Watchmen cinema review

The Watchmen, which is a Zack Snyder adaptation of Alan Moore’s graphic novel, is definitely not worth the watch and is not worth the hype either.

The Watchmen takes place in 1985 America with the doomsday clock set at 5 minutes to midnight to mark the potential threat of the Soviet Union and the risk of conflict with the USA. Superheroes are part of the woodwork in this alternate setting and when The Comedian, an ex-superhero, is murdered, masked vigilante Rorschach sets out to discover who is behind it. He reunites with his old superhero colleagues as they unearth the conspiracy behind The Comedian’s murder.

Unfortunately, this is a film that isolates a huge proportion of the cinema audience and targets a niche market as it only welcomes readers of the original graphic novel to join in with the plot. If you have never read the graphic novel then don’t expect to get a full grasp of what it’s all about as there is little explanation and the story presented to you is a bit confusing.

The characters are extremely difficult, if not impossible, to warm to and it just feels as if there are far too many of them to familiarise yourself with. The plot is very slow and the decent action that does take place sadly does little to change the pace of the film. Even the interesting aesthetics are unable to turn the film around.

The Watchmen seems to drag on and on (it’s a painful two and a half hours long), making you fully aware that you have been sat in your seat trying to get into this odd film for far too long. If you’re not one of the Watchmen graphic novel fanatics then I really wouldn’t bother going to see this.