WATCHMEN (2009) | OnStreaming

“I feel fear, for the last time.”

Directed by: Zack Snyder
Action
2h 42minR$

When the history of the modern superhero movie is written, many chapters will be devoted to Richard Donner’s Superman. The history book will feature a retrospective essay on Sam Raimi’s Spiderman trilogy from the early 2000s, and it would be criminal to forget the impact that the first X-Men movie made on the future of the genre.

Zach Snyder’s Watchmen will probably only get a brief mention in my imaginary history book. It didn’t blow the roof off the box office, and it didn’t capture the imagination of the masses like Tim Burton’s Batman, or the first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, Iron Man, but it does have one thing going for it: It’s a damn good movie.

Sometimes when I’m pulling a quote from a movie to start off my articles here at OnStreaming, I struggle to remember some bit of dialog that struck me. I don’t have that issue with Watchmen. The thing is packed with memorable lines from a wild array of strong characters:

Doctor Manhattan’s description of feeling fear for the last time before he becomes super human.
The Comedian’s answer to the question, “What happened to the American Dream?” while he’s blasting New York rioters with rubber bullets. Spoiler alert: “It came true.”
Rorschach’s notice to all the criminals he’s doing time with in the local pokey: “I’m not locked here with you. You’re locked in here with me!”

In fact, there are enough characters is this one movie to create a Cinematic Universe all its own. Warner Bros. has no plans to do that— and they shouldn’t. But they could.

Of course, most of the film’s great dialogue comes from the mind of Watchmen’s creator, Alan Moore. Moore was the opposite of involved in the film adaptation, and he’s no fan of the movie based on his comic book masterpiece, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t like it— or at least admire the effort and devotion it took to bring the (at one time) unfilmable book to the screen.

Rent and purchase from the usual suspects. Watchmen has a Director’s cut, too.