Watchmen Review

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The Watchmen has been reviewed ad nauseum, and I'm somewhat hesitant of adding my opinion to the clamour, especially after Patton Oswalt's defense (visit http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=67077201&blogId=475266763). For the sake of brevity, here's my bullet-point review of the Watchmen:

It was good. Not great, but the best film adaptation of the graphic novel possible. The graphic novel is the better product, but the movie rocks.

It was long, and detailed, which was good for fans of the graphic novel, but tried the patience of the general movie going audience.

Acting wise, Malin Ackerman and Mathew Good were not as bad as everybody else says.

Jackie Earl Healy was a great Rorschach. Patrick Wilson was a great Nite Owl.

The soundtrack and score were both way too over the top, and were the chief detriments to the movie.

All in all, a great effort by all involved, including Zack Snyder.

I watched the film with four of my friends, of which all but one had read the graphic novel previous to viewing the film. Our post-viewing discussion touched on the fight scenes. A couple of my friends didn't think much of them and thought they were gratuitous. I, on the other hand, really liked them and thought they served a key purpose. The fight scenes, specifically the fighting styles used by each individual character provided clues to characterization that I (geek that I am) found fascinating. For example:

The Comedian's Fighting Style: Classic American Brawler

The Comedian started his crime-fighting career cleaning up New York's riverside docks so his style is consists mainly of fist-blows backed by power provided by his muscular physique. He uses intimidation, weaponry and dirty-fighting techniques to give him the upper hand against his opponents. He's always grabbing for weaponry, recognizing the advantage of force multipliers like knives, make-shift clubs and guns. He fight on instinct and emotion which works when he's on the winning side. But he's old, slow, prone to making mistakes out of desperation when he starts to lose. His murder kicks off the story's plot line.



Rorshach's Fighting Style: Suicidal Street Fighter

If city is an urban jungle, Rorschach is the meanest, cruelest cat on the block. He's not the lion. He's the cat that makes the lion slink away in terror with its tail curled down around it balls for protection. Rorshach is shorter and slighter than his crime fighting companions, but he makes up for this disadvantage in three ways:

He fights nasty (boxing backed up by a kitchen sink assortment knee's elbows and kicks).

He uses his environment as a weapon (the way he moves up and down vertical height's is reminiscent of free-running/Parkour, and he uses makeshift weapons culled from generic household items).

He's fucking psychotic.

Never fight a guy who doesn't care about dying? You could break all his limbs and he would still bite. He's a killer, straight and simple, and his uncompromising, black and white morality, and severe death wish more than makes up for any physical shortcomings. Given that, his ultimate fate is not that surprising.


Nite Owl's Fighting Style: Efficient, Scientific Hand to Hand Style.

After a decade of government-mandated retirement, the Nite Owl seems to have softened around the edges and grown himself a respectable spare tire. But there's a lot of power behind that bulk. Plus, as a scientist, he understands the value of incapacitating his opponents with one strike, especially when fighting against greater numbers. Nite Owl aims for his opponents weak spots, preferring to shatter knees, shins and elbow joints in order to quickly deal with an opponent, and to make sure that opponent cannot get up again to do him harm. Although he's the a technophile, he rarely uses offensive weaponry, preferring a brutal, punishing hand to hand combat reminiscent of Okinawan karate.

Silk Spectre's Fighting Style: She's Got Legs and She Knows How to Use 'Em.

As the only female crime fighter of the bunch, Silk Spectre has to maximise use of her natural assets: specifically her long legs. She employs a kicking style, similar to Korean martial arts. She deploys wheel kicks with precision timing, ensuring opponents feel the full, devastating effect of her force at it's maximum arc. Although she eschews the dirty fighting techniques that makes Rorshach such a formidable opponent, she's not adverse to close fighting using her elbow's and knees. When pushed, she will use weaponry, which gives some hint to her crime fighting linage. It may be a man's world, but this woman is able to hold her own quite effectively.



Dr. Manhattan's Fighting Style: None.

God's don't fight. They simply wave a hand and their opponents disintegrate. He's cold, dispassionate and he kills at a distance with a God's impunity.


Ozymandias's Fighting Style: The Ultimate Martial Artist.

He may be the smartest man in the world, and he's certainly the most dangerous. His back story includes years of travelling around Asia, learning every bit of martial theory he could. As a result, he has access to every style of martial art ever invented. But what makes him truly formidable as a fighter is how perceptive he is. Ozy observational skills makes him so intuitive, he borders on precognitive. How do you fight an opponent who can anticipate your next move based on minute shift in eye glances and body position? How do you kill a person who can read a bullet's ultimate trajectory before you even shoot? It's almost fitting that Ozy is such a voyeur, who reads the shifts in the cultural climate by watching fifty different television programs on fifty different TV screens all at one. He sees all, and he knows, man... he knows...