Rating:  

*Prologue: I had read lots about it beforehand, so nothing shocked me about this movie, except for something that shouldn’t have. For some reason I completely missed that Patrick Wilson was starring in it. I had no idea he was even in it, let alone a main character, and he is one of my favorite actors. I grew up watching his dad, John Wilson, on TV as the anchorman for our local news station (Tampa, FL) and the drama teacher at my highschool was apparently his drama teacher at one point - so I’ve been closely following his career for years, waiting for it to take off as I knew it would. I had the pleasure of seeing him perform live once… at a benefit concert his family put on to raise money for victims of hurricane Katrina. Him and his family are just the picture perfect role models, doing wonderful things in the community and being super sweet people all around… which is why I find it slightly surprising that Patrick picks such racy roles. It’s like he picks roles that would be the opposite of what you’d think he would play - with the exception of his role as Raul in Phantom Of The Opera. I can’t picture his dad and brothers and mom all watching WATCHMEN in theaters, during what had to have been one of the longest and most unnecessary sex scenes in the history of cinema. Awkward.

With that said, here is my review of the actual movie! Too long, very slow at times, way too much (unnecessary) nudity… but it was a brilliant and refreshing take on the old debate about which is right: to kill a few innocent people to save a greater number of innocent people, or to never kill the innocent under any circumstance? Lots of bonus points for it being a superhero movie that didn’t feel like your standard superhero movie… something about it was less cheesy than most. Special effects were incredible, and the acting wasn’t bad either. I wasn’t disappointed at the end, but I wasn’t nearly as blown away as I thought I’d be. In fact, I think the only reason I really loved it was because I just flat out love Patrick Wilson. The movie needed more of his story, not a 10 second “oh I’m just a superhero cuz my dad was rich and left me some money to play with” scene.

Oh, and during most the movie I was trying to pinpoint what other movie it reminded me of, and I just got it: The Fifth Element (which is my #2 favorite movie of all time, behind LOTR) Dr. Manhattan was like Leeloo, with Laurie being kinda like Korben, no? I wonder if Luc Besson read the WATCHMEN comics before writing The Fifth Element…