Watchmen ~ review

Here's a review from a person who lives on the other side of the world and never knew about Watchmen until this movie was made.

First of all, I must say that I was impressed with the movie. It was beautifully made with lots of cool visual effects that really worth the admission fee. The movie starts off rather slow and continues on with a slow pace until the end. Boring? Some of you may feel that way but definitely not for me because this is not a typical action superhero (or superheroes coz they are a lot of them) movie but much much more deeper than that. It explores the themes of love, sacrifices, existence, morality, and many other things that I may not be able to think of. And it also made me wonder how much will it cost to make the world a better place. Like one of the character claimed, kill millions to save billions. Was it really necessary?

I really enjoy the movie although two of my friends who were with me nearly fallen asleep. I really can't blame them though because we watched the midnight show and the movie was nearly 3 hours long. Besides, they were expecting a lot of action like your usual typical superhero movies that has been invading theaters over the years. Nevertheless, you can enjoy the movie if you focus on the story. I like how the story was told with all the flashbacks and the long introduction in the beginning of the movie. It really helps in introducing the audiences (especially those who are not familiar with the comic books) with the alternate timeline that the movie was set in.

But with little exposure from the source material, I think Watchmen will struggle a bit in finding its place in my country, Malaysia. We are more exposed to mangas and anime than Western comic books, although there are specialized comic stores around the country which provide these kind of stuff. It would help if the superheroes are popular like Superman or Batman, unfortunately they aren't. People who are not familiar with it might avoid it (like my cousins) while people who watched it might come out from theaters disappointing because they expect it to have more action than it had offered (like my 2 friends).

So here's my advice; don't expect anything. Just watch the movie and focus on the story rather than anticipating the action. I'm not sure which did the comic books explore more, the story or the action but the movie definitely favors the former. You might like it, you might not. Either way, you will have your eyes feast with beautifully shot scenes and CGI. So I hope that will do to make up the admission fee if you feel the movie sucks.

I gave 4 stars out of 5 for Watchmen. Good job Zack Snyder and all of the crews. Good job.