Mise-en-scène

Watchmen

Saw Watchmen last night, and all I can say is AWESOME!! Zack Snyder did nothing but justice to the far inferior 300 from that talented dickhole Frank Miller, and has not only managed to finally succeed with the oft-failed project of a Watchmen movie, but has created one of the best superhero movies ever made!

The only reason I would refrain from saying it is the best superhero movie ever made, is that it isn't really a superhero film at all. Set-up like a suitably dystopic science-fiction thriller, this has more in common aesthetically with the likes of Terry Gilliam's Brazil (below, 1985) than with X-Men.

While the characters and story - having been so richly crafted in both a visual and contextual sense in the original novel - hold more in common with the fall-from-grace of The Magnificent Ambersons than with simple Spiderman vigilanteism. The film feels like it was made by people who truly loved the cult graphic novel, for people who truly loved the cult graphic novel. Most of the story is easy to discern from the film, but largely, it is a collection of the iconic moments, lovingly put to film. The soundtrack uses many songs mentioned in the novel, including The Sound of Silence, All Along the Watchtower and most memorably, The Times They are a-Changin' during the incendiary opening credits sequence. Another cinematic highlight is the sex scene between Nite Owl II and Silk SpectreII.

As Nite Owl's flying vehicle, Archie, floats above the city, Nite Owl and Silk Spectre fuck inside to the sounds of Leonard Cohen's 1984 original recording of Hallelujah which, for anyone who's heard it, is a true oddity. The song sounds like a terrible 80s ballad, but ultimately holds more emotion than the sum of its parts could muster. Additionally, Nite Owl's orgasm is met with a comic shot of fire in to the sky from Archie as his hand slips on to the button after he comes. All in all, I found this scene of note as it shows all that is good about this film - it's serious without being cheesey, can make the hairs on the back of your neck standup while you laugh at the same time, it faithfully translates many of the iconic images from the novel to the screen, and also uses the language of modern cinema to its advantage where other similar films have shot themselves in the foot somewhat. Spiderman 3 was a filled with failed jokes, and the X-Men films travelled too far too quickly with too little focus. Watchmen abridges the novel perfectly, and even - dare I say it - holds its own as a brilliant piece of filmmaking.

If nothing else - the fight scenes are bone-crunchingly awesome, it has tits, the soundtrack's amazing, there are husky voices galore, and Rorschach's been portrayed as the badass absolutist we all loved.