Watchmen

Allow me to use a metaphor when I say that "Watchmen" is the Diet Pepsi of super hero movies. It's packaged all nice and flashy. It fizzes like it should, and seems like it should be alright. Alas it's not even Pepsi, merely a shadowy reflection of a copy of something good.

Zack Snyder shows his depth here, and as in "300" he comes up seriously lacking. Too bad, he's got a lot of potential with the storyline, characters and setting. I liked Dr. Manhattan and Rorschach. I liked the stuff on Mars and I really liked the opening music video. But as it went on I felt more and more dissatisfied. As Jude noted when he saw the preview; "is that Batman?" Unfortunately not. It was Nite Owl. I know what you're thinking; "Nite Owl? Who the.. who in the world is that?" I could explain, but then I don't really want to.

I'm sitting here at the computer, just after 3 O'clock, listening to Dylan trying to recreate the good part of the movie, and I realize that my thoughts may not be as clear as one would like. Am I asking too much to want a film that is thoughtful and layered? Do I ask for too much when I want characters with character? Is it wrong for me to think "The Fantastic 4" was in many ways a better movie than this? If Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder get into a fistfight who wins? I think we all know the answer to that.