To be more open to western superhero productions (because I've slept through every one I've tried to watch) I decided to give the 2009 film Watchmen a chance. I did not fall asleep this time, but watched in ever-increasing disgusted boredom what was likely meant to be a hatchet job of western superhero productions.
The premise is set in an alternate history earth, and begins with the murder of a Joker-clone character -- who is one of the superheroes, apparently. As the murder mystery is investigated we meet several versions of the title characters over a span of decades. There's a Batman clone, a Wonder Woman clone, and others that are just too silly to mention.
The superheroes are just people with fancy equipment who mostly behave like thugs (the Joker-clone guy assassinates President Kennedy from the grassy knoll.) The one character with actual superpowers is a nuclear accident victim turned demi-god called Dr. Manhattan, who wins the Vietnam War for Nixon and serves as the nuclear deterrant during the Cold War. All of this unfortunate folks come together as they try to stop the end of the world via nuclear war, so I guess not even Dr. Manhattan could stop it.
I have problems with the entire movie, which from my view was poorly written, badly filmed and served no purpose that I could fathom other than to work out what I'll guess was the creators' anger over comic book culture, resentment of women and political issues with conservatives. The violence and gore is excessive and not at all appropriate (I've personally seen lots of gore in real life and someone needs to refresh their knowledge of how much blood is in the average human body.) There were also sad, disgusting bits like one masked character's backstory that were meant to horrify but it was just a pathetic attempt to manipulate the viewer.
I found the rampant misogyny the most offensive part; the women are all viewed and/or treated as if they're blow up dolls. I kept watching in hopes that the film would redeem itself with a history reset or some way to resolve the issues, but nope. The film has no hope and by the end of it you're left wondering why you even bothered.
I'd give this one a pass. Not worth your time.
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