New Movie Review By James Myers, The Entertainment Critic: Watchmen

Movie Review:  Watchmen

 

The Entertainment Critic Movie Review

http://jamesmyerstheentertainmentcritic.blogspot.com/

In Theatres Now Review

Opened March 3, 2009

By James Myers

 

Rating: 7 of 10

 

Director:  Zack Snyder

 

Writers (WGA): David Hayter (screenplay) and Alex Tse (screenplay), Dave Gibbons             (graphic novel illustrator), Alan Moore (graphic novel) uncredited

 

Release Date: 6 March 2009 (USA)

 

Genre: Action | Fantasy | Sci-Fi | Thriller

 

Malin Akerman ...        Laurie Jupiter / Silk Spectre II

 

Billy Crudup     ...        Dr. Manhattan / Jon Osterman

 

Matthew Goode           ...        Adrian Veidt / Ozymandias

 

Jackie Earle Haley        ...        Walter Kovacs / Rorschach

 

Jeffrey Dean Morgan    ...        Edward Blake / The Comedian

 

Patrick Wilson  ...        Dan Dreiberg / Nite Owl II

 

Carla Gugino    ...        Sally Jupiter / Silk Spectre

 

Matt Frewer     ...        Edgar Jacobi / Moloch the Mystic

 

Stephen McHattie         ...        Hollis Mason / Nite Owl

 

Laura Mennell  ...        Janey Slater

 

Rob LaBelle     ...        Wally Weaver

 

Gary Houston   ...        John McLaughlin

 

James M. Connor         ...        Pat Buchanan (as James Michael Connor)

 

Mary Ann Burger         ...        Eleanor Clift

 

John Shaw        ...        Doug Roth

 

Robert Wisden ...        Richard Nixon

 

Jerry Wasserman          ...        Detective Fine

 

Don Thompson ...        Detective Gallagher

 

Frank Novak    ...        Henry Kissinger

 

Sean Allan        ...        Norad General #1

 

Ron Fassler      ...        Ted Koppel

 

Stephanie Belding         ...        Janet Black

 

Chris Burns      ...        Dumb Thug

 

 

Produced by

Wesley Coller   ....       Co-producer

Herb Gains       ....       Executive producer

Lawrence Gordon        Producer

Lloyd Levin      ....       Producer

Deborah Snyder           Producer

Thomas Tull      ....       Executive producer

 

            Watchmen has been one of the more anticipated films of the early spring season.  There is always a tension in creating a film like this one, where the subject matter and storyline is well-know to the followers of the comic/graphic novels and engaging the members of the public that are not familiar with the comics and not cult followers.  This film succeeds on both levels; true to the original graphic novels of writer Alan Moore, artist, Dave Gibbons, and colorist John Higgins, yet intriguing and engaging to those of us not as familiar with the story.  In this story of a parallel universe still stuck in the Nixon Administration, we are immediately drawn into this tale of retired and outlawed superheroes/vigilantes when one of the superheroes is murdered in the opening scene.  You have no pulse if you are not immediately drawn into the story of the personal development and struggles of the protagonists as an investigation into the murder of a government sponsored superhero pulls them out of retirement and eventually leads them to confront a plot by one of their own to stave off nuclear war by killing millions of people.  The secondary plotline is of course to find the killer of the fallen hero, The Comedian, who had plenty of potential enemies when he has was alive, who would want him dead.

 

            By 1985, only one Watchman, a masked vigilante named Rorschach, (Jackie Earle Haley) remains active. Investigating the murder of government agent Edward Blake (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), Rorschach discovers him to be a fellow Watchman known as The Comedian and concludes that someone is trying to eliminate masked heroes. He goes off to warn his retired comrades: the emotionally detached Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup), his lover Laurie Jupiter (Malin Akerman), the second Silk Spectre, Dan Dreiberg (Stephen McHattie), the second Nite Owl, and Adrian Veidt (Matthew Goode) Ozymandias, but makes little progress.

 

After Blake's funeral, Dr. Manhattan is accused of causing cancer in his former friends and colleagues from before the accident that turned him into the being he is now. Manhattan exiles himself to Mars, giving the Soviet Union the confidence to invade Afghanistan in his absence. Later, Rorschach's conspiracy theory appears to be justified when Adrian, who had long since made his identity as Ozymandias public before retiring, narrowly avoids an assassination attempt, and Rorschach himself is framed for murder.

Meanwhile, Laurie falls in love with Dan, having previously broken up with Manhattan, and the two former heroes decide to come out of retirement as they grow closer to one another. After breaking Rorschach out of prison alongside Nite Owl, Silk Spectre is confronted by Manhattan, who takes her to Mars and explains he is no longer interested in humanity, denying her request to intervene. Probing her memories, they both discover that The Comedian is her father. His interest in humanity renewed, Manhattan returns to Earth with Silk Spectre.

 

Investigating further into the conspiracy, Rorschach and Nite Owl discover that Adrian may be behind everything. Rorschach records his suspicions in his journal, which recounts the events of the story thus far from his perspective, and posts it to a newspaper office. Rorschach and Nite Owl confront Adrian, presumably now Ozymandias once again, in his Antarctic retreat. Ozymandias confirms that he is the mastermind behind The Comedian's murder, Manhattan's exile, and the framing of Rorschach; he also staged his own assassination attempt to place himself above suspicion. He explains that his plan is to unify the United States and Soviet Union and prevent nuclear war by destroying the world's main cities with exploding energy reactors he had Dr. Manhattan create for him under the pretense of providing free energy for the world. Rorschach and Nite Owl attempt to stop him, only to find his plan has already been enacted; the energy signatures are recognized as Dr. Manhattan’s and the two opposing sides of the Cold War unite to combat their “common enemy.”

 

Silk Spectre and Manhattan arrive at the ruins of New York City and realize Ozymandias plan. They arrive to confront him, only to agree that, with the cessation of hostilities around the world, this conspiracy is best left unrevealed to the public. Rorschach, however, is unwilling to cooperate, and allows himself to be vaporized by Manhattan as a means of stopping him from revealing the truth. Manhattan shares a final kiss with Silk Spectre and departs for another galaxy.

 

With the end of the Cold War and the transformation of humanity into a united front, Laurie and Dan return to the destroyed New York City, which is being rebuilt, and begin life anew together. Meanwhile, a newspaper editor in New York complains about how there is nothing worthwhile to print, and has a young employee look for something in a collection of crank letters in which he finds Rorschach's journal.

            This is a heavy, urban, graphic film, with earth shaking violence, cool special effects, and a little gratuitous sex thrown in for extra fun.  I like the film as a viewer, because it was done in such a compelling manner as to draw you into the personal lives of these remarkable beings.  The character development made the film worth watching, and the plot was a shocker, particularly after the assassination attempt.  The reoccurring theme of ‘who watches the watchmen’ was startling in light of the fact that much like real life politics, the people who are supposed to watch out for our survival may also become the authors of our destruction.  The drop of blood on the smiley face reinforces the uneasiness of the ‘who watches those in power’ theme that permeates this film, making it a contemporary parable for our modern times.  Costuming was well done in this film as well.  By updating and modernizing the original masks, the film takes on a contemporary point of view that makes it more realistic and acceptable.  The music in the film, Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are a-Changin'", which is played over the opening montage; Jimi Hendrix's cover of Dylan's "All Along the Watchtower"; Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sounds of Silence"; the German version of Nena's "99 Luftballons"; a musak version of Tears For Fears' "Everybody Wants To Rule The World"; and Nat King Cole's "Unforgettable" added to the alternative universe/contemporary for 1980’s feel of the picture.  This was a great superhero picture, not as jolting as ‘The Dark Knight’ or quite as engaging as the first ‘Spiderman,’ but this film was more an exploration into each characters motivation, background, and psychology than other flicks of this genre had attempted before.  This one is a striking, free for all, fun ride and thriller that jarred the sensibilities to thought and comparison with the universe of political philosophy we currently find ourselves engaged in.  Worth the money, go see Watchmen.  It is a film that will thrill you and give you more to think about then the liberals vs. the conservatives.

 

 

Movie Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3orQKBxiEg

Obama Talks About His New Stimulus Package

MSNBC.com

Obama: Pass stimulus or recession lasts ‘years’

President-elect warns the downturn could become ‘dramatically worse’

BREAKING NEWS

msnbc.com news services

updated 10:41 a.m. CT, Thurs., Jan. 8, 2009

WASHINGTON - President-elect Barack Obama warned Thursday morning that the nation’s recession could “linger for years” unless Congress acts to pump unprecedented sums from Washington into the U.S. economy, adding that the current economic crisis is “unlike any we have seen in our lifetime.”

“I don’t believe it’s too late to change course, but it will be if we don't take dramatic action as soon as possible,” Obama said in a speech at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., outside Washington. It was his highest-profile case yet on an issue certain to define his early presidency.

“A bad situation could become dramatically worse,” he added, painting a dire picture — including double-digit unemployment and $1 trillion in lost economic activity — that recalled the days of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

The current economic crisis is due to “an era of profound irresponsibility,” Obama said, adding that it is “time to set a new course for this economy, and that change must begin now.”

Obama also laid out goals of doubling the production of alternative energy over three years, updating most federal buildings to improve energy efficiency, making medical records electronic, expanding broadband networks and updating schools and universities.

It was the fourth day in a row that Obama has made a pitch for a huge infusion of taxpayer dollars to revive the sinking economy.

His events have increasingly taken on the trappings and air of the presidency, with the speech — coming a full 12 days before he takes over at the White House — a particularly showy move. Presidents-elect typically stick to naming administration appointments and otherwise staying in the background during the transition period between Election Day and Inauguration Day, but Obama has clearly made the calculation that a nation anxious about its economic outlook and eager to bid farewell to the current president, George W. Bush, needs to hear from him differently and more frequently.

Indeed, the economic news is grim.

Consumers and companies are folding under the negative forces of a collapsed housing market, a global credit crunch and the worst financial crisis since the 1930s. The recession, which started in December 2007, already is the longest in a quarter-century.

Major U.S. retailers reporter December sales that were so dismal, even Wal-Mart fell short of already low expectations.

New claims for unemployment benefits dropped unexpectedly last week, but the number of people continuing to seek aid rose sharply. The Labor Department says initial applications for unemployment insurance dropped by 24,000 to a seasonally adjusted 467,000 for the week ending Jan. 3. Wall Street economists expected initial claims to increase to 540,000. The figure partly reflects seasonal volatility that occurs around the New Year’s holiday.

Still, the number of people continuing to claim jobless benefits jumped unexpectedly by 101,000 to 4.61 million. That was above analysts’ expectations of 4.5 million and the highest level since November 1982.

'More families will lose their savings'
For all of 2008, employers probably slashed payrolls by at least 2.4 million. That's based on economists' forecasts for a net loss of 500,000 additional jobs in December, as well as the job losses previously reported. Some, however, think the number of jobs cut last month will be higher, around 600,000 or 700,000. The Labor Department will release that report Friday.

"For every day we wait or point fingers or drag our feet, more Americans will lose their jobs," Obama said. "More families will lose their savings. More dreams will be deferred and denied. And our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse."

A day after the release of a stunning new estimate — that the federal budget deficit will reach an unprecedented $1.2 trillion this year, nearly three times last year's record — Obama acknowledged the new stimulus spending will "certainly add to the budget deficit." He also acknowledged some sympathy with those who "might be skeptical of this plan" because so much federal money has already been spent or committed in an attempt — largely unsuccessful so far — to get credit, the lifeblood of the American economy, flowing freely once again.

Such statements are coded to appeal to budget hawks in both parties, whom Obama wants to win over so that approval of a package draws wide, bipartisan support in the Democratic-led Congress.

To answer their concerns, he promised to allow funding only for what works. He also pledged a new level of transparency about where the money is going. A day earlier, he promised to tackle the out-of-control fiscal problem posed by Social Security and Medicare entitlement programs and named a special watchdog to clamp down on all federal programs.

Obama made broader arguments, too, saying that the private sector, typically the answer, cannot do what is needed now.

Still-evolving package
"At this particular moment, only government can provide the short-term boost necessary to lift us from a recession this deep and severe," he said.

Obama's transition team and Democratic congressional leaders are working daily to hammer out the still-evolving package, expected to total nearly $800 billion. The initial hope had been to have a new stimulus package approved by Congress in time for Obama to sign it upon taking office on Jan. 20. That timeline has slipped considerably, into at least mid-February if not later.

The package is expected to include tax cuts for businesses and middle-class workers, money to help cash-starved states with Medicaid programs and other operating costs, and a huge share for infrastructure building, investments in energy efficiency and a rebuilding of the information technology system for health care. Much of the latter portions of the plan are aimed at what Obama likes to talk about as the need for "reinvestment" and not just "recovery."

"It is not just another public works program," he said in the speech. "It's a plan that recognizes both the paradox and the promise of this moment, the fact that there are millions of Americans trying to find work even as, all around the country, there is so much work to be done."

He also promised action to address the economy's ills beyond the package, such as tackling the massive wave of home foreclosures many experts expect, preventing the failure of financial institutions, rewriting financial regulations and keeping accountable the "Wall Street wrongdoers" who engage in risky investing.

More on Obama | stimulus

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28555437/

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