nothing ever ends
So, I watched Watchmen last night. Despite being consistently let down in ways by even the best action movies lately, I was totally hyped for this. It was a superhero movie. It was a comic movie. (So was Sin City, which I loathed, but we're ignoring this fact.) It had characters named Ozymandias and Rorshach. I watched it and I admit that I was entertained. I liked it.
I admit to rooting for Adrian Veidt, even though his plan committed a lot of atrocities. The Naruto fan in me made the comment: "This is Pain as I would have actually enjoyed him to be." And it's true! I enjoy antagonists with good intentions and a poor grasp on personal ethics. I mean 'personal' as in 'paying attention to the smaller picture'. He operates on the idea that the ends justify the means and any cruelty that leads to that goal is a figure, a sacrifice on a chess board.
I'd say he sees this plan with a sense of almost sociopathic detachment, and that aloof, dignified air was a part of the way the character carried himself...save for the scene in which he watched the row of television sets, forcing himself to watch the deaths of the people he killed to make his dream of world peace a reality. The scene where he hesitates to kill Bubastis along with Mr. Manhattan. I wouldn't call him a sociopath, despite his actions. I'm not sure I would give him any concrete psychological term, since the plan he concocted was carried out with perfect mental clarity and the acknowledgement that what he was doing was evil. But a necessary evil. It was brilliantly played, and I especially liked the part where he told the intrepid 'heroes' his plan thirty-five minutes after he'd put it into motion. "I am not a comic book villain," indeed. I even found myself agreeing with what he'd done. (The part of his scheme that I found the worst, the lowest, was his treatment of Mr. Manhattan. I wasn't all that fond of Mr. Manhattan, but I was repelled by what Ozymandias did to him. That was his friend, who he understood, whose emotions he betrayed and trampled. He broke his heart and the last pieces of his humanity and sent him fleeing the planet. It makes it even worse that he was the only one who understood that Mr. Manhattan had emotions, when everyone else doubted them or treated him as a weapon and a tool.)
I hated the Comedian. Despite the movie's attempts to portray him in both a vile and a somewhat sympathetic light, I just plain despised him and didn't mourn his death at all. He was a rapist, a child murderer, a misogynistic, sociopathic, murdering pig. Why anyone was even going through the pretence of mourning escaped me. I understood his significance in the film, but refused to buy into the narrative's claim that he was both just and unjust. He was a sadistic criminal fighting on the side of justice. He fought for his country, but how much of that was to fuel his bloodlust? (And other lusts.) The character was more morally repulsive than Ozymandias ever was. Which is why it was interesting that he was ethically shaken by what Ozymandias was planning: "I've done bad things. But that was war." That moral divide between what one can do on the killing field and in the heat of battle and what one should do at a time of peace is interesting. Despite how much I loathe him personally, I did find him an interesting character.
It's amazing how much of my feminist resentment can be eased with the inclusion of a female character. Silk Spectre was everything I could have hoped for. She was a strong-willed, intelligent woman who didn't accept the relationship that made her unhappy, and took over her own sex life. I loved the control she had over her own sexuality and her life. I loved the fight scenes she shared with Nite Owl- battles so coordinated, so synchronized and graceful, it looked like they were performing a dance together. I loved her relationship with her mother, her complete acceptance of what everyone judged her mother for, and her understanding. I loved that she told her mother she loved her and that she'd never done her wrong. I loved that she refused to be Mr. Manhattan's last link to the world when it made her unhappy, but went with him an attempt to save the world. I loved that she refused to buy his deific bullshit. I was so in love with the character by the end of the film, it was amazing. Oh, Silk Spectre.
Despite Sally's near rape at the hands of the Comedian, and the fact she had sex with him consensually after the attack, I don't think it was a statement on women in general. Not with Laurie as a woman who does not put up with abuse or ill treatment and refuses to return to the status quo that made her miserable. I think it's a realistic look at stress, sexism and the mindset on rape at the time, Stockholm Syndrome, and a situation that is depressingly common even today. Sally's character was beautifully human and real, an ex-hero who made her mistakes, but raised her daughter and loved her without letting her bitterness and anger towards the Comedian affect how much she loved her. The mother-daughter relationship was touching to me, and I loved that they had the relationship in there- one woman/woman connection in a world of man/woman and man/man.
Rorschach is another character I thought I'd dislike. He is openly misogynistic due to his fucked-up upbringing, as well as homophobic, paranoid, and quite possibly another sociopath. Still, I liked what I saw of him as a character- Batman-like cunning and intelligence, moral absolutism, and his refusal to compromise his ethics.
I won't say this movie was the deepest thing ever, but it was a compelling tale to me, and I do intend to read the original comic so I can understand more of that montage in the beginning of the film.
I admit to rooting for Adrian Veidt, even though his plan committed a lot of atrocities. The Naruto fan in me made the comment: "This is Pain as I would have actually enjoyed him to be." And it's true! I enjoy antagonists with good intentions and a poor grasp on personal ethics. I mean 'personal' as in 'paying attention to the smaller picture'. He operates on the idea that the ends justify the means and any cruelty that leads to that goal is a figure, a sacrifice on a chess board.
I'd say he sees this plan with a sense of almost sociopathic detachment, and that aloof, dignified air was a part of the way the character carried himself...save for the scene in which he watched the row of television sets, forcing himself to watch the deaths of the people he killed to make his dream of world peace a reality. The scene where he hesitates to kill Bubastis along with Mr. Manhattan. I wouldn't call him a sociopath, despite his actions. I'm not sure I would give him any concrete psychological term, since the plan he concocted was carried out with perfect mental clarity and the acknowledgement that what he was doing was evil. But a necessary evil. It was brilliantly played, and I especially liked the part where he told the intrepid 'heroes' his plan thirty-five minutes after he'd put it into motion. "I am not a comic book villain," indeed. I even found myself agreeing with what he'd done. (The part of his scheme that I found the worst, the lowest, was his treatment of Mr. Manhattan. I wasn't all that fond of Mr. Manhattan, but I was repelled by what Ozymandias did to him. That was his friend, who he understood, whose emotions he betrayed and trampled. He broke his heart and the last pieces of his humanity and sent him fleeing the planet. It makes it even worse that he was the only one who understood that Mr. Manhattan had emotions, when everyone else doubted them or treated him as a weapon and a tool.)
I hated the Comedian. Despite the movie's attempts to portray him in both a vile and a somewhat sympathetic light, I just plain despised him and didn't mourn his death at all. He was a rapist, a child murderer, a misogynistic, sociopathic, murdering pig. Why anyone was even going through the pretence of mourning escaped me. I understood his significance in the film, but refused to buy into the narrative's claim that he was both just and unjust. He was a sadistic criminal fighting on the side of justice. He fought for his country, but how much of that was to fuel his bloodlust? (And other lusts.) The character was more morally repulsive than Ozymandias ever was. Which is why it was interesting that he was ethically shaken by what Ozymandias was planning: "I've done bad things. But that was war." That moral divide between what one can do on the killing field and in the heat of battle and what one should do at a time of peace is interesting. Despite how much I loathe him personally, I did find him an interesting character.
It's amazing how much of my feminist resentment can be eased with the inclusion of a female character. Silk Spectre was everything I could have hoped for. She was a strong-willed, intelligent woman who didn't accept the relationship that made her unhappy, and took over her own sex life. I loved the control she had over her own sexuality and her life. I loved the fight scenes she shared with Nite Owl- battles so coordinated, so synchronized and graceful, it looked like they were performing a dance together. I loved her relationship with her mother, her complete acceptance of what everyone judged her mother for, and her understanding. I loved that she told her mother she loved her and that she'd never done her wrong. I loved that she refused to be Mr. Manhattan's last link to the world when it made her unhappy, but went with him an attempt to save the world. I loved that she refused to buy his deific bullshit. I was so in love with the character by the end of the film, it was amazing. Oh, Silk Spectre.
Despite Sally's near rape at the hands of the Comedian, and the fact she had sex with him consensually after the attack, I don't think it was a statement on women in general. Not with Laurie as a woman who does not put up with abuse or ill treatment and refuses to return to the status quo that made her miserable. I think it's a realistic look at stress, sexism and the mindset on rape at the time, Stockholm Syndrome, and a situation that is depressingly common even today. Sally's character was beautifully human and real, an ex-hero who made her mistakes, but raised her daughter and loved her without letting her bitterness and anger towards the Comedian affect how much she loved her. The mother-daughter relationship was touching to me, and I loved that they had the relationship in there- one woman/woman connection in a world of man/woman and man/man.
Rorschach is another character I thought I'd dislike. He is openly misogynistic due to his fucked-up upbringing, as well as homophobic, paranoid, and quite possibly another sociopath. Still, I liked what I saw of him as a character- Batman-like cunning and intelligence, moral absolutism, and his refusal to compromise his ethics.
I won't say this movie was the deepest thing ever, but it was a compelling tale to me, and I do intend to read the original comic so I can understand more of that montage in the beginning of the film.