Early reviews of The Watchmen movie - the good, the bad & the "first real flop of 2009"!

March 1, 3:00 PMPop Culture ExaminerDominic Patten

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Pop Culture Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

 

A few years ago, TIME delivered some high praise when the magazine said that The Watchmen was one of "the 100 Best English-language novels from 1923 to the present." Now, the film adaptation of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' comic book doesn't hit the silver screen in North America until March 6, but already the reviews are piling up … and, as with TIME's praise, there' s not a lot of middle ground to be found.

Unlike horror movies or teen musicals, reviews could matter with The Watchmen. The triumphant reception director Zack Snyder received when he showed sneak peeks of the movie last year in front of hardcore fans at the influential Comic-Con really helped pave the road for the film that some said was unfilmable. That, however, was then, and, even for a movie that takes places in the 1985 of an alternative America where Richard Nixon is serving his fifth term as President, this is now - and now is showtime. Snyder has already been getting a personal backlash for the tagline on the movie's posters and trailer that cringe inducingly called him "the visionary director of 300." With expectations running high for the $100 million R-rated flick, not to mention the fanboy, boardroom and marketing dramas getting it to theatres, The Watchmen's body count could end up being greater off screen if the doomsday driven Cold War costumed drama goes off with a Box Office whimper and not a bang.

Watching the Watchmen hype - click here for a complete round up on the blockbuster to be & why U2 are lightweights plus loads & loads of links

The Watchmen had its World Premiere in the UK last week, so on the other side of the Atlantic a number of critics have seen the spectacle, as have a few here - and they really seem to either love it or hate it, with no middle ground.

The Good

According to The Times of London,  The Watchmen is "mesmerising." Click here for more

Henry Knowles of Ain't It Cool loves The Watchmen. Click here for more

The UK's Daily Mirror calls The Watchmen "unmissable."Click here for more

UK film magazine Empire gives The Watchmen 4 out of 5 stars. Click here for more

Rotten Tomatoes calls The Watchmen "intense & uncompromising." Click here for more

The Bad

Sparing neither self described "visionary director” Zack Snyder’s feelings nor fans' expectations, Variety goes straight for the jugular. The Watchmen "seems to yield," says Justin Change in his review in the Hollywood bible, "to the very superhero clichés it purports to subvert."Click here for more

The Hollywood Reporter's review of The Watchmen can be & is summed up in one word - "Ouch" Then to make sure you get his point, Kirk Honeycutt writes "looks like we have the first real flop of 2009." Double Ouch!Click here for more

Perhaps The Watchmen, with its rabid fanbase from the original comic book series, will prove critic proof. Perhaps, like Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse, there will be a lot of build up and not much Box Office. Either way, in sunny LA, the Hollywood Reporter and Variety still carry some heft in the industry and, for a film that purports to be more Matrix than Dark Knight in tone, it looks like they've dropped their weight straight on the head of The Watchmen - ouch.