Watchmen

Many adjectives can be used for his film. It is impressive, visually polished, excessively comic book-like, and stylishly action-packed. It is a bombastic spectacle that reminds me of the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing. Unfortunately, I have always preferred small theater forms and similar shows where the idea does not disappear in favor of impressive action that does not impress me. It is over-stylized, illogical, and cold. It is a certain tribute to comics, but to the ones that never appealed to me, namely the superheroes. It is exactly the type of production where I get the impression that the film heroes go through so much effort to achieve a banal goal. I always remember the scene from the first Indiana Jones movie, where a native warrior dramatically fences with a sword in front of a surprised Indiana Jones, only for him to eventually pull out a gun and shoot the warrior while saying "Go to hell." For example, the scene where the villain breaks into the victim's apartment, beats him up for a long time using all the furniture in the room, and breaks a table with him, only to eventually throw him through specially reinforced glass onto the pavement instead of pulling out a gun and shooting him. It is indeed impressive, but incredibly stupid. Watchmen is exactly the type of film where style and effects are everything. Overall impression: 60%. I do not regret seeing  Watchmen, but I do not intend to return to the film in the future. Fans of blockbusters can easily add two stars. (2009-12-14)

It hasn't been a year since The Dark Knight and suddenly crowds of people were shouting that Watchmen are too serious for a comic and therefore ridiculous. On the other hand, Batman's established visual style is so firmly maintained that Snyder's work suddenly becomes too colorful for a serious drama. And prejudices, apart from the puritan part of society, also started to affect the average viewer, who suddenly cannot digest a few non-offensive "blue" shots. And so, they miss out on the pleasure of a brilliant adaptation, masterful direction, and performances that not only do not disrupt but precisely fulfill each character and flawlessly disrupt all the previous superhero stereotypes. In my eyes, Watchmen are a masterpiece that paradoxically surpassed its time. They are modern and, despite their generous length, very skillfully directed, but their nostalgic melancholy still has no place in the genre. However, they can easily become an untouchable idol for all those who accept them. (2009-03-13)

A complex, smart, R-rated comic-book gem. I’m quite surprised by the talk about the complexity of the film, I was afraid that I would get lost because I don’t know Moore’s original. But I didn’t have any trouble and nobody capable of paying attention to a film should, either. Watchmen captivated me in several ways: the intellectual and visual aspects, the brutality and how uncompromising it is. Awesome! (2009-03-09)

What to say? I don't know. Somehow I ran out of words. Not that this movie took them away from me, but I just can't think of anything to say other than it was a clever ride on a spiral of edginess, wit, thought and pain. Even though I'm not a fan of the source material – I haven't read the comic and know nothing about it – I liked the movie. I believe there's a lot of good stuff missing. But I also believe that such a social probe among a superhero group, no one will ever let go and I may never see the "inside" again. Probably a shame. (2009-04-22)

The biggest surprise in years. I don't really like Snyder (300 will confirm that) and I don't know the comic books, so this seemed to be a first-class head-on collision. But after completing three hours and thirty-five minutes in the Watchmen world, I'm just in awe. I'm in awe of the narrative structure Snyder chose, how he chose rich mythology over a straightforward plot, I'm in awe of the depth of the individual characters, I'm in awe of the absolutely brilliant compositions (Hollis's last duel, in which he projects the glorious strokes of his life, Rorschach's conversion into a mask in the lair of a pedophile), I'm in awe of how Snyder transformed the indigestible fetishism and effectiveness into an incredibly coherent and aesthetically polished whole (the title sequence rolls radically, I'm speechless), I'm in awe of the inclusion of the pure comic book insert Black Freighter, which fantastically resonates with the overall tuning of the film... I'm in awe, even though there's a few unnecessary shots, a couple of deranged ties and unnecessary masturbation. I'm in awe of a film which I rank, alongside Nolan's Batman films, among the top three comic book movies that have ever hit the silver screen. I don't even know if I'm sad that I didn't see it in the movie theatre, because those nearly four hours of TV were almost a spiritual experience of pure ecstasy from post-modern mythology... (2011-03-22)