Vox Nova At the Movies: Watchmen<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Who watches the Watchmen? Many, many people. That is who. But, for those unitiated to the story, they need to realize: this film is vulgar, it is violent,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2009\/03\/07\/vox-nova-at-the-movies-watchmen\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vox Nova At the Movies: Watchmen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Who watches the Watchmen? Many, many people. That is who. 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{"id":6334,"date":"2009-03-07T07:53:55","date_gmt":"2009-03-07T12:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/?p=6334"},"modified":"2009-03-07T07:53:55","modified_gmt":"2009-03-07T12:53:55","slug":"vox-nova-at-the-movies-watchmen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/voxnova\/2009\/03\/07\/vox-nova-at-the-movies-watchmen\/","title":{"rendered":"Vox Nova At the Movies: Watchmen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Who watches the Watchmen?<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qXRdlOvLNeo<\/a>\n

Many, many people. That is who. But, for those unitiated to the story, they need to realize: this film is vulgar, it is violent, and it portrays heroes whose personal qualities make them to be more like villians than heroes. Indeed the main villain of the story is one of the Watchmen; his\u00a0desire is to save the world by destroying much of it, causing the rest of the world to come together to rebuild and deal with a\u00a0common threat\u00a0(of course, one could say\u00a0he is a deconstructed form of what we find in Western ideology, exaggerated for the sake of making the viewer question their own ethical code). And the Comedian, the one\u00a0who is killed at the beginning of the movie? He\u2019s a murderer, a rapist, someone who thinks life itself is a joke, and yet, because he has worked for the government, he was\u00a0given the freedom to live out his darkest desires\u00a0and use them for the sake of the \u201cgreater good.\u201d Other heroes have their own\u00a0foibles; perhaps the central, and most important of them, Doctor Manhattan,\u00a0is becoming godlike, and\u00a0he is used to\u00a0show how\u00a0remote a God must be to humanity, and to ask why any God would care for us.<\/p>\n

As one can see, much of the story is morally questionable.\u00a0This is not to say there are not elements of true beauty and grace within it; there are, but they are hidden in a residue of filth that it would be difficult for one to find it without aid. And the trouble is, for the general audience, I wonder how much they would be able to wrestle with the issues and find that good; I expect most would take out of it the bad.<\/p>\n

Despite being a \u201csuperhero\u201d film, it\u2019s not for kids. Rape is treated here, and is a significant thread throughout the film. How it deals with rape is complex, and disturbing (although, it also offers a place where one could, if one worked with the story, find a point of grace, which is why what comes out of it is seen by\u00a0Doctor Manhattan to be a miracle).\u00a0 But I think\u00a0worst of all about the\u00a0film\u00a0is its image of humanity, which is dark and sinister; the image of God within is nearly wiped out and lost, turning everyone into animals of one sort or another. In one important scene, when a crowd of protesters is taken out by a couple of the Watchmen, the Comedian looks to the carnage and cheers it on, saying, \u201cThe American Dream.\u201d While trying to offer\u00a0a critical idea of what is wrong with America, the movie fails, because, as with the story itself, it\u00a0has difficulties in showing\u00a0us what is good within it as well. Not very uplifting, is it?<\/p>\n

How do I rate this film? I will have to do so with many different categories.<\/p>\n

Visual imagery, I would give it 8\/1o (though, one has to beware, Doctor Manhattan is nude for much of the film).<\/p>\n

Direction, I would give it\u00a07\/10. It\u2019s not bad, not great.\u00a0A bit slow at times, but\u00a0acceptable.<\/p>\n

Morality: 4\/10. Very poor morality, though a couple places leave\u00a0room for possibilities, and as such, not entirely without merit. But again,\u00a0it would require someone to think things\u00a0out and\u00a0reject\u00a0the\u00a0message of the film itself.<\/p>\n

Complexity: 8\/10. It\u2019s a complex story, and that makes it much more\u00a0difficult for someone to deal with the issues within.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Story: 6\/10 While complex, there is something lacking in the telling of the plot. I found much of the dialogue\u00a0wooden, and, much\u00a0left out.<\/p>\n

Overall, I could not say I would recommend this film, but I do think, if one is interested in it, and one knows full well\u00a0what they are getting\u00a0themselves into,\u00a0it is worth seeing once.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"