07-24-2008, 11:35 AM
The voice of Jimi Hendrix performing Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" over spectacular imagery is , perhaps, the most exhilarating moment in a movie which dips into the Star Wars prequels, The Matrix and even period pieces like The 13th Floor or Clint Eastwood's recent Changeling.Watchmen is a very good motion picture, and it might have more staying power than any of the three X-Men films, though the Watchmen group is clearly drafted from Justice League Of America meets The Avengers, the inevitable Marvel vs. D.C. comic book wars now high-stakes movie franchises going after the big, big bucks. But just as Watchmen the book was a standalone, this event will probably have no sequel.
Much like the equally hard-to-film Lord Of The Rings series, Watchmen is a silver screen anomaly, a dark universe with great potential, some of it realized, some of it left in limbo. Billy Crudup (as Dr. Manhattan), Patrick Wilson and Malin Akerman are under the true Hollywood A-List, no disrespect to their talents, and some of the stiff dialogue comes off as if being read straight out of the Watchmen comic novel, which detracts from this epic, though the pluses outweigh the flaws, and epic Watchmen is. Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Marty Balin said to this writer on the phone "3 hours!" which kind of sums up the thought of the not-so-hardcore periphery Sci-Fi fans. This is a delicious film for those who want a serious interpretation and it is the plot, along with the special effects, that keep your attention. The soundtrack is getting a big push on the highly intriguing http://watchmenmusic.com/shop/ Watchmen film website: http://rss.warnerbros.com/watchmen/ . But it is Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix who win out in these sweepstakes, the film itself falling to #5 after just 3 weeks, Director Zack Snyder with a hit on his hands, but not a grand slam.
Watchmen is an interesting diversion with Crudup cast as The Hulk in the Silver Surfer's body, and he walks around naked throughout most of the picture. The star calling this film a" kind of thrilling thought experiment" http://tinyurl.com/ca3smr --- and that it is. Watchmen is an experiment that neither fails nor totally succeeds as if on the path to an incomplete mission.
Post Script:
Despite what I say above about this epic being a "one off", there is potential for a prequel or sequel: http://movies.ign.com/articles/911/911331p1.html
