |
| INTERVIEWS |
| Sub-menu 1.2.1.1 |
| FESTIVALS |
| EXHIBITIONS |
Watchmen
Like Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings trilogy, Watchmen distils the spirit of its source material rather than literally translating it in the style of Robert Rodriguez' Sin City. Much of the detail from the source material is necessarily discarded (some regrettably so - the subplot of Rorschach's alter ego and the death of Hollis Mason, for example) but, as a whole it holds together very well. Those unfamiliar with the source material will find nothing untoward here unlike, say, the Harry Potter films where the plot gaps are enormous. The film evens manages to pull off the near impossible by presenting an alternative ending which is more elegant than the original.
Director, Zack Snyder, displays a penchant for comedy and visual flair in presenting a great opening montage that provides a brief recent history of this alternative universe and sets up the story to follow. He also employs an interesting and provocative use of songs which are almost always inappropriately tagged to incongruous scenes (ballads over fight sequences, for instance) and could easily have become cliché but somehow they work, coming over instead as comical and ironic and further reinforcing that this alternative reality is slightly out of kilter with our own. There's a lot of apparent depth here, it's like several movies in one. Many of the characters are of sufficient complexity that they could have featured in a simpler (and much lesser) movie of their own. Let's hope that the franchise is not cheapened by a succession of inferior ‘origin story’ sequels.
Performances are all adequate for their roles although Matthew Goode seems a little miscast as Adrian Veidt, lacking the apparent body mass that would be credibly required to perform the feats of strength that he does, but this is a minor point. The film belongs to Jackie Earle Haley, however. His performance of Rorschach is spot on - he's only a little fella but, boy, can he kick arse! And improves even further when his alter ego is revealed, shifting the film up another gear when it was already cruising along at a decent clip. Criticism of Malin Akerman is unfounded; her purpose is to stand there and look pretty and bed the heroes, as the script requires, a role she performs quite nicely, thank you very much.While the structure of the plot may be a little multi-stranded to be neatly cohesive, there's more than enough interest in the various plot strands throughout and the result is a comic book… oops, sorry…’graphic novel’ adaptation which surpasses Zack Snyder's previous (and rather woeful) 300; indeed it's one of the best ever made.
Stuart Jamieson
official website
|
|
| also featured |
| CURRENT COMPETITIONS! Get the Gringo Competition Thanks to Icon Movies, we have ten in-season double passes to give away to Get the Gringo! Read more >> The Women in Black Administering the sale of a deceased estate for a law firm, widower
Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) discovers a town where the children are
dropping like flies seemingly at the ghostly hands of a local vengeful
spirit - the woman of the title. Is it safe yet? After a mixed season last year of too many films that had a social agenda, is it safe now to go back to the cinema for nothing more than just a good time? Read more >> The Avengers After years on the outer, never quite making the big time, Buffyverse creator and Toy Story scribe, Joss Whedon, has finally arrived. Read more >> Mirror Mirror Funny how time and again movies with similar themes or stories seem to hit the cinema around the same time, think Deep Impact/Armageddon or even Naked Lunch/Barton Fink, and it's happening again this year with (of all things) Snow White. Read more >> American Pie: Reunion vs. Battleship In a titanic struggle to capture the hearts, minds and disposable incomes of an ever-younger audience, two films line up to do battle for the crown in the great popcorn war of 2012. Read more >> 21 Jump Street Transforming a popular TV show into a mainstream movie is very seldom a successful endeavour. Read more >> John Carter The votes are in and the result is clear: Andrew Stanton is the dud director of Pixar. Read more >> The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel There is a common complaint among older moviegoers that the majority of releases today are tailored to a specific demographic and their group gets short shift. Read more >> Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close As a clear sufferer of Asperger Syndrome, Oskar (Thomas Horn) is not short of an anxiety or two or a measure of compulsiveness. Read more >> Contraband Contraband is a continuing response to the question of where does a superstar film career go when the matinee idol good looks start to fade? Read more >> |
 |
| Stay up to date with modmove news |
| about modmove |
| What to know how we got started? Read more >> |
| read the modmove blog |
| Check out all the random stuff that didn't make it to the website! Read more >> |
| contact Us |
| If you have any queries or if you would like more information about modmove, we would love to hear from you! Read more >> |
| join our mailing list |
| subscribe to the mailing list and receive the modmove newsletter. |
| search |
| search modmove for previous news and reviews. |
Privacy Notice | Contact Us | Site Map | Copyright © 2009 modmove.com | Entertainment and Popular Culture in Review at modmove.com